Summer in the Psalms

[00:00:00] Good morning everybody. I wanna say Happy Father's Day to all of you dads out there. Um, and as we begin the message this morning, I wanna take some time to say again, dads, you are so valuable. You are so significant in the lives of your children and of your families, and I know that you do many, many things that go unseen or unbanked, and that oftentimes you carry heavy burdens.

So thank you for that. And thank you for especially those times where you lead your family closer to the heart of Jesus and obedience to the Lord. And I wanna take a moment in particular to send a, a thank you to my father, Darren. He's played such an unfathomable role in my life because you see the role that I have as pastor, that calling is not my highest calling.

My highest [00:01:00] calling is first as a husband, to love my wife, sacrificially the way Jesus loves the church, and second, to care for my children and to lead them closer to Jesus, to teach them his word. And I'm so grateful that in my own life I had a father who set an example for me of what that looks like and who continues to demonstrate.

I. God's unconditional love day in and day out. And furthermore, I want to thank so many of the men in our church family. I get to have a firsthand point of view as so many of you step up and fill in as father figures for kids and young people in our congregation. I get to see it every single day of my job in the student ministry.

I see it in our [00:02:00] kids' ministry and in VBS. I see it in our sports ministry or in groups like Galvanized, where we have so many men who love the Lord and are committed to step into the role of father or to be an additional father figure in the lives of people who need it, who give up their time to encourage others.

And so I'm thankful to you and I know that, that I'm imperfect and that you are imperfect, and that as fathers and father figures, we will never do that perfectly, but that we are able to point people to the perfect father, our heavenly Father. And I wasn't originally gonna preach this Sunday, and I, I found out Friday I got the call that I was gonna be taking the pulpit.

Um. Um, and as I took the little time that I had to think through what I would preach on and consider what to share with you this morning, um, I decided to share what we're gonna be teaching our students this summer because I [00:03:00] think it's gonna be so applicable to Father's Day. You see, this summer, all of our student Bible studies are gonna be on psalms and proverbs as we focus on discovering how to worship God and live within his wisdom.

So naturally as a part of that Bible study, we're gonna spend time in Psalms 23. And so that's what I wanna share with you this morning. It's such a well-known passage of scripture, and even though it uses the terminology of shepherd, the Lord is our shepherd. This psalm is all about God's character, about his protection and care for us, and about our deep relationship with him.

And so I'm excited on this Father's Day to share with you the love that our Heavenly Father has for you, even though it's not our normal rhythm. I want to begin today because this is such a well-known passage, and I bet many of you even have it memorized by actually reading it aloud all [00:04:00] together instead of just me reading it.

And so what I wanna have you do is I encourage you open up the Bibles that are on your seat backs in front of you, and stay in the passage while we're there. If you don't have a Bible or there's not one near you, it's gonna be on the screen so that you can follow along. Um, but I wanna let you know as we read it together right now, we're gonna read from the ESV translation 'cause it's a little bit more familiar.

But as we get into the passage and dig deep into it later today, we're gonna use the NLT translation because that's what we use with our students. So let's go ahead, let's read it together now. Psalms 23, read with me. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters.

He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his namesake. 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 [00:05:00] 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 mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Would you pray with me? Heavenly Father, thank you for this psalm. Thank you for the truth of your word and the freedom we have this morning to engage with it, to reflect and meditate on it.

And Father, as we do so, I pray that we would draw nearer to your heart, who'd get a greater glimpse into your character and to who you are, and that that would spur us to greater love and obedience for you and for those around us. Father, I pray that today that you would empower me, that you would give me the words that I do not have.

And that you would use those words to penetrate not just the minds of the people who are [00:06:00] here, that they wouldn't just think about them, but that they would sink into our hearts, that they would resonate with us, that they would stay with us, and that they would be an encouragement to us, not only today, but throughout the rest of our lives.

You, I pray. Amen. So I'm curious, I wanna know how many of you guys in this room today have been to New York City? Has anyone been there? Raise your hands. Okay. Alright. A few of you. Not, not a ton, but a good portion of you guys. Uh, what about, um, Manhattan? Has anyone specifically been to Manhattan? All right, good.

What about, anyone seen a Broadway show here? Alright. Nice couple of you guys. Wonderful. So, I mean, man, New York is an amazing city. There's Times Square, there's the Empire State Building, and for those of you who have never been there, you, you probably still know this, but New York City is the largest city in the United States.

