The Lord Is My Shepherd
First B Jackson
2023-06-18

Automatically transcribed. Where this and the recording disagree, the recording is the record.

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How are you this morning? I usually the count countdown tells me how long I've got but glad to see you. Happy Father's Day. We're going to start off singing a couple songs. To God be the glory to begin with.

If you if you know it, sing it like you mean.

To God be the glory great things he hath done so loved he the world that he gave us his son, who yielded his life and atonement for sin, and opened the life gate that all may go in. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Let the earth hear his voice. Praise the Lord.

Praise the Lord. Let the people rejoice. Oh, come to the father through Jesus, the son, and give him the glory.

Great things he had done. Great

things he had taught us. Great things he

Amen. I was expecting three verses but that was it. How great thou art? We'll get on to the next one. Y'all can have a seat.

I've got a few announcements. Oh, Monday nights at First B. It's happening. Tomorrow night, 6PM, meal, music, and a message. Carl is in what chapter, Mark?

Mark Mark 12. We're getting up to Mark 12, a meal, music, and a message tomorrow night down the hall, six p. M. You're welcome. It's a fun time.

Sit there around the tables and chat through dinner, have a little music and a short message, and then have a conversation about the message. There's a lot of times you all are just hearing from the pastor and you don't get a chance to ask questions or talk back. So please come and we'll have a conversation afterwards. It's really good. Monday nights at First B is fun.

If you don't know about this, I'm going let you know about it. Whether you're visiting or whether you're a regular attender, if you don't have right now media as a, you know, an app on your phone or you can sign up through your smart TV and all that sort of stuff, there are free Bible studies, videos, and resources. It's sort of like the Christian version of Netflix. Okay? So, we, as a church, have this service that we're providing to anybody who wants to.

If you're here today and you want this, you can browse through all of these different this Christian content. If you want it, let us know. We'll sign you up for it, and then you'll be able to flip through Bible study, sermon series, all that sort stuff. Not necessarily our stuff, but stuff. Right?

Christian stuff. It's good stuff. Solid Rock Tour. This is a choir from Uganda called the Imani Melele Choir. They're coming to the Pres Church, Presbyterian Church at Jackson Hole, June twenty eighth and the thirtieth.

So that's not this Wednesday, but if you're from the South, it's Wednesday week, okay? Wednesday week and Friday week. Twenty eighth and thirtieth of June, six to 07:30. That ought to be a good time. I don't know why they're stretched out like that.

It is not a choir of little people. So vacation Bible school is happening, First Baptist Church, right here, June 26 through the twenty eighth. So that's also coming up 9AM to noon. If you would like to sign up a child or sign up to volunteer, we'll do some training and that sort of stuff. But volunteer sign up is at firstbjackson.org.

That's that's the primary way of getting in touch with us. The church directory. We are working on a new updated church directory, and we need a horizontal photo. Do we need to go through horizontal or vertical again? Just wondering.

Yeah, horizontal. Horizon. See this picture up here? Horizon. Yeah, horizon, horizontal.

Picture like this. Landscape, if it's landscape versus portrait, it's landscape. A lot of the pictures people send in are still going be vertical. I don't know why it just is that way.

If you want to, you can talk

to Nick. He'll take a picture of you horizontally back there in the vestibule somewhere. And we just need your name, phone number, stuff to put in there. It helps us to stay together as a body. Some of the message today is going to be about us really being in contact and in connection with one another, close family.

So that's that. There is a church camp out coming up. Usually, do this in August. It's quicker than that this year. It's in early July.

Usually, do it in Coulter Bay. This year, it's at Palisades. So it's different than normal, but it's still gonna be fun and good. July seventh through the ninth at Palisades Lake. Mike Demetrius, youth director, is in charge.

So if you'll get in touch with him, he'll give you the information that you need. But the church camp out is happening. And, hey, the first This is an inaugural event, June 25. There will be games and food and fellowship. Right out here on the green lawn, we'll be having a barbecue, and they're calling it first b, b q.

Okay? Sounds good to me. But that's happening, June 25 and then again, July 23. We're going to do it the summer months. Get together once a month and just have a good time.

Bring everybody you want to bring and get together and have fun. If you want to know more, we're not doing paper bulletins right now, but if you want to know more about it, you can sign up for the church's weekly emails@firstbjackson.org, and I think that's the last of the announcements. Would you stand up and greet one another? I was wondering what if that was going to be a groan. Greet one another, and Judy and I'll bring you back together with a song.

