Latest / Max Lucado Daily Sermons / Will Give You Rest - Minister Max Lucado
Transcript
- 0:21Speaker 1: Our God is a good God. He is.
- 0:24Speaker 2: And May God's richest blessings be upon your blessings of
- 0:28Speaker 2: grace and protection and provision and strength during these unprecedented,
- 0:34Speaker 2: unusual times. May He find you in your darkest hour.
- 0:39Speaker 2: May He strengthen you in your weakest moment. May He
- 0:43Speaker 2: be your companion when you feel alone. May you bring
- 0:47Speaker 2: you comfort when you feel confused. May you feel upon
- 0:51Speaker 2: you the blessing of our Lord. Surreal is the word
- 0:56Speaker 2: I use to describe this pandemic. It feels so much
- 1:00Speaker 2: much like a dream. Couldn't be happening. Someone wake me up?
- 1:06Speaker 2: Am I living in a Stephen King novel?
- 1:11Speaker 1: It just do?
- 1:12Speaker 2: An'll feels so unreal, surreal. It's like we've been thrown
- 1:17Speaker 2: into a situation, an unprecedented situation. None of us have
- 1:22Speaker 2: ever been through this. Everything feels disrupted, The patterns are gone.
- 1:29Speaker 2: We're in the middle of a stormy sea and we
- 1:32Speaker 2: can't see the shore in sight. We can't plan for
- 1:36Speaker 2: the future because of the coronavirus. We don't know what
- 1:39Speaker 2: we're going to be doing next week, or next month,
- 1:42Speaker 2: or next year. It's like we're stuck in a house
- 1:46Speaker 2: of mirrors and we cannot really determine, can't get our bearing,
- 1:50Speaker 2: can't get our point of reference. Routines are the scaffolding
- 1:55Speaker 2: of life. And people graduate in the spring, we play
- 1:58Speaker 2: baseball in the summer, We visit Grandma in July. The
- 2:02Speaker 2: fall is full of school parties and football. And now,
- 2:11Speaker 2: well everything is up ended, or is it?
- 2:17Speaker 1: Is it really? You know?
- 2:20Speaker 2: The things that really matter, I mean really matter, They
- 2:26Speaker 2: have not changed. God's character has not changed. He's still
- 2:31Speaker 2: the same God he was and always will be. His
- 2:36Speaker 2: promise of salvation to those who put their trust in
- 2:39Speaker 2: him has not changed. That has not been retracted. The
- 2:46Speaker 2: promise of scripture, the work of a savior, these things
- 2:50Speaker 2: have not changed. The presence of the Holy Spirit in
- 2:53Speaker 2: the Saint of God. That has not been changed. So
- 2:57Speaker 2: during these never changing, these ever changing times, let us
- 3:02Speaker 2: lay a hole to the never changing character of our
- 3:06Speaker 2: good God. And for that reason we're spending time looking
- 3:11Speaker 2: at these precious, precious words from the twenty third Psalm.
- 3:17Speaker 2: The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He
- 3:21Speaker 2: makes me to lie down in green pastures. He leads
- 3:24Speaker 2: me beside the still waters. He restores my soul. How
- 3:33Speaker 2: precious these words are. He leads me in the paths
- 3:37Speaker 2: of righteousness. Why for his name's sake, And even though
- 3:42Speaker 2: I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
- 3:46Speaker 2: I'm gonna fear no evil. Why because you are with me,
- 3:50Speaker 2: and you're Rod, and your staff they comfort me, and
- 3:54Speaker 2: you prepare a table before me where right smack dab
- 3:58Speaker 2: in the presence of my enemy, and you anoint my
- 4:01Speaker 2: head with oil, and my cup runs over. And surely
- 4:10Speaker 2: not possibly not, maybe not, I hope, But surely goodness
- 4:13Speaker 2: and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life,
- 4:17Speaker 2: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever,
- 4:23Speaker 2: you know. The second verse of the twenty third Psalm
- 4:26Speaker 2: invites David the King to become David the poet, even
- 4:31Speaker 2: David the artist.
- 4:33Speaker 1: It's as if his.
