now all right so first of all I want to thank Randy for being very open-minded we did a great job I apologize that is totally my my problem I could have given the key so and I thought about it on Saturday so here we go right so but anyhow thank you for your cooperation but you're just your flexibility and I'm sure that was a great session on the God of peace, Jehovah Shalom. So, but today we're gonna talk about Jehovah Rohi, which is actually Shepherd Lord. The Bible's really interesting when you try to translate Hebrew over to English or Greek over to English and so forth, you sometimes get, you know, this kind of a thing going. But in Hebrew, it's actually... Rahi Yehovah. It's not really the other way around. So it's actually Shepherd Lord. And he is my Shepherd Lord. And it's a real interesting thing because the word shepherd is obviously a noun for the most part. You know, we all understand that. But it's also a verb. And when you shepherd something, it's like the word marshal. Marshal is another one of those words that can be used as a noun, but then it's also, when it's used as a verb, it has a little different conjecture. And that's kind of what we have here with shepherd. When you are shepherding the flock verb, you're kind of marshaling them together. You're kind of bringing them together. You're making sure that they stay together. The concept is really this idea of together. Shepherding is about keeping the flock together. That's why he always talks about the shepherd goes after the lost sheep, right? And so it's the idea of amassing or bringing them together. The word marshal has the same indication. By the way, when it's a verb, it only has one L. Don't ask me why. unless you're talking about marshalling, then it has two Ls. But marshalling, you're talking about a marshal, someone who does that, it's got two Ls. And when you're talking about marshalling or the idea of amassing, it only has one L. But it's fascinating to me when you look at the differentiation between the verb usage of shepherd or marshal and the noun. use. The use of that word is a noun because when you use it as a noun, you're actually taking the verb and making it a noun, not the other way around. Do you ever think about that? That's really the idea behind that. So one who shepherds is a shepherd. Does everybody get that? So it's the idea of bringing together, collecting. And so what was interesting is that, I loved right at the beginning of the book where he talked about Superman and he says, and he quoted Superman as saying, do you think that I can save you from certain death and not have the power to take you home? I thought that was a really interesting analogy, because the idea is that if God is God, then he can save you, but he can also keep you, which is the other idea here. So that's really the idea of shepherding, is this idea of keeping you and keeping you in a thing. Now, what's fascinating to me is the expression, Rahi Yehovah, is only used in Psalm 23. However, it's implied really throughout the Bible. And I'm just going to bop through them here real quick. If you want to write these down, that's fine. We're not going to actually read all of them, but I'm just going to run through them and they're not in any particular order. They're just sort of The first couple were as I remembered them, and then the next ones I looked up. Okay, so those are a little bit more in order. But the first one that came to my memory actually was from Numbers 27 and 17, where Moses really entreats Israel to be the congregation of the Lord, who are as a sheep, because there is a sheep without a shepherd. So they're like a sheep without a shepherd. And so that's the implication of God being a shepherd or being a Rahi. 1 Kings 27, 17, it says, I saw all Israel scattered as sheep without a shepherd. And then it says something really interesting. It says, these have no master. Well, the word master there is Adonai, which is, of course, we've already looked at that. Adonai is what? Lord. So we have this real interesting expression where he is saying that they're like sheep that need a Raho, a Rahi, excuse me, but they also need a Lord. And so there's a correlation, I believe, between the idea of shepherd and Lord. Lord is master, shepherd is also a master. if you think about it. So the idea here is that he is my shepherd. In other words, he is the one who protects me. He is the one who brings me in. But that's also what your Lord does. A true Lord is someone that watches over his people. Now, it's interesting, I just got back from Singapore. Singapore has, since 1965, had three prime ministers. Really, they're little more than what a true prime minister is, but they've only had three since 1965. That's how long they've been a nation. So they're coming up on their 50th anniversary, and I'm seriously thinking about going over for the 50th anniversary. I was there for the 40th anniversary, and I gotta tell you, those boys know how to throw a party. And so it was really, really pretty amazing, but They've had three prime ministers, two of which, the one that's in now and the very first one was the father and then the son. And so, Lee Kuan Yew is the original prime minister. He served from 1965 until 1990, and then Prime Minister Goh served from 1990 until 2015. So these boys have some tenure. And now Lee's son is in there, Lee Leong, and so he's in there. And it's really interesting because Singapore is, for all intents and purposes, a benevolent dictatorship. That's what it is. I mean, at the end of the day, they have one party, the P.O.P. party or P.A.P. party, excuse me, P.A.P., and People's Affiliate Party, and they are, it's not communist by any stretch of the imagination, but it is not a democracy. Not even close. Okay, if you think, if you think Singapore with really one party, you know, 90% of the people there, or at least 80% of the people there are members of that party, and They're not a democracy. But while they were ruled as effectively a dictatorship under both of these guys, by the way, Goh was handpicked by Lee Kuan Yew. And by the way, interesting, he didn't pick his son. Now his son is now the prime minister, but he did not pick his son in 1990. His son, by the way, in 1990, he was born in 1958, so he would have been, what, 30-something years old at that point, so something like that? 31. Didn't think he was fit. Not fit, but ready, or whatever. And he had that ability. Now, having said that, If