It's home to about 8.5 million people and like other large cities around the world, New York City never [00:07:00] stops. Anytime day or night, you will find people out and about. Of course. That's why it has the nickname, the city that never sleeps. The hustle and the bustle of the city can be pretty disorienting to a first time visitor amid all the concrete and asphalt skyscrapers, cars, buses, people.

And visiting New York offers a totally different perspective on life, a real adventure. And if you've never been there, I hope that you get the chance to visit the city one day. It's a truly unique experience. I got to visit New York City for the first time when I led a group of my fellow students on a week long missions trip to New York, uh, while I was in college.

We were there in the city. We were serving the homeless and the impoverished. And, and I still remember it because it was such an impactful moment, like seeing the city and, and driving through it for the first time. I. Now, of course we were listening, uh, very loudly in the car to welcome to New York by Taylor Swift [00:08:00] because what else are you gonna listen to as you go into New York for the first time?

Uh, so that's, you know, that's bumping and we're driving into the city and there's skyscrapers and there's people, and there's all these things all around. And I'm driving this 15 passenger van, so I'm like trying to take it all in while also, you know, not crashing in all the traffic that I've never driven in before.

And man, that was a, a really great trip, but I'll tell you what, you know, that was also a trip that was filled with a lot of moments of anxiety or times where we were overwhelmed. You know, the, the sidewalks were so cramped and the subway was so cramped and there was constant noise. There was no break to the stimulation of all of our senses.

And if you're a mom of a toddler, you know what being in New York City is like.

What I find interesting though about New York City is that it's, it's also really old. It was established in 1624, and yet in the middle of all of these things that [00:09:00] are going on, the buildings and the people, way back when the city planners designed spots throughout the city, that would bring some relief to the concrete jungle.

They added in parks. Places like Central Park, which was my favorite place while we, that we visited when we were in New York. Yeah. They just plopped these green spaces right in the middle of the city so that people could escape the chaos even if only for a few moments where they could find themselves outside in nature.

I mean, check this out. This is Washington Square Park. It's close to the lower end of Manhattan. And I think it's so cool that people can walk to a place that can bring a sense of calm and a sense of peace right in the middle of everything that's going on in the hectic city. And this is the part that's absolutely incredible to me.

Uh, Washington Square Park, it's roughly nine and three quarters acres, so that's roughly [00:10:00] 424,710 square feet. Now here's the cool thing. Land prices in Manhattan are estimated to be at least $2,300 per square foot, $2,300 per square foot. So if you do the math, that means that this land that Washington Square Park is on is worth at least $976,833,000.

In my mind, that makes it even more incredible that the people of New York City would decide to use this land as a park. Instead of building another skyscraper, they realize that this place of peace and rest that's been created here, it's more valuable than the value of the land that it sits on. And see, here's the thing.

I'm willing to bet that in your life. [00:11:00] Oftentimes it feels a lot like it does. Being in New York, it's super busy and jam packed, and it can be really difficult to find a quiet moment to take a break. If you're anything like me, your schedule can be so jammed packed with work, sports dishes, diaper changes, homework, family events, time with friends, other activities that you just feel like you're on the go constantly.

It's been particularly true for me this week, and I'm pretty confident that a lot of you in this room can relate to that and are in a similar season right now. So wouldn't it be nice if we were able to find a little bit of rest and peace amidst all the chaos of life? This is a really cool thing, is that that is the purpose of the book of Psalms.

It's this beautiful work of poetry that is intended to be like a non-physical place for God's people to come and to worship him. [00:12:00] It's intended to be kind of like a virtual temple. This place that's full of poems and beauty with the poems and the songs are about, they're songs, they're worship songs, they're prayers.

The things that we can use to give a voice to our own walk with God, and even as we do to hear the truth of his wisdom sung back into our own lives. Psalms can provide this type of sanctuary, this garden in a desert of the world for us to retreat to and to be a guide for us in how to pray and how to hope in Jesus in both good times and in bad.

And I think Psalms 23 in particular offers us a respite and shows us where we can find a, find a type of rest that only God can offer. Much like Washington Square Park. I think Psalms 23 is off meant to offer comfort [00:13:00] and rest when we read it. And just like this park, it is worth so much more than the land that it's on.