Yeah. Is that holy, holy? Which one is this? Yeah. Let's do it.

If you go, I'll go. If you go, I'll go with you. I've got one more announcement too I forgot about before we sing, but Moosey Woodling's funeral was yesterday. So Moosey Woodling, Jeanette Moosey Woodling, a lot of you all knew her, I see a lot of faces that I saw here yesterday. But for those of you who didn't know her, she was a hoot.

She lived to be 100 years old. We did her 100 year birthday party last October at the National Museum of Wildlife Art, one of the most humorous and funniest people I've ever met. And there are some pictures on the back table out here that the family came and emptied three storage units. She outlived four nursing homes. Yes.

I said yesterday, some people closed down bars, she closed down nursing homes. So four of them, and she would have a storage unit each time she went to a smaller room. And so she left behind tons of pictures, prints of pictures and there are photo mailers and stuff like that. If you want to get one and slide it in one of those, you're welcome to them. Those were left behind for the family to bless anybody here in the community.

And so there's some great pictures of Tetons and lots and lots of pictures back there. Thank you. It's good to be together. We're going to sing Holy Holy.

Gracious father, gracious

father.

We're so blessed to be your children, gracious father.

Y'all can have us oh, father God. Goodness gracious. I'm one beat off today. At least one beat.

Power and love amaze me. Amaze me and worship father God. Let's sing it again. Amen.

Y'all can have a seat. I'm gonna invite the ushers to come forward. It's time an offering time. God almighty, we come before you with this operatory prayer, lord. I pray that you take everything that is given, Lord.

If it's a a heart to do your will, that you take that and you would express that will, Lord, and give the power to carry it out. If it's someone who has resources and you've asked them to be generous, Lord, I pray that that's what they would do. If it's somebody that has a capacity for listening to people without getting upset or angry or having to offer advice, I pray that you would counsel the hearts of those who are hurting through that person. Lord, I pray that you'd take every gift that you have given us, and we're offering back to you, and that you'd use it for the advance of the gospel. That the good news of Jesus Christ, of his perfect life, sacrificial and atoning death, and his amazing spirit empowered resurrection are available to anyone.

Whosoever would listen. In Jesus' name, would you use everything that is given today to those ends. Amen. Thank you, Judy. So this week, I'm going to step away from our study.

We've been going Luke 15 last week. We did all of chapter 15. This week, I'd normally do Luke 16. That's the way we've been going through this chronological Bible study just kinda going in order. But there was an event this week that happened.

It's been heavy on a lot of our hearts. Some of you may or may not have heard. But yesterday, during Moocy's funeral, I was so comforted by Psalm 23 that I just felt like I needed to do that today. On Wednesday, Steve Marsteller died. And so if you hadn't heard yet, it's a very, very tragic end, very hard thing for the family, and very hard thing for all of us who loved him.

And so yesterday, I was surprised by I mean, Lucy is joyful, and, to do her funeral is a pleasure. She her life was a sermon. You didn't have to gild that. Lily, It's just listening to people celebrate her life, and that was wonderful. But she had done detailed funeral plans.

When you get to be a 100, you know, she's done this more than once. So like in the sixties, she did a very detailed plan, had prayers and introductions and conclusions and how to file out of here and everything. And, you know, she did that probably in the sixties. And then seventies, eighties, probably, did another one that wasn't quite as detailed. And then a little forward from there, she did one that wasn't as detailed.

It was like five or six of them. And they were different. They were all over the place. In some cases, very liturgical. In other places, it's like, do whatever you want to, but sing this song.

Right? You know? Abide with me was a song that we got to sing yesterday that was just beautiful. She asked for that in every one of them. And she asked for Psalm 23, so I included it on the program.

Psalm 23 is so helpful when we are walking through the valley of the shadow of death. So I'm gonna go over that today and slow down. It's not gonna be my normal style. It's originally Hebrew, not Greek, so I'm not gonna spend a lot of time on grammar like I usually do. But I want you to look at Psalm 23, God as shepherd and friend.

Okay? So this is last week's text. We talked about this. What man among you if he has a 100 sheep and has lost one of them doesn't leave the other 99 in open pasture and go after the one that's lost until he finds it? Right?

And I I actually acted it out. I had people text him in from home going, woah. Ray is really going for it today. He's acting this thing out. The shepherd who has lost a sheep goes after him until he finds it.

And when he finds it, it says, when he's found it, he puts it up on his shoulders rejoicing. Does that sound like an angry God? No. This is still Old Testament. Oh, really?