- 4:35Speaker 2: Quill becomes a brush in his parchment of canvas, and
- 4:38Speaker 2: his words paint to picture. He envisions a flock of
- 4:42Speaker 2: sheep on folded legs, encircling their loyal shepherd, and their
- 4:49Speaker 2: bellies are nestled in the long shoots of grass, and
- 4:53Speaker 2: there's a still pond on one side, the watching shepherd
- 4:56Speaker 2: on the other. David remembered this from his days as
- 5:00Speaker 2: a shepherd. He understood this.
- 5:02Speaker 1: Well.
- 5:03Speaker 2: He makes me lie down, he said, in green pastures,
- 5:08Speaker 2: and he leads me beside the still waters, green pastures,
- 5:13Speaker 2: still waters.
- 5:14Speaker 1: Poll.
- 5:15Speaker 2: That's a timely invitation. Here's my first point, and that
- 5:19Speaker 2: is we all need some rest. We all need some rest.
- 5:26Speaker 2: You know, for much of my life I secretly snickered
- 5:30Speaker 2: at people who said they could not sleep. My problem
- 5:34Speaker 2: was not going to sleep. My problem was always just
- 5:37Speaker 2: staying awake. But a few years ago, oh, I can
- 5:41Speaker 2: recall it well. I went to bed one night and
- 5:44Speaker 2: the sleep just well, nothing happened. I didn't fall asleep.
- 5:49Speaker 2: Rather than slow to a halt, It's as if my
- 5:52Speaker 2: brain just kicked in to high gear. One thousand and one.
- 5:56Speaker 2: Obligations and thoughts came at me. Midnight came and went.
- 6:02Speaker 2: I was still awake. I got up and got a
- 6:04Speaker 2: glass of milk. Still was awake. I woke up Denal
- 6:08Speaker 2: and asking her the blue ribbon of all dumb questions, honey,
- 6:12Speaker 2: are you awake? She told me to quit thinking about things,
- 6:19Speaker 2: and so I did, and I started thinking about people.
- 6:23Speaker 2: And every person I could think of as I envisioned
- 6:26Speaker 2: them was asleep. And I got mad at them for
- 6:31Speaker 2: being asleep while I was awake. Finally, somewhere in the
- 6:36Speaker 2: early hours of the morning, having been initiated into the
- 6:41Speaker 2: fraternity of some seventy million sleepless Americans, I dozed off.
- 6:49Speaker 2: I don't snicker at people who have sleep difficulties anymore,
- 6:53Speaker 2: nor do I question the inclusion of this verse about
- 6:58Speaker 2: rest in the twenty third Psalm. In these days of
- 7:02Speaker 2: COVID disruption, you may be finding it more difficult than
- 7:07Speaker 2: ever to rest. Our minds are tired, our bodies are tired,
- 7:17Speaker 2: but more important, our souls are tired. You see, we
- 7:23Speaker 2: are eternal beings, and eternal beings ask eternal questions. Where
- 7:29Speaker 2: did I come from? Where am I going? What's the
- 7:32Speaker 2: meaning of life? What is right? What is wrong? Is
- 7:36Speaker 2: there right? Is there wrong? Is there life after death?
- 7:41Speaker 2: These are the primal questions of the soul, and if
- 7:45Speaker 2: they're left unanswered, as they are in the lives of
- 7:48Speaker 2: many people, there is no rest.
- 7:53Speaker 1: There is no rest.
- 7:56Speaker 2: Did you know that only one other living creature has
- 7:59Speaker 2: as much trouble sleeping as we do? Not dogs? I
- 8:03Speaker 2: know my dog Andy. He seems like he's sleeping more
- 8:07Speaker 2: than he's awake. Bears, bears, hibernate cats invented the cat nap.
- 8:13Speaker 2: Did you know that a sloth can slumber twenty hours
- 8:20Speaker 2: a day. I think my roommate my sophomore year in
- 8:27Speaker 2: college might have been a sloth. Most animals know how
- 8:33Speaker 2: to rest, but there is one exception, and this exception
- 8:39Speaker 2: is not going to surprise you considering what we're discussing.
- 8:43Speaker 2: And these creatures are wooly, they're simple minded, and they're slow.
