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The Good Shepherd · Rick Manis Ministries Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: He's not a good shepherd.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: He is the one.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: He is the good shepherd.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: And also it notice the word good.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: He's the good shepherd.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not a bad shepherd.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not a misleading shepherd.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not a shepherd that's going to leave you when the wolf comes.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: I am the good shepherd.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: The shepherd that lays his life down for the sheep, the shepherd that cares.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: I'm the one.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: I will lead you.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: I will guide you.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: I will, you know, everything that a good that a good shepherd would do.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: But he says, I'm the good shepherd, and I know my sheep, and I am known by them.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: As the Father knows me, even so I know the Father.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: Now, now this is really good.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: We don't want to miss it.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: I I this is something that's that I've been hitting on a lot in recent months, maybe this past year, at least the last half of the year, where it's about relationship and more specifically really knowing him.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: Look at this thing that he's introducing to us.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: He's talking to these people.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: Now nobody knew God.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, John chapter 1 said no one has seen God or perceived God at any time, but the Son has has uh brought him forth to us, has declared him and revealed him.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: So nobody really knew.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: They didn't they didn't feel a closeness to God.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: Many feared God, many revered God, many uh respected God, many tried to obey God, many had all kinds of ideas about God, but as far as knowing God, and here comes Jesus saying, I and my father are one, and he tells the people, I know my sheep, and my sheep know me, just like the Father knows me and I know my father.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: So what he's at least you can see an invitation, if nothing else, that that what he's opening up to us is is a two-way relationship.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: Most of us agree, most Christians would say, uh, would probably say, I believe that God knows me, knows everything about me.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: I believe God knows everything about me, but wouldn't most of them say, I believe I know God uh that same way?
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: Well, God's so big, so just the idea of knowing everything about God is is is kind of hard to even fathom.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: So, but but at least at least the what we look at, what we want to look at is a reality of a relationship with a person.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: It's very easy in Christianity to get distracted by by um having an intellectualized Christianity or a religion.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: It's very easy to know about God by study, and study is is um encouraged in the word.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: The Bible, I believe every everything the Bible says is true.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: I believe that it is the inspired word of God, it is it is it is truth.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um, however, you can read the Bible, the book of the Bible, and know all of these things that it says about God because it's talking about God all the way through it.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: And you can you can know chapter and verse of all kinds of things, and you can know all kinds of things about God, but but neglect to know the person.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: And we want to look at this tonight and see how see see how how God has opened things up through Jesus so that not just so we can know about him, not just even it even goes farther than just believing in his grace, just far farther than believing, even just believing that he loves me.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: Most people will say, yes, I believe God loves me.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: Most Christians will say that, but they're not experiencing a relationship where they're really feeling loved all day long, every day.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: They still may have a little bit of that, like the the Jews here did before, before Jesus did what he did in giving us the spirit to know him, they may be more like have this separation mentality where God was a garf God far off.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: Remember, in those days, they didn't even call him by his name, they wouldn't even write the full name out.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: And there Jesus comes along saying, He's my father.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: And me and him are the same.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: Me and him are one.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: We're united.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: And and he says, So as I know the father, me and my sheep know each other.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: He's talking about a relationship.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, knowing the person.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um I can I can read um Glenn's biography.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: I can I can I can read that biography, and I can read it from beginning to end, and I can know his whole story and all that.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: And uh I don't I haven't read it yet.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: I've got it on my shelf at home, but I haven't started reading it yet.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: But no, I uh I I can read the whole thing and I can tell you all kinds of things about Glenn, but if I've never met him, or if I've only met him once, and we don't do a whole lot of whole lot of talking, then I know about him, but I don't know the person.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um I've read lots of biographies.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: I love to read biographies, or or at least I have at different times in my life, and and I love good biographies, but I don't know those people personally.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_00: I've never experienced the interaction with them personally, but I know a lot about these people.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: And there's a difference.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: And so he says, as I know them, God doesn't just know about you, he knows you.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: And I think it's amazing to just to realize that he knows me and he still loves me, even after knowing me.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: Uh he must have some reasons.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: But but he says, as I know my sheep, so shall so that so do they know me.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: I love this whole thing.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: It's like, no wonder he says, I'm the friend that sticks closer than a brother.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: I don't call you servants, but but but but but but but friends.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: He I it is all about I so where I am, you can be with me, always wanting to be together.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: This whole thing, what we want to know, and as we look at this, this is a word that I believe is great for a new year, 2021.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: After we got past the 20 in 2020, now that we have now that we're in 2021, all those problems have gone away, right?
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: No?
• 6:00
  unknown: Okay.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: So we so we've got to navigate this world this year, too, with whatever it is that we have to navigate.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: But he says, as the father knows me, even so I know the father.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: In verse 27 of the same chapter, in John chapter 10, he says, My sheep hear my voice, and I know them.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: I know them, and they follow me.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: So he's the good shepherd, he leads us, and and he says, because they know me, or they know my voice.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: And if you uh if you know the shepherd, you you know he you you know his voice.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: I I I like to I get a I like to I see a picture of like here's this here's this uh you know flock of sheep, and and the master calls and a sheep lifts up his head and says, Hey, I know that voice.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: And it trusts that voice.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: It gets excited about that voice because he knows the good shepherd is there to bless him.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: He knows the good shepherd is the one that takes him where the water is, where the green pastures are, and etc.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: And and and and I'm I love the life that I have with God because I'm falling more and more in love with him every day, literally.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: That's not a religious jargon that I'm using.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I'm I'm I feel like I love him more and more every day, excited about my walk with God, and therefore about my walk in life in a world that has got a lot of horrible things going on right now, but could but can be excited about a life because I've got a shepherd.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: We have a shepherd.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: We have somebody who's the good shepherd.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: He's got no selfish, wrong, crooked agendas.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: He's the good shepherd, and the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_00: The things that he's doing, he's doing them for you and I.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: He's doing them for us.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: What's best for us?
