The genius of my late-husband was to present annual messages. And I think when I first started listening to him, the first year there were a couple of annual messages repeated at least twice. By the time the second year rolled around and I had listened to the reruns on the network, I started to get familiar. Then of course by, you know, the third year or the fourth year, you know certain messages would be preached and I think there was a certain comfort in that. I think there was a certain something that no matter what else was going on you come back to those familiar passages and let them be reinforced. And although I'm going to a familiar passage today, I'm not going to preach a familiar message; although it will have the form perhaps, but I want it to take the shape of something else. So, hopefully the Lord will help me to do just that. I have not been using a lot of language and translation; I've tried to keep, especially in the messages on Revelation, I've tried to keep English the primary language for the most part, but periodically I'll find reason to use language as a tool and so today I'll, it won't be very much, but I want to demonstrate something, somewhat of why━as I'm looking down at my tablet and see a mistake, why we use language. But I want to take kind of an opportunity to go through three different verses that in the King James gives some perspective. They do not all read the same way, using the same word I'm focusing in on in the King James, however from the Hebrew they're using the same root and, or stem and cognate. I want you to circle a few things and we'll come to the passage I will use in a minute, so please first turn to Psalm 78. And Psalm 78, we're going to look at the last verse, but Psalm 78 is basically a recap of all the things that the Lord did as He delivered the children of Israel; all the gracious works, all the marvelous things, He led them. If you keep reading it's all about what He did and some part about their attitude, but the closing part of that Psalm says, “So he fed them according to the integrity of his heart; and guided them by the skillfulness of his hands.” And there's an interesting word, if the director will take my tablet now, so “he fed” them, but when I go to the Hebrew, I can equally say “He shepherded the”" because this word specifically, this makes it “them,” but “and”" conjunction, “he,” and this word is the word we get for “shepherding,” which can also carry the meaning of “to feed, to tend, to take care of,” but I'm choosing to use this word, “so he fed them,” “so He shepherded them” to help build a case for some idea, some concept that I will present. Now this is interesting, this verb, here in Psalm 78:72, is in the simple Qal and imperfect. That doesn't mean that He fed them or shepherded them imperfectly, it simply means it's a narrative, it's recounting something. And He, if we want to look at, historically, had fed them or shepherded them, but there were many more people thereafter to feed and shepherd, and I want to stick with the word “shepherd” right now. The next place you'll encounter the same word for shepherd is in Psalm 28, again there's a kind of strange broken translation there in Psalm 28 and verse 9, where the Psalmist David says, “Save thy people, bless thine inheritance: feed them also, and lift them up for ever.” And in the margin, if you have a Bible like mine, it says where there's a footnote for “feed” it says “rule” and that is because that word once more is “to shepherd.” So it's interesting how sometimes we can read things and we're seeing words that technically speaking are the same. And here we have an imperative; Qal, actually we'll just write “imperative” to keep it simple for those people who are not grammarians. So “shepherd them,” I'd even, I'm putting an exclamation mark to make the point although it's not there, “Shepherd them!” And from the same pen, the most beloved Psalm of the church, Psalm 23, “The LORD is my shepherd.” And there, if I would actually have finished writing, it's the word that was missing; we have Qal, active participle, which means it is the Lord that is the one doing the shepherding. Now it's very simple. I've given you something in somewhat in three tenses, somewhat concealed by the translation. The one I want to camp on today, you know, usually I would dissect a whole psalm, I would tear apart something and say we, we go through something and, but really there's one focus I want us to kind of hone in on, the emphasis there obviously is going to be Psalm 23:1, “The LORD is my shepherd”" but I just want you to take a look at these three things here because if we're going to look at the perspective: He shepherded them, and we can look back at Israel's history and know He did indeed from before they even went into bondage, He promised that they would come out, and therefore before the event was even finished, before anything was ever started, He said, “I will deliver them,” and therefore He shepherded them. He shepherded them both into the land to become slaves in that land and shepherded them indeed out of the land. Here in Psalm 28:9, just a simple imperative, if you will, and if you go back to read the context of that it's a psalm of David and pretty much a cry of help. And if you read the last two verses that come before, “The LORD is my strength and my shield&. The LORD is their strength, and he is the saving strength of his anointed,” therefore, and I've translated it “and shepherd them; save thy people, bless thine inheritance, shepherd them also,” and I actually have “carry them” in my translation, a familiar word for some of you, but “carry them for ever,” as in forever into eternity. You know, I wish there was enough time to translate every Bible verse from the original language because it gives it so much color, it gives it so much depth, but the thing I'm focusing on here is the imperative out of the mouth of