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Max Lucado - The Lord is My Shepherd · Max Lucado Daily Sermons

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Speaker 1: God, Bless you. God bless you. May He give you strength.
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Speaker 1: May He lift you up however you are, and wherever
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Speaker 1: you are in the midst of all of the turmoil
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Speaker 1: and chaos. May He give you a spirit of inner
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Speaker 1: peace that comes from trusting Him. I'd like to pray
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Speaker 1: for us all, and then we're going to open our
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Speaker 1: bibles to the twenty third Psalm. Oh Great King, we
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Speaker 1: honor you as the only source of peace. We honor
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Speaker 1: you as the one who always tells the truth, who
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Speaker 1: always blesses, who always cares, who hears our prayers, who
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Speaker 1: comes to us in our hour of need. We turn
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Speaker 1: to you now, Father, and in the name of Jesus Christ,
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Speaker 1: our Savior, I would ask you to speak a blessing
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Speaker 1: over all who hear these words, young and old, near
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Speaker 1: and far, strong and weak. May you bless them, Lord,
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Speaker 1: Bless them with fortification, Edify them within, Strengthen them, Bless
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Speaker 1: their relationships, Bless their work, Let them prosper. Father. Let
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Speaker 1: those who are sick be healed, those who are lonely
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Speaker 1: find fellowship, those who are confused find answers, and those
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Speaker 1: who are afraid find courage. You can do this, our God,
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Speaker 1: with just a word, and we ask you to speak
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Speaker 1: that word, and we pray in the name of Christ
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Speaker 1: and all the church said. When did the craziness of
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Speaker 1: the last few months hit you? Was it when you were,
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Speaker 1: for the first time, standing in a grocery store check out,
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Speaker 1: lying neatly space six feet behind the patron in front
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Speaker 1: of you. Was it when you heard a New York
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Speaker 1: City doctor describe how her hospital was so overwhelmed with
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Speaker 1: COVID patients that they had to bring a refrigerated truck
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Speaker 1: to hold the dead. Maybe it was when you visited
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Speaker 1: your grandma in the nursing home but had to stand
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Speaker 1: outside the window talking to her on your phone. Or
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Speaker 1: maybe it was when you heard the reporter state that
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Speaker 1: unemployment is the worst it's been since the Great Depression,
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Speaker 1: and the data, the numbers, the figures. Oh my thousand,
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Speaker 1: over one hundred thousand dead, forty million unemployed. Maybe it
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Speaker 1: was the protests, Maybe it was the lootings. These last months, well,
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Speaker 1: they feel like a dream, feel like a nightmare, feel
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Speaker 1: like a novel, like a like a dolly painting, people
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Speaker 1: wearing masks, churches canceling services. What do you mean no graduation?
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Speaker 1: How are you coping? You know, in changing times, I
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Speaker 1: can think of no more important step than to focus
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Speaker 1: on the unchanging character of God. And I can think
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Speaker 1: of no scripture that helps us understand the unchanging character
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Speaker 1: of God more than this one, the Beloved twenty third Psalm.
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Speaker 1: The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want, And
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Speaker 1: he makes me lie down in green pastures, and he
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Speaker 1: leads me beside the still waters, and he restores my soul.
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Speaker 1: He leads me in paths of righteousness for his namesake.
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Speaker 1: And YEA, though I walk through the valley of the
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Speaker 1: shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you
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Speaker 1: are with me. Your rod and your staff. They comfort me.
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Speaker 1: You prepare a table before me in the presence of
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Speaker 1: my enemies. You anoint my head with oil, and my
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Speaker 1: cup runs over. Surely, goodness and mercy shall follow me
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Speaker 1: all the days of my life. And I will dwell
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Speaker 1: in the house of the Lord forever I ask you
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Speaker 1: do more. Beloved, words exist framed and hung in hospital
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Speaker 1: halls and scratched on prison walls, quoted by the young
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Speaker 1: and whispered by the dying. In these lines, the sailors
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Speaker 1: have found a harbor, and the frightened have found a father.
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Speaker 1: And the strugglers have found a friend. And because the
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Speaker 1: passage is it's so deeply beloved, it is widely known.