Yeah. This is the way God is. He I mean, Psalm 23 is Old Testament. This is New Testament. But he puts him up on his shoulders rejoicing.

He's not angry. He's not upset that that sheep wandered away. He's just looking for him to come back. And if you don't think that's true, the lost coin is the next parable. And if you don't think it's true, then no doubt about it.

People are involved in the parable of the prodigal son, which I prefer to call the parable of the loving father. He's so receptive. He's so good. The prodigal who's wandered off into a licentious, wild living area, he's looking for him to come home. Now he is looking for him to come home, and as soon as he turns, I've sinned against you.

And he makes that turn home. His father's looking for him, hikes up the robe, runs out after him, welcomes him, falls on his neck, kisses him repeatedly, brings it back in, kills the fatted calf, puts a ring on his finger, puts sandals on his feet. That's the way God is. He's looking for our return. So Jesus is saying that.

He's speaking to Pharisees, mostly, disciples too. And this, I have always read this this way. And when he comes home, gets his friends together and his neighbors, he said, rejoice with me because I found my sheep that was lost that wandered away. I tell you in the same way, there's more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous persons who have no need of repentance. I have always read that last part as it's it's better for the the one sinner to repent and turn back to God than than it is for you Pharisees, y'all that don't need any.

They really do. They're in a different ditch. They're in a legalistic ditch. Right? And they need to repent, but I've always read it as kind of a sideways comment from Jesus to say, there's a lot of joy in heaven about a sinner who has come home more than there are about these legalists who don't think they need any help.

That's the way I've read it. But I I challenged I got challenged on that this week. I think he's saying that this is a safe place for my sheep. Right? The body of Christ is what we call it now, the congregation of the Lord, the assembly.

It's a place where we can gather and walk in victory. Now, I'll say this. The school that I went to, CIU in Columbia, South Carolina, is known for victorious Christian living. It's one of their standing stones. It's a big deal around campus that we can walk in victory.

Now I had a professor. He was an Air Force guy, and he was a navigator. So he the navs. The navigators have scripture memorization. Air Force has the discipline.

This guy would not sing prone to wander, Lord, I feel it. He would stand and cross his arms, and he would through that part because he said, we can walk in victory. With God's help, we can walk in victory. I I think he's right, but come on. Are are we prone to wander?

Lord, I feel it. Yeah. Yeah. If we should wander away from this body, this safe place, an open pasture, as we'll see the pasture, green pastures and whatnot, the still waters. If we should wander away from this, we're putting ourselves in peril.

And now we've got a good shepherd who's seeking after us, and we'll get to that. But I think that the 99 righteous people, it might actually be serious. It's not sideways. It's not sarcasm. I think he means there is safety here in the body of Christ.

Now the church gets a bad rap in the world, but what else are they gonna do? If you don't know Jesus, you can't be expected to act like him. It's hard enough for those of us who do know him, prone to wander. Lord, I feel it. But this is a beautiful picture along with the coin and the prodigal son and the older brother.

That's what we covered last week, but this week, we're gonna cover this. Just these six verses. Psalm 23, that's all of it in one place, but I'm going slow down and go through it. Tanya and I were missionaries in Latin America for seven years. And in the middle of that time, we were in Rica.

Costa Rica had a language school, we had a house with a guest room, and we had a guest for a couple of weeks on an intensive course, and it was Max Lucado's daughter. Isn't that cool? And she stayed with a sweet gal, and she had her two week intensive. We were there for a year. And during that time, her dad came down to see her mom and dad and the family, and they were going to have a vacation.

But I'll tell you this, in this role as pastor, whether it's me or Max Lucado, if there is a meal being had, you are gonna say the blessing. Right? That's the way it is. And the only way you're gonna get out of saying the blessing is if there's another pastor in the room and he caught their eye first. So if Max Lucado is visiting a language school for missionaries in Costa Rica, he's going to do the chapel service.

That's just the way it is. And so he did. And on the spur of the moment, basically, they asked him, and I remember it still. He's a great communicator. But he held up one hand in a fist like this, and he said, the Lord is my shepherd.

He said, let's back up. He only covered these five verses. I'm gonna go further than this. The is a definite article. It's singular.

It means this one is unique. And when he says lord, he means lord. Lord overall, the highest, the most almighty, almighty God. Now, by this time in scripture, we've heard him called Lord before, master. We've heard God called a lot of different names that don't say God specifically because Jews didn't speak the name of God, so they used Lord, the Lord.