David, that the Lord should do this thing. Not that he had to give a command to God; God is faithful to His word. But then lastly out of the same mouth, David uttering, “The LORD is my shepherd,” and there's a, there's a distinction when we look at tenses or the verbs in the Hebrew to see this active participle, which means David probably penning this when he was king looking back at the time when he indeed shepherded and knew what that was, put this in an active participle as if to say on-going in the present time. And so my focus (we'll see if I can move in the right direction here, let's save this), my focus if you're interested, I was going to do some translation but they all basically come to the same thing in every language that I could find available to me, they all pretty much said about the same thing, speaking about the Lord as Shepherd. So there wasn't too much in the translation, but what I did come up with and what I thought should be highlighted is an emphasis now. Back to English, all right, I won't trouble you too much more with language, back to English. So last week I presented something that is basic Christianity in the way of salvation, only two camps, but I'd like us to focus on this one verse, “The LORD is my shepherd.” You know, depending on the way you emphasize something in the English language, depending on your intonation, how you inflect, how you say certain things, you may say there's an italics there for “is,” you may say, “The LORD is my shepherd,” or “The LORD is my shepherd,” depending on the emphasis. But when we begin to meditate on this, just this one part, it's hard for me to not go any further, I may dip in to one or two other verses but not for the sake of pulling them apart, for the sake of emphasizing this one thing about the shepherdhood of our Lord. Now the shepherd is the guide of his flock; the most basic principle that if one is reading the Bible, you come to the conclusion from cover to cover. God is saying the same thing, the office and the character of the shepherd should not be called into question. When we talk about the fact that He goes before them not merely to guide, but He has gone before through the ages. When you think about that and you're reading this, “The LORD is my shepherd”" I, I'm going to try and get you while I'm speaking to personalize it for you so that you can say, “The Lord has walked my pathway before I ever did,” and I want that to be part of the emphasis. You know as we come to or are heading to the end of this year and heading into a new year, and I function by my own calendar, which is not the calendar that everybody else uses, because every day begins a new day of fun and drama, but my point is as we, as this year comes to a close and a new year begins, you also have to remember He's traveled the pathway that you have not yet; your concerns, your cares, your worries, He's traveled that pathway. When we say, “The LORD is my shepherd,” as I said, probably the best known psalm of the whole Psalter; you'll hear it in movies, you'll hear people, I've heard it read and recited just about everywhere that I can think of, but the one thing that I think people might tend to miss this particular part of my emphasis is His condescension and His nearness. You know, when you claim something like that, “The LORD is my shepherd,” and I feel, I feel very isolated right now. I feel like I am the only one thinking these thoughts, so I want you to say it with me, “The LORD is my shepherd.” Okay, don't repeat after me for the sake of repetition though, now that you know what you're going to say, I want you to say it as though it's really true and I hope it really is true for you: “The LORD is my shepherd.” Oh well, good start back there. The point is you begin to recognize, you know, it's easy to read this book and read how He condescended and how He took on sinning-like flesh to approach us, but when you think about a shepherd, you think about the proximity of a shepherd to his flock, to his sheep, and there is a particular order, the sheep don't go before the shepherd, right? There is an order required. Now man considering the Lord as his Shepherd must come to certain set conclusions before there can even be a point of departure, how's that? Now I'm saying things that maybe seem simplistic, but they are profound and they are necessary for every single person, new and old, who will listen to me. Don't tell me that you've heard and understood because there's going to be a dimension of this which I promise will apply to you directly. In fact, I guarantee it. And no, it's not a money back guarantee. You and I must come to understand what type of relationship this is: proprietorship. Don't you love that? Ownership. You see, sheep are not wild sheep, although I'm sure there's some wild sheep in some back country somewhere, but for the most part sheep are owned. This is probably the greatest missing part of most messages in the church world today, and why? Because we live in such an important self-driven world that we could never become “owned” by somebody. But the Bible says “You're not your own, you're bought with a price.” We like to sing the hymns that talk about the blood-bought band and marching His way and marching to Zion, all those good things that are proprietorship, HIS property. And please don't, I don't want this to be a message of guilt, I'm wanting to ask you the question: this last week, did you think of the One who owns you, or was it all about you? Don't answer please, because most of us tend to slip back on a regular basis from the concept of ownership, proprietorship. I know what I'm saying is true, it's unfortunate but it's true of all of us. What type of creatures we are; well, let's just leave that one alone, we'll come back to that for a minute because that deserves its whole separate distinction, it's whole separate subject here. But let's talk about the provision for