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Speaker 1: Can you find ears on which these words have never fallen?
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Speaker 1: Sung in music to one hundred songs, translated in a
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Speaker 1: thousand tongues, domiciled in a million hearts, and one of
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Speaker 1: those hearts is probably yours. I'm curious what kinship do
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Speaker 1: you feel with the twenty third song? Where do the
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Speaker 1: words transport you to a fireside, to a graveside, to
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Speaker 1: a bedside. Let's turn to these words. I think we
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Speaker 1: need a deep dose of the twenty third song this
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Speaker 1: week and the next four Let's drink deeply from this
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Speaker 1: well of strength. A handful of you might recall when
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Speaker 1: we as a church studied this psalm. The year nineteen
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Speaker 1: ninety eight was a long time ago. I think we're
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Speaker 1: overdue a revisit, and what a timely, timely contemplation. Each
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Speaker 1: passage is rich, each promise is worth memorizing. We need
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Speaker 1: to go no further than the very first phrase to
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Speaker 1: find our first dose of strength. David says, the Lord
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Speaker 1: is my shepherd. The Lord is my shepherd. You want
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Speaker 1: to really know who God is David says, you need
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Speaker 1: to know that Yahweh is my shepherd. Yeah, that's a
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Speaker 1: foreign word to us, but it wasn't to David. Yahweh
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Speaker 1: that Hebrew name. That way God introduced himself to Moses
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Speaker 1: through the burning bush, that name was fresh and meaningful
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Speaker 1: to David. In fact, you might say that the rest
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Speaker 1: of the twenty third Psalm is just helping us understand
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Speaker 1: the first word, the name Yahweh. You see, Yahweh is
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Speaker 1: God's name. You might call me a preacher or a
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Speaker 1: writer or a half baked golfer. Those are accurate descriptions,
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Speaker 1: but they aren't my names. I might call you dad
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Speaker 1: or mom or teacher or student, and those terms might
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Speaker 1: describe you, but they're not your name. And if you
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Speaker 1: want to if you want to call me by my name,
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Speaker 1: just say Max. And if I want to call you
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Speaker 1: by your name, I say it. And if you want
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Speaker 1: to call God by God's name, he says, call me Yahweh. Yahweh.
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Speaker 1: God has told us his name how he must long
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Speaker 1: to be close to us. Now God gives a definition
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Speaker 1: of the word or the name Yahweh, and we kind
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Speaker 1: of wish Moses had requested one scholars have studied this
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Speaker 1: name trying to find the significance. It sounds strikingly close
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Speaker 1: to the Hebrew verb to be havah, and it's quite
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Speaker 1: possibly a combination of the present tense form I am
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Speaker 1: and the causative form I cause. To be Yahweh then
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Speaker 1: seems to be a combination of I am and I cause.
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Speaker 1: God in other words, Yahweh, in other words, is the
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Speaker 1: one who is and the one who causes? Why is
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Speaker 1: that important? Why does that matter? Because we need a
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Speaker 1: big God. And if God is the one who is,
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Speaker 1: then he is an unchanging God. Think about it. Do
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Speaker 1: you know anyone who goes around saying, I am, how
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Speaker 1: are you? I am? How you been? I am? We
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Speaker 1: always add another word, I am happy, or I am sad,
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Speaker 1: or I've been tired, or even I am max. God
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Speaker 1: doesn't need to do so. He doesn't need to do so.
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Speaker 1: I am, he says, and we wait for him to
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Speaker 1: add a phrase. But God needs no descriptive word why
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Speaker 1: because he never changes. He never changes. He is who
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Speaker 1: he is and always has been. His immutability motivated the
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Speaker 1: Psalmist to declare in Psalm one O. Two twenty seven,
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Speaker 1: but thou art the same the writer is saying, you
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Speaker 1: are the one who is you never change. Yahweigh is
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Speaker 1: an unchanging God. He's also this. He's also an uncaused God. Yes,
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Speaker 1: he creates, but he was never created. He makes, but
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Speaker 1: he was never made. He caused, but he was never caused.
