← ArchiveSunday, April 19, 2015DateApril 19, 2015Speaker—TextPsalms 23Passages in this sermonPsalms 230:33Psalms 74:51Psalms 114:59Isaiah 40:1120:53Philippians 4:1921:05John 1023:32Romans 5:826:47Matthew 6:3427:39Matthew 6:1127:46Matthew 6:3327:55TranscriptClick any line to jump there.0:00Thank you, Greg. Thank you, Dodd. Thank you, musicians. Thank you so much. I have longed for the day to be able to unpack our text this week. I've been studying this passage for several weeks and ready for getting prepared for our series in Psalms. There's six verses in0:26Psalms 23, and we have seven sermons. So I may go back to six, but right now it just keeps unfolding another topic out of that particular text. This text is often read and preached at funeral settings. I've preached it a few funeral settings, but honestly, Psalms 23, when you really unpack it and really studied, it's not a death text. It's a life text. And so I want us to look at Psalms 23 today.0:56God is planning a party. He's planning a party in heaven. He's planning a party above all parties. It's not a dinner party. It's not a birthday party. It's not even at a graduation party. We'll be celebrating some of those pretty soon. It's not any of those, but it's a feast. It's not giggles and chit chat in the, in the room, but a wide eyed wonder in the throne room of God's heaven. And yes, the guest1:25list, the guest list to this party that's being invited to is extensive. Jonah. Yes, Jonah will be there. Moses, Abraham, David, Paul, Peter, the 11 will be there. Some of us in this room will be there. Mary, Martha will be there. A host of others too long to list will be in attendance in this party. There's no egos,1:53no power plays, no guilt, no sin. Sorrow will be checked at the gate. Disease and death will be, and depression will be a distant as the black plague is. It's gone. Those will not be there. What we will see there daily in this party, we will never be the same. What we will see, what we see vaguely2:21through the word today, through the word each day, we will see clearly every day. What we will see, we will see God himself. Not by faith, not through the scriptures, not through the eyes of Moses, not through the eyes of Abraham or even David, not via the scriptures or sunsets or summer rains or2:46anything like that. We will clearly see God when we receive that step into glory. Not through works, not even through his words. We will clearly see him for he is the host, not just the host of the party. He's the party. He's not just the host who is inviting us to join him there. He is the party. His goodness3:12is the banquet. His voice is the music. His radiance is the light. His love is the endless topic of discussion at his party. But there's one hitch to it. One hitch to this particular party. The price of admission is somewhat steep to receive an invitation to this party. In order to come to the party, you need3:37to be righteous. Not unrighteous, not good, not a good person, not a decent person, not a good taxpayer. I know we did that this last week. Not a good taxpayer, not even a church member. You need to be righteous because God's citizens in his heaven and to this party are righteous people.4:02On occasion, all of us can stand up and say we do what's right. On occasion, we can say that. A lot of us in this room do more right than wrong, obviously. I pray I do and sometimes I don't. But predominantly, we do what's right. But folks, let me tell you something. None of us do what's right all the4:29time. That's why the Apostle Paul says, there is none righteous. No, not one. Righteousness is who God is. God is righteous. Our God and our Savior, Jesus Christ, does what is right. That's what Peter wrote in his epistle. God is a righteous judge. Psalms 7, verse 11. The Lord is righteous. He loves justice. Psalms 11, verse 7. God is never wrong. Not once has he ever been wrong. Did you know that?4:59Not one time has he ever made a mistake. He's never wrong, nor will he ever be wrong. Why? Because he's righteous. He's never rendered a wrong decision. He has never had a wrong attitude. He's never acted out wrong on any account. He is never late. He's never too early. He's always on time for everything. Never too early. Never too late. Never too loud. Never too soft. He's never too fast. He's never too slow. He's always5:28been and will always be right. Why? Because he's righteous. God is a righteous God. And for us to be there, we must be righteous people to get to heaven. That means we have to have a transformation in our lives. And you say, wow, where is he going with this whole party thing? You know, for many years, most of the ministry of 32 years of my preaching ministry, I've traveled. Traveled a lot. Just came back from a trip to San5:57Pedro Sula, Honduras. Many of you knew that. It's part of our work, part of our agreement. I had several weeks already on the schedule. I have to fulfill. I had teams down there. We had a dual team. We had medical staff going every day that I went with. And then