Him first to lead. I told you I'd dabble back a little bit into the psalm, but not too much because later in the psalm David says, “Thou art there with me,” so when we talk about His provision to lead, He's with us. That's an age-old concept of the church as well. But I'd ask you to soul search, you may not be soul searching right now, but I guarantee you on a replay or when you really need it, you will soul search and you will ask yourself the question, “Is God with me? Is God even seeing? Does God even know?” That's, that's every child of God falls into that stupid trap every once in a while, yours truly as well. And a few of the psalms that should be pegs to put in place, you know, “standing on the promises,” pegs to put in place, something that you and I can go back to when we say, “Thou art with me,” Psalm 16:11 says, “Thou wilt show me the path of life.” Now to some, “the path of life” is living your dreams. There's nothing wrong with dreams, but we're talking about the path of life that as it pertains to the sheep who are owned by the Shepherd; that path of life. Secondly, you don't have to turn there, I'll just read them to you and I'll give you the, the synopsis, so you can put them down on the margin of your page if you have any room by Psalm 23. Psalm 32:8 says, “The way I should go, He will guide me with His eye.” That means even the way I should go, I should go, I'm emphasizing “should go,” He'll guide me with His eye. It means He's watching me. A familiar one━these are promises to put down somewhere when you're saying, “He is with me; the Lord is my Shepherd,” He is with me, “The steps of a good,” gosh, I don't want to be PC, “man are ordered,” sorry folks, I was going to put “person,” but sorry. You understand “man” is generic for all humanity that calls themselves a human being, right? If I have to start putting “persons,” I'm going to leave the pulpit. “Ordered by the LORD.” How do I know He is with me: these are the promises, and I could go on to Psalm 119 and 105, “Your word is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my path: to light my path,” so a lamp for my feet, a light to light the way. So when somebody says, “How do I know?” I just gave you a couple of promises to go back for “The LORD is my shepherd,” and He is with me. Verse 4 says, “Thou art with me.” He is with me, He's with you! Now don't remove yourself from the sheep category for if you do I'll tell you what class you belong in as well. Don't laugh, that one's not funny, that one is probably kind of shocking. If you don't consider yourself sheep, you have no relation to Christ. Now Christ said, “Other sheep I have, not of this fold,” He knows who are His, “My sheep know my voice.” But someone who would say, “I, I'm not a sheep,” well then, you're probably a wolf. Just think on that. “I don't see Him, so how do I know?” I go to Romans, don't turn there, Romans 8:14 says, “As many are as led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.” He is with me. Does our heavenly Father ever desert His children? And the answer is, no. I've told you the story many times, but I think sometimes God lets us be like those kids who have just been disciplined, who are crying their guts out, wailing, as the parent closes the door and is in the next room, and the child is crying, crying, crying, thinking their cries cannot be heard or “Maybe if I cry loud enough someone will hear me.” In reality, mother or father are just in the next room. Well, God is there in the room with the child, but sometimes we forget that. So as I am led I will acknowledge Him in all my ways and He will direct my paths; that doesn't mean He puts me on a pathway and says, “Now you will never deviate.” This is what I love about this church and about you who are here. You understand that most of us will deviate, most of us will mess up, most of us will step sometimes willingly and sometimes unknowingly out of bounds with God. Am I saying something that doesn't fit the category here, because I'll say it for me, I know that's true of me, does anybody else think that's true of them? Good! Then this is not a one-sided message because what I want there to be is something that is clear. You know, we follow this and utter, “The LORD,” and I'm putting the emphasis now on the italics, which is not really there: “The LORD IS my shepherd,” literally, the Lord shepherding me, or Shepherd of me, the One shepherding me. And “The path of the just is a shining light,” now that's Proverbs 4:18, and what I'd say to you about that is most take that to be “the just” as the individual. I'd call “the just” the Lord Himself, and that path gets lighter and clearer as we go on, as we progress in Him, as we move forward in Him. So when, when we claim this, “The LORD is my shepherd,” I want you to think of the provision. We were just talking about provision for your husband; it's kind of miraculous, some people can wait years and years. I think God obviously entered in and not only in the provision, but in the faith department, because there could have been a mindset that said, “Well, we've pretty much given up.” There's another King's House, by the way, out there who often writes and I get a big smile, I know he's listening right now, who has I think had a kidney transplant for as long as I think I've been pastor here and is healthy and functioning; well, just about the time, and is healthy and functioning well. And this is another one of those; not only can the Lord provide that, but the Lord can provide the restored health. So the provision of the Shepherd here, I ask you to think about this, and forgive me for saying it like this but when sheep, when you see the sheep out in the field, do you think the sheep are talking to themselves while they're munching down on that grass going, “I wonder where tomorrow's grass is going to be? I'm very disturbed about what, what pasture we'll be in tomorrow. Do you think