- Hello everybody. - [Audience] Hello. - Have I told you lately that I love you? I wanna say hi to all 18 of our campuses and those of you who
are joining us online. We're glad you're here. If you like to sing, I
invite you to check out the insert inside your program, we're beginning on Tuesday
a celebration mass choir. If you like to sing,
show up Tuesday 7 p.m. Lake Forest campus, no
matter what campus you're at in the refinery, and you can be a part of a great worship experience. You read that there. Now everybody take out your message notes. Today we're gonna continue in our study the most famous chapter
in the Bible, Psalm 23. It is the most compact explanation
of the goodness of God, and we're in a series called Living in the Goodness of God. It only has six verses,
but there are 10 benefits or 10 ways that God's
goodness wants to show up in your life. We've looked at about half of these, and now we're starting the
second half of this series and I want us to begin by actually reading Psalm 23 aloud together. So let's read it together. Very familiar passage. "The Lord is my shepherd,
I have everything I need. "He makes me lie down in green pastures. "He leads me beside still waters. "He restores my soul. "He leads me in the right
path for His name's sake. "And even when I walk through the valley "of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil "for You are are with me! "Your rod and Your staff comfort me. "You prepare a banquet for
me in front of my enemies, "and You anoint my head with oil "and my cup overflows. "Surely goodness and mercy will follow me "all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house "of the Lord forever!" Thank you. Now there are a lot of
metaphors in this passage. David is a shepherd and he's
using the shepherd motif, talking about all the ways that God wants to bless your life. And today I want us to focus
on the meaning of verse four, which is this phrase,
"Your rod and Your staff, "they comfort me." Now what in the world does that mean? Your rod and your staff, these are clearly two kinds of sticks. How in the world can they
bring comfort to your life? How does that bring comfort to you at all? What in the world does this mean? It raises all kinds of questions. And of all the verses in
Psalm 23, this little phrase, "Your rod and Your staff comfort me," requires the most explanation. I mean, what is a rod and what is a staff? And what do they symbolize,
and what benefits do they represent? And how in the world can these two tools that a shepherd uses, a sheep
herder shepherding sheep, how in the world can they
bring comfort to our lives about several thousand years later? Well, I need to give you a
little bit of background. So Tom would you bring
me my rod and my staff, because I want you to see these. I actually have them. The word pastor is the
same word for shepherd, so I'm a shepherd and here
is my rod and my staff. Let's thank the great
attendant here, thank you. (audience cheer) This is a rod and this is a staff. These two tools are ancient
tools that have been used by shepherds for thousands
and thousands of years. This is the defensive tool
that you use against predators, you use against wolves
and anybody who's trying to attack your sheepfold. It was actually given me by a shepherd, and I'm not sure what country. It has my name, Pastor Rick Warren. So if you're bad, I'm getting
on your right now, okay? And you can actually use the rod two ways. You can hold it on this
end and you're shooing away coyotes and people aren't
much of a threat to you. And you can use it for things like that. It's usually about a foot-and-a-half long, maybe two foot long. If you've got a serious
predator, like a mountain lion, you've got something to really work with. But this is a defensive weapon. This, so the rod you
use on enemies of sheep, the staff you use on sheep. Now I wanna explain to
you how they were used literally physically
and, just for a second, and then how they are
actually symbols of two ways that God wants to work in your life. So let's first talk about what
they actually are used for. A rod, you might write this down, is used for guarding the sheep,
for guarding and protecting. Guarding and protecting the sheep. Sheep are essentially defenseless animals. They have no teeth, they
don't have any claws, they don't run fast, their
teeth are not very sharp because they eat grass, so
they're pretty defenseless, they're slow and they're
really pretty dumb. And so without a shepherd, they are prey to any kind of predator, wolves
or anything else like that. And so somebody's got to
protect them and the rod is a defensive tool to
fight against predators or enemies or adversaries
and things like that. Now a staff, while a rod is
for guiding and protecting, a staff, excuse me
guarding and protecting, a staff is for guiding,
okay, guiding and directing. Guarding and guiding,
protecting and directing. That's what these two
different tools are used for. Sheep have a tendency to wander. And so a shepherd's staff
has a little crook in it and you can pull them up with a crook or you can poke them with a staff. So it's by hook or by crook,
you're controlling them. And you are actually saying
get along little doggy, only it's not little doggies,
and you can direct them. Sheep have an ability
to graze on extremely difficult terrain. They can stand on a hillside at almost 50, 60, 70-degree angle. Cows could never graze on
what sheep can graze on. But while they can be on
mountains and they can be on cliffs and they can be near
edges, they often fall off and they often get out of balance. And so this end of the
staff, the crooked part, the shepherd's crook you
would use either around a sheep's foot or their neck. And so for instance if
they're about to fall off, you can grab them by the neck
and you can pull them back but you're not getting
near the edge of the cliff. Or if a sheep goes into a bramble bush with a bunch of thorns
and things that would be really painful, as a shepherd,
you don't want to go in there so you would reach in there
with your shepherd's staff and you grab them by the
leg and you pull them out. This is a tool of recovery. It's a tool for your protection. It's a tool to get you out of a tight jam. And now universally, the shepherd's staff is a symbol of that. So that's what they're used for, and they've been used
that way for literally centuries after century. What's the meaning of these two tools? What's the symbolism
behind these metaphors? I want you to write this down. The rod represents power and authority. Power and authority. Because it says I'm in charge
here and I've got more power than you and I'm in control. The shepherd's staff and
the rod are both found in, as far back as egyptian hieroglyphs. Look up here on the screen
you can see a picture. Here's an Egyptian king
holding a shepherd's staff. All of the Pharaohs, when you