we had a construction crew going another way. And that construction crew poured the second floor of Mount Zion Baptist Mission. And they're worshiping out of the elements today. Praise God. It's done. They're now going to the second level.6:25And God's doing a neat work down there in Honduras. But I've traveled most of my career. Even prior to being in ministry, I traveled with a food distribution company. So I've learned the art of traveling. And I've learned the art of packing light. I've learned the art of packing what I need. When I travel, like I came in last night about 9.30 from the airport, I drug my bag in, went up the stairs, and right by the6:53laundering, zipped it, and went, shoo, threw it all into dirty clothes because everything in there was dirty. I've learned how to space it out. Now, if I have some kind of situation happen, it could get ugly there for a little bit. But I've learned how to pack light. When I come home, I hardly have much to put up at all. Now, on the other hand, my wife, Debbie, as godly and as phenomenal a Christian as she is,7:17she, to this day of almost 35 years of marriage, has not learned how to pack light. I mean, I don't get it. I don't understand. To have a trip, if it's an overnight, it's two or three bags. If we go off for a week, we have to rent a U-Haul trailer just to haul her luggage.7:45I thank God that Delta has decided that you have to be at a medallion level to have two check bags, or you have to pay for that additional bag. My wife has never, now, if I wanted to know I'm talking about her this way, I'll tell her. Don't, y'all don't have to call her. But she's never learned how to pack right. She's always, she's, I mean, to go across town, she takes a blanket in the car.8:11July, I've got to have a fleece. In July, it might be cold in the restaurant where we go. Are you kidding me? I'm sweating watching her put on this jacket when she goes into a room. She can't do it. I don't know what happened. Maybe her dad or mom dropped her on her head when she was small, and she didn't learn the art of packing light. She's tried over the years to instill that packing more than you need8:37to my son, but I got to him quickly. It cost me money because I had to pay him off to not do that, but he's learned how to pack like I do. He's starting to travel with his job a lot, and he says, Dad, it's easier just to roll one on. You got it there. We're done. It's over with. But you see, some of us walk into this room week in and week out, and we're carrying baggage that you can't see.9:00You say, wait a minute, Dan, you're just talking about luggage here. Have you ever noticed this? I've come to some understandings that men, even with GPS, we would rather have a root canal than ask for directions. Have you ever noticed that, ladies? Even I got GPS on my phone, and I'll plug that in if I'm going somewhere that I don't know how to get there, and I'll say, that's not the way to go. And my wife says, what? They just told you how to go. But no, I'd rather have a root canal almost9:28than ask for directions, right, ladies? Amen, right? And another thing, as I've traveled, I've never learned the art of not ordering food that I can't say its name. I'll just order it, you know, and then I'll suffer through the night because of it, right? We make some huge mistakes, and you say, well, wait a minute, Dan, you're just talking about the party, and we are getting packed up today, getting ready today. As we unpack Psalms 23, it gives us direction for our journey towards the party9:56of all parties. But God has intended on us not to carry some particular luggage. Odds on, odds are that some of you in this room are the same way as I am. You keep adding into your backpack things that God never intended for us to travel with. Psalms 23, verse 1, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.10:23He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in the path of righteousness for his name's sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for you are with me. Your rod, your staff, they comfort me. You did prepare10:50the table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anointed 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 Lord11:11forever. One of the bags that we pick up in life is the word worry. Guilt will cause us some issues. It consumes us sometimes. Disappointments will discourage you. Anxiety will plague you. Self-reliance will will mislead you. The weight of weariness11:41will pull you down. But worry, ladies and gentlemen, will kill you. It is one of those things that will consume you and eventually could literally kill you. Psalms 23, depending on what your text you're reading from, what rendering you're reading from, it's about 105 words. This 105 word text, seven12:07verses, six verses of Psalms 23, depending on your translations, about 105 words. And every one of them point back to the first two, the Lord. You see, when we understand who he is, when we understand what he has in store for us, when we