Let's pray. Father God, we just thank you for adopting us as your very own children. It's hard to imagine, but uh we thank you for that, for being our our true Father. We praise you for that. Holy Spirit, we just thank you for being our teacher and our counselor. We ask you to teach us this morning that you translate what I say to each of us, and so we can just get something directly from you, something that will help to change our hearts and our lives. And Jesus, we thank you for being our Savior, for making a way for us to reconnect. We praise you and thank you for that. It's in your name we pray. Amen. Well, there's a book written three years ago, and it just shot up the New York Times bestseller list. In fact, it uh stayed up there, number one, for a year and a half. I remember going into a borders, and they've got a big wall that has the 20 current um fiction bestsellers. And uh that was on one wall. Then there was another wall the same size next to it, and this book was on every space on the wall, and there were stacks of it on the floor, and at each checkout counter there was uh there were stacks of this book. And the book was was called The Shack. It was written by William Young. He wrote it really for his six children, and uh, but two pastors were really touched by it, and they decided to publish it themselves. They spent $300 in marketing, and uh the thing just it just it just blew up blew up. People that bought it would buy dozens of copies and start giving them out and buy cases. I've got a friend who lives in Minneapolis, and he literally bought a garage full of books. His whole garage was full with boxes of of this book, and he put up a website, and anyone that wanted to, he would send them a book for free. And so he and his kids and his wife did that every weekend. They would uh address and mail books until until they were all gone. If you haven't read the Shack, it it really speaks to different things, but it but to me it tackles the question of how can a loving God allow um bad things to happen to innocent and and good people. Now, William Young, who wrote it, was uniquely qualified to write because horrific things happened to him as a young man, and God definitely loves him. As impactful and popular as the shack was, it was also very polarizing and controversial. You know, I loved it by the way. Um, but the good thing is we don't have to agree on books, you know. You may not have it. It doesn't really matter. The uh um but I did. But what was most controversial was that that God the Father Papa, as uh as he was in the book, uh, was portrayed for most of the book as an African-American woman. And I'd flip people out, you know, and it's just uh scandalous and it's it's uh blasphemous. But there was something in that metaphor that helped people understand the goodness of a loving God. Well, 3,000 years ago, there was a song that was written that became wildly popular. At the time, it too was thought of as scandalous and blasphemous. It was written to praise the goodness of our loving God. And it started with five simple words. The Lord is my shepherd. See, that doesn't hit us the same way as it did the Jewish people of that day. Because we consider shepherding an honorable profession. Uh most of us love animals, you know, and and uh to care for them, but but a big part of it is that Jesus calls himself the good shepherd. But in that day, shepherds were the low of lows. I mean, they were considered irresponsible, they were considered thieves. It was something that someone did if they couldn't find anything else to do. When Joseph was in Egypt, he wanted his brothers to move close to him, but not in the city where uh where everybody was. And so he had a place picked out, it was Goshen, and it was nearby, but but it wasn't there. And this is what he told his brothers. Then he said, When Pharaoh calls for you and asks you about your occupation, you must tell him, We your servants have raised livestock all our lives, as our ancestors have always done. When you tell him this, he will let you live here in the region of Goshen. For the Egyptians despise shepherds. The only person that would ever think to refer to God as a shepherd was a shepherd. You know, like Jacob. Jacob was a shepherd. He married Rachel. Rachel was a shepherd when they met. And one time Jacob says, God, you've been a shepherd to me my whole life. But the Jewish people, they didn't allow shepherds a place in the society. I mean, when they voted, a shepherd couldn't vote. You know, a shepherd couldn't serve on a jury. That is why it was so remarkable when the angels came to announce Jesus' birth that they announced it to a group of shepherds. How he didn't come to the religious leaders or to the to the kings and the powerful. It was because he came to the lowest of lows. The shepherds. Yet this song still starts. Only a shepherd would write a song like that. Shepherd like David. He was a great songwriter. And he was uniquely qualified to write the 23rd Psalm. As a boy, David raised his family of sheep. And it's one of the most memorable descriptions of our relationship with Jesus that has ever been written. The Lord is my shepherd. I have all that I need. He guides me along right paths, bringing honor to his name. And even when I walk through the darkest valley, I will not be afraid. For you are close beside me. Your rod and your staff protect 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. Surely 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. We're going to spend the next few weeks seeing how Jesus really, how he really is our shepherd, how he will take care of us, how he can calm us, how he can give us rest, how we don't need to fear. How goodness and unfailing love is what you have to look forward to for the rest of your life. I tend to overlook some of the most familiar parts of the Bible. You know, things, usually it's things, you know, stories I learned as a kid, like David and Goliath, or uh Noah in the Ark, or Joan in the Well, or John 3.16, or the 23rd Psalm. You know, you just kind of like, I know this, you know, and so you just kind of move on and skip over it. But there's a reason that these are so popular. You know, because they contain so much truth and so much uh encouragement and so much comfort, but none really more than the 23rd Psalm. And so that's where we're going to start today. And we're going to look just at the first verse. The Lord is my shepherd, I have all that I need. I learned it in a less current translation. You might have too. