← ArchiveSunday, April 26, 2015DateApril 26, 2015Speaker—TextPsalms 23Passages in this sermonPsalms 230:27Psalms 1277:06James 1:1811:29John 3:1612:03Matthew 612:36Isaiah 4913:07Ecclesiastes 313:55Ecclesiastes 415:43Ecclesiastes 1017:28Mark 2219:00Mark 8:2022:54Matthew 1123:25TranscriptClick any line to jump there.0:00Amen. Thank you. Thank you so much. Hope you brought your Bible today. If you did, turn with me. If you didn't bring your Bible, boot it up on your iPhone or your iPad, and let's look at Psalms 23 today. Psalms 23. Each Sunday, we're going to read the entire Psalm. So, we're going to read0:27all six verses, although we're only going to cover one today, but I want us to get the gist of this entire text. I feel it's important that we read the entire text. Psalms 23, verse 1. 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 the path of righteousness for his namesake.0:53Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me. Your rod, your staff, they comfort me. You prepared a 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 of1:17my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Let's pray. Father God, we thank you so much for our time together today. We thank you so much for your word. We thank you for this wonderful Gideon testimonial, and Father, the ministry of Gideons, and Father, putting the word of God in places that1:44most of us would not be able to put the word, and it does never returns void, and the thousands upon thousands upon thousands and tens of thousands of people that have come to faith in you because of picking up that Gideon Bible and reading it and finding the truth therein and finding salvation from that. And Father, I thank you for that. We thank you for this wonderful worship ministry that2:12we've had today, and we pray that it ministered to your heart today. And Father, as we read your word today, Father, I pray that we handle accurately today and walk away from this place more encouraged than we came. And Lord, if there's one here today that does not know you as their personal Savior, and Lord, I pray that something we say or do today will spark them, help them to understand a need for salvation. And Father, I pray if there's one here today, a family member, a family that's here2:40today that is looking for a fellowship to unite with and connect with and to be a part of, Father, I pray that this is the place for them. And we'll find them a place to serve you. And we give you all the praise and all the glory and all the honor. In Jesus' name we pray. And the church said, amen. A recent study surveyed of most Americans, and the survey says they would rather work than plan. They would actually3:07rather do the job rather than plan to do the job. We all are considered, for the most part, workaholics, aren't we? And this message today, when I was writing this message and I let my wife was reading over the manuscript and she was just laughing through the entire manuscript, she said, boy, I don't see how in the world you're going to preach this message without looking in a mirror because I am3:36considered a workaholic. I love to work. The study goes on to say this, that most surveys stated that we enjoy employment over enjoyment. And we go, when we look at this passage today, this one particular verse today, this is a prescription for those of us that are under the pressure, for those of us that are under the gun, for those of us that are considered workaholics. Now, I want to give you a test4:04here today. I know students are about to be out of school, so I want to give you one final test to help you get through this, okay? One final test for all of us in this room today. The first question is this. I want you to answer this in your heart. Are you always in a hurry? Now, don't raise your hand and say, I am, brother Dan. I don't know. Is your to-do list always an unrealistic, unrealistically long? So to speak, is your to-do list4:27more than you could ever accomplish? Does your, do you use your days off to catch on unfinished work? Do you take that day off that you have and say, well, I've got to get some extra work in, right? Has more than one person ever come up to tell you that you should slow down a bit? Don't tell me that I'm the only one answering these4:52questions. Please tell me. Somebody nod out there at least, right? Do you feel guilty when you relax? Do you feel guilty when you just chill out, right? Do you have to get sick to actually take a day off? If so, you would be considered, like me, a workaholic. I love what Jeff Foxworthy came up with, you know, the bit that he5:18does. You might be a redneck if. How many of y'all could relate to that? I mean, don't let me be the only Trustvillian that can relate to that. Amen? Right? You might be a redneck. Well, I want to take a paraphrase that, Brad. You might be a workaholic when all your Christmas cards come from business associates. You might be a workaholic, right? You might be a workaholic when you head out for the5:44quote-unquote back-to-school night and you don't know which one your kids attend. You might be a workaholic, right? You might be a workaholic if you never turn off your cell phone. Now, how many of y'all do that? Come on. Tell me I'm not the only one. I never turn mine off. How many of y'all do? Raise your hand. Come on. Who turns your cell phone off at night? Raise your hand. We need to make sure that we find a way to get in touch with you, right? You might be a workaholic if you never