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_00: We have a shepherd who knows us.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: He knows what's best for us, and he knows how to do the best for us.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: That is a shepherd that we can we can rely on.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, They hear my voice.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: Now, how do we hear the shepherd's voice?
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: Is he a literal person in a robe with a with a with a crooked, you know, a crooked staff and uh you know, walking?
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_00: Well, he leads us by living with us inside us by his spirit, that still small voice of the shepherd that leads us.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God, the voice of the shepherd.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: And he says there in verse 5 of chapter 10, we're going to jump back up to verse 5, he says, Yet they will by no means follow a stranger, but they will flee from him because they don't know the voice of strangers.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_00: Now, this for quite some time was a little bit confusing to me.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_00: Because I would look, read this, and I would think, okay, wait a minute.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: Now, God, I I've seen a lot of your people believe the voice of something that wasn't you.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, honestly, I've seen me do that at times.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_00: I've seen me follow something that I thought was you that it wasn't.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: You know, and so wait a minute.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: Are you saying that I'm not your sheep?
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_00: You know, what what what what is this?
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: This is not a qualification scripture here.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't mean that if you follow a stranger, you're not, you're, you're not his.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: But there again, he's talking about, he said, they're going to know me this way.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: My people are gonna know me.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: They're gonna know me, they're gonna know my voice, they'll be led by me.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_00: I will be able to be good to them.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_00: I'll know them and they'll know me.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: He's talking about a loving relationship here.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_00: But he says they won't follow a stranger because they don't know the voice of strangers.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_00: Well, now, then how is it that we can get fooled sometimes?
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: How is it that we can that we can get pulled away by another voice that produces things that are not of the kingdom of God, maybe, in our lives?
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: I see it happen all the time to to good, well-meaning uh Christian believers.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: Well, if we go back to Genesis 3, uh we can see an example of something, and maybe this will help us to see a picture of what Jesus is saying here.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: Follow the voice of a stranger because they don't know the voice.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um, in verse 8 of Genesis 3, here's Adam and Eve, and it says, And they heard the sound or the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of God among the trees of the garden.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: What they're doing, they're doing what Jesus said that they would do to the voice of strangers, they would flee from him.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: Wait a minute, God's the good shepherd.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_00: What's he talking about here?
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: Well, you remember the situation that Adam and Eve are in.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: They they they they made a choice to follow a really another voice.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, we we see literally a voice of a serpent speaking, right?
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_00: Eve heeded the voice of that of that serpent.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: Because that was a voice that sounded more familiar.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: It's the way that seemed right.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_00: God said, Don't eat of that tree.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_00: This other voice said, Eat of this tree, essentially, and you'll be like God.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_00: And then they, when they ate of the tree, we see they hid themselves from the presence of the Lord, and we see because what they were following, I say it a lot, this knowledge of good and evil that they got, this is the voice of the accuser.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_00: That's the voice that is the condemner.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: That is the one that's different from the good shepherd.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_00: It's a bad shepherd.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_00: It led them.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: It led them a certain direction.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: Uh God said there in verse 11, if we jump down to there, he said, Who told you that you were naked?
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: You listened to somebody.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: Who told you that you were naked?
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the serpent didn't tell them they were naked.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_00: The serpent said that other thing before that, but who told them that they were naked?
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_00: They told themselves that.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_00: They saw that.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_00: It was the knowledge of good and evil that told them that.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the voice now, the word serpent, when you looked it up, it's the hisser, the whisperer, uh, the slanderer, the accuser.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_00: It's that you need to do this.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_00: Look at you.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_00: You should be ashamed.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, there's God.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_00: You better hide.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_00: All those things.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_00: You should be ashamed.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: You should the shame and the fear was produced as a result of following a shepherd, if you will, a leader, if you will, a a guide that didn't guide them in a good way.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_00: A knowledge that was not the knowledge of God, the knowledge of heaven.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_00: The other voice would have been the voice of the Lord.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_00: God's God says, Who told you you were naked?
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_00: You hear me say this all the time.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_00: I love that that we see that picture there, because in essence, God's saying, somebody told you, because I never tell you that.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: I don't do that.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_00: There's no condemnation in me.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: I'm the good shepherd here.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_00: I don't make you afraid.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_00: I don't make you ashamed.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_00: I'm the good shepherd.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_00: A good shepherd's not gonna make you afraid.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_00: I'll lead you beside still waters.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna make you afraid.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_00: I'm the good shepherd here.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna uh make you feel ashamed.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_00: I'm the good shepherd.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_00: I lay down my life for you.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: I care about you.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_00: So so what we see here, you say, what are you saying, Rick?