that the leader knows where we're going to be?” No! They're only interested in one thing: eating; eating and exiting the food. Think about that. Now let me take you back you back into, I just, I want give these illustrations, but then I want to come back into the Bible, because in the Bible we have Jesus asking a trick question of Philip. In John 6:5, he says, “He did this to prove,” He knew what the answer was going to be, but He asked Philip, “Where can we buy bread?” Now think about that. The Lord Himself is asking Philip, not because the Lord was thinking, “Hey, where's the nearest 7/11?” but because He Himself could provide that bread, but it would take the disciples' eyes to be open and faith to be engaged for the answer to be, “Well, Lord, why do we need to buy bread? You can provide it.” It's our mindset; this is the way we are. Now there's another place in the psalms, in the Psalter, Psalm 37 and 3, it says, “Trust in the LORD, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shall be fed.” My translation from that same word “fed” is “thou shall be shepherded; trust in the LORD and thou shall be shepherded; trust in the LORD, thou shall be fed; trust in the LORD, he shall provide.” So many times we've gone to the Scripture out of Genesis, Jehovah-jirah, but I've said to you, caution in using that, caution in touching that Scripture, not because it's not for us to claim and say, “The LORD will provide,” but rather if one is looking for provision, the Shepherd's provision is really good, right from this psalm. You know the next part of this verse is, “I shall not want,” really, “I shall, I shall lack nothing.” Now that doesn't mean what those prosperity people out there preach, which is “You will have everything that you've ever thought of, anything and everything!” You know, I've told you the story about the, you know, the ministry where there they say, you know, “Wish for gold,” and you know the guy comes in to the━never mind; pockets are laden with gold. No, the other ministry, you know, they look in the mouth for gold. “Oh yes, Jesus was busy last night putting gold in your teeth. Come here, Betsy, open your mouth and show them.” Remember, I told you and she had her finger in her mouth and they had the camera in her mouth and it's like, “Ew!” But my translation of that is “Thou shall be shepherded, thou shall be fed, thou shall be provided for.” Now I ask you something because it's so easy to listen and say this is surface, but if you dig back into the Bible, you realize God had provision for Jacob and his sons by virtue of having Joseph be in Egypt, interpret Pharaoh's dreams and be, essentially, the second in command, the most powerful man, second to Pharaoh in the land, to preserve the food, to provide for those of his own family that would have perished if it weren't for Joseph providing and putting aside for the years of famine. And you don't think that the Lord can provided and know well in advance what you need? I mean if the story is true; you have to start there, and if it is true, and I believe it is true, then the Lord provided to make sure that his seed that his descendants did not go without. Now does it say that they went to Egypt and they obtained fillet mignon? No, but they got grain to survive, and that's what the Lord does; when we talk about His provision, “The LORD is my shepherd.” Now the Bible also says elsewhere in Psalm 105 that He fed them with the bread of heaven that when they came out of Egypt, this was rained down, the what-cha-ma-call-it of God, the manna of God, which they didn't want to eat after a while and they were sick of. It's pretty sick band of people to be sick of the very thing that God rained down, that He graced them with, but yet they said, “Ooh, this light bread, we don't want it anymore.” Now the Scripture also says that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God, which means the provision. The Lord is, “the LORD IS my shepherd,” His provision is not limited to the things that I may only taste and touch, but that I may receive with my mind that I may understand, that those are the things that will give me life, if you will, and possibly that same word spoken is the same word spoken, by the way, that says He sent His word when they were exiting Egypt and He healed them all and delivered them out of their destructions. So when we talk about the Lord shepherding, the One shepherding us, you've got to look at this whole picture, the provision of His Spirit and of His power. The Psalmist knew something of that, “Quicken me according to thy word.” I taught on that on Festival one time: “Make me alive in thy word; make thy word to dwell in me, or to raise me up.” Now all of these things, it seems like, you know, I can, I can kind of still stay on the surface, but now I'm going to go a little bit deeper, because this is where I said I guarantee this will hit some of you somewhere at some point, or you've heard it, but you're at least familiar with it because I've said this before. I've, I've actually had to touch on this before. Now I'm not bringing this up because I've heard this echoed of late, but I'm bringing this up because it's such a great point to make in the provision, “The LORD is my shepherd; I lack nothing.” I want to turn now to the pulpit and the distracted saints. I don't want to call you sheep right now, but let's just say the pulpit and the distracted saints. Now there are preachers in the pulpit who are not teaching the word of God, not in simplicity, not it complexity, not in anything; they're just not teaching it, and the saints who are in the midst of those have a right to say they're not being fed, but quite frankly, if you know you're not being fed and there's no word coming forth, then you have a responsibility to go and find food where you may. But don't be mistaken with something, and it's taken me this long to set this straight in my mind and to