turn your cell6:14phone off. Number four, you might be a workaholic if your family refers to you as occupant, right? They're not family members. They say, oh, he's just an occupant here, right? You might be a workaholic if you unwind after work while watching the late, late, late, late show on television, right? You might be a workaholic if you like infomercials at three o'clock in the morning, right? Also, you might be a workaholic if you take your business-related materials to the bathroom with you. Now, let that seek in and give6:44you a visual there, right? You see, folks, honestly, every one of us in this room, we need the Lord Jesus to teach us something about slowing down just a bit. Honestly, that's not the kind of life that God wants us to live, is it? Psalms 127 verse 2 said, it is senseless for you to work so hard from early morning until late at night. God wants his loved ones to get their proper rest. Sometimes the most7:13spiritual thing that you and I can do is go home and go to bed. Some of those spiritual things that we can do is to say, I am not going to do that, right? Many of us, many people, if we give our lives, we think if we give our lives fully to the Lord Jesus Christ, completely sell out to him and let him have complete control of our lives, that we're afraid he's going to give us more than we can do. He's going7:41to add more to us. Psalms 23 says, he makes me lie down in green pasture. He leads me besides quiet or still waters. If you are a sheep, you understand this fully because this is a perfect picture of paradise. When you really understand what the sheep is about and who they really are, they need to be guided. He is referring to refresh and refreshment and rest. God is interested more in our rest and8:11our recreation. He wants you to live a whole balanced and complete life. He wants you to not be working all the time. Now, time out for a second. Those of you that are lazy, this is not your time for you to jump up and down and say, yeah, I told you so. Some of us might need to get a job. Some of us might need8:35to do a little more in your job. Some of us need to ramp up in our careers a bit, but he also wants us to be balanced in that. He wants us not working all the time. If you really give your life to Jesus Christ, he's more than likely not going to add more to your list. He's going to take away some things that you don't need. That's what Jesus is all about. A little side note, church workers, I believe if9:05every one of this is to the 20 of you, 20% of you that are doing 80% of the work, by the way, and if you think that's not the statistic, it is a statistic regardless of denomination, regardless of tribe that you aspire to. 20% of church work, 80% of church work is done by 20% of its members. So for you, 80%, if you would all pitch in, we wouldn't work ourselves to death,9:35the 20% wouldn't, and wouldn't have burnout. So I'm challenging us a little bit, but also in encouraging us. Now look at the message truth today. If we're burning the candle at both ends, then we're not near as bright as we think we are. I had a friend of mine told me one day, he said, I know Dan Moran is going to get to heaven. I'm just worried he's going to shoot right past it.10:01Right? Some of us are so, we're burning the candle. I sometimes find myself burning the candle at both ends and trying to figure out a way to light it in the center. Right? So we're not near as bright as we think we are if we're burning the candle at both ends. God is interested in our rest time as well as our recreation time. His desire for us is to live a life that is whole and balanced and complete. CNN's poll recently said 59% of all Americans would like to slow down and relax more. 59%.10:31Harris poll recently said that we have eight and a half hours of less leisure time than we had a decade ago. We are working more and enjoying less in essence. That's what that means. So I want to give you a prescription today. Dr. Dan is going to write out a prescription for you today. And I want you to, I've given it to you in, in your worship folder and I want you to follow along. I'm going to give you11:01several things in closing here this morning. Number one, we need to realize my worth. I need to realize my worth. A prescription for a pressured people. We need to realize my worth. The reason that most of us are overworked is because we confuse our work with our worth. Listen to what the word of God says, James chapter one, verse 18. If I'm here much longer, I'm going to preach through the book of James. It's11:29powerful. It's full of truth. God decided to give us life through the word of truth so that we might be the most important of all things he made. There is nothing, nothing, nothing that we can do to make God love us more. There's not one thing that we can do to make us love him, love for him to love us more. Therefore, there's nothing we can do to make God love us any less either. We can't go, we can't be11:55bad enough that he loves us less. Why? Because John 3 16 says, for God so loved the world that he gave his very best that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting light. Church, let me tell you something. There's nothing we can do for God to love us more than he already does. There's nothing we can do for him to love us less. His love is not12:21based on our performance. Hallelujah. Amen. It's not based on our performance. Unconditional love. It is based on who he is, not what we can do for