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_00: Well, what I'm saying is that the voice of what we would call the voice of the world now, that's that knowledge of good and evil, and that's what the whole world's listening to.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_00: The voice of the world has become the familiar, not the strange, whereas if you really look at it, it seems like in so many ears, it seems like the voice of God is the strange.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_00: So what Jesus is talking about is this restoration to where that would all change, to where the world wouldn't seem like the familiar, it would start to, it would feel like the strange, and his sound would be like the familiar one.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_00: The sound that produces not fear and shame and all those other things that go with it, but the opposite of that, the fruit of the Spirit.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_00: It produces love, joy, peace.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_00: So there's a shepherd that will always lead us in those ways, and his voice, and hearing his voice and following the leading of that shepherd will produce in us a life of love and joy and peace.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_00: And please don't ever forget, that's where heaven happens in your life.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_00: It's not out there.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_00: If Trump would have won, that would not have produced heaven in your life.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_00: You might have been happy about it, but it would not have produced heaven in your life.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_00: If the virus goes away tomorrow and nobody gets it again, that still doesn't produce heaven in your life.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_00: The only thing that does is what the Good Shepherd does inside of us, how he ministers to us, how he speaks to us, how he how he leads us.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_00: Are you are you are you hearing me tonight?
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_00: Now the difference is so clear.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_00: The way to be happy in 2021 is incline your ear to the good shepherd.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_00: He won't lead you astray.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_00: He's the good shepherd, not the crooked shepherd.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_00: He's not going to steal from you, he's not going to kill, he's not going to destroy you, he won't bring any to you.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_00: He said, I'm the good shepherd.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_00: Uh he's in John 10, where he was talking about that, and there he also talked about he says, But those who came before me are thieves and robbers.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_00: They take from you, they put burdens on you, they make you afraid, they make you ashamed, they make you pained.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_00: You feel pain.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_00: Bad shepherds, here's how you can tell.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_00: So there's voices.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_00: Paul said in 1 Corinthians 12, there are many voices in the world.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_00: Many voices in the world.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_00: But there's one voice of heaven, a certain sound from heaven.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, I love the way it's worded in Acts chapter 2, because here, think about this.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus came into a world that didn't even know him.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_00: He came to his own, and his own received him not.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_00: They didn't know him, did not recognize the one who created them and all.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_00: But he came with a certain sound.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_00: No one had perceived God, but Jesus came declaring him.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_00: A certain sound, a different sound than the religions around him were having, a different sound than the world certainly had, a different sound than any man that they'd ever known on earth since Adam had ever had ever produced.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_00: And on the day of Pentecost, it says that while they were all assembled, they were all in one accord in the upper room, there came a certain sound from heaven.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_00: And it filled all of them.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_00: I can take that literally and say it was the sound that filled them.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_00: There was the spirit that did, but it came with a sound.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_00: And it gives us a certain sound.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_00: It's the sound that the shepherd gives us, because the sound that we're hearing will also be the sound that's filling us is the sound that will come out of here.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_00: For out of the abundance of the heart, what you're filled with, what you have received, the mouth speaks.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_00: And you won't be speaking.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_00: Things that don't sound like heaven don't sound like God.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_00: You know, there are things, there are there are a lot of things to be really frustrated about in this world right now.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_00: Seems like this past year more than ever.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_00: And when we're listening to the sound of all those the noise of things that's going on, we'll catch ourselves reproducing that sound of frustration or anger or pain or whatever, you know, all these things in the world.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_00: When the whole time we still have a good shepherd, and he's always ministering life and faith and peace and goodness and all the things that he is, and that always produces heaven in our life.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_00: We all experienced horrible things this year.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_00: We had people close to us that got the virus, and and you know, we've we've we've we've we've we've heard of deaths and people falling here and there, the uh and and the from uh you know friends that we had and people we know they've lost loved ones to this and all that, the whole the whole um political and government things that are going on, the what else?
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_00: They were threatened, oh the race and all you know what it is.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_00: All all the stuff that people have had to listen to day after day after day, some having to deal with it face to face in certain certain areas.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_00: And having all of that, how is it?
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_00: You know, honestly, you know, Judy, I said, we actually have had a pretty good year.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe not in the situations that were going on, but heaven was there when we woke up every morning.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_00: The Good Shepherd was the voice that we heard during, you know, when we woke up and during the day.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_00: The shepherd led us in life and peace.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_00: We still had the smile on our face every day.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_00: We still had the spring in our step.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_00: We still were being being ministered to by the Good Shepherd when there was turbulence all around.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_00: We felt like we were drinking from still waters.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_00: That's where the heaven is.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_00: If you want to be happy in 2021, it's very simple.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_00: Just let's incline our ear to the Good Shepherd.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_00: What's what a how do you know it's not the Good Shepherd?
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_00: Because it's a Bad Shepherd.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_00: The Bad Shepherd will tell will lead you in things, will speak to you in things that produce, such as we see in Adam here.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_00: They'll they'll they'll they'll lead us to, instead of to goodness, they'll lead us to shame.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_00: They'll lead us to be afraid.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_00: Any of you ever get afraid of anything that's been that was going on this year?