Lord signifies authority. You can't say, no, Lord. You can say no or yes, lord. Right? There's authority, and and following him signifies that we're listening to what he's saying.

So the Lord is, oh, the self evident one. When he tells him what his name is, he says, I am that I am. Right? The Lord is my boy, doesn't that bring it down to where I'm living right here today? The Lord is my wow.

And then a very intimate relationship. The Lord is my shepherd. So heretofore in Psalms one through 22, we have God called hold on just a second. King, deliverer, rock, shield, all of these strong things, all these things with authority. But at this point, he brings it down to one of the most intimate relationships.

It is the Lord is my shepherd. Isn't that close and good? Especially after covering last week that if there is one who wanders away, that that shepherd, a good shepherd, is going after him. And he's going to go after him until he finds him. Now, the next line is I shall not want.

That's future tense, I shall not want. But he's sitting in a place of absolute confidence in the Lord, his shepherd, and I can too. It's it's written in the first person. I can know that since the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. What I get from him, I can be content with.

If we fast forward into the New Testament, we see Paul, religious Pharisee, converted to be an absolute servant for God in prison, able to write, I know how to be abased. I understand how to be in want. I understand how to be in abundance. And I understand what it's like to be lacking and to be content in the midst of that. This is the idea here of I shall not want.

God will provide for me whatever I'll need. Mentioned in the first service my younger brother, Toby. So Toby, when he was about 13 or 14, we would always go to town on Friday nights. We lived about 30 miles outside of a big town. And we'd go to town, and we'd go through it's Father's Day, so I mentioned something about my dad.

We'd go through the little line at Bonanza or wherever. We'd get our plates and meals and all, and then daddy would pay. Well, yeah, he's daddy. When we needed something, shoes or clothes or whatever, daddy always took care of that. And mama took care of us.

At some point, he was probably about 12 or 13, maybe 14 years old, and Toby was talking about something. They said, Well, do you have your wallet? He goes, yeah, he's right there. He's he's got it. He's he's got it.

And he's got me covered, and I know that. And that's a place of quiet strength. Right? You just know that you're covered. He's got all the cattle on a thousand hills.

He's my shepherd. He has everything that I need. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He is almighty God.

He makes me to lie down in green pastures. Man. Is it surprising to y'all still? I've been here eleven full years, and it surprises me that we can have two feet of snow on the ground, and then three weeks later, we can have green grass. The green grass is something to look forward to.

And he makes me lie down in green pastures, just this thick, lush abundance. And you can rest. Lie down in it. I've got you covered. He's gonna go on to to talk about how he's got us covered.

But right here, the Lord being my shepherd, I'm not gonna lack for anything. He's gonna make me to lie down in green pastures. He's gonna lead me beside the still waters. It's not a raging river or a tumultuous situation. There are not any swirling eddies in this psalm.

This is restorative water. When you need a drink of water, it just restores you. When you need a bath, it cleans you. To grow vegetation, to grow those green pastures, you need it. And he's gonna put us in places where we are secure, and he's gonna restore our soul.

Have you ever felt like your soul was empty, like it was worn out, like you couldn't take any more hard news? Yeah. Well, the Lord is the one that restores the soul. He restores my soul. I mean, David wrote this psalm, and David knew all kinds of dramatic situations.

Restoration, we need it. We need it. We need renewal. We need restoration. He restores my very soul.

He leads me. Oh, blessed thought. He leadeth me. He leadeth me. Oh, blessed thought.

Words with heavenly comfort, fraud. It's good to know that he leads. I'm gonna stop right here, though. I I stopped in the mid verse there. He leads me.

It does require that we follow him. Does it not? I mean, he leads. He can be saying, come on. Come on.

Come on. He's already walked the path. There's not anybody that's walked a harder path than he did. Tempted

of

the devil to start out with in ministry and then crucified at the end. He's walked a hard path. He's leading us. It it does require that we follow. And if we know that the Lord is my shepherd and he's gonna lead me in these good places, then I can trust him no matter where he leads me.

He leads me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Now if think about the paths of righteousness, it doesn't say rightness like we have to be right in an argument. Just we have to walk in righteousness. We get to walk in righteousness. We don't have any righteousness of our own.

Any righteousness that we have would be derived from him. But he knows the path of righteousness, and he's walked it, and it's not an easy road. And he's walked it in front of us. And as we are following him, it's for his name's sake. These are mine.

These are mine. He's gathered us into the family of God, and he wants for us to reflect his goodness and his glory, his winsomeness. He wants for us to care about other people's souls, to help out in restoring other people's souls. He wants us to be a part of the abundance to share with those who do not have that was Luke 16. Comes up several times.