see pictures of the pharaohs, they're like this and
they've got a rod in one hand and a staff in the other. Sometimes they're called
flailing or some other term, but it is a rod and a staff. Let me show you, here's King Tut. Hi Tutty. Notice he's got the
shepherd's staff in one hand and he's got the rod or flail
in the other, same thing. One is used to fight off
enemies and the other is, he's saying with this, I am
both the protector of my nation and I am in charge, I'm
the authority of my nation. I both care about my
nation and I can be tough, I am an authority. And you find this all throughout history and a lot of different cultures. So write this down. The rod represents power and authority, which by the way in Christian history for the last 2000 years of the church, of course Jesus said, "I
am the good shepherd," and he had the shepherd staff. And so today, you'll often see a bishop in a lot of different denominations, Catholic, Lutheran, lots of denominations, will have a bishop's staff,
it's called a crosier. And you'll see the
bishop walking like this which basically says I
care for the flock of God but I'm also the one in authority. I have the authority over the
flock of God in this area. It's called the crosier and
they can be very elaborate or they can be very,
very simple like this. So the staff represents
care and compassion. You might write this down. The rod represents power and authority and the staff represents
care and compassion. Now what does that mean for you? And what does it mean when he
says your rod and your staff, they comfort me? How do I give comfort out of that? Well, let's look first at what Jesus says, what it says about him in the Bible. Hebrews chapter 13 verse 20 says this: "Jesus is the Great
Shepherd of the sheep." Circle that in your notes. Great Shepherd of the sheep. He's called the Great Shepherd, he's called the Chief Shepherd, he's called the Good Shepherd. In the next verse, John
chapter 10, verses 10 and 11, that whole chapter is
about the Good Shepherd and Jesus talks about his
ministry in caring for the sheep. Throughout the Bible, sheep
are a symbol for God's people. The church is called the flock
of God and the Bible says we are his sheep, okay? We are his flock and we are
the sheep of his pasture. It says that in psalm. And in John 10:10 and 11 it says this. "I came so that my sheep
will have life this." This is Jesus talking. "I came that my sheep will have life "and everything they need. "I am the Good Shepherd "and the Good Shepherd gives
His life for His sheep." That's the God's Word translation. The Good Shepherd gives
his life for the sheep. Now Jesus is the good shepherd. We need to figure out what that means. How does Jesus treat his sheep? If we're supposed to be the flock of God and he's the good shepherd,
what does that mean? As we look at the goodness
of God and in Psalm 23, we're listing 10 different
things that the good shepherd does in your life. The lord is my shepherd,
and so how does the Lord respond to you? Well, just as a physical
shepherd use the physical tools of the rod and the staff for
direction and protection, for guidance, okay, and for guarding, God wants to do both of
these things in your life. He wants to guide you and guard you. He wants to protect you
and he wants to direct you. I want us today to look at
the actual words of Jesus in these areas, and we're
gonna look at five ways Jesus wants to treat
you if you'll trust him. So let's write these down. Number one, the first thing we learn about the Good Shepherd is
that if I bring in my hurts, Jesus shows me compassion. If I bring him my hurts,
Jesus shows me compassion. When I come to God and I
say God, I've got a problem in my finances, I've got
a problem in my emotions, I've got a problem in my relationships, God I'm really hurting here, I'm weak or I'm depressed or I'm
anxious or I'm angry or I've been hurt, I've been betrayed, somebody's been unfaithful to me, when I bring him my hurts Jesus responds. How? Well, he doesn't scolds
you, he serves you. He doesn't put you down, he lifts you up. He doesn't hassle you, he heals you. Matthew chapter nine,
verse 36, it says this. "When Jesus saw the crowds,
his heart was filled "with compassion for them
because they were hurting "and they didn't know where to get help. "They were like sheep without a shepherd." How you look at people
determines a lot and tells us a lot about what's in your heart. When I look at a crowd I often
find, I think of irritation. I think a loss of privacy. I think of a lot of things. The Bible says when Jesus
looked at the crowd, he was moved with compassion
because they were hurting, they were helpless, they were like sheep without a shepherd. And that's the way God
looks at your problems. And he looks at your hurts. He's compassionate. Now what does that mean? Well, there's a difference
between empathy, sympathy and compassion. Sympathy means I'm sorry you're hurt. You send a sympathy card,
I'm sorry you're hurt. A little bit deeper commitment is empathy. Empathy means I hurt with you. When I empathize, it's more
than I'm sorry you're hurt, it's I'm hurting with you. But compassion means I
will do anything I can to stop your hurt. And the Bible repeatedly
says that when Jesus looked at people who were in pain,
he was moved with compassion. I will do anything it
takes to stop your hurt even if it means dying on the cross. Even if it means having nails nailed through my hands and feet. That's compassion. I will do whatever it takes,
I will do anything it takes to stop your pain. In Matthew 20 verse 28, Jesus
said this is why I came. "I came here not to be
served but to serve others, "and to give my life
as a ransom for many." He came to show compassion. He says, you know, I came
to serve and to give. And if you circle those two
words, that is what it means to follow Jesus Christ. That is what it means
to be a true Christian, giving and serving
define a Christian life. If you don't give, if you
don't serve, how in the world can you follow Jesus because he said that's my whole purpose? You know, it's interesting
the paradox of this verse is that when it comes
to your relationship, God says it's not about you. Life is not about you that
you only find your meaning in giving your life away. And he says for you it's not about you, it's really all about
God and other people. First sentence of Purpose Driven Life is it's not about you. But when it comes to God,
it's the exact opposite. With Jesus, it's all about you. He came to Earth for you, he died for you, he suffered for you,
he sacrificed for you. It's all about you from
God's point of view. God is unselfish and God
wants you to be like him. He want you to be Christ-like. Christ was not thinking of himself, he was thinking of others. And the same thing is true with you. God wants you to not think about yourself, it's not about you, it's about