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_00: We feel that produced in us because we've heard something.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_00: And the words of the shepherd will never ever spook the sheep.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_00: Never.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_00: Psalms 112 says, This shall be written for a generation to come.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_00: They will not be moved at bad tidings because their heart is established in grace.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_00: They'll lead us to shame, the bad shepherds, but I mean the the voices that are not the good shepherd.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_00: That includes a lot of voices.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_00: It'll lead us to shame, it'll lead us to fear, it'll lead us to hurt, it'll lead us to stress and anxiety, it'll lead us to frustration, hopelessness.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_00: Judy and I were talking to someone recently about a lot of people that we know.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_00: The Good Shepherd was able to help them navigate last year.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_00: Beautiful to see.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_00: All this time there's been this good shepherd that can help us to navigate.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_00: But they got distracted, they listened to other things.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_00: Now, now it it it it does, of course, it does include all the media things that are speaking to us, but it also includes your own emotions sometimes, listening to that, listening to what you feel rather than the shepherd, listening to listening to our own logic that we've come up with, what can do that can make us frustrated, can make us hopeless, angry, ashamed.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_00: There's all there's it can it can all these all these bad shepherds that don't they're not good leaders of us because they lead us.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: To shame, fear, frustration, rage, anger, hatred, all it just goes on and on.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_00: All anything that's not the fruit of the Spirit, the things of heaven, the heart of Christ.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_00: And I've got good news that if you're feeling feelings of hopelessness or frustration or any of those things that we've that we've that we've mentioned, or more, anything that's not the goodness, the sweetness of life in Christ, I'll say, first of all, it's because we've been listening to something that's not leading us into something good.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_00: But the good news is the good shepherd is always here.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_00: We always have the voice of the shepherd.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_00: We can always listen.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_00: We were watching, Judy and I were watching a movie a couple of nights ago, and it was um what was it called?
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_00: August Rush.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you ever saw you ever saw I I didn't think I was gonna like it.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_00: I mean it's like, boy, that's a different kind of movie.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_00: But there was a line in it.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_00: There were some good lines, but one of them, where they were, him and another guy were talking about, talking about, he was the boy was talking about, I hear this, the sound, I hear music, I hear, I hear sounds, you know, and like the whole world sounded like music to him.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_00: And he was like, and the other guy did too, and he says, are there just some of us that that can hear that?
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_00: And he goes, No, there are only some of us that listen.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, people people are wondering, like, like, you know, I wonder if God's doing anything to help me to talk to, you know, I'm in a situation and like I feel hopeless about what is it.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_00: We've got a shepherd that's always talking, he's always leading us, always guiding us, he's always ministering to us.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_00: Not everybody, it's not that he only talks to some people, that's not true.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_00: It's not that only certain people can hear the shepherd, that's not true.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_00: It's only that certain people will listen.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_00: Because that voice is there, it's just as available as the other one is.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_00: But why people ask me, why does it seem so easy to listen to the other one?
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_00: Only for a while, simply because it's been the more familiar voice.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe we've been, we've all, from wherever we've come from in life, we all were very familiar and we're used to that voice.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_00: And if we still have some familiarity with it, it's getting less and less as we're hearing more and more of the voice of the shepherd.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_00: And it gets really good to where to where the voice of the shepherd becomes the first one you hear.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_00: It's the one you recognize, so you don't have the struggle so much anymore.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_00: It gets more and more that way.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_00: To where as you keep walking with him, as you keep, see, it's it's it's about knowing relationship.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe, maybe you know, you might you might recognize it a little bit here and there, but after a while, after a while, you just you know that person.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_00: When he's talking about I know you as you know me, you you and you will know me the way I know you, just think of it, even with people, there are certain people that you you know them.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you know, you know what they're feeling and thinking without saying a word sometimes, because you know them.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_00: You know if they got a certain wrinkle in their brow, what that means.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody said, I know my husband says says um says, if he got one wrinkle in his forehead, um one thing.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_00: He said it means money.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_00: You know, he he knows she she knew exactly what her husband was thinking just by by knowing him.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_00: And this is the way it is with Jesus.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_00: This whole thing was about.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_00: This whole thing was about us and him knowing, knowing, knowing each other, and enjoying each other because we know each other.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_00: As he enjoys knowing us, and he does.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, look at what he's done to make this available to us.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_00: So we enjoy knowing him.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_00: He's the good shepherd.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_00: And you and what this good shepherd ministers, as you listen to his voice, you gain confidence, you gain faith, you rarely feel hopeless anymore.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_00: And if you do, all you got to do is turn to the shepherd because you know he's there, you know him, you know he's good.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_00: See, this is why it's so important that we know grace and the goodness of God, because if we don't come to a place where we believe he's good, and he's good toward us, and he's good for us, and wants our best, and he has our best, and he knows how to do our best.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_00: If we don't know that, it's hard, hard to listen to that voice because we don't know that there is a voice that's that good.
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_00: That's why Christians can get deceived and hear other voices and think, well, maybe that's God.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_00: They can hear damnation and condemnation and judgment voices and think that it's God because they don't know how good He is.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_00: We have an uh go to Psalms 23 and we'll finish up there.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um we have an opportunity for a start.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_00: If we're hopeful that vaccinations will help.
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_00: If it didn't do much, make much difference, we can listen to truth.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_00: We can listen to shepherd, because no matter what, there are going to be stories about it going around.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_00: All kinds of information is still gonna be out there.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_00: But we can listen to truth, the spirit of truth, the spirit that Jesus says he will lead you, the spirit will guide you.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_00: I'm the good shepherd.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_00: I lay down my life, I will do anything for your good.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_00: Umbe if the election didn't go the way that we want it.
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you imagine a life under a different president as being a life of hell, I've got good news.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_00: It's not.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_00: You've got a shepherd.
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_00: You've got a shepherd.
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_00: Kings will rise and fall, but the Lord abides forever.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_00: We've got a shepherd.
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_00: But if we don't listen to the shepherd, we think every we we think our life's over, America's over.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_00: You hear all the noises, and what do those noises do?
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_00: Fear, frustration.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_00: This is what we're seeing.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_00: Why have Christians prophesied things that haven't and won't come to pass this year concerning these things?