The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not be in want. He makes me lie down in green pastures, leads me by still waters, restores my soul. He leads me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. So what street are we on?

We're on the street of righteousness, and it goes through the valley. It's the it's the path of righteousness. And, yea, even though it goes through the valley of the shadow of death, of the deepest darkness, there is a despair that descends from time to time that is so hard to deal with. And if we are a sheep wandering by ourselves alone, and we don't have the body of Christ around us singing songs, this is a song of God's praise and of his of the glory of his assembly that he's in he inhabits the praise of his people. If we don't have that, and we're going through the darkest valley of the deepest darkness, the shadow of death, we are tempted to fear, are we not?

If we're by ourselves, and that is the place where an enemy can step in and start convincing us of all kinds of things that are just not true. Right? We've got we've got the world of flesh and the devil working against us. But if we will follow after our shepherd, the path of righteousness leads through the valley of the shadow of death, and we can fear no evil. I'll fear no evil.

Why? Because you're with me. Now it goes right here from shepherd to friend. Okay? So shepherd is this very intimate authoritative position where God is there, but he is with us.

Right? He's in it with us. That's why I'm not gonna fear because if you're leading and you're almighty and I'm with you, you've got me covered. I know I can trust you. I'm not gonna fear.

It's deep and it's dark, but you're with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. So the staff, I think of when I when I think of a shepherd, I think of a staff. It's a walking stick. We see people with walking sticks all over this place.

And it's a common thing if you're watching shepherds to have that and just kind of hem, not smacking them with it, but just hemming them in. A little bit of here, a little bit there. Come on. Come on. And we often see them with the hook on it, so it's like that little lamb gets a little further away, you can hook them and bring them back.

That's good. But the other one, the rod there, the rod is a cudgel. A cudgel is like a little blunt bat, and shepherds typically carried them in their belt right here. It's a weapon. And when David talks about, you know, facing Goliath and he's trying to convince him, let me at him, he says, I've already whooped a bear.

I've already I've already whooped a wolf, and he did it with his cudgel. You know, he had a weapon to be used. And this says, I'm not gonna fear any evil because you've got me covered. You're with me. You've got a weapon against the enemy, the wolves.

You've got a staff to keep me in line. And that comforts me to know that you you have faced the darkness. I can rest that you win, almighty God. It's not a fifty fifty duality where sometimes good wins and sometimes evil wins. No.

It is God wins. Okay? And he's the one that is my shepherd. You're with me. You're riding your staff.

They comfort me. You prepare a table before me. Now in Luke 15 last week, at the very beginning of the chapter, says, then all the tax collectors and sinners drew near Jesus to hear him, and the Pharisees and scribes complained saying, this man receives sinners, not just receives them, and he even eats with them. He receives them, and he eats with them. This says you prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.

Like, so you're gonna prepare. You're gonna take care of me. You're gonna lead me in the paths of righteousness even though it's through the Valley Of Shadow, and you're gonna get me to a place where I'm gonna be sitting down and eating a sumptuous prepared meal that you made for me, and I'll be surrounded by my enemies. It's a couple of different ways of looking at that. One of them is it's David, and he's got a little huddle of people.

He's hemmed in on all sides, and he's saying, God's still taking care of us. We've got food to eat. Even if it's the showbread, we've got food to eat. We're alright. We're covered up with enemies.

I don't think it's that, though. I think that this is saying, you prepare a table before me in the presence of my overcome enemies, vanquished foes, but they also now have a seat at the table. I know that that's what the Old Testament is pointing towards. I know that. And in the New Testament, what they're upset with him about is that he has an open door policy for people coming into table fellowship.

It's a big deal. Table fellowship is huge in the Old Testament. It's huge in the New Testament. Galatians, Acts, James. We see a lot of different places where it's about who you eat with in table fellowship, And Jesus is opening up the path.

You prepare a table before me in the presence of those who were formerly enemies. We get a seat at the table together, and you anoint my head with oil. That's a party. It's more than just a washing of feet. You anoint my head with oil.

This is lavish, and my cup runs over. I'm so blessed to have you as my provider and Lord. And I'm so thankful that when I'm in a situation I don't understand, that I can trust you and the flock to help get through it. We can walk it together. Shirley, goodness and mercy, Sherry Turpin's mom is named Shirley.