- 8:48Speaker 2: I'm not talking about husbands on Saturday mornings. I'm talking
- 8:53Speaker 2: about sheep. Sheep cannot sleep, at least they have trouble sleeping.
- 9:02Speaker 2: We count sheep to sleep. I guess they should count
- 9:06Speaker 2: one another because they have a hard time falling asleep.
- 9:09Speaker 2: For them to sleep, everything must be just right.
- 9:12Speaker 1: I mean just right.
- 9:13Speaker 2: No predators, no tension in the flock, no bugs in
- 9:17Speaker 2: the air, no hunger in the belly. Everything has to
- 9:20Speaker 2: be just so. Unfortunately, they cannot create a just soul environment.
- 9:29Speaker 2: They cannot find safe pasture, they can't spray insecticide, they
- 9:33Speaker 2: can't deal with frictions, they can't find food, and so
- 9:37Speaker 2: they need a shepherd. They need a shepherd to lead
- 9:42Speaker 2: them and to help them lie down in green pastures, Folks,
- 9:48Speaker 2: Without a shepherd, we can't rest either. But here's the
- 9:53Speaker 2: good news, and that is our shepherd can give it.
- 9:57Speaker 2: We need rest, and that's what within the wheelhouse of
- 10:02Speaker 2: our shepherd. Green pastures still waters, He can give them both.
- 10:07Speaker 2: Did you know that green pastures are not the natural
- 10:10Speaker 2: terrain of Judea. The hills around Bethlehem where David kept
- 10:14Speaker 2: his flock, they were not lush and green. They still aren't.
- 10:18Speaker 2: They still aren't unless there's been a shepherd to change.
- 10:22Speaker 2: The terrain of the Judean countryside is barren and rocky.
- 10:30Speaker 2: Anytime you see green, lush meadows, that is the work
- 10:36Speaker 2: of a shepherd. He has gone in and torn out
- 10:39Speaker 2: the stumps and burned the brush. Irrigation, cultivation, this is
- 10:44Speaker 2: all the work of a shepherd. So when David says
- 10:49Speaker 2: he makes me to lie down in green pastures, he's
- 10:53Speaker 2: essentially saying he makes me to lie down in his
- 10:57Speaker 2: finished work. As Christians, we rest in the finished work
- 11:06Speaker 2: of our good shepherd.
- 11:07Speaker 1: Jesus Christ.
- 11:09Speaker 2: When he died on the cross, he finished the work
- 11:12Speaker 2: for us, and he provides us a safe, lush place
- 11:16Speaker 2: in which to lie. When he extended one hand, this
- 11:19Speaker 2: way and another that, and allowed himself to be nailed
- 11:22Speaker 2: to the cross, to receive upon himself all the sins
- 11:26Speaker 2: of mankind. He did the work that we could not do.
- 11:31Speaker 2: And when he invites us to rest, he is inviting
- 11:34Speaker 2: us to rest in the finished work of the Cross.
- 11:40Speaker 2: Can you imagine the pleasure it must give the shepherd
- 11:44Speaker 2: as he looks out and seize the sheep resting in
- 11:48Speaker 2: his finished work. Can you imagine the pleasure it must
- 11:52Speaker 2: give our good shepherd when he sees us abandon our
- 11:56Speaker 2: attempts at self salvation and righteousness, and we simply rest.
- 12:04Speaker 2: We rest in the finished work of Christ on the Cross.
- 12:11Speaker 2: His pastor is a gift to us. It's not a
- 12:13Speaker 2: pasture that you have made, not a pastor that I
- 12:16Speaker 2: have made. It is a gift of God. For it
- 12:19Speaker 2: is by grace that you have been saved through faith.
- 12:22Speaker 2: And this is not from yourselves. This is the gift
- 12:26Speaker 2: of God. You see, the Christian faith, it's all about
- 12:33Speaker 2: what God has done and less about what I have
- 12:38Speaker 2: to do. You know, I became a Christian about the
- 12:42Speaker 2: same time that I became a boy scout, And somehow
- 12:45Speaker 2: I connected the two together. Boy scouts earn meritage badges
- 12:52Speaker 2: and move up. And I just assume that Christians must
- 12:56Speaker 2: earn merit badges so they could move up. So I
- 13:01Speaker 2: resolved to just earn a bunch of spiritual merit badges.