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_00: In February of last year, there were high-profile Christian leaders that prophesied, one prophesied before it came while it was just in other countries, that it won't come to America because we have a righteous leader and because we stand for life and we do that, and that's why God was going to do it.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_00: But it came anyway.
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_00: Why did this Christian leader prophesy that?
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_00: Because he wanted it to happen that way.
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_00: He wanted it to be.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_00: He imagined it.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_00: He wasn't trying to be say something wrong, but he mistook his own thoughts.
• 29:27
  SPEAKER_00: Like they said in Jeremiah, they prophesy from the imagination of their heart, and mistook his own thoughts for knowing how God is.
• 29:35
  SPEAKER_00: God doesn't do these things based on merit, he's just good.
• 29:41
  SPEAKER_00: And then some of the other prophecies about political things, and you're hearing all these so-called secret informations of all this stuff going on, and none of it ever happens.
• 29:51
  SPEAKER_00: Why are we being that Christians should be the least gullible of all?
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_00: We have the shepherd who tells us truth.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_00: And all we got to do is ask the shepherd.
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_00: Let the shepherd guide us.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_00: And then those other voices will be the stranger instead of the familiar.
• 30:13
  SPEAKER_00: And he will keep us in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on him.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_00: We can go through 2021.
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_00: There's going to be chaos.
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_00: There's going to be lies.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_00: There's going to be lies going from one direction to the other, this side again.
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_00: There's going to be all kinds of lies about everything this year.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_00: Everything.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_00: Hope the heat is turned down in some way.
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_00: We all are hopeful of that, but either way, even if it is, there's still going to be lies.
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_00: That's what the world does.
• 30:41
  SPEAKER_00: Whether it's trying to or not, it's going to.
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_00: But there is a shepherd.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_00: There's a truth.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_00: What about your own personal situations?
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_00: Forget all the news headlines.
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_00: What about our own personal situations?
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_00: You this the good shepherd is right there in all of that because really it's more of our uh it's more of our day-to-day personal situations that really where we where we're where we're either walking in the peace and joy of the Lord or the fear and the shame and the pain and things like that.
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_00: And my good news, I love you guys.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_00: I love everybody.
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_00: I love the body of Christ.
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_00: I love this with this people of this world.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_00: I want everybody to experience joy, peace.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_00: I want everybody happy.
• 31:25
  SPEAKER_00: And I and I and I say this knowing that the shepherd is right here.
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_00: And he knows how to do this.
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_00: Psalms chapter 23.
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_00: I was uh I was um reading from this in church the other day, and I realized it's been a I don't know how long it's been since I actually took the whole Psalm 23, and I saw things, not necessarily that were new, but they just became more acutely focused.
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_00: Number one, the Lord is my shepherd.
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_00: I've got a shepherd.
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_00: I will not fear.
• 31:58
  SPEAKER_00: I have a shepherd.
• 32:01
  SPEAKER_00: Whatever this world brings, I've got me a shepherd.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not by myself in there.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_00: And it's not just up to me to figure all this stuff out.
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_00: I only have to have to sift through and figure out what's true and what's life so much.
• 32:13
  SPEAKER_00: I've got a shepherd.
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_00: He knows what's true and he'll tell me what's true.
• 32:17
  SPEAKER_00: Here's a simple one.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_00: I've said it a lot.
• 32:19
  SPEAKER_00: But but if you're ever wondering, just say, Father, what do you say?
• 32:23
  SPEAKER_00: It works for me every time.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_00: He says, The Lord's my shepherd, I shall not want.
• 32:31
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, with the Lord being your shepherd, you won't have a sense of need, emptiness, lack, that you need something.
• 32:41
  SPEAKER_00: You have to have something.
• 32:43
  SPEAKER_00: You can't be happy unless this happens or that happens.
• 32:47
  SPEAKER_00: Because the Lord is your shepherd.
• 32:50
  SPEAKER_00: He fill his voice fills you with joy.
• 32:53
  SPEAKER_00: Whatever it is that he says to you will always minister peace and joy and love.
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_00: And and and and and you know, I sometimes I feel like I'm talking to my friends, believers, and it's like, like, and they're they're and and they're going through life and they feel like they're starving for something good.
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, the shepherd has put out a table here.
• 33:12
  SPEAKER_00: Why don't we eat?
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I don't know, you know, I got I can't because I got all this and that.
• 33:17
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, that's why you need to eat.
• 33:20
  SPEAKER_00: He'll feed you with goodness and peace and joy, and your life will be full, and you won't be you won't be somebody who's wanting.
• 33:31
  SPEAKER_00: You will have.
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_00: And we as the believers, we're standing in a world that's wanting.
• 33:36
  SPEAKER_00: What can we give?
• 33:37
  SPEAKER_00: Well, like Peter said, such as I have, give I you.
• 33:40
  SPEAKER_00: We have the things of God, if nothing else.
• 33:42
  SPEAKER_00: We have his the his heaven, is love, joy, peace.
• 33:45
  SPEAKER_00: And say the kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, and joy, right?
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_00: He says in verse 2, he makes me lie down in green pastures.
• 33:53
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, he leads us to a good place.
• 33:56
  SPEAKER_00: A sheep wants to go where the green, green pastures are.
• 34:00
  SPEAKER_00: He doesn't want to be led to a patch of dirt.
• 34:03
  SPEAKER_00: He leads me to good things.
• 34:04
  SPEAKER_00: He leads me to places of abundance.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_00: He says, he leads me beside still waters when there's turbulence and wind blowing of every kind of direction.
• 34:13
  SPEAKER_00: He leads us to where it's peaceful.