you want to talk about a place that really runs like a clock, that's a place that runs like a clock, literally, and doesn't ever stop. You get the wrong dictator in there, you get the wrong person in charge, and it can go haywire in a heartbeat, just as quickly as democracy does. So it's fascinating to me to look at that and so forth, having been around it now for so many years, and seeing how it all goes. What's fascinating to me is that God always wanted Israel to be a theocracy. which is really the preeminent type of government, if you think about it, it's where God is on the throne. God is the one who reigns. God is the one who they look to for their support and so forth. And so, that is the problem though, is that Israel consistently, and I mean consistently, messed up. And so you can find this idea of they need a shepherd in numbers, 1 Kings, Jeremiah, Psalms, Genesis, Psalms, Isaiah, Ezekiel. Actually, I didn't even write these ones down, but there's also one in Nehemiah, excuse me, not Nehemiah, Zechariah. It's just fascinating how consistently, when we're in Isaiah, we're gonna see, especially when we get towards the middle of the book of Isaiah, I don't know, around the 40th chapter, something like that. There's a whole idea that he runs on that they're like sheep without a shepherd. And in fact, even if you get to Isaiah 53, which is the great sequence that Isaiah writes about the coming Messiah, it says, all we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way, but the Lord has laid on Him, the iniquity of us all. So there's this combination of the idea of being a sheep and also being an iniquity. Now, when I was in Israel years ago, one of the things that, I have this great picture, by the way, I have it in my computer, if anyone ever wants to see it, it's really a cool picture, of this shepherd who is walking along the side of the road, I don't know if you remember this, Clark, because I think this was when we were together. I'm pretty sure it was in that particular trip. Anyhow, we were in a big bus. Do you remember when we were in this big bus? So we're in this big bus and we're just hauling butt to Masada, I think is where we were going. Yeah, and it was really amazing because there was this shepherd on the side of the road. He's got this whole entire flock of sheep behind him. Had to be probably a hundred sheep. I'd have to look at the picture again, but he had probably like a hundred sheep kind of walking behind him. And I remember talking to the guide, happened to be sitting like across the road from the guide. And I said, man, that was incredible. Sheep must get killed here all the time. That was my original thought. And he says, rarely, rarely ever happens. Almost never happens. And I go, what? He goes, yep. He says, those sheep, if that shepherd is in the street, they will walk in the street. But if he's not in the street, they will not walk in the street. So that's why those buses can go down there like 100 kilometers an hour. It's just like, vroom, you know, they're just flying. And they don't hit any of the sheep. Because the sheep literally follow Now, this is what's really interesting. I got into a little conversation with him, and what he said to me was, he said, but you know, it's really interesting. If that shepherd were to turn and try to walk to the back end of the group of the flock of sheep, they'd all turn. They wouldn't let him get to the back. In other words, they would all, as he's walking through, they'd all just turn. So he's never actually at the, in other words, you can't herd, this is the point, you can't herd sheep. From behind. Can't leave from behind. You can't leave from behind. Yeah, right, exactly. But that's a whole other story. That's my leadership. I don't want to go there. But that actually, I have a whole section in my book about this. So the idea is that when the shepherd comes and starts going the other way, the sheep just turn and just follow him the other way. They're not just going to keep going forward like cattle. And so it's really interesting. So as much as the other thing that's a myth, which I found out when I was in Israel, which by the way, Dr. Evans buys into, but it's just simply because he's never been around sheep. By the way, before I was around sheep, I used to think this as well. There is this presumption that sheep are dumb. It's just not true. That was one of the things that the guy was telling me. There is this presumption sheep are dumb. They're not dumb. One of the reasons why they don't obey is because they're not dumb. They think. They move. But they also are extremely safety conscious. So they wanna stay with, for the most part, they wanna stay, but that's why when they're young, they're so apt to roam. Because usually it's the little lambs that roam. It's not the big sheep that run away. The big sheep have figured it out. They're like, oh shoot, man, if I stay with this guy, he's gonna feed me, he's gonna take care of me. Because they don't take care of themselves. They don't wash themselves, they don't do anything for themselves, they are totally and completely dependent upon the shepherd. I believe that you can make an argument that the reason that they're totally dependent upon the shepherd is not because they're dumb, but because they're smart. They're like, hey, this guy's taking care of me, I'm good. You know, it's really interesting. And so, anyhow, my point of this whole entire thing is, as we come into this section here in Psalm 23, which, by the way, is the only place that I could find in Scripture where it actually does say, shepherd Lord, where it actually does say that. But there's, like I said, there's all sorts of, I'll give you here, I'll just give you a couple, if you want to write these down. I told you Numbers 27, 17. I told you 1 Kings 22, 17. Jeremiah 31, 10. He will gather Israel and keep them as a shepherd keeps his flock. Genesis 48, 15. Interesting. Genesis 48, 15. This is where Jacob is blessing his son, Joseph, giving him the double blessing. And he says, the Lord God, who has been my shepherd all of my life, bless thee. And then it goes on, it pretty much says the same thing in Genesis 49, just before he actually died. In Psalm 80, it says that he is the shepherd of Israel. It says the Lord is the shepherd of Israel, but it doesn't say Lord, it just says he is the shepherd of Israel. In Psalm 40, it says that God tends his flock like a shepherd gathering