- 13:05Speaker 2: An embroidered Bible for Bible reading, folded hands for prayer,
- 13:11Speaker 2: a kids sleeping on the pew for church attendants. In
- 13:16Speaker 2: my imagination, there were angels up in heaven feverishly stitching
- 13:22Speaker 2: emblems on my many many spiritual merit badges. I could
- 13:26Speaker 2: just hear one angel say to the other, that locado kid,
- 13:30Speaker 2: He's gonna wear out my fingers. I work toward the day,
- 13:35Speaker 2: the great day, when God would welcome me amid falling
- 13:40Speaker 2: confetti and dancing angels, and he would drape my badge
- 13:45Speaker 2: laden sash across my chest and welcome me into his
- 13:51Speaker 2: eternal kingdom, where I would display all my good merit
- 13:56Speaker 2: badges for eternity. But then, even as a teenager, I
- 14:07Speaker 2: begin to wrestle with a fundamental question, and that is this,
- 14:15Speaker 2: if God saves good people, how good is good? If
- 14:22Speaker 2: God saves good people, exactly what qualifies as good? I mean,
- 14:28Speaker 2: God expects integrity of speech, But how many cusswords do
- 14:32Speaker 2: you get what is the permitted percentage of I don't
- 14:36Speaker 2: know exaggeration. Suppose the required score for morality is an
- 14:42Speaker 2: eighty and I score a seventy nine. And how do
- 14:46Speaker 2: you know your score?
- 14:47Speaker 1: Anyway?
- 14:49Speaker 2: I sought the advice of a minister. Surely he could
- 14:52Speaker 2: give me the answer, if God saves good people, how
- 14:56Speaker 2: good is good?
- 15:00Speaker 1: He did. He gave me one word.
- 15:01Speaker 2: He said, do just do good things. Just do do more.
- 15:06Speaker 2: Do now, Do good and you'll be okay. Do more
- 15:10Speaker 2: and you'll be saved. Do right and you'll be all right.
- 15:13Speaker 1: Do be, do be, do be, doo be, do be,
- 15:17Speaker 1: do be do Maybe you know the tune most people do.
- 15:27Speaker 2: Most people embrace the assumption that God saves good people.
- 15:32Speaker 2: Every every faith except the Christian faith, teaches that a
- 15:39Speaker 2: person must be good to be embraced by God. So
- 15:44Speaker 2: be good, be moral, be honest, be decent, Pray the Rosary,
- 15:48Speaker 2: keep the Sabbath, pay your taxes, keep your promises, pray
- 15:51Speaker 2: five times a day, facing east, stay sober, stay sane,
- 15:56Speaker 2: pay taxes again, earn merit badges. Yet, for all this
- 16:05Speaker 2: talk about being good, nobody can answer the fundamental question,
- 16:13Speaker 2: and that is what level of good is good enough.
- 16:18Speaker 1: Bizarre?
- 16:19Speaker 2: Don't you think bizarre that you can search this book
- 16:24Speaker 2: from Genesis to Revelation, from the table of contents in
- 16:28Speaker 2: the beginning to the maps in the end, and you
- 16:30Speaker 2: won't find a single exhaustive, comprehensive list. At our stake
- 16:38Speaker 2: is our eternal destination. Yet we're all more confident about
- 16:42Speaker 2: lasagna recipes than we are the entrance requirements for heaven.
- 16:52Speaker 2: What if the answer is this, What if the answer
- 17:01Speaker 2: is that God doesn't save good people, But what if
- 17:07Speaker 2: the answer is God saves sinners, and that the price
- 17:13Speaker 2: of admission is the confession of sin. And the key
- 17:20Speaker 2: is not our ability, but our willingness to confess that
- 17:24Speaker 2: we are unable, and that what we need is not
- 17:30Speaker 2: a system, but what we need is a savior, and
- 17:36Speaker 2: in him we can rest.
- 17:38Speaker 1: For by grace you have been saved. By grace, you
- 17:42Speaker 1: have been saved.