crystallize it. Many times the Lord's people complain about being fed, you know why? Because they are focused, and I'm talking about places where the word is going forth, they are focused on the pulpit and their critique and their judgment of the pastor, which, by the way, God gave some gifts to the ministry for the perfecting of the saints and not the other way around. But the folly of looking with a judgmental attitude of what's not being said, or what they want to hear, or what they used to hear. But if they would lift up their eyes, they would see where their help comes from. You see, if you focus completely, I don't care if you're looking to me or to Dr. Scott, or anybody else you're listening to, if you focus completely on the pastor, you will never see the Master. That's the problem. You know, it's taken me this many years to crystallize that. All these people that sat here that left, but the real thing is they were busy looking at me. They had taken their eyes off Christ. How long have I been saying to you, it is your relationship with Christ that I'm concerned about? My job is to fortify and to get you closer to Christ in preaching the message that will bring you greater faith and greater understanding, you will gravitate more. The by, by-affect, the spillover is you may, you may say you love me or you appreciate me because of that, and that's okay, but I am not going to be in your place. I will stand and give account for what I did here, but I'm not going to be standing your place to lead you along by the hand into eternity. You will stand before the Master, so it's my job to make sure that your focus is right. You follow me as I follow Christ, but understand one thing: if all the focus is on the pastor and not on the Master, you will receive little or nothing from the message, and this is about the truest thing I've ever said from this pulpit concerning people who were disgruntled and angry and complaining. Now if you'll look to the Master, remarkably the Master will be able to somehow feed you through the pastor, knowing exactly what you need. And that's the strangest spiritual law that I can explain. If you're looking unto Him and trusting Him, and you've got a man or a woman of God preaching, that man or woman of God will, will give and present and open up; feed and lead, teach and guide and there'll be something there for you and you will not say, “I'm not being fed.” So when we talk about sheep━I'm not done, remember I said to you if you don't fit into the category, if you say, “I'm not sheep,” well, then I will say you are a wolf; you're not His. See, part of knowing “The LORD is my shepherd” is knowing, as I said, proprietorship; I, I am part of His property; He bought me with His blood, He redeemed me from the pit of hell by Him going to Calvary. Part of that is I now, this life that I live, I don't live it unto myself anymore, I live it unto Him; therefore, think of these things; so the sheep's mentality, the sheep's mindset. Jesus said, “My sheep know my voice.” I must hit on this while I'm here because it ties in and it must be said, not only for me and this ministry but for any other minister that has to have the same, and in my case or in the other minister's case, will have the same. You know the people that say, “Oh, I, after, after my dear and beloved pastor,” and I'm not necessarily referring to Dr. Scott, but anyone who's been in a ministry long enough where the pastor is promoted, “Oh, I can't listen to anybody else.” Well, let me tell you what you were listening to then, you were listening to a man or a woman and you were not focused on the Master. You were not focused on the word of God. It's an immature, poorly developed, spiritually poorly developed person that says, “I cannot listen to anybody else, because this one individual”━but this one individual was only flesh, just as I am, just as another will be. And I will go on and if Jesus doesn't come in my lifetime, and there'll be another and there'll be another until He says, “It is truly,” as though it was finished at Calvary, it is finished, “it is now finished and completed; the end is come.” Until that time, even in small pockets, the word of God must be preached, must be proclaimed by the power of the Holy Spirit through the opening of this book. And “My sheep know my voice,” is not the voice of a Dr. Gene Scott or a Melissa Scott, “My sheep know my voice”" the book is open, the Spirit bears witness. And when people say, “Well, don't these people who watch TV and don't, don't they know they're being deceived? “My sheep know my voice,” and these cannot possibly know because they are not even listening! How do you listen to God? Open up His book and let the book speak to your heart and then you'll be listening with ears that desire to know the heart of God revealed in this book and you won't be deceived. Now you keep your eyes on Him. Christ said all that the Father gave to Him, they'll come to Him. That may mean sooner or later, some sooner, some later. But when we read this and claim for ourselves “The LORD is my shepherd,” this should also underline something else. You know, He protects us from dangers that lurk, but He does not prevent the danger. Make that distinction. He protects us, He gives us warning. We know there is no temptation known, all temptations are common; there is not a temptation that will probably not pass under your nose. And all flesh is indeed still flesh and the Spirit and the flesh are at war, buffeted on every side; some it's the buffeting of the pocketbook, some it's the buffeting of the mind, some it's the tug-of-war to be here or to not be here, to be committed or not to be committed, some, let me just tell you. There are some in this sanctuary even here, they're more drawn away by a career or by the potential of chasing after something that seems infinitely more important than being in this sanctuary and supporting the