his lambs in his arms. Lambs, by the way, is to be differentiated from sheep. Lambs is a baby sheep. Okay, so you kind of get that kind of idea there. Jeremiah 17 in verse 16 says, I have no... I can't read my own writing. Oh, I have not run away, I have not run away from being your shepherd. Okay, so that's an interesting idea too. He's actually saying through Jeremiah that he hasn't left them. And the Lord will keep, he goes on in Jeremiah and says, the Lord will keep Israel as a shepherd keeps his flock. So the point is, is that there's a lot of places where it talks about that and so forth. But Psalm 23 is awesome. And I really wanna just sort of take the next half hour or so, just sort of go through Psalm 23. Who's got Psalm 23 open? Mattie, would you read it for me? There's only six verses, so read the whole thing. He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, 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 goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. I mean, look. I don't think there's anybody in this room that hasn't read Psalm 23, right? We all do. And I think it's just one of those really cool things that, you know, we read it at funerals and we read it at all sorts of different types of events. We share it with people when they're, you know, kind of down and out and so forth. But I think the way it starts out there is really amazing. The Lord is my shepherd. Two things that he put it out in the book that I thought were really important. One is it is in the present tense, not the future nor the past. God only operates in the present. That's why his name is I Am. He is the present God. He is the one that is here for us now, or as he said in the book, he is the now God, which I thought was really cool. I'd never heard that expression before. He is the now God. The second thing about it, which I think is kind of cool, is that he is my shepherd. Now, what's interesting is that we see this throughout He restores my soul. He guides me. Even though I walk, I fear no evil. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. The point is that He's not writing this for you. He never uses the word you in this, ever. All the pronouns are me, or my, or I. It's all about the fact that this is a personal message. This is not a message of, you know, God and, you know, speaking on, you know, kind of like He might do this or He will do that or it's going to happen or no, no, no. This is not prophetic. This is like right here, man. You know, the Lord is my shepherd now, right this minute. No matter what is happening in your life, the Lord is your shepherd. And I think it's interesting because the remaining verses after that are really just show how personal it is and how present that relationship is, that this relationship between shepherd and God. So the first thing he says, obviously a shepherd and man, but the first thing he says is, and I think this is so interesting, he says, I shall not want. Now, I don't know about y'all, but I hear people say, I want so often. It's incredible. We're out playing golf. Man, I really want to do well. I just heard it, just as we were playing. I really want to do well. I always thought to myself, it's like the more you want something, the less it's probably going to happen. But I really want to do well. I really want this or I really want that. I remember my nephew, Jason, when he was living with us years ago, he used to say all the time, Uncle Don, Uncle Don, Uncle Don, Uncle Don. That was him saying, I want. Uncle Don, Uncle Don, Uncle Don, Uncle Don. He never actually said, I want. He would always go, Uncle Don, Uncle Don, Uncle Don. And three times was usually the direction. And it was somewhat humorous, actually. But to me, it was really just an interesting thing. He didn't even realize he was doing it. And it was never when he needed something. When he really needed something, he'd come over to me and he would say, I need something. But when he wanted something, it was always Uncle Don, Uncle Don, Uncle Don. And, you know, so it was really funny to me, you know, to look at that. But I shall not want, and what I wrote here is that sheep are totally dependent upon their shepherd. But it's a choice that they make. It's a choice that they make. If a shepherd, look, if a sheep, this is really interesting, if a sheep gets separated from his shepherd and another dude walks in and tries to be shepherd, they won't accept him. They will not pay attention to them. Again, I talk about this in my book. I have this whole section on shepherds, which is really kind of cool because it's really an interesting thing about trying to transfer ownership of things is if you do it like a shepherd does it, then you got a pretty good chance that it's going to last. And the way a shepherd does it is he brings the alternative or the new shepherd in and he sticks around. He don't just leave. He sticks around and he trains the sheep to understand that this guy is now the shepherd. In fact, he will wear the same clothes as the original shepherd. So he smells like him. He will do everything he possibly can. to imitate the original shepherd so that these sheep will actually say, oh this guy's a good dude, we'll stay with him. And then after a period of time, which by the way is not days but months normally, the shepherd will slowly leave. He'll leave for periods of time until the ultimate Jesus leaves completely. And that's the only way that they'll actually respond to a new shepherd. So shepherds meet not only their needs, but their wants. And so David, of course, being a shepherd as his career, sort of, you know, it's his, you know, it's his young person career was to be a shepherd doing that on behalf of his father out there doing the flocks. Did you notice, this is interesting, did you ever notice that when it talks about shepherds in the scripture that they rarely are like the most important dude? David is a good example. He's the youngest son. He's so important to his father that when the prophet comes and says, hey, show me all your sons, he doesn't even show them David. That's how much David's made it in the pecking order. He ain't even there. So the fact is that he was the last on the list. And so we see that. But I love the fact that Jesus says, and we're going to look at this before we leave, in John chapter 10, that he is the good shepherd. and he gives his life. He says, I lay down my life for my sheep. By the way, he doesn't