I think Psalms 23 might offer us more value than we even expect. It's a passage we're familiar with, but let's take a deeper look at it this morning, starting in verse one. It says, the Lord is my shepherd. I have all that I need. So what we need to do is we need to get this out of the way right away.

Teenagers, I'll be honest with you, I don't think raising sheep is gonna be a great first job after school. Probably wanna look for something else. See if you're like me, you probably don't have any experience raising livestock. So when David says, the Lord is my shepherd, I think it makes sense that a lot of us wouldn't know exactly what that's like and maybe be a little confused.

I know that I could relate to it better. If David had started saying something like, the Lord is that middle school teacher who gives out extra credit [00:14:00] even when you fail an exam, or the Lord is the person behind that ice cream counter. That puts an extra scoop on your cone for free. Or the Lord is the person who sends me an encouraging text just when I need it.

But of course, those ideas would be as foreign to David as shepherding is for us. So let's talk about shepherding in a little bit. It all starts with sheep. You gotta have sheep. You can't be a shepherd without sheep. You can put on, you know, the robes, you can hold the shepherd's crook. You can stand in a place that smells really bad out in the field all day, but if you don't have any sheep, you're not a shepherd.

That's literally what they do, is they herd sheep. But what do we need to know about sheep? Let's just start here. Let's just say that sheep, they're not the best decision makers in the animal kingdom. For example, sheep are known to fall a lot. They fall [00:15:00] into lakes. They fall off cliffs, they fall into ditches.

They just fall. They don't have a lot of self-awareness, and at times, even once they're freed from, uh, a bad place, they end up stuck there again right away. Maybe something kind of like this.

I mean like, come on now. What? What are we doing? Like you're, you just got out, you were stuck in that ditch and then boom, right, right back in. Oh my goodness. That's sheep. And what's even worse is that sheep, they don't have any natural self-defense. If a wolf approaches, all that a sheep can do is hope that their wool is thick enough to stop the wolf's teeth from sinking in.

That would be like me, medieval jousting while w wearing a wool sweater instead of armor. It's just not a good defense. Now, thankfully, for sheep, [00:16:00] the Shepherd provides everything that they need. They make sure that the sheep are fed by leading them to places where they can graze. If a sheep does fall into a ditch and gets stuck, they help them out, and then they help them out when they end it There again.

The Shepherd frees them If a predator shows up, the shepherd's job is to put themselves in between the danger and the flock, putting their life on the line to keep them safe. The shepherd is in charge of telling the sheep where they need to go and making sure that it gets there alive, plain and simple.

It's the shepherd's job to take care of the sheep. Because the sheep can't take care of themselves. So when David begins his poem by acknowledging that the Lord is his shepherd, he's suggesting that God is the only one who can be trusted with the shepherd's role in his life. And if God is the shepherd, then in this Psalm, David is the sheep.

We are the sheep. [00:17:00] David is making it clear that he needs God to guide and protect him, that he relies on God to lead him, guide him, and provide for his needs and that we need to do the same. In the next two verses, it says, he lets me rest in Green Meadows. He leads me beside peaceful streams. He renews my strength.

He guides me along right paths, bringing honor to his name. In these verses, David is saying that just like a shepherd does for his sheep, God provides everything that we need. These are the most basic needs for a herd of sheep green pastures to graze in still calm water, to drink from a place to rest and to sleep.

And I think it is very significant here for us to remember how vulnerable sheep are and to notice the language used to describe this scene. We're told. He leads me, he guides [00:18:00] me. We see that God is the only one who knows the way to rest. He is the one who guides us to the places where our needs are met, because the sheep, they don't know the way.

They'll only arrive at that place if they follow the shepherd, and even if they did know the way, they wouldn't make it there safely, they'd end up sucking a ditch. And yet oftentimes in our lives, we try to create our own rest. We try to provide for ourselves maybe in your life that looks like working tirelessly on the treadmill of accomplishment.

Maybe that looks like trying to stack up good deed after good deed to try to justify yourself and earn your way by your own goodness. Maybe you chase after rest in the pleasures that this world offers you or maybe you seek that rest in the safety of relationships and the [00:19:00] validation of people. None of those things will satisfy you the way God will none can provide for you the way the Good Shepherd does.

Jesus tells us in John four 13 through 14. Jesus said to her, everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water that I give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life. Jesus is the living water.

Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. He is the way back to the father. He's the restoration for our souls. You cannot earn your way back to God. You cannot manufacture the rest that Jesus wants to offer you. If you place your faith in Jesus and trust him as Lord, if you confess your sin and you trade your sin [00:20:00] for the righteousness of Jesus, you will be saved.