God and it's about others. But I bring him my hurts, I
know that Jesus is not gonna raz me or put me down or
scold me or intimidate me. He's gonna show compassion
because he did that throughout his ministry. Number two. Not only if I bring him my
hurts Jesus shows me compassion, but number two, if I choose to follow him, Jesus leads me in the right direction. He's not gonna lead you
in the wrong direction but he's gonna lead you
in the right direction if you say God, I'm gonna
follow your son Jesus Christ. He becomes your guide through life. I don't know if you've ever gone to a city like London or Tokyo or some
Paris and taken a guided tour. But if you've ever done
that, you know you'll learn a whole lot more about a
city if you have a guide, that if you just walked through Paris, you don't know, you're
gonna miss all kinds of important things because
you don't know what they are. It helps to have a guide. You learn more, you see
more, you experience more if you have a guide
taking you through a city. The same is true with your life. You need a guide through your life. If you're just walking
through your life on your own, you're missing a whole lot. If you're just going through
your life without a guide, without a shepherd, without
somebody showing you the ropes, without somebody who's
more experienced in life than you are, you're missing
a whole lot in your life that's passing by you
that you would have caught if you would have a guide with you. And so Jesus says if you're
gonna choose to follow me, I will be your guide,
I will be your shepherd and I will lead you in
the right direction. Now as a shepherd, a
shepherd always knows more than the sheep does always. And Jesus is always gonna
know more about your life than you do because he
created you, he made you, he knows your purpose even when
you don't know your purpose. So what do I do in this situation? Well, Psalm 23 verse three says this. "He," Jesus, "leads me in the right paths "for His name's sake." As I said, he's never gonna
lead you in the wrong way. And in John 10 verse four Jesus says, "The Good Shepherd
walks ahead of the sheep "and they follow Him for
they recognized His voice." Now I want you to notice something. Circle the word or the phrase walks ahead. "The Good Shepherd walks
ahead of the sheep. "They follow Him and they
recognize His voice." In shepherding, the
shepherd always goes first. Why? He's the model, he's mentoring,
he's leading by example. This is very different
than being a cowboy. A cowboy and a shepherd
are two different things. You drive sheep, or excuse me, you drive cattle but you lead sheep. Big difference. You drive cattle from the back. You push them forward. If you've ever watched a TV Western, in a cattle drive, they're
pushing the cattle from the back. So you drive cattle from
the back but you lead sheep. You get out front and they follow you. Now here's a point. Jesus is not gonna push
you through your life. He's not gonna push you into doing things you don't wanna do, you're
not interested in doing. He's never gonna force you to do something you don't want to do. But as a shepherd, he's
gonna lead the way. And he's gonna say, watch how I do it. Look where I go. And if you follow his lead, oh man, your life's gonna be a whole lot easier, a lot fewer problems, a lot less stress if you'll follow the
lead of your shepherd. If I bring him my hurts,
he shows me compassion. But if I choose to follow
him, he says I will lead you in the right direction. Now how do I know he wants to lead me in the right direction? Well, he says it. And the Bible says in
Psalm 26 verse three, "Your constant love," Lord, "is my guide; "and your faithfulness always leads me." Now David wrote that, same guy who wrote the lord is my shepherd, and he says Lord, when you lead me, you
lead me with your love. It's very important. Jesus always leads you
with love, not with laws. Let me explain this. The reason why a lot of
people are afraid of god, the reason why a lot of people fear God, the reason why a lot of
people don't wanna follow God is because they think
he's just gonna give them a set of rules. Do this, this, this, this,
this, this, this, this and this and don't do this, this,
this, this, this and this. And yet the Bible says
God says I will lead you with my love, not with my laws. I lead you out of love. That's how the good shepherd leads us. Now number three, what
about when he's leading me, what if I get confused when
he's leading me through life? And what if I wander off? Well, that's the third thing we learn is if I get confused and I wander off, Jesus finds and brings me back. He finds me and he brings me back. And we're all gonna wander and Jesus had some specific
things to say about this. In Matthew chapter 18 verse 12, he says, "If a shepherd," this is Jesus talking, "if a shepherd has a hundred sheep, "and one wanders away and is lost, "won't he leave the 99 safe to
go search for the lost one?" Yes, why? Because every sheep matters. You matter to God. You matter to God. He says if I've got a hundred sheep, 99 of them are saved
and one of them is lost, I'm going after the unsasved one. I'm going after the lost one. That by the way is the
heartbeat of Saddleback Church. It's why we never stop growing. Last weekend, you heard
we had over 71,000 people at Saddleback Church
in all of our campuses, and yet we're not gonna stop growing. Why? Not because we need more people, we don't. My favorite size church was 300 people. Really, it was because
I could know everybody, every kid, every cat, every dog, enough to pay my salary
and I can go play golf three times a week, except I hate golf. (audience laughing) And I love that because I knew everybody. The fact is, the bigger church it gets, the more headaches, the more
problems, the more stress. Why do we do this? We do it because Jesus says if
there's one person out there who still doesn't know
me, we're going after him. We don't grow for our benefit,
we grow because people need the Lord. And as long as there's
one person still out there who hasn't heard the good news of Jesus, we're gonna leave the 99 saved
sheep and go after the one. Why? Because that's what Jesus did. You see it takes unselfish
people to grow a church, to leave the 99 and go after the one. And yet that's what Jesus did. The church that doesn't
wanna grow is basically saying to the world go to hell. That's what they said. we're all saved, we're
happy we're going to heaven, the rest of you can go to hell. It takes unselfish people to be like Jesus to say we're gonna keep reaching out, there's still one more who needs the Lord, there's still one more who needs the Lord. So if there's somebody out
there confused and wandering, Jesus says I'm going after him, we're gonna bring him back. This is the reason Jesus came to earth. Look at the next verse, Luke 19 verse 10. Jesus said, "I came to seek and