- 17:45Speaker 2: And that is not of yourselves. The scripture says, I'm
- 17:47Speaker 2: not making this up. It's right there in Ephesians two eight.
- 17:50Speaker 2: It is the gift of God. That's the pasture, that's
- 17:57Speaker 2: the valley, that's the lush grass.
- 18:01Speaker 1: In which we can rest. We contribute nothing.
- 18:05Speaker 2: Zilch as opposed to the merit badge of the scout.
- 18:09Speaker 2: The salvation of the soul is unearned. I'm so glad
- 18:13Speaker 2: somebody told me this, and if nobody's told you, I'm
- 18:18Speaker 2: so glad to do so. Our merits merit nothing. God's
- 18:24Speaker 2: work through Jesus Christ on the Cross merits everything. So
- 18:31Speaker 2: in a world that is rocky with human failure, there
- 18:34Speaker 2: is a land lush with divine mercy. And your shepherd
- 18:38Speaker 2: invites you to stretch out and rest there. He wants
- 18:42Speaker 2: you to lie down, nestle down deeply until you are hidden,
- 18:45Speaker 2: buried in the tall shoots of his love, and there
- 18:48Speaker 2: you will find rest and Friend, no coronavirus can take
- 18:52Speaker 2: that away from you. No job this location can remove that.
- 19:00Speaker 2: No upheaval of the world's system can touch the mighty
- 19:04Speaker 2: grace of God, because it does not come of this world.
- 19:07Speaker 2: It comes of God. Maybe you've lost a lot over
- 19:11Speaker 2: the last few weeks, in addition to losing sleep, maybe
- 19:14Speaker 2: you've lost some health, a job, And I'm sorry, but
- 19:21Speaker 2: let me tell you something, Friend, you have not lost
- 19:23Speaker 2: a savior.
- 19:24Speaker 1: You have not. You can lie down and rest.
- 19:29Speaker 2: And what's more, he wants you to lie down, not
- 19:31Speaker 2: just in the grasp, But he wants you to lie
- 19:33Speaker 2: down next to the to the still waters. Did you
- 19:36Speaker 2: know rusting rushing waters are treacherous for sheep. They're not
- 19:42Speaker 2: very bright. They tend to wade in, and when they
- 19:45Speaker 2: wade into the rushing water, the rushing water will heavy
- 19:48Speaker 2: their wool and will suck them under and carry them downstream.
- 19:53Speaker 2: For that reason, the shepherd would keep them near calm water.
- 19:57Speaker 2: These days in which we live are marked by whitewater.
- 20:02Speaker 2: Turn on the news, expect bad news. As a result,
- 20:07Speaker 2: anxiety is skyrocketing. Fears about the novel coronavirus, the economic meltdown,
- 20:13Speaker 2: the prolonged self isolation are taking an emotional toll on Americans.
- 20:19Speaker 2: Calls to the federal Mental Health Crisis hotline are nine
- 20:24Speaker 2: hundred percent greater than this time last year. Boy, we
- 20:29Speaker 2: could all use some calm waters. But how do we
- 20:33Speaker 2: find calm water? Well, I'll close with David's answer. He
- 20:38Speaker 2: urges us to follow the shepherd. To just follow the shepherd.
- 20:43Speaker 2: Note the two pronouns preceding the two verbs. He makes me,
- 20:48Speaker 2: He leads me, who's the active one. It's the shepherd.
- 20:53Speaker 2: It's the shepherd. The shepherd is the one who selects
- 20:56Speaker 2: the trail. The shepherd is the one who finds the
- 21:00Speaker 2: pond around which to rest the sheep's shop. Our job
- 21:05Speaker 2: is just to watch the shepherd, and with our eyes
- 21:08Speaker 2: on the shepherd, then we can get some sleep. The
- 21:11Speaker 2: promise from the Old Testament is this, you will keep
- 21:14Speaker 2: him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you.
- 21:21Speaker 2: That's all we need to do is keep our mind
- 21:24Speaker 2: on the shepherd, and then he will keep us in peace, perfect.
- 21:34Speaker 1: Peace.