• 34:17
  SPEAKER_00: He's not leading us, he is not, he is not stimulating us to get angry for God.
• 34:28
  SPEAKER_00: He's leading us to still waters so that we can live heaven and express heaven to a world that desperately needs some peace, some love, some joy.
• 34:41
  SPEAKER_00: That's what makes us the trees that God has planted in this earth, whose whose fruit, love, joy, peace, etc., is for the food for the people, and our leaves are for the healing of the nations.
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_00: The healing of the nations, not the killing of the nations, not the defeating of the nations, the healing of the nations.
• 35:05
  SPEAKER_00: He leaves me beside still waters.
• 35:07
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 3, he restores my soul.
• 35:10
  SPEAKER_00: When is that?
• 35:11
  SPEAKER_00: When you've been listening to the bad shepherds.
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_00: And it's not your fault.
• 35:15
  SPEAKER_00: You just, you know, you listened, you know, for whatever.
• 35:20
  SPEAKER_00: You listened.
• 35:21
  SPEAKER_00: And it, just like Adam and Eve, it didn't make you happy.
• 35:25
  SPEAKER_00: Didn't make you peaceful, didn't make you happy, didn't make you joyful, didn't make you more loving.
• 35:31
  SPEAKER_00: Probably made you feel a little more selfish.
• 35:33
  SPEAKER_00: Need something for me.
• 35:35
  SPEAKER_00: But he restores our soul.
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_00: The voice will do that.
• 35:38
  SPEAKER_00: It's done that to me over and over and over again in my life.
• 35:41
  SPEAKER_00: I've got story after story where maybe I was angry with someone, or maybe I was hurt by someone, or maybe I was scared of a situation, or whatever.
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_00: And the shepherd, my good shepherd, restored my soul and stilled those waters to where I was back in peace.
• 35:57
  SPEAKER_00: I was back in joy, I was back in love.
• 36:01
  SPEAKER_00: I love our shepherd, and I love the voice of that shepherd.
• 36:09
  SPEAKER_00: How often has it stilled my waters and empowered me to live life and to navigate this world?
• 36:17
  SPEAKER_00: I'm so, so glad that we're not alone.
• 36:24
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 4.
• 36:26
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, he restores my soul.
• 36:28
  SPEAKER_00: He leads me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
• 36:30
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 4, yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I'm walking in a world, I'm experiencing something now that is horrible.
• 36:42
  SPEAKER_00: The valley of the shadow of death, look around.
• 36:44
  SPEAKER_00: There's nothing good about it, about that valley.
• 36:48
  SPEAKER_00: But he says, I will fear no evil.
• 36:51
  SPEAKER_00: Not because there's nothing dangerous there, there is.
• 36:55
  SPEAKER_00: But he says, I'll fear no evil because my good shepherd's with me.
• 36:59
  SPEAKER_00: I've got a shepherd.
• 37:01
  SPEAKER_00: How am I going to get through this valley, this dark valley of death?
• 37:05
  SPEAKER_00: How am I going to get through this?
• 37:06
  SPEAKER_00: I've got a shepherd.
• 37:09
  SPEAKER_00: You or I, there are many things we don't know how to do.
• 37:14
  SPEAKER_00: We're many things.
• 37:15
  SPEAKER_00: We are just as smart as we are.
• 37:17
  SPEAKER_00: We're not smart enough to figure certain things out, but we have a shepherd.
• 37:21
  SPEAKER_00: Always we have a shepherd.
• 37:24
  SPEAKER_00: Doesn't stuff like this make you love him more?
• 37:27
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's just like there's there's nothing bad about our good shepherd.
• 37:31
  SPEAKER_00: He says, I will fear no evil because you're with me.
• 37:35
  SPEAKER_00: Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
• 37:37
  SPEAKER_00: I've heard, you know, you hear different angles on the teachings of the rod and the staff, and I think I like them all.
• 37:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um but what I think of right now is that staff with that hook on it.
• 37:45
  SPEAKER_00: If the if if I fall into the stream or something like that, you you're there.
• 37:49
  SPEAKER_00: You'll pull me out.
• 37:50
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not afraid of the waters there.
• 37:53
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not afraid of the ditch there.
• 37:54
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not, and and and the staff, the the staff, that's actually protection.
• 37:58
  SPEAKER_00: That staff is made to fight wolves and things.
• 38:03
  SPEAKER_00: So there's wolves out there.
• 38:05
  SPEAKER_00: The valley of the shadow of death.
• 38:06
  SPEAKER_00: There are wolves around.
• 38:09
  SPEAKER_00: There's wolves around in 2021.
• 38:12
  SPEAKER_00: But his his staff, it comforts me.
• 38:16
  SPEAKER_00: I've got a shepherd.
• 38:17
  SPEAKER_00: I've got a shepherd.
• 38:19
  SPEAKER_00: He cares about me.
• 38:20
  SPEAKER_00: He's not leading me to get devoured by wolves.
• 38:24
  SPEAKER_00: I love my shepherd.
• 38:26
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 5: you prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.
• 38:33
  SPEAKER_00: There again, all kinds of bad things happening in our life.
• 38:38
  SPEAKER_00: Personal, personal things.
• 38:40
  SPEAKER_00: Personal things that are struggles.
• 38:41
  SPEAKER_00: These are hard, things that keep us up at night, bringing sorrow into our life.
• 38:46
  SPEAKER_00: We have a shepherd.
• 38:48
  SPEAKER_00: Notice, it doesn't say that he's a he's a chef or a cook or a or a or a whatever, but the shepherd goes ahead and makes us a meal.