say that in John chapter 10 once. He doesn't say it twice. He doesn't say it three times. He says it five times. Five times in like five verses. I lay down my life for my sheep. So the point is that that's what shepherds do. So here he's saying, look, I'm gonna take care of all of your wants. The second thing he says is I'm gonna make you to lie in green pastures and I'm going to lead you to still waters. Now, man, I'll tell you what, Dr. Evans had this right on the money. They will not drink from brooks. Sheep will only drink from lakes or ponds. That's all they'll drink from, which of course is the idea of still waters or quiet waters. That's where they'll drink. Bring them to them, they won't bathe in it, but they will drink it. And so this is the idea. And so he's giving them green pastures. What is green pastures? Two things that you get at green pastures if you're a sheep. What are they? Food and what else? Rest. Food and rest. So in this section here he's saying, I'm going to give you food, I'm going to give you rest, and I'm going to give you something to drink. Which if you think it, are the three primary needs of every creature. Three primary needs of every creature is that they need to eat, They need to sleep and they need to drink. Take those three things away. By the way, I'm telling you, take those three things away. It doesn't take very long before you are in a complete state of disaster. Human beings, any animal, whatever, take away their ability to drink, take away their ability to eat, take away their ability to rest. I can tell you for a fact that deprivation in any of those three things is not good. And so, he's saying, he takes care of those things. So, he leads me, he makes me, I think this is really interesting. He makes me to lie down in green pastures, but he leads me to the quiet water, to the still waters. So, it's kind of my responsibility to drink. I'm the one who has to drink. But he makes me, he kind of forces me to rest. So, and again, that's another thing shepherds do. This is interesting. One of the things I learned when I was over in Israel, about shepherds, is that the sheep only sleep when he does. If the dude's awake, they're awake. So you have to make them sleep. So the only time they'll sleep is when you shut your own eyes, they'll shut theirs. Now what's interesting is, is that the shepherd rarely actually sleeps, it just makes himself look like he's sleeping, which is really interesting. Because if he slept at night, while there's a pretty good chance that something ravenous would basically take him out. So he makes them think he's sleeping with them so that they'll go to sleep, and then he doesn't go to sleep, which is really interesting to me because that's a picture of what God does. God is always encouraging us to rest, but he doesn't rest. He's always wide awake and staying with us. The third verse there, which is really interesting, is, not only does He feed me, not only does He give me rest, not only does He make me drink, but He leads me in the paths of righteousness. He guides me in the path of righteousness. And this is kind of cool. For His name's sake. For His name's sake. In other words, His name, again, comes right back to His name again, which we've been talking about. The Lord does everything in His name. You think about that? It's just such a cool aspect of this whole entire thing. So He leads me by the still waters. He leads me to righteousness. Basically what Pastor Evans used in his book, which I thought was so cool. He's our navigator, our GPS. He's our navigator towards everything good. And that's cool. Every good shepherd takes care of their sheep with the intention that he is always looking out for their best interest. He's not looking out for his own best interest or else he wouldn't take this job. Because this is the most thankless job. Being a shepherd is like the most thankless job. You rarely ever sleep. You rarely ever eat well. You can't kill your sheep to eat them. So you should have a limited amount of time to go out and hunt and do other things and so forth. So it's really neat. But the other thing here is that it's for my namesake. When I was over in Singapore last week, one of the things that I do when I do these leadership seminars is I have everybody put their name on their shirt. This is not for their good, it's actually more for mine, but it also is a way for me to do a little exercise with them. And what I do is I go, Matthew, who gave you your name? Your parents. Did they give it to you irrevocably? Yeah, but have you ever even thought of changing it? But seriously, have you ever done anything to change it? So the point of the whole entire thing is your name is extremely important. Because it is the one thing that has been given to you by someone who wanted you to have a specific title. Now, what's interesting is that I believe that the greatest, probably the single greatest blessing of being a parent is naming your children. I really believe that with all my heart. Matty, you've got what, three kids, right? Yep. Alright, so name your three kids. Kyle, Benjamin, Andrew. Why? Kyle was a good friend. Benjamin was... Somebody who died? My friend? Yeah. Later, but no. He was just a good friend from school that we lost touch with and admired. Very cool. This is good. Keep going. Benjamin was... the gift jacob's favorite yeah right so i would like that we each of them have a middle name as well that is meaningful right so kyle is leroy which is my wife's family name it's the king and the um Benjamin is Joseph, so it's Benjamin and Joseph, right? That's really cool, yeah. Geez, I'm sorry, I got that totally wrong. Benjamin Haywood, so Haywood is her maiden name, sorry. Andrew Joseph is my youngest. So Andrew was a family name. We were gifted with Andrew. He was not our decision. And so Andrew had been taken from family repeatedly in our family. So children named Andrew had some sort of childhood thing that had happened in the past. And so we just always looked at that as an important name. By the way, I did not set this up I did not say I did not tell Matt before we were gonna get you know that I I need a you know I needed meeting up the point is He and his wife were intentional. And if I went around this room, y'all, every one of y'all are going to, Randy's got this big old smile on his face. What do you got to say, man? I know this is good. My parents named me Randy. What's Randy do? Sexually