'cause you see the Good Shepherd leaves the 99 to go and seek the one who is lost. Jesus is seeking you. He's pursuing you. He wants to bring you home, and this is after all our deepest need and God will provide for us in that and in all the ways that we need. But as we're about to read, just because God is leading us, just because God is leaving David doesn't mean that things are always gonna be awesome.

See, it says, even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will not be afraid for you are close beside me. You're Rod and your staff protect me and comfort me. You prepare a feast for me in the presence of my enemies. You honor me by anointing my head with oil. My cup overflows with blessings. Remember how David said that part of a shepherd's [00:21:00] job is to protect the sheep?

This is exactly what David is talking about here. You see shepherds often find themselves in this difficult situation. You see, they might be on one mountain where their sheep were grazing and they had food and water, and they were safe. Only the problem is, is that mountain is running out. Those pastures have been eaten.

And so now they need to go to another mountain to keep their sheep, their sheep safe and fed. The only problem is, is that to get from one mountain peak to the other, you have to take your flock down into the valley. And the valley is a place known for being full of wolves and predators. And if you know anything like I do from watching cartoons as a kid, you know that wolves like nothing more than stealing sheep and eating them up.

So what's a good shepherd supposed to do in this situation? Maybe you think, oh, the shepherds should just keep them on the mountain, keep them safe. But if they do that, the foods run out and the flock will starve. That's bad [00:22:00] news. And so your only option is to take your sheep through the valley and make no mistake, it is dangerous.

That is why the Shepherd has his rod. I think when we think of shepherds, most of the time, maybe you're like me and this is kind of what you picture in your head. When I picture a shepherd, I kind of think of a, a young, skinny teenage kid who's been put in charge of the flocks and he's got the robe and he is got the fancy staff and he's in a peaceful field with his sheep.

Everything's beautiful, and it's kinda like the male version of a Disney princess. Maybe he actually talks to animals and has little mice and bird friends following him around, right? But in, in reality, shepherds had to be strong. They had to always be on guard, ready to fight off thieves and predators.

Being a shepherd was a dangerous job. And shepherds carried weapons. And in this verse, David [00:23:00] mentions the shepherd's rod. And his staff and these, these might have been two separate tools, you know, a long stick to guide and a short, heavier club, or could have been, you know, two uses for the same tool.

Regardless, the reason that David has comfort is because the Lord is armed with the rod and ready to defend him. When danger is near that rod becomes a deadly weapon that is used to fight off the wolves, bears, or whatever else might be trying to harm the sheep. David also finds comfort in the shepherd's staff, which would be used to guide his sheep to push and to pull them so that they would stay on the right path, keeping the safe from themselves and the danger that they might put themselves in.

And just like the shepherd does for his sheep, God is armed and ready to defend us from those that would want to harm [00:24:00] us. On the outside, from the valleys and shadows of life, and also from our own internal struggles, the valleys of life cannot be avoided. There will be times in your life as a believer where there is danger on every side.

There will be false teachers. There will be those people who come and try to influence you and get you to stray from the right path. But through it all, God is with us. We have rest, not because life is always restful, but because we are always under the watchful eye of our heavenly Father, the good shepherd.

He's protecting us, and I love that. The way David describes it, he says that the quality of God's protection. It's like being able to have a feast, being able to eat peacefully even while all our enemies surround us, and he said his cup overflows with blessing. Let's look at the last verse of this song says, surely [00:25:00] your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all the days of my life and I will live in the house of the Lord forever.

I love to see how confident David is that the Lord will never let him down, that God will never leave him, that God will never let the wolves get him. God is David's Shepherd forever and thankfully he's our shepherd too. And those that are in his hand cannot be removed. We will always be his children and we will spend eternity with him.

And I think that this is such an important part of the psalm and it's such an important part of the gospel. David writes, I will live in the house of the Lord forever. Oh, how I look forward to this. Jesus is coming back. He isn't done yet. We're not stuck here, and this is why the gospel is so [00:26:00] good. You see?

Yes. Jesus died for your sins. He took the penalty that we were supposed to pay. We are free. And yes, three days later, he rose from the grave. It proved his innocence. He defeated death. Victory belongs to Jesus. Yes. He then appeared over 40 days to many witnesses so that we can have confidence in the truth of the miracle that he'd done.