• 38:57
  SPEAKER_00: The shepherd lays the table out before us.
• 39:00
  SPEAKER_00: The one who he's our leader, he's our guide, but he's he loves us.
• 39:06
  SPEAKER_00: He doesn't lead and guide, say, now follow me and obey me.
• 39:11
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 39:11
  SPEAKER_00: Because I said to.
• 39:14
  SPEAKER_00: He lays down his life for the sheep.
• 39:16
  SPEAKER_00: He's doing this all for us.
• 39:17
  SPEAKER_00: In the presence of your enemies, he says, he sets a table there and he says, and you can enjoy it and you can eat because I've got everything else.
• 39:27
  SPEAKER_00: There again speaks to that the way that he ministers to us.
• 39:31
  SPEAKER_00: The um we had a a a friend who came very close to dying a few weeks ago from the virus.
• 39:40
  SPEAKER_00: And uh very very close to where you know the doctors said uh at one point said he's in God's hands now.
• 39:51
  SPEAKER_00: And uh we're praying, and my shepherd spoke.
• 39:57
  SPEAKER_00: And Judy says, How do you really feel about about him?
• 40:02
  SPEAKER_00: How is how do you feel?
• 40:04
  SPEAKER_00: How do you think he's gonna be?
• 40:05
  SPEAKER_00: I said, I see him walking out, and I really have a witness from my shepherd.
• 40:12
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't say those to my shepherd, but I said, I have a witness.
• 40:16
  SPEAKER_00: I just really believe it.
• 40:19
  SPEAKER_00: And he had some ups and downs, some steps forward and step back, and frankly, he was walking out.
• 40:27
  SPEAKER_00: And while he was doing that, Judy baked a pie because he likes a certain type of pie.
• 40:34
  SPEAKER_00: And I mean he's been through the now, he's been weeks in the hospital, you know, it's not like he's not just gonna wake up and start eating.
• 40:42
  SPEAKER_00: But she was making a table for him while he was surrounded by the shadow of death.
• 40:48
  SPEAKER_00: Because the man was gonna eat.
• 40:51
  SPEAKER_00: Why does God set a table before you in the presence of your enemies?
• 40:54
  SPEAKER_00: Because you're gonna eat.
• 40:56
  SPEAKER_00: You're not gonna die before supper time.
• 40:58
  SPEAKER_00: The enemy's not gonna take you out.
• 41:00
  SPEAKER_00: You're about to eat, you're about to it's actually it's a feast, it's a celebration meal.
• 41:07
  SPEAKER_00: Why is Rick going to be quiet here in just a moment?
• 41:10
  SPEAKER_00: Because we're gonna eat.
• 41:14
  unknown: He did eat the pie.
• 41:16
  SPEAKER_00: He did eat the pie.
• 41:17
  SPEAKER_00: He actually did.
• 41:18
  SPEAKER_00: And he didn't like half of it, right?
• 41:21
  SPEAKER_02: Well, it was for our friends, and they ate like half of it.
• 41:25
  SPEAKER_00: And he ate the rest.
• 41:34
  SPEAKER_00: And I love verse.
• 41:40
  SPEAKER_00: Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life.
• 41:45
  SPEAKER_00: Now he talks about going through the valley of the shadow of death and all that, but even in that, that that word, that word follows.
• 41:52
  SPEAKER_00: Have you ever looked that up?
• 41:53
  SPEAKER_00: It's not just like somebody just kind of like that.
• 41:56
  SPEAKER_00: It means it will chase, it will overtake, it will run after you.
• 42:01
  SPEAKER_00: Now, here's what happens when you know the voice of the shepherd.
• 42:07
  SPEAKER_00: And I can testify as someone who was whose life I felt, I honestly felt so cursed.
• 42:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um I mean, I so many times I've just I would just I would just say, why does this have to happen to me?
• 42:22
  SPEAKER_00: Why does everything seem to happen to me?
• 42:25
  SPEAKER_00: I would, and uh there was that one point where just so much bad was going on, somebody said, said, said, said, a Christian man said, said, Christian minister said, Rick, I think somebody's using witchcraft on you, and it's working.
• 42:40
  SPEAKER_00: But went from that to where I don't know how to avoid challenging situations.
• 42:47
  SPEAKER_00: I've never been able to just snap my fingers and say I'll never have another problem in life.
• 42:52
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know how to do that.
• 42:56
  SPEAKER_00: But I've found a shepherd.
• 42:59
  SPEAKER_00: I've come to know a shepherd that no matter what the situation is, there's this goodness and mercy that's there all the time.
• 43:08
  SPEAKER_00: Goodness is always there.
• 43:12
  SPEAKER_00: In the lowest time of my life, my testimony is, and it's the best word I can use, but I don't know how to describe it, but just goodness with God was good to me in that time.
• 43:24
  SPEAKER_00: I wasn't alone, I had a shepherd.
• 43:27
  SPEAKER_00: When I didn't know how to navigate, Teresa dying, I had a shepherd.
• 43:33
  SPEAKER_00: He was good to me.
• 43:35
  SPEAKER_00: And even though I was in that valley of the shadow of death, I did not fear, I was comforted.
• 43:44
  SPEAKER_00: And my shepherd helped me navigate.
• 43:47
  SPEAKER_00: He led me to navigate something that I had never navigated before.
• 43:53
  SPEAKER_00: And he did it in a glorious, heavenly, heavenly way.