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Speaker 1: Hence the psalmest proclamation before the mountains were born, or
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Speaker 1: you brought forth the earth in the world from everlasting
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Speaker 1: to everlasting. You are God, God is Yahweh. He is
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Speaker 1: an unchanging God, an uncaused God. And one more, he
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Speaker 1: is an ungoverned god. Boy, We've been reminded lately, haven't we,
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Speaker 1: that we are governed. The weather determines what we wear.
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Speaker 1: The terrain tells us how to travel. A pandemic dictates
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Speaker 1: our actions. Gravity describes or governs our speed, and health
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Speaker 1: determines our strength. And we may challenge these forces, and
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Speaker 1: we may alter them slightly, but we never remove them yet. Yahweh,
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Speaker 1: our shepherd. He doesn't check the weather. He makes it.
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Speaker 1: He doesn't defy gravity created it. He isn't affected by health.
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Speaker 1: Jesus said, God is spirit, and since he has no body,
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Speaker 1: he has no limitations. Listen, he is equally active right
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Speaker 1: now in Cambodia and Connecticut. David asked, where can I
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Speaker 1: go to get away from your spirit? Where can I
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Speaker 1: run from you? If I go up to the heavens,
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Speaker 1: You're there. If I lie down in the grave, you
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Speaker 1: are there. He is unchanging, he is uncost he is ungoverned.
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Speaker 1: And these are only a fraction of God's qualities. But,
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Speaker 1: my friend, aren't they enough? Aren't they enough to give
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Speaker 1: you a glimpse of your shepherd, of your Yahweh. Don't
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Speaker 1: we need this kind of shepherd? Don't we need an
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Speaker 1: unchanging shepherd? We need a Yahweh. We've had enough change,
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Speaker 1: haven't we? Relationships change, health changes, politics change, the weather changes.
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Speaker 1: But the Yahweh, the Yahweh who ruled the earth last night,
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Speaker 1: is the same who will rule the world tomorrow. He
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Speaker 1: has the same convictions, He has the same mood, he
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Speaker 1: has the same plan, He has the same love. He
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Speaker 1: never changes. He never changes. You can no more alter
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Speaker 1: God than a pebble can alter the rhythm of the
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Speaker 1: Pacific Ocean. We have and we need an unchanging shepherd.
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Speaker 1: We have an uncaused shepherd. No one breathed life into
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Speaker 1: our Yahweh, no one sired him No one gave birth
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Speaker 1: to him, No one fought him up, no one caused him.
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Speaker 1: No act brought him forth. And hear this, Since no
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Speaker 1: act brought him forth, no act can take him out.
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Speaker 1: Does he tremble at a tornado? Does he fear an earthquake?
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Speaker 1: Our Yahweh can sleep through a storm, and he can
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Speaker 1: speak a word to the winds and silence them. Pandemics
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Speaker 1: do not trouble him. Cemeteries do not disturb him. He
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Speaker 1: was here before they came. He'll be here after they're gone.
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Speaker 1: He is uncost and he's ungoverned. He's ungoverned. Counselors can
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Speaker 1: comfort you in the storm, but you need a God
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Speaker 1: who can still the storm. Friends can hold your hand
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Speaker 1: at your deathbed, but you need a Yahweh who has
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Speaker 1: defeated the grave. Philosophers debate the meaning of life, but
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Speaker 1: you need a lord who can tell you the meaning
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Speaker 1: of our existence. You need a Yahweh. You need a Yahweh.
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Speaker 1: You need a god who can place one hundred billion
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Speaker 1: stars in our galaxy and one hundred billion galaxies in
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Speaker 1: the universe. You need a god who can shape two
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Speaker 1: fists of flesh into seventy five to one hundred billion
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Speaker 1: nurse cells, each with as many as ten thousand connections
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Speaker 1: to other nurse cells. Place it in a skull and
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Speaker 1: call it a brain. You need a God who, while
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Speaker 1: so mind numbingly mighty, can come in the soft of
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Speaker 1: the night and touch you with the tenderness of an april. Snow,
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Speaker 1: you need a yahweh And according to David, you have one.
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Speaker 1: And you know what he is your shepherd. He's your shepherd.