to save those who are lost." That's why Jesus came to earth. God came to earth in human
form to seek and save the lost. He's on a rescue mission, a
search and rescue mission. Now this, follow the logic on this. If we weren't lost, Jesus
wouldn't have need to come. So it clearly implies
we're lost without God. If you could get to heaven simply on being kind of nice person and
you have more good works out balancing all your bad works, if that's how you could get to heaven, then Jesus dying on the cross
was a total waste of time. Believe me. If there was any other way
for you to get into heaven except by Jesus Christ,
God coming and living a perfect life then dying for your sins because he didn't have
any, don't you think God would have used it? Don't you think God would
have chosen an easier way to gain your salvation if it was possible? There was no other way. And Jesus says I came to seek
and save that which is lost, which means the world is lost. Everybody is not going to heaven. If they were, Jesus didn't
need to come to earth. Let me say it again. If everybody was
automatically going to heaven, Jesus did not need to die on the cross. That's a big total waste
of suffering and sorrow and sadness and pain. But he said, I came to seek
and save that which is lost. Look up here on the screen. The Bible says we are lost without God. Isaiah 53 verse six. "We're all like sheep who've
wandered off and gotten lost. "And we've all done our own
thing and we've all gone "our own way and God
has piled all our sins "and everything we've done wrong on Him," talking about what Jesus did on the cross. And he says we're all like sheep. It's human nature to wander. It's human nature to get lost. Let me ask those, how
many of you are parents? Can I see your hands? You're parents. All right, question. Is it easy or is it
hard for a little child to wander in a crowd and get lost? Kind of obvious. Have you ever had to teach
your child how to get lost? No. You never had the class. Let me tell you how to
get lost in the mall, son. They already know how to do it naturally. By our nature, we naturally wander. We wander away from our parents,
we wander away from God, we wander away into
situations we shouldn't be in and we get lost. And the Bible says all of
sin come short glory of God. We're all lost. So God says I'll be the good shepherd and I'm gonna come and seek and save, and I'm gonna find you. It's in our nature, we naturally wander, we naturally get lost in life. You may be feeling lost right now. I haven't the slightest idea
what I'm supposed to do next with my life. Feeling a little lost,
you're lost over what to do with your finances, you feel a little lost over what should I do about my career, do I stay here, do I move? Sometimes you don't know,
do I hold on, do I let go? That's a hard one to discover. What do I do now? Do I keep going, do I give up? Do I try something different? You feel a little confused. You're feeling confused
about things in your life. That's called being lost, friend, because you don't have a guide who's walking through you with it, or you've got the guide, but
you're not depending on him. And you wonder what should I do now? Now any parent who's
lost a child in a mall or at a campground something like that, let me ask this question. When your child wanders off and your heart is in your throat and
you're searching for minutes or maybe even an hour trying to find them and it's getting worse and worse, when you actually find them,
your adrenaline settles, you calm down a little
bit, the fear subsides do you then just go, uh it's no big deal and you just brush it off? Oh no. If your child has been lost
and then now they're found, you don't just brush it off and treat it like it's no big deal. Because you love them
deeply, you have the talk. You can't run away from daddy like that. And it's serious, it's dangerous. You need to be near mommy,
you need to hold my hand when we're in a crowd
because this is not good. And you correct your child. Now are you correcting
your child out of hate? No, you're correcting your
child because you love them. You love them. You love them, and so you correct them. You love them because you, you discipline them because you love them. An undisciplined child
is an unloved child. A child that can get its way
and do everything it wants is not a loved child,
it's an unloved child because kids need discipline. We need directions, we need training. Well, let's just take this now to your relationship with God. What does God do when you wander off? He disciplines you. He has the talk. He corrects you. Look at the next verse, Psalm 119. David says, "I used to
wander off until You Lord "disciplined me." You know, I had a
tendency to just walk off, leave God, leave everything
else that was valuable. "I used to wander off until
the Lord disciplined me, "but now I closely follow Your word. "You are good." Talking about God, God is a good God. "and You only do good." So even when he disciplines
you, it's for a good purpose. "So train me in your principles." I wanna clear this up
for you, so I want you to write this down,
discipline is not punishment. Please write that down. Discipline is not the
same thing as punishment. Let me explain the difference. Punishment is when you pay
a penalty for the past, and it's usually done in anger. You're punished in anger
for something you did in the past. Discipline is not punishment. Discipline is training and
correction for the future, and it's always done in love. You're not angry, but
you're doing it out of love because you want the person,
the child or in this case, the sheep to go in the right direction. You know sometimes, if
a shepherd has a sheep that is so prone to
wander, it's gonna wander and kill itself, they'll live in a very dangerous place where there's like mountain lions. They will often wrap
and hold a sheep's leg so it can't move, or
sometimes in old and days, break the leg so that the
sheep could not wander off. Was that done in anger? No. Was it done in hate? No. It was done in love,
because they lot the sheep and they don't want it to die. And sometimes God might put a limp in you to keep you from wandering off. That's not punishment, that's discipline. Punishment, penalty for the
past, motivated by anger. Discipline, training for the
future, motivated by love. And why is that important
you know the difference? Because when something
goes wrong in your life, sometimes you're gonna be
tempted to think this thought and it's not a thought from God. God is getting even with me right now. God is punishing me for
something I did in the past and it's a secret. You're even a Christian, you've
given your life to Christ, you confessed your sins,
you've been baptized, you're active in church and
you say God is angry with me, now he's punishing me for this problem. Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong,
wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong. I want you to listen very closely. God never, never, never
punishes his children. He disciplines them, but
he doesn't punish them. God never punishes those
who have put their trust in Jesus Christ for salvation. Never, never, never, never, never. Why doesn't he punish me? Because you obviously keep
sinning, you're sinning. He doesn't punish you. He doesn't make you pay for your past. Why? Because it was already
paid for 2,000 years ago. Jesus Christ paid for the sins
you haven't committed yet. And the Bible says all of
the punishment for your sins was paid for on the cross. If God now punished you for your sins, that's double punishment. It means Jesus's punishment
took it on the cross was not enough, and of
course it was enough. All the guilt, all the
regret, all the shame, all the penalty for your
sin was paid for by Jesus. So Jesus is not gonna punish
you for something that his son already took. He disciplines, but he's
not going to punish you. On Good Friday, Jesus Christ
took all your punishment. Look up there on the screen,
Isaiah 53 verse five says this. "He," Jesus, "was crushed
for the sins we did, "and the punishment we
deserved was given to Him. "So now we're healed
because of His wounds." You say wait a minute, I'm not ever gonna be
punished for my sins? Not if you've trusted
Christ for your salvation. I'm not ever gonna be
judged for those sins? Not if you've trusted
Christ for your salvation because he took the punishment. He took the judgment. And so don't ever, if you are Christian, if you know the Lord, don't
you ever, ever gonna say God's getting even with me, because that means he was
saying what Jesus did for you was not enough. God's not gonna let the punishment
of your sins go on Christ and then put it on you too. It's already been paid for. You say I get to go scot-free? Yup. Well, that's not fair. Who said it was fair? It's called grace. Grace is when God gives you what you need, not what you deserve. We talked about that on Good Friday. So God never punishes us for our sins if we have trusted Christ
who took that punishment. He does discipline,
look at the next verse. Psalm 119 up here, it's
on the screen, verse 71. David says, "It was good
for me to be afflicted "so that I might learn Your decrees." Notice this is a problem
that's coming (mumbles) life for the purpose of
education, not condemnation. The Bible says there's no
condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, it's
already been forgiven. But there is education that I might learn. It was good for me to be afflicted. What's an affliction? Oh, it can be many. It can mean emotional
affliction, in your heart. It could be relational
affliction, in your relationships. It could be a physical
affliction in your body. You can get sick. This is not punishment. And David, looking back
on it, he goes hey, it was a good thing that
I actually was disciplined because I learned your statues. Now the only way you're
gonna learn the statutes is when you stop asking
why is this happening to me and start asking what
do you want me to learn? No matter what happens in
your life, stop asking why. You're not gonna know
why on this side of death for most things that happen in your life. Instead you should be
saying what do you want me to learn, God? David says it was good for
me to go through this trial, this trouble, this
suffering, this difficulty, this affliction. I can even thank God because
I know God is a good God even when things are bad in my life because I learned some things
I would have never learned any other way. You know that there's some things you only learn through pain. God whispers to us in our pleasure, God shouts to us in our pain. Pain is God's megaphone. Pain is the way God gets your attention. So he says it was good for me. Now go back to that verse
that we just looked at, Psalm 119 there on your outline. He says this, "I used to wander off "until You Lord disciplined me." Okay? And he says, "But now I
closely follow Your word." That's a good thing. "You are good and You only do good, "so train me in Your principles." Now this verse is very deep here, it gives us several principles. First, how do I keep from wandering off? You have a tendency to
go off the reservation, a tendency to go off the rails, have a tendency to go out of bounds. I have a tendency to do the wrong thing. How do I keep from wandering
off into preventable problems? You do realize that most of
the problems in your life you don't have to have. And you are the source of
the preventable problems, most of them. And if you were trained
in God's principles, you could avoid them. What does it mean to be
trained in God's principles? He said you train me in God's principles. What does it mean? It means to learn to be wise. Wisdom is being trained
in God's principles. What are the principles? They're all in this book. And the more you understand
God's principles, the wiser you'll be. The wiser you'll be, the fewer problems you bring on yourself. Because when I'm not wise,
I make dumb decisions, and then I make the problem
worse rather than better. So if you want fewer problems, get wisdom. How do I get wisdom? Learn God's principles. How do I get trained in God's principles? Well, it says there in the verse. I closely follow your word. You need to spend more time in this book. The more time you spend in this book, the wiser you become because
you know God's principles. The wiser you become, the fewer problems you make for yourself. That is how God wants it to be. Your life gets easier the wiser you get because you're not bringing all these problems on yourself. How many times have
somebody said something and you said the wrong
thing and made it worse? Because you weren't wise in that moment. And so God says I stop
wandering by being trained in his principles. I get trained in God's principles by closely following the word. Okay, how do I closely follow the word? Well, welcome to Saddleback Church, okay? We've got hundreds of ways
to help you get closer following God's word. First thing you need to do
is you have daily quiet time. That means you take five, 10, 15 minutes, as you get more mature
20 minutes, 30 minutes, and you read the Bible for a little bit and you talk to God in
prayer and you write down some thoughts and you prioritize your life and your pray about it to God. That's called a quiet time. We have an entire class that
teaches you how to do this. It's called class 201. If you've forgotten
that, you took class 204, go back to that class,
discovering the habits for spiritual growth and
learn how to have a quiet time so you can become wise. The more times you spend in this book, the wisdom comes from the word. Now if you spend three,
four, five hours a day watching TV and you spend
zero time reading the Bible, are you gonna become wise? Duh.