- 21:36Speaker 2: Some years ago, Dinelon met a friend at a restaurant
- 21:39Speaker 2: for coffee. The two entered the parking lot at the
- 21:44Speaker 2: same time, and when my precious wife stepped out of
- 21:48Speaker 2: her car, she saw her friend waving her over. Dinelon
- 21:52Speaker 2: thought she was saying something, but she couldn't hear a word,
- 21:55Speaker 2: and that is because a jackhammer was pounding pavement just
- 21:59Speaker 2: a few eat away. DeLand walked toward her friend, who,
- 22:03Speaker 2: as it turns out, was just saying hello, and the
- 22:06Speaker 2: two entered the restaurant. When it came time to leave, Deneland,
- 22:11Speaker 2: my wife couldn't find her keys. She looked in her purse,
- 22:16Speaker 2: she looked on the floor, she looked in her friend's car. Finally,
- 22:19Speaker 2: when she went to her car. There they were Not
- 22:22Speaker 2: only were the keys in the ignition, but the car
- 22:26Speaker 2: was running. It had been running the entire time. DeLand
- 22:34Speaker 2: blames the oversight on the noise. She said, everything was
- 22:39Speaker 2: so loud. I forgot to turn it off. The world
- 22:43Speaker 2: gets that way. Life gets so loud that we forget
- 22:49Speaker 2: to shut it down. Oh, my friend, take a deep breath.
- 22:55Speaker 2: Take a deep breath. Trust your shepherd who aves you.
- 23:00Speaker 2: Trust your shepherd who leaves you, and trust him and
- 23:05Speaker 2: shut it down.
- 23:07Speaker 1: The racing, the hurrying, the scampering, the scrambling. Just shut
- 23:16Speaker 1: it down.
- 23:17Speaker 2: He will bring rest to your body. He will bring
- 23:20Speaker 2: rest to your soul. He will lead you into green pastures.
- 23:24Speaker 1: He leads me. He doesn't drive me, he doesn't scare me.
- 23:31Speaker 2: He's not behind me yelling hurry. He's ahead of me,
- 23:36Speaker 2: bidding me come on, come on. He's out in front,
- 23:42Speaker 2: clearing the path, cutting the brush, showing the way. Just
- 23:45Speaker 2: before the curve, he'll say, now, now, be careful here.
- 23:49Speaker 2: Just before the rise, he'll say, now step up here,
- 23:53Speaker 2: standing next to the rocks, he'll say, what's your step here?
- 23:57Speaker 2: He leads us, leads us every step of the way,
- 24:04Speaker 2: and he tells us what we need to know, and
- 24:06Speaker 2: he tells us when we need to know it. Here's
- 24:08Speaker 2: what the good Shepherd says. Give your entire attention to
- 24:12Speaker 2: what God is doing right now. Don't get worked up
- 24:17Speaker 2: about what he may.
- 24:20Speaker 1: Or may not happen tomorrow.
- 24:23Speaker 2: God will help you deal with whatever hard things come
- 24:28Speaker 2: up when when the time comes. When the time comes,
- 24:36Speaker 2: that last phrase is really a doozy.
- 24:40Speaker 1: You see.
- 24:41Speaker 2: God's going to give you what you need when you
- 24:42Speaker 2: need it. Somebody's thinking, I don't know what I would
- 24:48Speaker 2: do if I lost my husband. You will when the
- 24:53Speaker 2: time comes, when my children grow up and leave the house.
- 24:58Speaker 2: I don't think I can take it. It won't be easy,
- 25:02Speaker 2: but strength will come when the time comes. I don't
- 25:07Speaker 2: think I can start a new career. This is too
- 25:09Speaker 2: much change. I don't know.
- 25:11Speaker 1: You may be right.
- 25:15Speaker 2: Right now you can't, but you're not there yet. You
- 25:19Speaker 2: may be wanting to know too much too soon. God
- 25:23Speaker 2: will reveal answers to you when the time comes. The
- 25:28Speaker 2: key is this, friend, meet today's struggles with today's strength.
- 25:34Speaker 2: Don't try to solve tomorrow yet, you're not in tomorrow.
- 25:38Speaker 2: Don't try to solve next month yet.
- 25:40Speaker 1: It's not here.