understand that he can lift the load of worry off of us, we12:33understand he's our guiding light. So how can a party be the topic when we have all this stress and all this worry? When worry is continuing to consume us? Folks, let me tell you something. God's antidote for worry is to let the Lord Jesus Christ be Lord of your life. The message truth says you and I were not born to worry. The old English word for worry is the word to strangle or to choke. Worry is not a13:00natural thing. God does not want us to worry. You have to learn to worry. The good news is if you've learned how to worry, you can unlearn how to worry. So you have to learn how to worry. He doesn't put that in our DNA right out of the gate. He doesn't say, I want to teach you how to worry. He doesn't want you to be struggled and choked and strangled with this thing called worry. You hear people say, well, he's just wringing13:29his hands in worry. He's so stressed out. Folks, let me tell you something. God has got an antidote for us and Psalms 23 will give us the antidote for several issues, several pieces of luggage that we're dragging through the Atlanta International Airport. All the luggage that we're carrying in this journey on our way to heaven. Folks, let me tell you something. He's got an antidote. He's got a prescription for every one of them. The problem with worry is13:59number one, it's unhelpful. It never solves anything. It never accomplishes anything. Worry can't change the past, nor can it control the future. It only makes us miserable. Chances are when you're around somebody that's miserable, you know why they're miserable? Because they're worried about something. And they're14:25worrying about something. They don't want to be just miserable by themselves. And they only feel good about themselves when they make you feel as miserable as they are. It's unhelpful. Worry is unhelpful. The problem with it is unhelpful. It can't, you can't control the future. Only God controls the future. So it's unhelpful. Secondly, it's unreasonable. It exaggerates your problem. It makes mountains out of molehills, so to speak. It makes the promise seem14:51bigger and bigger. It makes the problem seem bigger and bigger. To worry about something you and I can't change is useless. If we can't change it, why worry about it? There's a lot of things in this world I can have some say-so and it help. There's a lot of things that I can make happen, but there's a lot of things I can't15:15make happen. One thing is I can't control when we fly in airplanes. Our team was supposed to have left on Saturday morning at 5 o'clock or at 3 30 in the morning. Our flight was at 6 45, about 3 45. I was supposed to pick up one of the team members to head to the airport and I got this message on my phone that Delta has decided for some reason they couldn't get the pilots to Birmingham to fly the equipment that15:42was sitting at the gate. How did they just walk off and leave that thing sitting there? I mean, that's a pretty expensive little deal there. And so we didn't have a pilot. They wanted to bump us to the 10-10 flight out of it, out of Birmingham. Well, the problem with that is, is the flight to San Pedro Sula is a 9 45 a.m. flight. And I'm having a little hard time. I said, I started thinking, well, maybe I could just fly us16:09over there to Atlanta. Pitch the keys to me, brother. Well, they won't let me do that. I had no control over that. And one of my team members says, well, they don't think we just jet over to Atlanta and catch the plane. I said, no, no, no, no, no, no. First of all, we don't have those seats anymore. They have bumped us to Sunday morning at 5 30. I had no control over it. And the beauty part is when I WhatsApp my guys in Central16:33American said, the plane has messed up. We can't get there today. They said, no problem, pastor. We'll handle it. See you tomorrow. Now my Honduran friends got it. But my North American friends did not get it because they thought I can make something happen. I'm pretty good, but I ain't that16:56good. Worry causes us to exaggerate the problem sometimes. Thirdly, it's unhealthy. It's unreasonable and it's unhealthy. The body was not made to worry. It was not made. It's, it's not, it's unnatural for us to worry. When we worry, we get ulcers. We get backaches, headaches, insomnia happens. People17:23stay up at night. Why do they stay up at night? It's because they like the late night television shows and they like the, uh, the, uh, the infomercial programming and that kind of stuff. No, it's because they can't sleep. They got insomnia. They're worrying about something. Stress is running through their minds. Animals and plants don't worry. Did you know that? We are the only thing that God created that worries. And why did he do that? Because he wants us to realize the first two17:50words of Psalms 23, the Lord, and it follows it with is my shepherd. Folks, let me tell you something. Worry, the problem with it is unhelpful. The problem with it is unreasonable. The