(audience laughter) Or as Homer Simpson says, doh. No, no you won't. But why is it that we spend
more time listening to and reading something we don't believe than something we do? Why do you spend more
time reading magazines that you know have a lot
of false stuff in it, newspapers, listening to talk radio that you know has a
lot of dumb stuff in it when the stuff you know
is true, God's word, you don't spend any time in it at all? So gotta have a quiet time. You should maybe subscribe
to Drivetime Devotions. Pastor Tom systematically
takes us through the Bible one book at a time and
in bite-sized daily bits. You'd go through the
whole Bible just listening to Drivetime Devotions with Tom. You should subscribe to Daily Hope. That's my little, it's on the radio but it's also, there's a
short version of it on email. About a million people
get Daily Hope every day. If you're not reading that, you should be. It gives you input into the word. And then as I always say,
get in a small group. We have thousands, over 8,000
small groups in this church. Get in the word everyday. And get in the Bible study. There's just so many ways. Saddleback is committed to
helping you get in the word so you become wise, so
you make better choices, so life becomes easier,
so you have fewer problems that you bring on yourself. That's what the good
shepherd wants in your life. All right, number four. Okay, let's look at this. Number one, he says if
I bring Jesus my hurts, he shows me compassion. If I choose to follow
him, he's gonna lead me in the right direction. That makes life simpler, get a guide. If I get confused and wander
off, he's gonna find me and bring me back. He seeks and saves. And he says, here's the fourth one, if I fall or if I fail, you're gonna do both, if I fail or fall, Jesus
rescues and recovers me. Jesus Rescues and recovers me. Now like all sheep, we not
only wander, we also stumble. We also fall down many,
many times in life. Anybody wanna give a testimony on that? We've all stumbled, we've
all fallen flat on our face, we do it with great regularity. Every time I wander, I get into trouble. The further I get away from God, the more problems I'm
gonna have in my life. The closer I get to the shepherd, the fewer problems I'm gonna
have because he's gonna be guiding me, guarding me,
protecting me, directing me, things like that. So all sheeps stumble, all sheeps fall. And how does Jesus react to this? Let me just put it on the spot to you. What do you think Jesus does
when you fall, when you fail, when you flub up, when you
really embarrass yourself, when you do something
really evil, wicked, mean, bad and nasty? How does Jesus Christ respond to you? You say, well, I'm a child of God, I should know better
than this but I really messed up just now,
what I said, what I did. How does Jesus respond to your failures? Well, let's look at what
he says in the scripture. Matthew chapter 12, verses 11 and 12 talks about when a sheep
stumbles and falls. And he says Jesus said
if any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit,
Circle that, falls into a pit, we'll come back to that, "If any of you has a sheep
that falls into a pit "on the Sabbath," that's the
day you're not supposed to work in Jewish law, you will not rescue it. "Will you not rescue it and lift it out?" Even though it's a Sabbath,
you're gonna go save that sheep. Will you not rescue it and
lift it out of the pit? How much more valuable
is a man than a sheep? Jesus is saying if a
sheep falls into a pit, if a sheep fails and stumbles
and falls into a pit, good common sense means
you're going to rescue it, you're gonna lift it out,
you're gonna recover it even if it's on the
day that, ceremonially, you're not supposed to work. He says what about in your own life? Isn't God gonna act that way towards you? Now let me give you an
example of how you think God responds to your failures. Because unless you get this right, you're gonna avoid God all the time every time you fail, and that's daily. It's gonna cause you to pull away from God instead of going close to him. If you think God is gonna
restore you and rescue you when you fail, you're gonna run to him every time you mess up. But if you think God's
gonna scold you and raz you and give you a long sermon about it, you're not gonna go to God on that. Let's say this. You're walking down the street one day and there's construction
nearby, and you happen to trip and you stumble and you fall into a ditch. In fact, it's not a ditch, it's a pit. And it's about 25 feet
deep and there's no way you can get out on your own. You fall in the pit like
this sheep in Matthew 12 and has fallen into a pit. It needs to be rescued,
it needs to be lifted out. What's your response when
you fall into a major pit? A moral pit, an ethical
pit, a pit of depression, a pit of despair, what are
you gonna do in that pit? Well, you only got about
five major choices. They're called world views. Let me explain to you the difference, and I don't mean anyway to
demean any of these religions. I'm just gonna explain to
you what they would say. When I was a young man, a young adult, I lived in Japan and I studied
all the world religions. Let me sum them up for you
about this particular issue. If you were 30 feet down in the
pit and you couldn't get out and you're stuck there,
if Buddha walked by and he looked down there he would say you are there because of karma. It's your karma. Karma means you get what
you deserve in life. And because you were bad in
a previous reincarnated life, you're now paying for it in this life. And if you're poor, you deserve to be poor because in the previous
life, you were bad. And if people abuse you,
it's because you abused them in a previous life. Karma says you get what
you've given in life. There's no such thing as
innocent suffering in Buddhism. It's karma. So there's no comfort in Buddhism in that. I remember being in Louisiana
three days after Katrina when thousands of people had
lost everything they had. And I was on Larry King
with a Buddhist monk and he asked me, what Jesus would say and I explained about the comfort, and he asked the other
guy, what words can you say that will comfort you? He didn't have anything to say. Why? Because in Buddhism,
if you have suffering, it's your fault. It's called karma and you deserved it. I don't believe that, I believe
there'an innocent suffering in the world, but that is
a legitimate world view that people believe. I don't believe it, that
there's no innocent suffering. Of course there's innocent
suffering in the world. But Buddha would walk by and he goes you're there in the pit because of karma. You did something bad in your last life and you deserve what you're at. And maybe if you do a little good, you'll have a better life next round. Okay, what about Muhammad? If Muhammad walked by, he
would see you in the pit he goes, you are there
because you have violated the dignity of Allah. You have broken his commandments, you have disobeyed his
rules and you're there because you have violated
the laws of Allah. Okay, I'm not putting this down, I'm just saying that's
a Muslim view of life. If you're walking by, if you're in the pit and a Hindu guru comes by, the Hindu guru says the pit
you're in is an illusion. I'm not making this up. This is an illusion because we believe all pain is an illusion. I don't believe that,
but a lot of people do. It's all an illusion,
it's all in your mind. You're not really in a pit,
maybe the pit is in you. (audience laughter) And so really, it's an illusion. So you should not really be in pain because if you can just
get to a certain state, you won't feel the pain
because you won't think you're in the pit anymore. That's essentially Hinduism. I've studied this. If you are a new age
movement or self-help person and you are a new age
coach or self-help coach, they would walk, see
you in the pit and say just believe you can be
out of the pit on your own. Believe you can fly. What man can conceive, he can achieve. Pull yourself up by your own
bootstraps, you can do it, you can do it, you can do it. If a bird has had its wing cut off, you can tell that bird a
thousand I believe you could fly, it's never gonna fly. Sorry, reality says my wing was cut off. You're never gonna fly no
matter how much you believe it. It's nonsense to say you
can be whatever you believe. No you can't, you could
never be an opera singer because you'll never have that talent. That's not true. You can be everything
God designed you to be. I could have all the belief,
I'm never going to be an Einstein because I hate math. And there's certain guests, some people, you're not ever gonna be a Kobe Bryant no matter how much you practice golf or basketball or baseball.