- 25:42Speaker 2: Don't try to figure out when all this is going
- 25:44Speaker 2: to change, how it's going to change. Don't get yourself
- 25:47Speaker 2: tied up in a knot about what it's going to
- 25:50Speaker 2: look like. Don't try to hurry it along. Every time
- 25:54Speaker 2: you feel that heaviness, that anxiety, every time the devil
- 25:58Speaker 2: gives you a sack of worry, you just turn around
- 26:01Speaker 2: and you give it.
- 26:01Speaker 1: To Jesus Christ.
- 26:03Speaker 2: Say, Christ, you've not allowed me to know the answers,
- 26:08Speaker 2: but I trust you, and so I turn to you.
- 26:13Speaker 2: You just have enough for today, Leave tomorrow's problems for tomorrow.
- 26:19Speaker 2: Arthur Hayes Sulzburger was the publisher of the New York
- 26:23Speaker 2: Times during the Second World War. I've thought a lot
- 26:26Speaker 2: about the Second World War over the last few weeks, thinking,
- 26:30Speaker 2: can you imagine living in this level of global anxiety
- 26:35Speaker 2: for year? Not just week after week or month after month,
- 26:38Speaker 2: but year after year after year, like my parents did,
- 26:41Speaker 2: like your parents did, maybe a few of you did.
- 26:45Speaker 2: Arthur Hayes Sulzberger found it almost impossible to sleep during
- 26:50Speaker 2: those days. He was never able to banish worries from
- 26:54Speaker 2: his mind, he says, until he adopted as his motto
- 26:58Speaker 2: five words one step enough for me, one step enough
- 27:07Speaker 2: for me. He took those words from a hymn, a
- 27:12Speaker 2: hymn entitled lead Kindly, Light, Lead kindly, Light, Keep down
- 27:23Speaker 2: my feet. I do not ask to see the distant scene.
- 27:29Speaker 2: One step enough for me. Friend, God's not going to
- 27:35Speaker 2: let you see the distant scene either, so you might
- 27:37Speaker 2: as well quit looking.
- 27:39Speaker 1: He promises.
- 27:40Speaker 2: The lamp to our feet not a crystal ball for
- 27:42Speaker 2: the future. We do not need to know what will
- 27:46Speaker 2: happen tomorrow. We need only to know that He leads us,
- 27:52Speaker 2: and we will find grace to help us.
- 27:57Speaker 1: When we need it. One common thought.
- 28:03Speaker 2: I've had over the last few weeks is, God, is
- 28:07Speaker 2: it possible that you have separated us from all our
- 28:11Speaker 2: sources of entertainment and diversion so that you can truly
- 28:16Speaker 2: have our attention? That when we turn on the TV
- 28:21Speaker 2: to watch our favorite baseball game, basketball game, or golf game,
- 28:25Speaker 2: we can't find it. New movies are not being made,
- 28:29Speaker 2: can't go on the kind of trips we'd planned to
- 28:32Speaker 2: go on Broadway musicals if we'd wanted to see one
- 28:36Speaker 2: of those, can't see one of those. Separated from all
- 28:40Speaker 2: those sources of entertainment and diversion and distraction. I wonder,
- 28:45Speaker 2: I wonder, is it possible that he did that to
- 28:49Speaker 2: get our attention? Is it possible that he shook everything up,
- 28:54Speaker 2: everything up, the global health, the global economy, the global
- 28:59Speaker 2: job market, even the racial unrest. Is it possible that
- 29:03Speaker 2: he just shook everything up so that we would look
- 29:07Speaker 2: and see what remains unshaken. And that is the character,
- 29:18Speaker 2: the goodness, and the nature of God.
- 29:24Speaker 1: I don't know how much longer.