allowed. Does it really? He lived up to it. Now that's funny. Look, all I can tell you is when I had the opportunity to name our two daughters, my wife and I talked about it a lot, we did not take this lightly. That's my point. We did not take it lightly. Because there was nothing that we wanted more than to bless them with their name. And once they were blessed with that name, we wanted them to feel comfortable about keeping that name. This is an interesting story. Just recently, we were getting ready for our trip. We're going over to Greece in June, and we were getting ready for our trip, and the girls were filling out these documents that they had to fill out for their school. And so part of the thing is you had to put your name as it is on your passport, which makes perfect sense if you think about it. Well, my daughters have very long names. They have three given names. For example, Reagan is Reagan, named after President Reagan because he opened up Chinese-American relationship through adoption. Elizabeth, because that's my wife's middle name. It's a giving kudos to my wife. And then their Chinese name, her name is Yayun. So her name is Reagan Elizabeth Yayun White. That's her full name. And so I said, gosh, maybe we shouldn't have included all those names. Maybe we should have cut one of them out. Like, you know, maybe you didn't really need Elizabeth. You could just have Reagan-Yiun. Or you could maybe just have Reagan-Elizabeth and no Yiun. To which Sidney, the other one, said, uh-uh, no way. You're not taking away my Chinese name. Ooh, that was pretty cool. You know, I like that. I like the fact that we have those names and that they mean, this is really cool, unannounced, unprovoked, and that they all mean something. Her name is Sydney after Australia, because she was saved by Australians. Grace, because that's my wife's name, and also because we felt like that was a perfect fit for her. And then her Chinese name, which is Ya Yun, which means autumn, because she was born in the autumn, in the fall. So it's just interesting that she was dogmatic about the fact that, you don't go touching my name. This was just like two weeks ago. Yeah, so really interesting. Here she is 19, almost 20 years old, and she's like, no, no, no, no, that's my name. She has taken ownership in that name. It's interesting. And so I think this is just kind of fascinating. It's sort of an aside, didn't really have a whole lot to do with what we're talking about today, but it just shows you the importance of name. And so the names of God in the same way are just a big deal. or simply a big deal. They are just, that is what they are. They are a big deal. So this is just another indication to me. So he leads us or he guides us to paths of righteousness, not unrighteousness. God does not lead us to paths of unrighteousness. Now, look, we all get unrighteous on occasion. There's no question about it. But our goal should not be to be unrighteous. Our goal should be to be righteous. You know, I think it's really interesting how many people talk about, you know, unconditional salvation, and I get it. You know, you're saved by grace, I get it. But the truth of the matter is, is that, you know, like Paul says, what shall we say then? Should we continue in sin that grace might abound? No, God wants us to go the right way. He doesn't say to the woman that's found in adultery, you know, go and sin some more. He says, go and sin no more. Well, we truly don't have a one and done thing. Oh, wow. Well, he actually said, your sins are forgiven. Or he said, neither do I accuse you. I think he said, I have to pull the scripture up. I think he said, your sins are forgiven. But then he said, go and sin no more. Yeah, exactly. That's exactly what he says, John. And so the point of the whole entire thing is, is that he guides us to righteousness. He doesn't guide us to unrighteousness. That's my point that I'm trying to make. And that's clearly what Jesus was doing there, too. So now he says in verse four, this is where it really is interesting. So in verse four, he says, even though even though, this is really interesting, even though, in other words, it's like I don't want to have to do this, but even though I do, you know, I'd really rather not do this, but even though I walk through, not in, but through the valley of the shadow of death. Now, that is, to me, one of the most interesting verses in this entire song, where he says, even though, so he's like, I really don't wanna have to do this, but even though I'm gonna do it, I walk through, not in, I don't stay in the valley of the shadow of death. The valley of the shadow of death, by the way, is interesting, because most people think that that's about dying, and it's not. It's not about dying. If it was about dying, it wouldn't say shadow. A shadow is something that you can see it, but that's not the real thing. Everybody understand? So if I see you, Matty, and the sun's out, I'm gonna see your shadow, but that's not you. It's a reflection of what you are against the sun. So here he's saying, even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, not I walk into death or through death, that's not what he's saying. He's saying that the shadow... So what is the shadow of death, anybody? What's the shadow of death? I've always viewed this as adversity, but in the context of a battlefield. Precisely what it is. David was a warrior. What were you going to say, David? It's our worries. It's what we imagine. Correct. Bingo. It's not the reality, okay? So John, that is true, but it's really about the things we imagine are going to happen. How many times have you done this? You come into a situation and now you assume the best Right? You assume the best, right? No! No one ever assumes the best. I'm listening to, this is funny, I'm driving here, I'm listening to the radio, I'm listening to the PGA Golf Channel, which this week is the PGA Championship, right? I'm listening to this announcer that's on there, it happens to be a World Golf Hall of Fame player, her name is Julie Inkster. And Julie is talking to the announcer, and the announcer asks her a question. He says, well look, he says, you know, have you ever gone through a period, this is so funny, have you ever, now this is a World Golf Hall of Fame player who's won like, I don't know, 50 times? Okay, she's like one of the best players of all time. And he says, have you ever gone through a period where you just