(audience laughter) I think Kobe Bryant plays more golf now than anything, but... But the bottom line is this whole idea of oh yeah, just believe enough
and you'll just come out of the pit; you're not coming
out of the pit just believing. That's Pollyanna optimism,
which has no basis in reality. I believe in positive thinking, it's far better than negative thinking, but it only works on
stuff you can control. All the positive thinking
in the world will not change stuff you can't control. And most of the world
is out of your control. So you're down there in
the pit, Buddha says karma. Muhammad says you violated
the laws of Allah. A Hindu says it's not really a pit. Okay, it's an illusion in your mind, all pain is an illusion in our mind. And the new age says you're a god. You're not a god, come on. You're not even a mini, mini god. If you we're a God, why are there so many problems in the world? You can't even solve your own problems, much less the world's problems. You're not God. That is not any new
age, that's the old lie. It's the oldest lie known to man. It's the first lie Satan told Adam and Eve when he said eat this
fruit and you'll be a god. That's the oldest lie in the book. You're a god. You're not a god. Well, the divine is in you. No. Christ could be in you,
but you're not god on your own. So all these people say it's
karma, it's this, it's this. Jesus comes by and here's what he says. Can I give you a hand out? He doesn't make an excuse. Can I help you out? That's called being a savior. He doesn't excuse it, he doesn't judge it. Jesus said I didn't
come to judge the world, I came to save it. Can I give you a handout? That's the savior I serve, and that's the savior
that 2.3 billion people in the world serve. Can I give you a handout? That's the salvation that God offers when he says I wanna help you. There is real suffering in the world. It is not an illusion. Now God does not cause suffering. He doesn't have to, there's
plenty of it in the world. But he does allow it. Why does he allow it? Why does God allow suffering in the world? Well, God could take away all
the suffering in the world (snaps fingers)
just like that. All he'd have to do is take
away our freedom of choice because if I always did the right thing and you always did the right thing and everybody else did
all the right thing, the world wouldn't be broken. But God wants to give us a choice. God wants a group of people who choose to love him voluntarily. It's not love if you don't
have a choice to not love. If you're forced to love, it's not love. God loves you but he wants
you to love him back. He could've made you a
puppet on a marionette thing and he pulls the string and
you prayed six times a day. That's not love, that's being manipulated. So God gave you the
freedom to make choices. The freedom to choose what God gave you is your greatest gift
and your worst curse. Because we all make bad choices. And as a result, we wreck
the economy and we wreck the environment and the
environment takes people's lives who are innocent of particular things, and we all hurt each other
sometimes intentionally, sometimes unintentionally. God does not cause
suffering, but he does allow the consequences of our own decision. You are free to make any
decision you want to in life but you're not free the
moment you make that decision because now you got
the consequences of it. You're not free from the
consequences of your decision. You're free to make the decision. You're not free from the consequences. The Bible says in Psalm 71:20, "You allowed me to suffer a lot." See, allowed, didn't cause. "You allowed me to suffer a
lot, but You will bring me back "from this deep pit, and You
will give me a new life." You're in a deep pit, Jesus
says let me help you out. You need a new life,
Jesus says be born again. This is the good news. When you let Jesus be your shepherd, you're no longer on your own. That takes away a lot
of stress in your life. Proverbs three, verse 25 and 26, "You never need to be
afraid of sudden disaster "or hidden troubles
that ensnare the wicked "for the Lord is your security
and He will keep you safe "and He will keep your foot
from getting caught in a trap." And like that Shepard who's got that hook on the end of his thing,
he'll pull you out of the briar bush and he'll pull you away from the edge of the cliff
when you're about to go over. You don't have to be afraid. He's gonna be your security,
he'll keep you safe, he'll keep you from stumbling. Finally, one more thing. Let's look at these. He says if I bring my hurts to Jesus, he shows me compassionate. If I follow, choose to follow Jesus, he's gonna lead me in the
right way, never the wrong way. And if I get confused and wander off, he's gonna find me and bring me back like a sheep that's wandered. And if I fail or I fall into a ditch, he's gonna rescue and recover me. And then finally, number five, because he's a good shepherd
and God is a good God, if I trust him to save
me, Jesus keeps me saved. If I trust him to save
me, Jesus keeps me saved. I told you last week that
it's the savior's job to keep you safe. It's not your job to save yourself, it's not your job to keep yourself saved. It's your job to put your
hand in the hand of God's. And when you put your
hand in the hand of God, say God, I'm all yours, the
good, the bad and the ugly and I could never earn
heaven, it's perfect and I'm not and never will be; but I'm putting my hand in yours, I'm accepting your son as my savior and I'm putting my hand in your hand, there will be days you wanna let go but God is never gonna let go of your hand because he loves you,
he's the good shepherd. Notice this verse, John
chapter 10, verse 27 and 29, Jesus' words directly. He says, "My sheep,"
he's the good shepherd, "My sheep listen to my voice." That's how you know who's
a believer and who's not. "My sheep listen to my
voice and I know them "and they follow me." Then he says, "And I
give them eternal life," which starts the moment you
put your hand in his hand. "And they will never die,
and no one can steal them "out of my hand. "My Father gave me my sheep to me, "and he's greater than all. "And no person can steal my sheep "out of my Father's hand." Once you have put your
life in the hand of God, there will be times you
might wanna pull back and say I don't even know