voice that is trying to reach people with the gospel of Jesus Christ to tell them about this shepherdhood, this condescended One who came down to be with us. There's some people that think it's just not that important. Now I'm not telling you to go live in a monastery, I'm not telling you to go and be a part of some cult or some club, but I am telling you in your heart and in your mind, if Christ has preeminence, you put Him first. I see people all the time that come and they're gung-ho to be here for a little while, until the reality of commitment and servitude sets in. You know, many people like to critique me and talk about, “You know, Pastor Scott thinks this and Pastor”━they don't, they don't know a thing about me. Don't for a minute think that I'm some prima donna that stands up here and I'm not willing to do the dirtiest jobs, because that's what I do during the week, some of the dirtiest jobs that I could have other people do, but I do them because I'm a hands-on person. And when we talk about servant and Master, there's only one Master here, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Everybody else here is sheep and servant, or you're none of His. You just settle that. There isn't some, this is not some class distinction here: we'll talk about the middle class in Christianity and the upper class and the lower class and we can separate them by division. You are either sheep and servant or you are a wolf and worldly and not even part of His flock, and I don't care how much you want to try and fit and press in and shove in. But when you say, “The LORD IS my shepherd”━I keep emphasizing that, there is a dimension of your being that should be saying, “His provision is sufficient,” and not become boastful and say, like some that say, “Well, you talk about the devil a lot, you talk about Satan a lot, you talk about these opposing forces a lot,” and there are people that will come into the church and say, “I'm His sheep, but I'm not afraid of no lion, I don't━I'm not afraid of no wolf and there ain't no bear going to hurt me: ♪ I shall not be, I shall not be moved.” ♪ Right? “I said within myself, I shall never be moved”" I think that's when God does His best movement: on you. Let that one sink in. You cannot outrun the dangers, but you can be empowered against them. That's why I said He offers protection in His provision, but He does not say, “I will prevent.” All you've got to do is look at Job when the hedge was lifted. Some people think that's the most injust book in the Bible, “How could God let His faithful servant be tormented and tried and tested like that, have everything taken away from him”" And if you look at yourself after you strip back all of the little or the much excess in your life, you might find yourself eventually a little Job-like: slightly puffed up, because the reality hasn't sunk in yet, God is going to teach you a lesson. This is why from this same psalm when it says, “Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.” You know, I'll tell you this one thing; rod and staff are there for a reason. One is to rescue; the other one is to beat the wool out of you. Sorry. I don't like to quote Proverbs all that often, but Proverbs 13:24 says, “He that spareth his rod hateth his son”" Now God, if He's busy chastening you, the Hebrews letter talks about that, “Whom the Lord chastens, he loves.” You take the correction and if you're one of His, you realize sometimes, again it's another one of these lessons the Lord is having to teach me because I'm hardheaded this way. I know the biblical example of Jacob. He had to cripple Jacob for him to become Israel and for him to walk with a limp forever after. That limp would undoubtedly remind him of the night that he was wrestling or wrestled with the angel of the Lord. Sometimes you will find if you go to read Eastern literature, there are stories told; I don't know if they're legendary or true of the shepherd sometimes crippling or laming some of his flock to ensure that they don't stray as far as they do. And when they have been crippled or lamed, the shepherd will sometimes have to carry the sheep for a time until it's healed and that proximity brings the sheep to a place where it seldom if ever strays very far from the shepherd. I think sometimes the Lord has to do that. Sometimes it's taking away the very things that you, you've held onto so tightly. Sometimes, I've said this to you before, no one is immune from needing a kidney and dialysis, to a person like myself battling my own issues, which I have shared with you publicly. And I realize now, I fully accept it, the Lord is, in His provision as my Shepherd, He's the Great Physician. He can touch every sickness and every disease, but sometimes I think He'll, He'll leave a little reminder here and there so that you don't forget, because He knows our ways. He knows that when everything's well we may have that, that disposition to go back and seek the better, greener pastures we call it, and forget about the One who provided, who led and who guided and who was there rescuing and delivering, if you really think about it, which brings me to one other thing about sheep. Again, if you read the Eastern chronicles, we don't have as much knowledge as those who have been doing this for ages and supposedly sheep are one of the sickliest, most apt to infirmities, interior and exterior. It's up to the shepherd to know how to take care of, and I've yet to read a story where one of the sheep said, “Well, hey, you know, I need my leg amputated, so I'll just walk into that electric fence over there and see it that can fix it.” I'm being ludicrous, but my point is, and I'm not against seeking medical help, I'm simply saying that the Lord knows. You know, all the things that are broken, I say after 40 the warrantee is over. “So many thousand miles or 40, whichever comes first and the warrantee is over and now you're on your