And yes, after that, he then ascended into heaven where he's positioned as the, at the right hand of the Father. He's the king of kings and Lord of lords. Do we believe that this morning? Amen. But that is not where the story ends. It can't be where the story ends. 'cause you see, you and I we're still here, we're still in the valley of the shadow of death.

I look [00:27:00] around, I, I see the news even this week. I know that the world still groans daily because of the effect of sin. I still sit with people who are devastated by the problems that this world has presented them. I still look around at me and I see war, and I see disease, and I see death on every side.

And yes, by the power of Jesus, I'm no longer guilty, and death is not something that I have to fear, but the world is still broken. There's more to the gospel. Jesus is coming back. He will return, and when he does, there will be justice for evil. When he returns, he will do a work of recreation. The Earth is gonna be remade.

God's home is gonna be with his people. I'll be with God. We will [00:28:00] be with God. We will get to dwell in his house forever. I cannot wait for the day where we get to experience the final line of Psalms 23. And the reason David ends with this and his Psalm about rest is because this is our ultimate hope that all who believe in Jesus can dwell in the Lord's house, that we can be at peace, that we will be with the Good Shepherd.

It is such a powerful psalm, and as we reflect on the truth that it presents us, allow me to share three takeaways, three insights with you from this Psalm, and, and then I wanna leave you with three actions or decisions that you can take and apply from this passage of scripture. First, my observations.

Number one, the sheep recognize their shepherd. It is right there. In the first word of the Psalm, David understood that he was a sheep in need of a shepherd, [00:29:00] and he was clear about exactly who that shepherd is. It's God, and this may sound like an odd question, but do you know who your shepherd is? If not, let me share the words of Jesus.

In John 10 11 through 15, he said, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd sacrifices his life for the sheep. See the hired hand, he will run. When he sees a wolf coming, he will abandon the sheep because they don't belong to him and he isn't their shepherd, and so the wolf attacks them and scatters the flock.

The hired hand runs away because he's working only for money and he doesn't really care about the sheep. I'm the good shepherd. I know my own sheep, and they know me just as my father knows me and I know the father, so I will sacrifice my life for the sheep. I. Jesus said his sheep know him. Earlier in the same chapter, Jesus said his sheep follow him [00:30:00] because they recognize his voice.

The sheep recognize their shepherd, and do you recognize him? Are you attentive to the still MA prompting of the Holy Spirit? Are you daily seeking to know his voice better in scripture? Or are you instead maybe drowning him out with all the noise and distractions that are around you? Or is it possible?

Maybe you are ignoring his voice and instead listening to the voice of one who is not your shepherd, and two does not have your best at heart. Just like David, we are called to recognize God as our shepherd and put our trust in him fully to lead us, guide us, protect us, and gently correct us. Each and every day.

The second idea I think we learned from Psalms 23 is that God is always with us. Even when we face our darkest times, everyone faces challenges in life. At some point, [00:31:00] we're all gonna face circumstances. We would rather not walk through, and yet we learn from the Psalm that God, our shepherd can be trusted.

Trusted to walk alongside us and protect us. And like David, we can choose not to be afraid in difficult times because we have comfort knowing that God is with us. David knew that God was with him, which emboldened him to face his enemies head on. It wasn't, it wasn't easy. No, of course it was difficult, but with God it was possible.

This is great news for us as fellow sheep, even when things are at their worst, even when the storms of life are battering us, we don't have to fold. We don't have to be afraid because Jesus, our shepherd is right by our side to protect us and guide us. The third thing that jumps out to me from this passage is that God is faithful pursuing us forever with his goodness and love.

You know, over the years of life [00:32:00] I've learned, I've been taught through experience that there's not really anything that stays the same. There's nothing that that's constant. You know, even people that I really trusted, you know, suddenly they, they let me down or were unreliable family members who I loved and who I, you know, kind of thought as a young person would always be there for me, have passed away.

It's impossible to find anything in this world that will last forever. But David reminds us that God's goodness, that his unfailing love, that is the constant that will stay with us throughout our entire lives. God's love and goodness lasts forever. His love is so great towards us that even when we would lose our way, he will pursue us and bring us back safely into the flock.

Jesus said it this way. If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them wanders away, what will he do? Won't he leave the [00:33:00] 99 others on the hills and go out and search for the one that is lost? And when he finds it, I tell you the truth, he will rejoice over it more than over the other 99 that didn't wander away.