what I believe and I doubt. God's says I'm not letting go. He says you're in God's hand
and no man can pluck you out a God's hand. Your salvation is secure, you
cannot lose your salvation once you've got it. If you were saved by works,
the moment you stop working, obviously you could lose it. But you're saved on the merits of Christ. You'd have to be unsaved on his demerits and he didn't have any. This is grace. And you put your life in his hand and he says they're in my hand and nobody can pull them out of God's hand. Now I've actually had people tell me well I know I don't think
people can steal your salvation but I think you could jump
out of God's hand by choice. And I say how big do
you think God's hand is? Really? you think it's so small you
could get to the edge of it and then jump off? You could never get to
the edge of God's hand. It is so big. It is not your job to keep yourself safe. It's your job to keep loving God, but it is God's job to keep you saved. He said nobody can pull you out. I'm telling you, and
you can relax over that, that if you truly trusted
Christ and known that you're not getting to heaven on your own but only through the blood of
Christ and the death of Christ and the resurrection of Christ, and you've committed your life to him and your hand is in the hand, Satan cannot steal your salvation. Sorrow cannot steal your salvation. Sickness cannot steal your salvation. Suicide cannot steal your salvation. Society cannot steal your salvation. You're in his hand. Look up here on the screen,
Romans chapter eight, 38 and 39 says it about as clear as it could be. "There is nothing." This is the Bible. "There is nothing that can
ever separate us from His love. "Death can't, life can't. "The angels can't, the demons can't. "Our fears for today and
our worries about tomorrow, "and even the powers of hell
can't keep God's love away." If you put your hand in his
hand, it's there, it's secure. "Now whether we are high above the sky "and the deepest ocean,
nothing in all creation "will ever be able to separate
us from the love of God "that is revealed in
Christ Jesus our Lord." Is that good news? Hello, that's good news. (audience applause) And when you can truly say,
the Lord is my shepherd, and you truly say that,
you are eternally secure and everything else is taken care of. Last verse on the screen, Second Peter, chapter one verse three. Jesus has the power of God,
because he is God in human form, came to earth, Jesus has the power of God by which he has given
us everything we need. Everything we need to live,
everything we need to live and to serve God. We have these things. Because we deserve them? No. Because we've promised to be perfect? No. We have these things because we know Him. Do you know the shepherd? Let's bow our heads. So I end by asking this question, no matter where you're listening to this. Who's your shepherd? Who is your shepherd? Can you truly say the Lord is my shepherd? Or are you a sheep without a shepherd? You know you're not gonna
last very long in this life as a solitary sheep on your own. There are just too many predators. You need a shepherd. That's Jesus. And you need a flock to be a part of. That's a church, you
find a good church home. That's my flock. Let me ask you another question. Knowing now how Jesus treats his sheep, whose flock do you want to be in? If not Jesus, who's gonna
offer you a better deal? Who's gonna offer you a better deal? There's no political group
that can offer you that. No economic group, no
sexual identity group, no social group, no age group, no gender group, nobody can offer these five benefits to you. You only get them from the
creator of the universe, the son of God, the good shepherd. So I invite you to pray
this prayer right now no matter where you are. Say, you're Jesus Christ, I want you to be my shepherd. I need you to guide me
and I need you to guard me like the rod and the staff. I want you to protect me,
and I want you to direct me like the rod and the staff. I thank you for your power and authority which can protect me. And I thank you for your
care and compassion, which can care for me. Jesus, I want you to be
the shepherd of my life, the lord of my life,
the master of my life. I want you to be the manager of my life, the CEO the board of my life. And I want to bring my hurts
to you when I'm hurting because I know you'll show me compassion. And I wanna follow you
because I know you'll lead me in the right direction. And Lord, it is comforting to know this is the comfort of this passage that if I get confused and wander off, you're gonna find me and
you're gonna bring me back. Thank you that you came to
earth to seek and save me because I was lost. And Lord, I even thank you for
your discipline in my life. I realize it's not punishment,
it's not out of anger, it's because you want what's best for me and you're a good god. Now Lord, if itt takes
afflictions to teach me things, I know some things I'll only
learn through difficulty. You may say to Jesus, Lord
I'm at a pit right now and I need you to rescue and recovery me. I'm in a pit of frustration,
I'm in a pit of discouragement, I'm in a pit, a financial pit. I'm in a pit of depression. Lord, I'm in a pit of confusion and I need you to rescue and recover me. Jesus Christ, thank you that because I trust you to save me, you're going to keep me safe, that nobody can steal it, no illness, no authority,
no government, no powers, that nothing will ever
separate me from the love of Jesus Christ. Tonight, today, at this moment, I put my hand in your hand and I give you all of myself and I'm gonna trust you
to take me through my life and into heaven. I wanna be a part of your
family, I wanna be a part of your flock and I wanna follow you. Thank you, the Lord is my shepherd. Amen. (uplifting music) - Thanks for checking out this
week's message on YouTube. We would love to get connected
with our online community. There's three easy ways
to get you involved. First, learn about belonging
to our church family by taking class 101 online. Second, you can join an online small group or a local home group in your area. And third, check out our Facebook group to engage with our online
community throughout the week. To take these next steps,
visit saddleback.com/online or shoot me an email at
online@saddleback.com. I hope to hear from you soon.