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. The Lord is what we translate to in English. David actually says Yahweh. He says, Yahweh is my shepherd. Now the Hebrew word Yahweh means I am. It is God's actual name. Sometimes we don't think about that. Susan talks about it every now and then, but we don't think about it. That God actually has a name. He has titles and El Shaddai or Adonai or different things that are titles, descriptions. But he has a name, Yahweh, and it simply means I am. When Moses was at the burning bush and God is speaking to him, Moses says, Well, who do I say sent me? And he says, Tell the Israelites that I am who I am. He goes on, he says, Say this to the people of Israel, Yahweh, the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. That is my eternal name, my name to remember for all generations. I am. That word Yahweh, that name Yahweh, was considered so holy that the religious scholars of that day wouldn't say it. And they wouldn't even want to write it. It was such a holy word. But David writes it. Yahweh is my shepherd. In John 8, Jesus is talking to the same type of religious scholars and leaders. He says, Your father Abraham rejoiced as he looked forward to my coming. He saw it and he was glad. The people said, You aren't even 50 years old. How can you say you have seen Abraham? And Jesus answered, I tell you the truth, before Abraham was even born, I am Yahweh. That's the name David uses. So when we read, the Lord is my shepherd, it applies equally to God our Father and to Jesus, our Savior and Shepherd. The Lord is my shepherd, I have all that I need. Well, my mind just skips ahead to the I have all that I need. What does that mean? How is that going to happen? But if we do that, we really miss one of the most important words in this entire song. The word is my. Steep your life in God reality, God initiative, God provisions. Don't worry about missing out. You'll find all your everyday human concerns will be met. I have everything I need. It's easy to think about finances, you know, when we think about needs and having everything we need. But our needs are not just financial. In fact, our needs are not even mostly financial. And we need love, we need rest, we need our emotions and our minds healed. We need strength, we need energy, we need comfort, protection. We need to know that good things are going to happen to us, and especially our children. We need to know that we'll live forever with our loved ones forever in heaven. The Lord is my shepherd, I have everything I need. It's not really a statement, as it is an introduction. An introduction to the rest of the song. Because all of these needs are going to be specifically talked about in this song. The Lord is your shepherd. You will have everything you need. Sometimes we can get discouraged. I think we all can. We think that life is going to be just one bad event after another. You know, we do face tough times in life. But your life is not going to get worse and worse. Your life is going to get better and better. You have a shepherd who loves you. You will have everything you need. We talked a few weeks ago how Jesus' first miracle was turning water into wine. And it had such depth, and it had such meeting there at the wedding feast. His first public proclamation of his purpose on earth had similar depth and it had similar meaning. When he came to the village of Nazareth, his boyhood home, he went as usual to the synagogue on the Sabbath, and he stood up to read the scriptures. The scroll of Isaiah the prophet was handed to him. He enrolled the scroll and found the place where this was written. He rolled up the scroll, handed it back to the tenant, and sat down. All eyes in the synagogue looked at him intently. This is such a cool scene. You can imagine this whole synagogue. Jesus stands up, he reads, he sits down. But for some reason you could hear a pin drop. Everyone is staring at Jesus. The reason is he did not read Isaiah 61. Right. See, these guys knew Isaiah 61 by heart. But Jesus cut off the last verse. In Isaiah 61, it says that the time of the Lord's favor has come and the time of God's anger against their enemies. But for whatever reason, that's a whole nother message, a whole nother time. Jesus didn't read that. He stopped halfway through. He said that the time of the Lord's favor has come, and he stopped there and he sat down. And everybody's like, what's going on? And they're staring at him. Then he began to speak to them. The scripture you've just heard has been fulfilled this very day. You know what made them so mad? They tried to kill him on the spot. But it was true. It was true. The time of the Lord's favor. Has come. Your life is not going to be one bad event after another. In fact, surely, as David wrote, for sure, as we would say, God's goodness and unfailing love is going to pursue you all the days of your life. In Jeremiah 29, it says, I know what I'm doing. I have it all planned out. Plans to take care of you, not abandon you. Plans to give you the future you hope for. In 1 Peter 5, it says, give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you. Please don't worry. Many of us are facing really big challenges. Really big. I mean, today you might not be sure how you can get through. You know, David faced big challenges. Lots of times he was not sure how he was going to get through. I had them all listed, but I decided not to read them because it's actually, man, it's a bunch. I mean, he faced so many challenges. Some of them he brought on himself, like us. Some of them, they just happened to him, like us. But there were big challenges. And by the end, he got through them. And he said, The Lord is my shepherd. I have everything I need. It's true. It's true. We each have a shepherd that loves us. And we will have everything we need. You will have everything you need. You don't need to worry. You will have everything you need. Surely, for sure. For sure, God's goodness and unfailing love is going to pursue you all the days of your life. If the worship team wants to come up, we're going to finish in a minute by singing one more song. It's just kind of an introduction into the song that David wrote. The next few weeks we're going to look at what it means to have Jesus as our shepherd. What does it mean? I mean, practically, in an everyday sort of way. What does it mean to us to have Jesus as our shepherd? How can we have peace and rest? How does he restore our souls? I mean, how do we not fear evil in a world like this? Will we really live with him forever? What will that be like? And we'll answer each of those questions and a bunch more. We already read in John 10 how we get to have Jesus as our shepherd. We just walk through the gate into his pasture. That's it. We just walk through the gate into his pasture. In our own way, in our own words. Jesus, I'm going to trust you. Jesus, I need you. Jesus, please help me. It's what he's been waiting to hear. And then he kind of takes over from then. He fills us with his spirit. Our spirit comes alive. He strengthens us. He helps us to make good choices. He changes us from the inside out. We just have to walk into his pasture, and we can do that today. You know, that scandalous song that David wrote is just as true this morning. That the Lord is your shepherd. What an amazing, amazing thing. Let's stand and let's pray. So, Father God, we thank you. We thank you for being so good to us to adopt us as your very own children. We praise you for that. Holy Spirit, we thank you for your transforming power. And please transform us. And Jesus, Jesus, we thank you for being our shepherd. We do trust you. We do, but we're scared too at times. And so help us to trust you more. Teach us what it means to have a shepherd like you. Give us your joy and your peace. And we thank you for that. We thank you for your love. And we love you. It's in your name we pray. Amen.