- 29:29Speaker 2: We're going to have until Christ returns, but I do
- 29:34Speaker 2: believe that nothing else needs to happen in order for
- 29:38Speaker 2: his return to happen. And so I look to you,
- 29:43Speaker 2: my friend, and I ask you, if you've never made
- 29:47Speaker 2: Christ your shepherd, if you've never called out upon him,
- 29:52Speaker 2: if you've never if you've never reached out to him,
- 29:55Speaker 2: if you've never received his invitation, if you've never placed
- 30:02Speaker 2: yourself in the valley of the rest of his finished work,
- 30:07Speaker 2: please do so, Please do so. There is a judgment
- 30:11Speaker 2: day coming, And on that day, you do not want
- 30:14Speaker 2: to stand before him wearing some silly merit badge, because
- 30:19Speaker 2: your merits merit nothing. What you do want to wear
- 30:24Speaker 2: on that day is the great gift of the righteousness
- 30:29Speaker 2: of Christ, robed in his righteousness alone, faultless to stand
- 30:36Speaker 2: before the throne. Have you said yes to him? If not,
- 30:42Speaker 2: with all that is within me, I implore you to
- 30:45Speaker 2: do so, because I do not know how many more
- 30:48Speaker 2: invitations you will receive, how many more I'll have to give.
- 30:52Speaker 1: Please say yes to him, Heavenly Father.
- 30:57Speaker 2: Here is now, as we eat, initiate or repeat our
- 31:03Speaker 2: confession that we are sheep, and like sheep, we get confused,
- 31:10Speaker 2: we get lost, we get dirty, we're defenseless, we're sinners,
- 31:17Speaker 2: and we're in need of a shepherd. And we turn
- 31:20Speaker 2: to you and we call upon you as our good shepherd.
- 31:26Speaker 2: Here are those who are doing it for the first
- 31:28Speaker 2: time today, and receive them. I know you do, Lord,
- 31:31Speaker 2: gladly into the flock. You celebrate their arrival. They were
- 31:35Speaker 2: made to be sheep in your flock, in the care
- 31:40Speaker 2: of your pasture. And those of us who've been here
- 31:43Speaker 2: for a while, forgive us for the times we forget
- 31:46Speaker 2: how good you are. And today we once again we
- 31:51Speaker 2: once again find our rest in your finished work, and
- 31:58Speaker 2: we rest our heads in your kind arms. Through Christ,
- 32:06Speaker 2: our good Shepherd. We pray, Amen, that's.
- 32:34Speaker 3: Wild is endless, so why so?
- 32:42Speaker 1: But somehow.
- 32:44Speaker 3: I'm still lost you.
- 33:03Speaker 4: The streets are full of moving shadows, countless place as
- 33:08Speaker 4: I could go, city shining, people passing, Yet I still
- 33:15Speaker 4: feel so lone.
- 33:18Speaker 5: Every road keeps leading nowhere. Every sky feels cold and blue.
- 33:25Speaker 5: In this world so fast and open, I'm still lost
- 33:29Speaker 5: in missing you. The world is wild, so wid before me,
- 33:41Speaker 5: but I keep blues in my way somewhere less distance.
- 33:55Speaker 4: Your memory makes misty.
- 34:01Speaker 5: The world losers without us, but my heart remains unshoe
- 34:15Speaker 5: for no matter where these feet they wonder, I'm still
- 34:23Speaker 5: lost in seeing you.
- 34:30Speaker 3: I have tried to outrun silence, try to leave your
- 34:35Speaker 3: ghost behind, but your name still echo softly through the
- 34:41Speaker 3: corners of my mind.
- 34:45Speaker 5: The world is wise, so maybe before me, but I
- 34:54Speaker 5: keep lose in my way somewhere lestes us. Your memory
- 35:09Speaker 5: makes me stand the world loser without us, but my
- 35:22Speaker 5: heart remay is untrue.
- 35:27Speaker 4: Phon.
- 35:28Speaker 5: No matter where these feep may wonder.
- 35:35Speaker 4: I'm still lost in.
- 35:39Speaker 5: You. Maybe someday stop searching for your face in every crowd,
- 35:49Speaker 5: But until that day, this broken heart will keep calling
- 35:54Speaker 5: your name out. The world is wise, so I before me,
- 36:05Speaker 5: but I keep losing my way somewhere in less distance.
- 36:19Speaker 5: Your memory makes me stand.
- 36:26Speaker 4: The world loves.
- 36:30Speaker 5: Without us, But my heart remains some true For no
- 36:40Speaker 5: matter when these feet may you wonder, I'm still lost
- 36:49Speaker 5: in missing you.