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Speaker 1: Now that's a wonderfully poetic and comforting thought until you
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Speaker 1: stop and think. In order for God to be my shepherd,
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Speaker 1: I have to admit that I am a sheep. Of
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Speaker 1: all God's animals, a sheep is one sure I want
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Speaker 1: to be. The sheep is least able to take care
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Speaker 1: of himself. Think about it. Sheep are dumb. They're dumb.
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Speaker 1: Have you ever met a sheep trainer? Have you ever
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Speaker 1: seen sheep tricks? Know anyone who has taught a sheep
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Speaker 1: to roll over? Ever witnessed the side show featuring Mazdon
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Speaker 1: and his jumping sheep. Sheep are too dumb, and you
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Speaker 1: know what, they're defenseless. You can likely outrun a sheep,
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Speaker 1: and sheep don't have claws. Sheep won't bite you. That's
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Speaker 1: why you never see a sheep. They see sheep as
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Speaker 1: team mascots. We've heard of the Saint Louis Rams, and
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Speaker 1: the Chicago Bulls and the Seattle Seahawks, but the New
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Speaker 1: York Lambs. Who wants to be a lamb? You couldn't
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Speaker 1: even stir up a decent yell for the cheerleaders to use.
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Speaker 1: We are the sheep. We don't make a peep. Victory
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Speaker 1: is yours to keep, but count us if you want
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Speaker 1: to sleep. What's more, sheeper dirty. A cat can clean itself,
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Speaker 1: so can to a degree, a dog. We see a
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Speaker 1: bird in a bird bath, even a bear in a river.
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Speaker 1: But she they get dirty and stay that way. Come on, David,
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Speaker 1: come on, couldn't you have thought of a better metaphor?
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Speaker 1: Surely he could have. After all, this is the great David,
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Speaker 1: the poet, David, the great King, David, the great worship Leader.
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Speaker 1: This is David who outran Saul Any outgunned Goliath. Why
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Speaker 1: didn't he choose something other than sheep? How about this?
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Speaker 1: The Lord is my commander in chief, and I am
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Speaker 1: his warrior. There I like that, I mean, a warrior
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Speaker 1: gets a uniform and a weapon, maybe even a medal.
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Speaker 1: Or the Lord is my inspiration and I am his singer.
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Speaker 1: I like that too. We are in God's choir. What
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Speaker 1: a flattering assignment? Or how about this, The Lord is
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Speaker 1: my king and I am his ambassador. Who wouldn't like
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Speaker 1: to be a spokesperson for God? Everyone stops when the
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Speaker 1: ambassador speaks, Everyone listens when God's minstrel sings. Everyone applauds
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Speaker 1: when God's warrior passes. But who notices when the sheep
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Speaker 1: show up? Who notices when sheep sing or speak or act?
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Speaker 1: Only one person does, and that is the shepherd. And
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Speaker 1: you know what, I think that's precisely David's point. Sheep
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Speaker 1: are dumb, they are dirty, they are defenseless, and at
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Speaker 1: the risk of offending you, can I just remind you
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Speaker 1: that those three words describe us as well. I don't
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Speaker 1: mean to offend you. But who among us can say
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Speaker 1: for certain we know what's going to happen tomorrow or
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Speaker 1: next month or next year. We've learned, haven't we. This
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Speaker 1: world can get derailed. We don't know what the future holds.
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Speaker 1: We're not that bright. Sometimes our forecast becomes more of
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Speaker 1: a fear cast because we don't know what the future holes.
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Speaker 1: And we're not too clean either. I mean physically we
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Speaker 1: may be fine, but spiritually don't. We need somebody to
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Speaker 1: clean us, to bathe us, to wash us, to cover
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Speaker 1: us in grace, to cleanse us of our transgressions. That's
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Speaker 1: what we have in our shepherd. And we're defenseless. We're defenseless,
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Speaker 1: defenseless against the attacks to the devil. We need us.
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Speaker 1: We need a shepherd to encircle us, to come alongside,
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Speaker 1: to go in front, to go behind, to stand to
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Speaker 1: the right, to send to the lefts and yes to
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Speaker 1: dwell us. And he does. He does. Praise me to
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Speaker 1: his name. He protects us from the attacks of the devil.