problem is unhealthy. So what is the prescription? What is the antidote? I want to give you four or five things quickly. Number one, believe God will take care of me.18:20Now, I watched you as you walked into this room. As you walked into this room, I kind of turned around. Brad was, and that we were talking about, I kind of turned around and I watched you as you came running into this room and you sat down in those beautiful pews. How many of y'all thought about those pews holding you up? You didn't, did you? You just plop right down there, just wearing out the cushion, just plop down there on the cushion. Why? Because you had faith in that, right? You had faith that the pew was going to hold you up. No matter how many people are sitting18:50on that pew with you, you teenagers, y'all just squeezed in there and just, you know, wearing out my pews, you know, you just flop down in there. But you didn't think anything about it. Why? Because you had faith that the pew would hold you up. That's what believing God will. God will take care of me. The first pill, the first pill of the prescription bottle is believe that God will take care of the worry. Believe that he will. Psalms 23, verse 1,19:14the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. If I took it into a more 21st century rendering, it says in the good news verse, it says the Lord is my shepherd. I have everything I need. Folks, let me tell you something. Most of us in this room are millionaires compared to the majority of the people around the world. The lowest income person in the United States of America makes19:43more money than most people around the world. We have everything we need. Now, I started thinking about this shepherd thing. I started thinking about what does a shepherd actually do? What does he do? We see the pictures and the portraits of that. But what does an actual shepherd do? Number one, he provides. The shepherd takes care of the sheep. He will provide. Number two, he protects them.20:07That's why it goes on down in the bottom of this passage. He says, my, thy rod, thy staff, they comfort me. They also protect me. Folks, the shepherd provides. The shepherd protects. The shepherd guides us. That's why when we read that beautiful song, Savior, lead me like a shepherd. Lead me, Lord Jesus. I'm telling you folks, the Lord is my shepherd. I have everything I need.20:34Because if we're following the shepherd, he will provide. He will protect. He will guide. And he also, every now and then, comes along and corrects us. Now, I can tell you, I'm not crazy about that correction, but we need it. We need a course correction. I love what Isaiah chapter 40 verse 11 says. God will take care of his people like a shepherd. God will take care of us like a shepherd. Even more20:59specific, Philippians 4 19 in the New International Version says, my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus. Not our greed, but our need. So believe God will take care of us. Number two, accept Jesus as my Savior. I find it interesting that a lot of people around the21:24planet, and especially North America, we're finding most people in North America, whether they're a part of a fellowship, whether they are churched or not, whether they're saved or not, they've at least heard the name of Jesus. But there is a vast majority of people around the world, there's a billion or so people around the world that have never heard the name of Jesus. So how can they accept somebody that they've21:52never heard about? But we in North America, in the buckle of the Bible Belt, especially in the buckle of the Bible Belt, deep South Alabama, we've heard the name of Jesus. But the question is, have you accepted him not just as your Savior, but as your Lord? We just tie all that together. Oh, we're going to make it my father's Savior. I'm begging you today to consider accepting him as your Lord, not just your Savior.22:20Psalms 23 verse 1, the Lord is my shepherd, the Lord. That's the how-to. What does it mean to be Lord? It means to be, for him to be in control of your life. He's guiding every step. He's giving you direction whether you need to buy that new car or not. He's deciding whether you should move to another house or not. He's guiding you as you raise your22:50children or not. He is in control. Folks, I know this is going to be blunt, but I just need to say it. Either he is or he's not. There's not, well, he is some of the time. No, you can run away from him. He's still Lord. But he's either controlling your life or he's not.23:14And if he's not, if it's chaos in your life, he's probably not controlling it. So accept Jesus Christ as Lord. To accept Jesus Christ as Lord means three things. Number one, John 10 verses 14 and 27 tell us this. Jesus said, I am a good, I'm the good shepherd. My sheep know my name, know me. They listen to me. They listen to my voice and they follow me. So the sheep know who he is.23:41They listen to him and they follow him. Who is in control of your life? That's the question. Playing God