And I love that when God finds that one lost sheep. When he brings it back to the flock, he doesn't sit it down and scold it, angrily yell at it for wandering off. No. Instead he rejoices that he has found it. This is the kind of shepherd that God is, because God's goodness lasts forever. Because his love and knows no bounds because he has went to the cross so that he can offer us the forgiveness of Christ and his soul is so encouraging.

It is so comforting to be reminded of this truth, and I think that is why this psalm is so popular and why so many people love it, but I don't think that this psalm is, is just meant to be read every once in a while. I don't think it's [00:34:00] something simply to return to when you need a little bit of encouragement.

I think that whenever we read the Bible, we should come to it wanting to know what to believe and then what to do. That the Bible should spur us on to action. And so I want to give you quickly three ways, three decisions to respond to when we read this. Psalm. First decide to stay close to the shepherd.

As Christians, we know that we are always with the Lord, that his Holy Spirit is given to us and that there is nowhere we can go where God is not there. But it doesn't mean that we don't have a role to play in our spiritual lives. We can choose whether to stay near to Jesus, our shepherd, or to wander off and go alone.

So there are several ways for us to stay close to Jesus. For example, we stay close to Jesus when we choose to grow closer to him by reading his word. Reading his word helps us recognize the voice of the Shepherd better. We stay close to the [00:35:00] shepherd when we gather weekly, as we are right now to worship and to learn.

We stay close to Jesus when we serve others in His name, and we participate in his mission to make him known to the world. And we know from this Psalm, even when we stay close to the shepherd, we are in the safest place we can be. And that, and then our lives will overflow with his blessing. The second decision I wanna prompt you to is to reject fear and to trust God.

What things do you have coming up that are stressful? What valleys are up ahead for you to walk through? Is your boss asking you to do something unethical to benefit your company? Do you have an uncomfortable conversation that needs to happen with a close friend? Are you struggling in your marriage?

Have you lost someone you love? Life is full of these valleys, but I want to remind you that God is always with you [00:36:00] and I want to encourage you to practice trust this week. I'm gonna give you a tangible way to do that. I wanna encourage you to, to take a sticky note today, this afternoon, go home, grab a sticky note, and write down that difficult situation you're walking through or have to walk through.

I want you to write down this. I want you to write down Jesus, I trust you to walk with me through this tough situation and then write in what it is. I think when you take a moment to write it out, it makes our faith a little more real. It tells our heart and our head, Hey, I'm trusting God with this situation and serves as a reminder for us to pray.

And I encourage you as a, as a bonus, to then take that sticky note, put it in your Bible, so it's sticking out at Psalms 23 so that you see it, and then maybe one day you flip that sticky note over and you write down how God provided for you in the midst of that valley. Finally, I wanna encourage you to decide to share God's goodness and love with others.

Because the [00:37:00] experience we get to experience God's love and his supply of goodness and love are unlimited. David says that his cups overflow with blessing, and if we are overflowing with the goodness and love of the Lord, then we are free to share with those around us. And in fact, that is precisely the purpose that God has given his church.

So for you today, what does that look like? I think there are endless opportunities. For example, since we know God is our shepherd, since we have experienced him walking beside us through our own valleys, we can walk with others in the valleys that they are walking through. We can be a comfort to them in tough times.

Another way to do this is simply to serve one another. It could be a parent, a sibling, a friend, but make a concerted effort to go and serve someone. It could be as simple as praying for them. Maybe you know, someone who could use a dinner mate or someone to come over and just do some [00:38:00] dishes and give a break, or just sending them an encouraging text, giving them a little bit of encouragement in a rough time, whatever that might be.

I encourage you today to identify one person who needs this type of encouragement and be the hands and feet of Jesus sowing that person love. My friends, I'm so grateful that we have a good shepherd who leads us, who guides us, who sticks close to us continually, especially in those valleys. I'm thankful for that, and I'm challenging you today.

Decide to stick close to your shepherd. Trust him even when things are tough. And then from the overflow of his goodness and his love in your life, share with others. If you have a question about the Message Community Church or Jesus Christ, send us a text to 3 3 0. 432 42. You can learn more about our events and community groups at CCP Life slash Connect [00:39:00] There you can also send in a prayer request.

We would love to pray for you. Have a blessed Lord's Day, and we'll see you on Sunday.