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Speaker 1: They come to think of it. You know, being a
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Speaker 1: sheep is not a bad thing. It would be a
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Speaker 1: bad thing if you didn't have a shepherd. But we
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Speaker 1: have one. We have a good shepherd. And his name
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Speaker 1: is Yahweh. Yeah. When David, who was a warrior, who
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Speaker 1: was a minstrel, who was an ambassador, search for an
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Speaker 1: illustration of God, he went back in his mind all
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Speaker 1: the way back to those days early in his life
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Speaker 1: when he was a shepherd, and he remembered how he
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Speaker 1: lavished attention on his sheep. You see, the only job
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Speaker 1: of a shepherd is to care for the sheep. He
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Speaker 1: took care of them day and night. He slept with them,
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Speaker 1: he watched over them. And I can just picture David
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Speaker 1: when he wants to write a song that commemorates the
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Speaker 1: character of God, that speaks to people in trouble times.
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Speaker 1: He says, oh, I tell you who God is. God
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Speaker 1: is to us like I was to that little flock
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Speaker 1: of sheep in the hills of Bethlehem. He cares for us,
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Speaker 1: He watches over us, he leads us, he guides us,
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Speaker 1: he makes us lie down, He anoints our heads with oil.
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Speaker 1: He makes sure that our cup is overflowing. And when
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Speaker 1: that time comes to walk through the valley of the
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Speaker 1: Shadow of Death, he will lead us his rod and
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Speaker 1: his staff. They will comfort us. And oh, my goodness,
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Speaker 1: goodness and mercy, goodness and mercy. They're kind of like
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Speaker 1: the sheep dogs. They come up behind us and they
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Speaker 1: follow us all the days of our life. That's good news,
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Speaker 1: that's good news. That's who your shepherd is. But the
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Speaker 1: question is, have you made him your shepherd? Can you
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Speaker 1: say what David said? He said the Lord is my shepherd.
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Speaker 1: Can you say that? Can you say with assurance, the
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Speaker 1: Lord is my shepherd. Our world has been rocked over
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Speaker 1: the last few weeks. We feel like we've been knocked
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Speaker 1: off our feet a time or two. And maybe God
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Speaker 1: has used this to reveal to you that you have
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Speaker 1: depended upon sources of strength that are short term and insufficient.
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Speaker 1: Maybe you've put your trust in your savings account. Maybe
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Speaker 1: you've put your trust in your ability to stay healthy.
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Speaker 1: Maybe you've put your trust in global peace. And wherever
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Speaker 1: you've placed your true us, you're beginning to think. You know,
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Speaker 1: I can lose my savings account, and I can try
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Speaker 1: to be healthy, but inhale the wrong virus, and by goodness,
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Speaker 1: this world doesn't feel as peaceful as it did just
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Speaker 1: a few months ago. Could it be that God is
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Speaker 1: using this as a wake up call for you, for you,
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Speaker 1: my friend, for you, for you to be able to
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Speaker 1: say what David said, the Lord is my shepherd. He
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Speaker 1: is my shepherd. I want to invite you to call
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Speaker 1: out to God and say I want you to be
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Speaker 1: my shepherd. It's not enough for you to look around
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Speaker 1: at your church and say, well, the Lord is our shepherd.
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Speaker 1: Or to look around at your family and say, well,
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Speaker 1: the Lord is our shepherd, or to think of your
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Speaker 1: ancestry and say, well, the Lord is our shepherd. No
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Speaker 1: God wants to be a personal shepherd to you. He
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Speaker 1: wants you to reach up to him and say, please
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Speaker 1: be my shepherd. I acknowledge that I am a sheep,
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Speaker 1: that I need someone to protect me. I need someone
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Speaker 1: to cleanse me, I need someone to lead me. I
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Speaker 1: want you to be my shepherd. If you've never done that,
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Speaker 1: my friend, do so. Do so. Let this season, a
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Speaker 1: struggle in which we have found ourselves, be used for good,
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Speaker 1: because it calls upon you to call upon your good shepherd.
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Speaker 1: Do so. You need a shepherd. You need an uncaused god.