own,” no. He knows all the things that are broken that need to be touched, that need to be fixed, that need to be healed. And I've said I think there are big things sometimes that are so obvious and with just one touch, like the centurion said, “Only speak the word; You don't have to come. Lord, only speak the word.” Or what did He tell His disciples, “Lower the net again.” “We've done it all night, nevertheless, at thy word,” the obedience to His word. I'll keep knocking, although no one has answered the door yet, I'll keep knocking for God to heal. The Lord is able to do that, that's part of His provision, that's part of His care. “The LORD is my shepherd”" Now I'm going through this and I'm trying to take my time because I realize one thing. For most of you listening to me it seems like, you know, this is old school, but what I want to keep going back to over and over again, probably the greatest thing that could be highlighted here is the proprietorship and the relationship to the One who supposedly owns you. Do you know, in any other church I'd probably have people who would just be shirking back right now and saying, “Wow, okay, this is too much for me,” but the reality is if you are going to, out of your mouth, say, “The LORD is my shepherd,” then you are recognizing with your mouth. This is exactly what Romans talks about “with the mouth proclamation is made,” this is the exact same thing. The mouth sometimes is going and the heart and the mind haven't yet come into agreement. You know, you hear people that are praying earnestly when some calamity is happening, “Lord, please deliver me from this thing right now, I pray, I pray, I pray, I pray,” that battlefield prayer. And there's nothing wrong, by the way, with the battlefield prayer, but there's an even better way, which is constant communication with the One who's looking out for you. So when you do say, “The LORD is my shepherd,” “My sheep know my voice, and they follow Me. They know who I am.” And I'm not speaking of me; I'm an undershepherd. God placed me in a place to be an undershepherd. He is the Shepherd, providing, guiding, protecting, and over all these things I'm going to say one more, which is the probably the crowning one that happens most often: the wandering sheep, you know, the ones who they can never settle in, they can never settle down. They're here for a little bit and they go off somewhere else and they come back and then they float back here and they float back there. Let me just say this. The Lord still loves the wandering sheep. The Bible says He goes after those who are lost. He goes after those who are lost, but it doesn't say in the parable, by the way, it says that He finds them and He brings them back in and there's much rejoicing, but what it doesn't say perhaps is maybe how long a time some are lost and some wander off. And I have had people come here that were very faithful, faithful over the years and they just somehow, they meander away, they think there's something better somewhere else. And I've always said, “Hey, go,” but I'm going to tell you what you are going to find somewhere else. You'll find a lot of traditions, a lot of manmade stuff. Trust me, I do go and speak in other churches, I've been around in these last many years where people have invited me and I'll go because I've had an invitation, but it always comes down to the same thing. There's some tradition tucked in there, sometimes a lot of tradition tucked in there. I've been to places where they've said, in Protestant churches, serving up the Communion and treating the Communion as a sacrament that is able to save. It's disturbing to me because we're taught the only way we are saved, the Bible declares it, we are to trust, we are to faithe in Christ, but yet there will be people who will go back to the table of the Lord and actually defeat the purpose of why we actually gather there. So when it says, “My sheep know my voice,” I've been to places where it seems like there is no voice being spoken because if the sheep knew the voice, they wouldn't be listening to that, they wouldn't say━they would say, “This is what the Bible declares.” Now by shades and nuances. I'm not talking about the legalists that come in and say, “Well, you know, ha, ha, no; this is chapter and verse right here and you're wrong and I'm right and let's have a war of words.” But God's ability here to provide for even the wandering ones, the ones who think there's something better out there and then they come back and they say, “Wow, I, I realize.” I hope they do that, “I realize how good I had it here.” Nothing really is asked, see, this is what's so insane, nothing is asked of you. People come in and they say, “I wonder what's going on in that church. It's strange building.” Well, it is a strange building. If you want to know the truth, it is a strange building because I told you, it's crusty on the outside and it's brand new on the inside. It's a strange building, yes, it is. But what goes on here? Exactly what you see, if you're watching on the internet, there's not some event that happens after we go off. There's times we've gone off the air from our audience and I've prayed with the people here. We've continued in music, but most of the time what you see is what you get. There are no healing lines, I'm not beating people with my coat to make them fall over, or blow on them. I'm not standing at the door to pickpocket you on the way in or the way out. There's nobody here handing out cards and saying, “Sign up and sign your life away for a year. You promise to be committed to this work. You promised to go and do missionary work━you, you were chosen out of a pool of people to go be a missionary in some far-flung country! Congratulations. Here's five dollars. See ya!” That happens. Very little is asked of you and that's why I said it's beyond me that anybody would come here━you have to recognize this is a place, it's