him. It's based on who he is. Matthew 6 verse 26 says, your heavenly father feeds the sparrows and you are far, far more valuable to him than they are. Now I know he loves the sparrows, but he created us in his image, not the sparrows. So he loves us more12:51than he does the sparrows. So I want you to understand something. We need to realize our worth in Christ Jesus. I love what this Isaiah 49 verse 16 says. God says, I have engraved you on the palms of my hand. Folks, when we step over into glory, he is going to show us those nail pierced hands. He has engraved us13:15by going to the cross for our sins. He is going to show us how much he loves us. We will never, ever, ever, ever be able to forget the visual that we will see when we see those nail pierced hands, when he says, well done thou good and faithful servant. So we need to realize our worth. That's13:39prescription number one. Prescription number two is this. We must enjoy what I already have. We all must enjoy what we already have. I love what Ecclesiastes 3 verse 13 says, all of us should enjoy what we have worked for. It is God's gift. We have an incredible disease in North14:01America. The incredible disease in North America is this, the desire to acquire. Let that sink in just a little bit. We have such a desire to buy things we don't need with money that we don't have to impress14:23people we don't even like. We have this incredible disease that we want more. We want to acquire more. Now folks, time out. I live in a beautiful home that Lord provided for us. I drive fairly nice cars. I got nice clothes. I eat pretty good food. I enjoy the nicer things of life. I've got a flat screen. I've14:48got computers. I've got it pretty good. But folks, I've come to the understanding that it's not mine. It's all his. He's just loaning it to me. And folks, let me tell you something. We've got more than most people around the planet have. We are the wealthiest people. Even the lowest of income folk in this country are the most wealthy around the world. One country, one country lives on less than a dollar a day.15:17Their average income. The country that I invest a lot of time, effort, and energy in, the average median income is $400 a month. $400 a month. Folks, we got it pretty good. So let's begin to enjoy what we're saying. What we already have. Ecclesiastes 4 verse 6, it is better to have only a little with the peace15:43of mind than to be busy all the time. In the American culture, it is considered a tragedy if you die penniless. I started thinking about that. What better way to go? I have an attorney that's on our board. He's actually our chairman of our ministry. He's a great guy, loves the Lord with all his heart. He's a great man. He's traveled with me around the world. He's just a phenomenal guy. And he read me recently16:11of one of his clients. He didn't give me his name, didn't break client privilege or anything like that. But he said, I want you to, I want you to hear, I've already opened the wheel and we've already executed the wheel. And this guy, we executed his wheel and all his family was there. And he said, I want you to read, I want you to hear his wheel. So I'm going to read it to you. It's not going to take very long. I won't give you his name because he didn't give me his name. I, comma, let's say John16:40Doe of sound mind and body leave you nothing because I have spent it all. I sent that email to Seth. I want you to go ahead and have your blessing here, my brother, because I hope you do well in Atlanta, Georgia, because I'm spending it all. Amen. You see, folks, we need to enjoy17:10what we already have. Number three, we need to limit my labor. Now, hang on. Some of you say, whoo, hallelujah. I want to work for Dan Moran. Limit the labor. Ecclesiastes 10 verse 15 says, only someone to, now this is not my word, this is God's word. So take it up with him. If you don't like this word, only someone too stupid to find his way home would wear himself out with work.17:40Limit your labor. There are two groups of people in this room today that need to learn the limit your labor principle. Those who are self-employed and those single parents. Those that are self-employed, they want to work all the time. I am considered self-employed. I run a non-profit organization18:07and I am the, I am kind of the, the, the vision behind it all. And whatever happens in this ministry of ours, it kind of comes through me. And so I'm constantly, my mind is always racing. I mean, it's going all the time. How can I be more? So I have to learn triggers to, and things to, to, to take me to rest or limit my, my labor. I need to slow down some. But you see, there's a, a whole different group out there that you never slow down either because you are the sole breadwinner.18:37And that's the single parent, especially the single mom here. The word Sabbath, actually, when you look at the word Sabbath, it actually means a day of rest. I, we need the Sabbath was at what Mark 22 verse 27 says, the Sabbath was made to, made to, watch this, benefit God. No,19:00it says it was made to benefit man. The Sabbath was made to benefit man. I want to give you three R's. Number one, we need to rest our bodies. Number two, we need to recharge our emotions. Number three, we need to refocus our spirit. So when we are limiting our rest, we need to rest our body.19:25Burnout does no one any good at all. Don't feel guilty for resting. When I told Deb I was going to say that this morning, she