knew you had it together, you had it, and she was, he didn't even get to finish, she went, no! No, never happened. I always assumed some disaster was right at the next moment. You know, I go out and shoot a 62, I know I'm gonna shoot 80 the next day. I just, it was just, you know, she said, and I had to do everything I possibly could to just reel in that negative energy, so forth. Because that's where we are. We walk through the shadow of death. These are things we imagine are going to happen. But it is about adversity, John. It's about the adversity we imagine. And by the way, here's what's really interesting. Almost everything that you think is going to happen, doesn't. It's just incredible. I mean, almost everything that you think is going to happen, doesn't happen. And that's why. Yeah, right. Well, that's why I love that. I love that. I love that. I love that expression by Mike Tyson when he says, you know, every great plan is good until you get punched in the face. And so, you know, that's kind of where it's all at. So, even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, listen to what he says, I fear no evil. And actually, the word there is really actually evil one. I fear no evil one or no evil. In other words, it's more than just this idea of a passive. It's about those because he's going to get into enemies here in a second. So he's talking about those that I fear. I do not fear the evil ones against me, the ones that are trying to destroy me and so forth. And here's why. Do you remember what he said to Goliath? What did he call Goliath? An uncircumcised Philistine. In other words, he's like, dude, you got no chance because you're just an uncircumcised Philistine. In other words, the point is that you have no relationship with God. You are by definition an evil one. And I don't fear those people. I don't fear those people. And the reason I don't fear him, look at what he says. He's the reason I don't fear him, for thou art with me, or you are with me. But I always love the King James, thou art with me. I love that. That's exactly right. Yeah. That's exactly what it comes down to. And you know, the shadow, how many times have you seen a shadow and you think it's somebody else, but it's really somebody else. You think it's the reality. You look at the shadow and you believe it's the reality. Oh, this person's coming after me, man. And the truth is something else. Okay, so look at what he says. He says, I fear no evil, thou art with me. Thy rod and thy staff, and this, I love this. They do what? Comfort. They comfort me. They comfort me. Now what's interesting is that the rod and the staff of a shepherd is what he uses to fight things off, to fight off the evil ones, to fight off the predators, to make sure that the sheep don't get messed with. And so what he's saying here is that when he sees God with that rod or that shaft, and by the way, there's two different things there. Shaft is the thing that they direct, the rod is the thing that they use to plot them along, so there's two. If you ever see a shepherd, like even today, they'll always have two things. They'll have a staff, which is kind of like what everybody can see, and the prod is what kind of gets them along, okay? And and so it's really interesting. So so we see that. So he says, my rod and my staff are your rod and your staff. They comfort me. And that is such a great picture because we don't see that that he's being upset here at all. He says here, you're safer in a dark valley with God in his presence that you would be anywhere else without him. That's so good. That is so good. And you know, it's interesting because darkness is the place of fear. It really is. Darkness is the place of fear. And so what I wrote in here was, David's solution to despair, God himself, the Lord's shepherd, who always looks out for his best interest because he trusts the shepherd. Because he trusts the shepherd. And that to me is really the heart of this whole entire thing, is that it's all about the fact that he trusted God implicitly. That even in his worst situations, even in his greatest screw-ups, God's gonna be there for him. In his darkest period, God's gonna be there for him. In his darkest imagination, God's gonna be there for him. You know, we said last week, one thing about David that I've seen, and you probably know even better, I didn't know the guy. Yeah. He never turned away from God. Nope. He also never incorporated other gods into the picture. Correct. Which so many other kings did, right? And their wives. Yeah. He never did. He always looked to God. Always. Right. Even when he royally screwed up, he came back to the Lord. Yeah. So we talked about identity this week over in Singapore, and so one of the gals in the back said, well Don, obviously you identify by your name, but what do you identify as? If you needed to describe what is it that you are, what is your identity in life? And I said, my identity is that I'm a bondservant of Jesus Christ, period. Everything else falls under that. And that was something that, it just came to me intuitively, but I mean, the fact is I've thought about that. That's what I want to be. That's what I am. I want to be his bondservant. I want to be in his situation. I want to be in his control. Why? Because I'm a sheep. I want to be with the shepherd. I want to be with the one who's looking out for me and is going to continue to look out for me. And here in verse five, he provides for us. Look at what he says in verse five. He says, and thou does prepare a table before me in the presence of mine enemies. Well, that's interesting. Preparing a table is about fixing a meal for you. That's what preparing a table is all about. It's about fixing a meal for you. So God is preparing, and here's where it's really interesting. He's doing it before my enemies, not in some kind of hiding. God doesn't hide out. God is right there in the midst, boom. He's providing for us, and He's letting everybody know it's Him that's providing for us. That I think is really powerful. You know, God doesn't keep any secrets about the fact that he loves us so much that he's providing for us. So what I wrote here is that the table is prepared. The idea of prepared is to be filled. That's the idea behind it. You know, think about a table that's prepared. It's in good order. It's filled. It just doesn't have a piece of bread there. That's not a prepared table. It's absolutely intentional, but it's