a learning place, and today is a very simple lesson. And I've chosen this simple lesson for one reason. In preparation for new people coming, for old people, the older, the ones who have been here a long time who get into a groove and forget to recognize, practicing an awareness of His presence, “The LORD is my shepherd.” When I'm, when I'm weary the Bible tells me if we are committed, if we're faithful, if we stay the course, if we faint not, we will reap in due season. It's very easy to say, “What's the point?” Like the sheep have some ability to tell the shepherd, “I don't really know what the point is of me grazing here anymore. There's other places for me to go graze, and you know, you end up in the desert where there's no grass at all; good choice! Nice going! And then pride keeps you away because you can't seem to figure out that the very thing that gave you that first spark and that first ignition to walk with God is the same thing that keeps you there: “The LORD is my shepherd.” The Bible, the King James says, “I shall not want”━I lack nothing. Everything that I need, He provides. He is with me, “Thou art with me,” rod and staff, able to help and able to discipline, able to guide and provide. And if you think about all these things, it should bring us to a place of gratitude that we are able to live the life of faith and understand this Great Shepherd━oh, I could jump into John's Gospel and read from that, I could talk about what Peter says about the Great Shepherd of our souls. I'm only interested in camping out here because I want this place to be a place, this one verse to be one verse that even though it's so well known in the church, “The LORD is my shepherd,” I want it to be something so personalized to you that when you think about His leading and His guiding, His provision, His ability to know exactly what you need and the promise that you shall lack nothing is yours. The New Testament says all the promises are ours in Christ. Well, this is yours, “The LORD is my shepherd,” if you should feel lost. And the feeling of being lost is still there in terms of His presence, believe me, He is not far. That's the strangest thing that I've had to tell people. When you feel that you have somehow drifted away━you ever have that feeling of being drifted away a little bit from your walk with God? It's in those moments that actually He's probably the closest to you because the reality is if you had indeed drifted away, and away as in unloosed and gone, you wouldn't be wondering anymore; you wouldn't care. There's, the desire's gone. When you are wandered away for good, you know, somebody might say, “I've wandered away one too many times.” How do you know? The fact that you're talking about the one too many times tells me that God still wants you and He hasn't given up on you! The fact that you're still talking about God and what, how it used to be and how you remember it being is you remembering all the ways the Lord thy God led thee in the past and you're so busy looking at the past that you can't see ahead to look and see He is there! He is with me! He is going to lead me through because “The LORD is my shepherd.” That's my promise and it's your promise to those who engage in the folly, and it's temporary folly. Don't think that this is for somebody else, because the reality is it's for you and it's for me. It's just as much a message for me as it is for you today to come back to the reminder: the Lord is able. Trust in Him, rely upon Him, recognize something: if I utter this out of my mouth, “The LORD is my shepherd,” then I am His sheep, you are His sheep, part of His flock. He knows who are His, He knows the ones that press close. They're the fattened up ones. And He knows the ones on the peripheral, faraway places, somewhat emaciated, still trying to figure out which patch of grass they should eat before starving to death. But the wonder of it all is that we can, with our mouths, we can say the Lord is our Shepherd and know that He will provide, He will take care. And if you're thinking about what's coming up in the next week or in the next year, I want you to remind yourself of the, just this one verse that says He is able to take you through. Did He not lead you all this past year? Forget about the years before. Did He not lead you this past year? (Yes ma'am.) He led some of you through loosing spouses, He led some of you through loosing loved ones, close loved ones, He led some of you through tough times of not being able to have access to your grandchildren, but He led you. He led you through things you thought you'd never get through. That is the God we serve. So I want to bring this message to a close by asking you one thing. If you recognize that you are His and He owns you, do you really think that He's going to let you suffer and want for the sake of? There's a great lesson in this shepherdhood message and that is God cares for you tremendously, stupid, wandering, sometimes not able to see aright, but all the while He looks at you and He says, “These crazy, wandering, silly creatures, they are Mine. I love them. I'm going to take care of them.” And just like that one psalm says, and take them, carry them all the way into eternity, safe in Jesus' arms. And I want you to close the message by repeating this one thing with me and I want you to really say it, not just repeat it. I want you to say it with the conviction that I feel as I've preached this to you: “The LORD IS my shepherd.” We'll do that one more time. Some of you were out of sync: “The LORD is my shepherd.” That's my message. You have been watching me, Pastor Melissa Scott, live from Glendale, California at Faith Center. If you would like to attend the service with us, Sunday morning at 11am, simply call 1-800-338-3030 to receive your pass. If you'd like more teaching and you would like to go straight to our website, the address is www.PastorMelissaScott.com