And when she introduces herself, she says, Hey, I'm Shirley. Shirley, goodness and mercy. And then she follows you around. No, not really. She's just Shirley, goodness and mercy shall follow me.

Sorry. Surely goodness and mercy. Goodness and mercy, I don't need to do a grammatical explanation. Mean goodness and mercy. Actually, mercy is chesed, which is God's steadfast love.

Do you remember the Psalm that says, God's steadfast love endures forever, and it's a refrain, every other line is that? Or God's mercy endures forever? That's this word, chesed. There's another pastor here in town who has it as his license plate. It's following him all the time.

And in Wyoming, it's in front of him all the time. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. This there will be dark days, but God's goodness and mercy is right behind you. It's it's pursuing you. It's pursuing you always.

Now following after him is a part of him leading, and then the goodness and mercy that are coming along behind. There are dark days, but it's gonna follow me all the days of my life. And beyond this life, I'll dwell in the house of the Lord forever. There's an eternality that is there. So I was so comforted by that.

It's not my normal way of preaching, but I hope that was I hope that that psalm is as helpful for you as it has been for me this week. I also hope that that picture of the 99 that are together that are not in need of repentances because they are walking together in victory, that's really helpful too. We need to be doing that. We are the continuing body of Christ here. He says he'll build his church.

We trust that he's doing that. There are gonna be all kinds of things that try to knock that off knock that out of kilter, but we need to just lean in towards one another, towards God. Let him pull us closer together. Luke 15, I think that was the last slide on that, but I wanna read something else. I think the church gets a bad rap, and I've said that before.

Not this church, but the church in the world, it gets a bad rap. If there ever is an instance of a shepherd not being a good shepherd, it makes God look bad. Right? He leads us in paths of actual righteousness, not being right in an argument. He leads us in paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

Ezekiel 34, I'm gonna read a little bit from. Ezekiel 34 is woe to the bad shepherds. Okay? So we have a responsibility of, as a body, of taking care of one another and being a light in the community, for those who don't know who are walking in darkness. But the for those of us who are shepherds, way back in Ezekiel's time, there were shepherds that were not good shepherds.

So he says to Ezekiel, prophesy against the bad shepherds of Israel. Prophesy and say to those shepherds, this is what the Lord God says, woe you shepherds who have been feeding yourselves and not feeding the flock. You eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the fat sheep without feeding the rest of the flock. Those who are sickly, you have not strengthened. The disease, have not healed.

The broken, you've not bound up. The scattered you have not brought back in. Nor have you searched for the lost, but with the force and with violence, you have dominated them. Religious abuse actually exists, and it's very ugly. And it hurts people's chances.

It inoculates them against the actual gospel. Right? So may we never be involved in any any kind of bad shepherding. I wanna give you something comforting though based on Psalm 23 and Ezekiel 34. He says, for the Lord God himself in verse 11 says this, behold, I myself, capital m.

In Christ, he came pursuing. He was gonna be the good shepherd. I myself will search for my sheep, and I will look after them. As a shepherd cares for his flock on a day when he's among the scattered sheep, so I will care for my sheep, and I will rescue them from all the places where they're scattered on a cloudy and gloomy day. I'll bring them out from the peoples, and I'll gather them up from all the corners of the earth, the countries, and bring them to their own.

And I'll feed them by the streams, on the mountains, and in all the inhabited places in the land. I wanna close with one other. Romans eight thirty eight and thirty nine was also in Lucy's program under a picture of her chopping wood. Romans eight thirty eight and thirty nine says that, for I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels, principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing shall ever be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Amen.

I'm gonna ask Carl if he'd come forward. We're gonna sing, all of us together, I hope, are gonna sing, The Lord is My Shepherd. This is an arrangement by Trevor Morgan, a fairly new, composition in the last twenty years, ten, fifteen years, something. Would you stand with us and just try to work your way through it with us? We're It's very comforting.

Psalms are songs. Psalms are songs, and it helps us to get them in my head if we will be singing them. Carl's gonna lead, and I'm just gonna play bass. I'll catch up with you, Carl.

Love and your staff, they comfort me. They comfort me. And surely will fear no evil. You are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

They comfort me. They comfort me. They comfort me.

Amen. And as a benediction today, we're gonna go to Thessalonians three. We need to take care of one another. May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you. Paul writes that to Thessalonians.

He follows it up in chapter five with this, encourage one another and build each other up. If you recognize something good in a brother and sister, tell them. If you recognize that they're wandering, get close to them, reach out to them, love them, bring them back in. In Jesus' name, amen.

Comfort me. They comfort