big. It's full. It's got enough there for everybody, and then some. And he's preparing it before my enemy. In other words, he's preparing it so much so that if they'd like to come and participate at that table, they're welcome. That's interesting to me. So he says, my table is filled. And here you go, is my head is anointed. Anointing in scripture is the word that's used for Messiah. The word mashiach actually means anointed one. And so this idea of my head is mashach, it's this idea of, I pronounced that wrong, I apologize. It's this idea of being completely covered. It's this idea of being completely covered. And so my head is sanctified, it's set aside. That's what this anointing is all about. And then my cup runs over. In other words, he's doing it in abundance. And anyway, Jesus said, he says, he's gonna give us life and that life, what? Abundant. So not only is he gonna give us a full table, which is available to anyone, even those that are not part of the family now, can come and eat with us, and he's going to do it so that we are set apart for him, that he's anointed us so that we can serve him, and then more importantly, that he's doing it so that my cup runs over. In other words, I've got enough here for everybody. It's completely abundant. And what I wrote here is the enemy is the one who threatens you, who hates you, who wants to take what is yours, but the Lord still prepares the table for him. God says, come. Jesus says, come. He said it to everybody. He said it to people that didn't like him, come. And he protects us. And I think this is the other thing that's really neat. He protects us from our enemies, plural. Not singular. It doesn't say protects us from our enemy. So this is not talking about Satan here. It's talking about other people. It's talking about other folks that could be invading and so forth. This is not talking about the evil one. That's not what he's talking about here. He's talking about your enemies, plural, showing that really he is above all of your enemies. He's more important, but at the same time, he's inviting your enemies, which is really fascinating to me. You know, he's prepared this table, not only just for me, but for my enemies. And he does it in such that abundance is really the key. And then that final verse is really cool. He says, for surely, as he said in the book, I think that's so good. Surely, he could have used a lot of words, right? Maybe, I think it might happen. And what he's saying here is no, for sure. For sure, certainly, whatever way you want to say it, but I love the word surely. I think surely is great. I really do. So surely goodness and mercy will be with me. And this is what's good. Not only is it for sure, but it's forever. Did you pick up on that? It says, surely your goodness and your mercy will be with me for all the days of my life. And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. This is an eternal life opportunity. This is what David is saying, that his hope is in the fact that he's gonna be with the Lord forever. This is not just a temporary little, you know, thing while we're here on earth, and then you die and everything goes away. He goes, oh, no, no, no, no, no. He's gonna be with me all the days of my life, but he's also going to prepare a place for me. And so, of course, that's what Jesus said in John chapter 14, didn't he? He said, I go to prepare a place for you, and if it were not so, I would have told you. To me this is just a really beautiful thing. So I want to just finish on John chapter 10 because I promised you I'd do it and I want to do it. So go over to John chapter 10. It's called the Parable of the Good Shepherd. And I think it's really a powerful one because it's so complete. At the beginning of the parable, he talks about the fact that he's the doorkeeper. And then he actually says that he is the door. He says, I am the door. Anyone who enters in, anyone who enters in shall be saved, I believe is how it says it. But then he says this, it's really powerful. He says in verse 10, The thief comes out only to steal and to kill and destroy. I come that they may have life and might have it abundantly." That's that verse that we were just discussing a second ago. We're talking about the fact that his cup runs over. Look at what he says here. He says, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. That's the first time he says it. He who is a hireling, Now that's interesting because a hireling is somebody who sort of fills in, that's the fill-in guy, right? So he says, he who is the hireling and not a shepherd, he who is not the owner of the sheep, behold, when the wolf comes, he leaves the sheep, he leaves, he flees. The wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he's a hireling. and is not concerned about the sheep. By the way, I gave a talk years ago before we even got into this building, when we were over in the other building, when we were going through a period and it was just interesting. Gordon came to me one day and he said, just share your heart about why you're still here. That's what he said to me. Share your heart why you're still here. because there were all sorts of opportunities for both Clark and his wife and Grace and me to leave. Everybody else left, pretty much. And so he said, would you just share your heart? So I really prayed to the Lord and the Lord gave me this verse. This was the verse the Lord gave me. And what I talked about was, are you a runner or are you an owner? Are you a hireling or are you a shepherd? Do you own this place or are you just here for, you know, like you're just a renter? See, because if you're a renter or hireling, you don't have to worry about stuff when it breaks. You don't have to worry about when the wolf come. Man, you just, you just said, well, the wolf came, I'm leaving. I'm out of here. But you see, the shepherd doesn't do that. Shepherd sticks around. The person who owns it sticks around. You know, we have a disaster in your house and you own that place, you don't just sit there and go, oh, well, I'll have to call, I'll have to see if that happens, like it's going to happen by some kind of miracle, right? No, you get up and you fix it to the extent that you're capable or you hire somebody to do it or whatever. But if you're a renter, something breaks, what do you do? Call the owner, that's exactly right, because that's who's gonna fix it. And if the owner doesn't fix it, what do you do? You leave. That's