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Speaker 1: You need an ungoverned god. You need a God who
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Speaker 1: is greater than your problems. And you have one, but
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Speaker 1: it avails you nothing if you don't, in your heart
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Speaker 1: of hearts, say please be my shepherd. The Lord is
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Speaker 1: my shepherd. Years ago, a chaplain in the French army
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Speaker 1: used the twenty third Psalm to encourage soldiers before battle,
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Speaker 1: and he would encourage them to repeat the opening line
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Speaker 1: of the psalm, ticking off one finger at a time.
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Speaker 1: The Lord is my shepherd, and he would have them
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Speaker 1: go through it over and over again. In fact, I
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Speaker 1: encourage you to do so. The Lord is my shepherd.
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Speaker 1: The chaplain's space placed special emphasis upon the message of
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Speaker 1: the index finger, My shepherd, my shepherd, and he reminded
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Speaker 1: the soldiers that God is a personal shepherd with a
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Speaker 1: personal mission to get them home safely. Did the chaplain's
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Speaker 1: words find their mark in the life of one man.
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Speaker 1: They did. After a battle, one of the young soldiers
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Speaker 1: was found dead, his right hand clutching the index finger
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Speaker 1: of the left. The Lord is my shepherd. Reach up
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Speaker 1: and take the hand of your shipherd. Declare today that
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Speaker 1: you trust in the one who will not be troubled,
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Speaker 1: who will not be dissuaded, who has already set his
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Speaker 1: mission in gear. He is our shepherd, my friend. We
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Speaker 1: do not know how many more days of life we have.
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Speaker 1: We just don't. We do not know, except that these
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Speaker 1: events might be signaling the second coming, the return of
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Speaker 1: Jesus Christ, and his promise is to come and gather
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Speaker 1: his flock and take them into a pasture, a pastor
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Speaker 1: that knows no graves, that knows no tears, that knows
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Speaker 1: no anguish, that knows no anxiety, that knows no pandemics.
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Speaker 1: But he will not take you if you do not
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Speaker 1: accept his invitation. So I feel lad to ask you
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Speaker 1: just one more time. Are you sure? Are you sure?
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Speaker 1: Have you reached up and taken the hand of your shepherd?
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Speaker 1: Have you called out to him? If not, you can
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Speaker 1: do so right now. I'd like to lead us in
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Speaker 1: a prayer. And for those of us who call upon
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Speaker 1: Christ as our good shepherd, this will be an affirmation
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Speaker 1: of our faith. But for those of you who never have,
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Speaker 1: no matter how old you are, no matter where you are,
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Speaker 1: I'm asking you to repeat this prayer in your heart.
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Speaker 1: If you want to say it out loud, do so.
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Speaker 1: But don't let this service come to an end with
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Speaker 1: any doubt in your mind. Make sure that you believe
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Speaker 1: in the good Shepherd. Oh, Heavenly Father, Heavenly Father, we
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Speaker 1: bless you and thank you. We praise your mighty and
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Speaker 1: your holy name. Your name and your name alone is
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Speaker 1: worthy of recognition and applause. And today we declare, Heavenly Father,
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Speaker 1: thank you for being our shepherd. Just thank you, Lord,
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Speaker 1: thank you so much, thank you that in a troubling
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Speaker 1: time we have a certain good, a certain source of hope.
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Speaker 1: We can turn to you. We can always look up
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Speaker 1: and we can see you leading us and guiding us.
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Speaker 1: And we thank you for these words. And today we
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Speaker 1: say you are our shepherd. Let's affirm our faith. Dear God,
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Speaker 1: I accept you as my savior. I ask you to
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Speaker 1: forgive my sin, to include me in your flock, and
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Speaker 1: to lead me safely home in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen.
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Speaker 1: No one knows when or how this crazy season will end,
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Speaker 1: but we do know this. We have a shepherd, We
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Speaker 1: have a Yahweh, and he will lead us home. Now
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Speaker 1: go in the great grace and peace of our Lord
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Speaker 1: and savior, Jesus Christ. And remember that the one who
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Speaker 1: cames to comes, and the one who spoke still speaks. Mhm.