• 43:58
  SPEAKER_00: And he led me the thing.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_00: Things that I wouldn't even wouldn't even have dreamed that he had for me.
• 44:03
  SPEAKER_00: Here's one of them right here.
• 44:06
  SPEAKER_00: Our shepherd is good.
• 44:09
  SPEAKER_00: I've told Judy before, I said, you are proof that God is good and he loves me.
• 44:15
  SPEAKER_00: Our shepherd is good.
• 44:17
  SPEAKER_00: He's just, he's the guy that felt like his life was cursed.
• 44:20
  SPEAKER_00: Why does everything bad happen to me?
• 44:23
  SPEAKER_00: Where it's like, now, honestly, I mean, I've said it with tears in my eyes.
• 44:28
  SPEAKER_00: People have asked me, somebody asked me one time, says, Don't you ever think life's not fair sometimes?
• 44:32
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, I totally feel like that.
• 44:34
  SPEAKER_00: Why is God so good to me?
• 44:35
  SPEAKER_00: Why, why am I so blessed in my life?
• 44:39
  SPEAKER_00: Why do I have I have so much joy?
• 44:42
  SPEAKER_00: And there's so many that don't.
• 44:45
  SPEAKER_00: They say, Well, you heard the voice.
• 44:47
  SPEAKER_00: Why did I hear it?
• 44:48
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 44:50
  SPEAKER_00: But I know it's there.
• 44:52
  SPEAKER_00: And I know that when I incline my ear to him, it's always good.
• 44:59
  SPEAKER_00: I used to be in a place where I thought, I don't even know if I want to hear God.
• 45:03
  SPEAKER_00: I think my idea is better.
• 45:04
  SPEAKER_00: I think I'll just go with this.
• 45:05
  SPEAKER_00: Well, Adam and Eve tried that.
• 45:07
  SPEAKER_00: There's a way that seems right.
• 45:08
  SPEAKER_00: It's like, no, I think I want this.
• 45:13
  SPEAKER_00: And like the serpent was like, no, God's just trying to deprive you.
• 45:17
  SPEAKER_00: But he's the good shepherd.
• 45:19
  SPEAKER_00: He's not trying to deprive me of anything.
• 45:21
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, I put off my salvation after I had I had believed the gospel for a while, but I resisted it because I thought, I know I need to do that.
• 45:30
  SPEAKER_00: I know I need to accept, accept Jesus, but once I do, he's going to want to deprive me of everything good in life.
• 45:37
  SPEAKER_00: That's what I thought.
• 45:40
  SPEAKER_00: Tonight I'm telling you, I know him much better than I.
• 45:48
  SPEAKER_00: He says, goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life.
• 45:53
  SPEAKER_00: It's not a magic, it's not a magic combination to where you found, you you, you, you clicked the right buttons and and now somehow God's making goodness happen in your life instead of instead of the sorrow that we may have felt before.
• 46:04
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's the person that's in our life, is what makes it good.
• 46:08
  SPEAKER_00: It's the person.
• 46:09
  SPEAKER_00: I think a lot of times we we we we try to use our Christianity, a lot of us try to use our Christianity to hit the right godly button so that goodness will happen in our life.
• 46:19
  SPEAKER_00: He's the goodness, the person.
• 46:21
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of times you don't need a better situation.
• 46:23
  SPEAKER_00: You need somebody being good to you that knows how to be good, the good shepherd.
• 46:29
  SPEAKER_00: Goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in this place, the house of the Lord, or in his presence, forever, every single day.
• 46:39
  SPEAKER_00: In 2021, every single day you will be in the house of the Lord.
• 46:43
  SPEAKER_00: You will be in the presence of him who's the good shepherd.
• 46:46
  SPEAKER_00: You will always have a leader, you will always have a guide, you will always have the one that cares.
• 46:52
  SPEAKER_00: Like Jesus said, tonight you're all gonna desert me, but I will not be alone.
• 46:58
  SPEAKER_00: How does Jesus get through that through that cross?
• 47:01
  SPEAKER_00: The Father is with me.
• 47:05
  SPEAKER_00: Father, I I uh I love you.
• 47:07
  SPEAKER_00: I just my words are so they're words.
• 47:19
  SPEAKER_00: But your spirit, and I I pray for for everyone here, 2021.
• 47:26
  SPEAKER_00: Let this be a year of revelation of the goodness of our shepherd.
• 47:33
  SPEAKER_00: Let it be a year of intimacy, not a super uh some kind of religious spiritual thing, but intimacy of you loving us and us and loving and enjoying you.
• 47:53
  SPEAKER_00: Intimacy with two people that are very comfortable with each other.
• 47:57
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 47:58
  SPEAKER_00: That you've made us comfortable in your house and in your presence.
• 48:03
  SPEAKER_00: You've made us comfortable being treated well by you.
• 48:06
  SPEAKER_00: You've made us comfortable having goodness and mercy in our lives.
• 48:13
  SPEAKER_00: Father, I thank you for your reality in this way that everyone within the sound of my voice hears experiences, hears the voice, so that they may experience in their hearts what only your good words, your voice, your leading of us can produce.
• 48:36
  SPEAKER_00: Let everyone know that blessing.
• 48:38
  SPEAKER_00: Let everyone know that blessing.
• 48:41
  SPEAKER_00: And in that way, I can decree 2021, no matter what situations arise, 2021 will be a glorious, glorious year for us.
• 48:53
  SPEAKER_00: For you are with us.
• 48:54
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 48:55
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 48:56
  SPEAKER_00: Comments, questions.