exactly right. And so, listen to what he says. He says, verse 14, I am the good shepherd. I know my own, and my own know me. Even as the father knows me, and I know the father, and I what? Lay down my life. That's the second time he says it. I lay down my life for the sheep, and I have other sheep which are not in this fold. By the way, that's talking about Gentiles. That's not, you know, so he's talking to Jews here, but that's talking about Gentiles. That's talking about us. And so he says, I have other sheep, and they're not in this fold, and I must bring them also, and they shall hear my voice, they shall become one flock with one shepherd. For this reason the Father loves me because I what? Lay down my life that I may take it, because I lay down my life that I might take it again. No one has taken my life from me, but I laid down my life. on my own, I lay down my life on my own. And look at what he says, he says, on my own initiative, excuse me, on my own initiative, I have authority to lay it down and I have authority to take it up again, this commandment I received from my father. So five times he says, I'm gonna lay down my life. I'm gonna lay down my life. I'm gonna lay down my life. I have the, and by the way, I lay it down on my own initiative. No one does it. No one takes away my life. That's why this whole thing of people, this myth, well, you know, the Jews killed Jesus or the Romans killed Jesus and so forth. No, no, no, no one killed Jesus. Jesus laid down his own life. Nobody killed him. So it wasn't Pontius Pilate that did it when he washed his hands. It wasn't the Jews when they said, you know, crucify, crucify. No, no, no, no. It was Jesus. So don't ever say that someone took my life, is what he's saying here. And by the way, when you say something five times in a paragraph, you're serious. Yeah, I mean, you know, I've never done that. Honestly, I don't recall ever saying a single thing five times in one paragraph. And when I think back on that, it's like, what held me there? And I disagree with you. Not everybody left. Well, true. Yeah. And it was the friends that I did life with that really held me in, quite honestly. I felt like I was turning my back on the people that I shared life with. which is a wonderful picture of our chef, our great chef. He didn't turn his back. He was there for, he's there for everybody. I mean, the table situation, I never really, that really just was really kind of opened my eyes today of the open table. Because I always want to think of it as God's prepared a table for me, which he has. But it's an open table. Thank you for blessing me. Yeah, it is. And by the way, I was being overly... I understand what you're saying. Not everybody left, obviously not everybody left. It just felt like everybody left. That was, you know, it was just like, yeah, because I mean, literally it was like all these people that were so close to, you know, what we were doing. And that was, and I have to tell you, Gordon was, his heart was broken by that. His, I mean, you know, a lot of people, you know, they see Gordon now, they see this now. They didn't see him when we were in the valley of the shadow of death. They did not go through that. And it had so... What's the word I want to use? And it so impacted him that he actually asked me because he couldn't talk. He was at that point. He was like, man, I just need another voice. You know, maybe we just need another voice, whatever. And he asked me if I would talk, and so I did. I just spoke from my heart, that was it. I cannot tell you, and I mean this from the bottom of my heart, and I don't mean this in any way other than to bless the Lord. I cannot tell you how many people have come to me, years, I mean, I think I gave that talk 15 years ago, I think, right? I mean, I don't remember. It seems like it's been a long time. It seems like it's been yesterday, but. It's really great. I cannot tell you how many people have come to me, even in like just recently, and said, you remember that talk you gave on renters and owners? I said, yeah, yeah, yeah. Man, that just was important in my life. You know, that really blessed me. It was just great. It was just, it was one of those things, but it was not me, it was Gordon. giving what the what it was not if you get it yet yeah go for it the she is so submissive to the shepherd but the shepherd is also so conscious of the sheep. And another thing I think we missed is that the sheep know the character of the shepherd. And I don't think we learned God's character. And David did. Because when David messed up, he always, God gave him a choice to do certain things. He said, I know man. Hallelujah. But I also know you. And when you know God's character from the beginning, then you'll be able to throw yourself on His mercy. Eli, I was thinking about Eli, the prophet, the priest of Eli. When God called Samuel and Samuel told Eli what God was going to do, Eli said, let it be whatever He chose to be. Right. Now, by the way, what's interesting is, and, but, but at first he didn't, he wasn't going there. Yeah. Remember that at first he wasn't going there, but then he went, Oh wow. This is God speaking to this boy. Yeah. Eli said, you go for it, son. Let's go. Yeah. And that's what God wants to be submissive. And that's the challenge for us. And when you begin to learn about the character of God, your walk is entirely different. Well, I take away, as you described to us, sheep, I mean real sheep, and how they behave with their shepherd. They trust their shepherd. We're bad sheep. We suck. We suck at being sheep. You're not very good at that. You really do not like actual sheep. Yeah. Well actually, actually it's interesting. Lambs don't follow though. Yeah. And isn't it interesting that Paul basically says to, I think it's to the Corinthians, that, you know, you should be healthy enough to take in, you know, solid food, but y'all are just basically still drinking milk. You know, thank you, Matt. And that's really what this is all about. Real quick about working. The reason, I believe, and I want to hear it the whole time, is stretch. That's how it matters, right? Because let's face it, a lot of people stay due to friendships and connection, and they don't really have a good shepherd in your life. Something's missing, right? Yep. Yeah, good call. Yeah, I agree. It's it's powerful stuff. Alright boys, we need to get out of here. Let's let's pray and we'll we'll call it a day.