with your own direction is a dangerous place to be. I wrote this down in my quiet time this morning. Unconditional surrender will lead to an undeniable transformation. When we totally surrender24:10to the Lordship of Christ, there will be a total transformation in our lives. So believe that God will take care of me. Accept him as my Lord. Number three, number three, begin to pray about everything. One of my favorite preachers of the 20th century is a guy you may or may not have heard of. His name is24:39Dr. Ron Dunn. Dr. Dunn was the pastor of MacArthur Boulevard Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas for many, many years and one of the great statesmen in our convention. Dr. Dunn wrote one of the great books on prayer, but he wrote the titles what I loved. I love book titles. I like Lewis Gazzard's book, Elvis is dead and I'm not feeling too good either. That's a great book title. Is that not a great title?25:05You know, Elvis is dead. Yeah, of course. And I'm feeling too good myself, you know, but Dr. Dunn wrote a great title for a book on prayer. It says this. I don't know if it's still in print. It's called don't just stand there. Pray something. Amen. We talk more about prayer and do less of it. We even had designated moments throughout the week to come and pray and we have less people25:34showing up for that than we do at a gospel concert singing. I got a Facebook post this week of a friend of mine who's in Milwaukee, Milwaukee, to hear the Gaither vocal band. I like the Gaither. I like West Hampton. He's a member, was a member of our church. He's a good kid and all. They're good singers. I can get about five minutes of the Gaither. And I've had my feel. I like them, Greg. They're okay. But you know what,26:00folks? Let me tell you something. We are so gathered. She said on that, oh, we had a packed house. And I wonder, I wonder if that house would be packed on Wednesday night at 6:30 prayer meeting. Right? Begin to pray about everything. Don't worry about anything. Instead, pray about everything. That's what Paul wrote to the church at Philippi. Pray about everything. Tell God your needs. And I know what some of you say. Do I have to show up at an event to pray? No. But most of us are not praying anyway.26:28And we wonder why we're stressed out about everything. Cast all your anxiety. Or the translation would be worry. Cast all of your anxiety on him. Because why? He cares for you. My favorite verse, Romans 5:8. God demonstrated his love towards us. While we were sinners, Christ died for us. If he went to the cross for us, we should follow him. Amen?26:55Cast your cares. Begin to pray about everything. Prayer is an incredible stress reliever. We talk about download, upload, sideways load. We need to upload our prayer list. We need to upload our prayer list to the man who can deal with our stress situation. So believe God will take care of me. Accept Jesus Christ as Lord. Pray about27:23everything and finally I'm done. Consider one day at a time. Consider one day at a time. Matthew 6:34. Don't be anxious about tomorrow. God will take care of your tomorrow too. Live one day at a time. Matthew 6:11 says give us this day. Give us today our daily bread.27:46Matthew 6:33. But seek you first the kingdom and his righteousness and all these things shall be added to you. Folks gather in here close. I want you to get this. This entire psalm is all about one thing. Him being Lord of your life. As we unpack this over the next several weeks, the Lord is my shepherd or he's not.28:17He didn't ask you to worry about tomorrow. And I said, wait a minute. I know you planners. I have a good friend that works for Merrill Lynch and he's a financial planner and he's always forecasting way out there like he's got something. He's got some kind of crystal ball. He can understand it. He's always forecasted out there. I said, man, let's just make sure we got enough for today because I don't know about tomorrow.28:43I'm not sure he's going to give me tomorrow, but he gave me today and he may not even give me the rest of the day. So we need to focus on today. Ask God for provisions to assure us in direction of today. Consider one day at a time. I saw that little sweet Barrett. Man, he's a good-looking kid, isn't he? At some point that little dude, here's what's going to happen. They're toting him around.29:11That's trustful language for carrying him. They're carrying him. He has a lot of needs right now. He can't get to the food table. I mean, so y'all got to carry him, right? And then that beautiful day, he takes that first step. It's over. He'll be into everything. He'll be running. And you know how it29:35happens? It's that first step. That's all God's given us today. If he's our shepherd, he's asking us to believe him. Believe him. Believe that he'll take care of every need. Accept him as Lord. Begin to pray about everything and consider one step, one day at a time. The Lord is my shepherd. Let's pray.30:04God bless you.30:21God bless you.More sermons on Psalms →