started laughing out loud. I said, honey, you know that I'm working hard. She said, you're so much better than you used to be. I said, well, listen, baby, I have no problem giving you up the lawn care service. You can have it. I will actually crank the more for you19:52and go back and watch television if you want me to. Folks, let me tell you something. We need to rest our bodies. Number two, we need to recharge our emotions. What things recharge you? Is it some form of recreation? Fellowship with friends? Going to dinner, going to movies? Find that thing that20:15recharges your battery. Find that thing that pushes your emotion. Reading a book, whatever it is. We need to find a time of rest. We need to find that spot to recharge our batteries. And number three, we need to refocus our spirit. Our spirit needs to be refocused. I love this line.20:38I said it when I taught the worship series. Worship is setting our mind's attention and our heart's affection on God. So when we're worshiping him in spirit and truth, we have only one focus, not our performance, but pleasing God who gets all the praise and the glory. So we need to refocus our spirits. If you are too busy for God, church, you are absolutely too busy. God's antidote for21:05busyness is limit your labor. Number four, we need to adjust my values. I've learned why people work so hard to succeed, Ecclesiastes says. It's because they envy the things their neighbors have. Folks, let me tell you something. If you're working to make the Joneses happy or try to21:30beat the Joneses to do something or have more and do more and spend more, then you are working for the wrong reasons. You are burning yourself out. Adjust your values. In order to reduce the busyness in our lives, we must change our thinking about what is important. Getting more is never the answer. It's okay to say no. Balance is the key to live it. Now, those of you that have been saying no to church work your entire21:58church life, it's okay for you to say yes. Amen? We're going to be ramping up through the summer looking at new small group ministries, new Sunday school curriculum, new Sunday school programming, additional Sunday school classes to recharge that teaching mechanism, more ministry opportunities. And I know some of you right now, you're finding,22:28where is the crack in that place that I can go hide? I'm challenging you to confess your sin and start saying yes because some of you are gifted in the area of those ministries and we need you to step up so some of us 20 percenters can sit back and recharge the battery a little bit. Amen? So we need to adjust our thinking. Balance is the key to healthy living. In other words, Mark chapter 8 verse 20, 36,22:54what good it is for man to gain the whole world yet forfeit his soul? So just getting more is selfish. We need to be willing to adjust our values. And finally, I need to exchange my pressure for God's23:15presence, for God's peace. I need to exchange my pressures for God's peace. Matthew 11 verse 28 and 29 says, Jesus says, come to me all you who are tired and are hit with heavy loads and I will give you rest. The load I give you to carry is light. So if you think God is going to put another huge23:40backpack on you, the load, he says, his word is perfect. It is without error. It is an infallible inerrant word of God. He says, come to me and I will give you rest. And I, the load I will give you is light because he's going to take the things that are unnecessary in your life away. The best way to24:04recharge our lives is to be refocusing our spirit on the things that matter to God. So if you're burning the candle at both ends and trying to light it in the center, you're not near as bright as you might think you are. God has given us a prescription today for us to realize our worth,24:28enjoy what we already have, limit the labor that's in our lives, adjust our values and exchange the pressure for God's peace. I would never try to rewrite the word. That would be heresy. But I read a paraphrase of Psalms 23 and I thought it was interesting. It is not God's word, but it is a24:58Peterson's paraphrase of understanding it a little bit more with some vernacular that helps us. It's not taking away from the meaning, but I want to just read you Psalms 23 in a paraphrase form. The Lord is pacesetter. I shall not rush. He makes me stop and rest in intervals. He provides me with images of25:22stillness to restore my serenity. He leads me in the way of efficiency to calmness of mind and the guidance of his peace. Even though I have a great many things to accomplish this day, I will not fret for for his presence is here. His timeless, his timeless, his all importance and will keep me in balance. He prepares refreshment and renewal in the midst of my activity, anointing my head with the oils of25:52tranquility. My cup of joyous energy overflows. Surely harmony and effectiveness shall be the fruits of my hours for I shall walk in the pace of my Lord and dwell in his heaven forever. He makes me lie down in green26:07pastures. He leads me besides still waters. God's antidote for busyness is that we need to realize our worth in him. Enjoy what he has given us. Limit our labor to the time that we are26:37designated in labor. Adjust our values and exchange the pressures that I have created in my life for his perfect peace. And we will enjoy his greatness and goodness all the days of our lives. Let's pray.26:58with heads bowed and eyes.More sermons on Psalms →
