1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:02,000 still to God and prayer. 2 00:00:02,000 --> 00:00:08,000 Gracious Heavenly Father, we just thank you for your spirit. 3 00:00:08,000 --> 00:00:13,000 Thank you Holy Spirit for being the Comforter. 4 00:00:13,000 --> 00:00:19,000 Thank you for being present this morning. 5 00:00:19,000 --> 00:00:22,000 Lord, I ask you to move me behind the cross. 6 00:00:22,000 --> 00:00:27,000 Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart 7 00:00:27,000 --> 00:00:37,000 be like a sweet spirit to the hearts of your people this day and night. 8 00:00:37,000 --> 00:00:41,000 Usher, thank you for your service this morning. 9 00:00:41,000 --> 00:00:46,000 We appreciate it all. 10 00:00:46,000 --> 00:00:52,000 For the Angel Choir, Ms. Knowles, Ms. Brenda, Ms. Vanessa, 11 00:00:52,000 --> 00:00:57,000 for your gift of music, for your care of the Angel Choir 12 00:00:57,000 --> 00:01:04,000 and their desire will be on the increase to come to rehearsal. 13 00:01:04,000 --> 00:01:10,000 Thank you for the 3rd Saturday feeding team and Wren Lloyd 14 00:01:10,000 --> 00:01:14,000 and the clothing team and all who served this week. 15 00:01:14,000 --> 00:01:18,000 Mr. Cheatham, thank you for keeping us in due stance this week, 16 00:01:18,000 --> 00:01:22,000 making sure everything is in order and in shape. 17 00:01:22,000 --> 00:01:28,000 We appreciate your care of the sanctuary and all the areas of the building. 18 00:01:28,000 --> 00:01:32,000 And I say thank you to all who have come this day 19 00:01:32,000 --> 00:01:35,000 because we could have been somewhere else, 20 00:01:35,000 --> 00:01:43,000 but the Lord said this is my house and this is where I need you to be. 21 00:01:43,000 --> 00:01:49,000 So I thank you for coming. I thank you to our visitors, 22 00:01:49,000 --> 00:01:59,000 the Golden Eagle Club, VAN, like V-A-N. 23 00:01:59,000 --> 00:02:01,000 All right, so y'all must have VAN. 24 00:02:01,000 --> 00:02:06,000 Hey, I'm getting smart. 25 00:02:06,000 --> 00:02:09,000 Make that connection. 26 00:02:09,000 --> 00:02:13,000 God is good, though. God is truly good. 27 00:02:13,000 --> 00:02:19,000 Well, today I want to ask you a question that maybe you haven't been asked in a long time, 28 00:02:19,000 --> 00:02:25,000 but what about abundant life do we miss? 29 00:02:25,000 --> 00:02:33,000 What is it about the words in John that simply say abundant life that we seem to miss? 30 00:02:33,000 --> 00:02:35,000 If someone walked up to you, Ms. Dixon, and said, 31 00:02:35,000 --> 00:02:39,000 I've got abundant life for you, would you turn them down? 32 00:02:39,000 --> 00:02:45,000 You'd say how, where, and what do I need to do today? 33 00:02:45,000 --> 00:02:50,000 John F. King, if somebody said today is your day to get abundant life, 34 00:02:50,000 --> 00:02:57,000 would you turn them down or would you sit and kind of say, let me get some info? 35 00:02:57,000 --> 00:03:01,000 Would you give some info? I think I would. 36 00:03:01,000 --> 00:03:11,000 So I'm just going to say to you, it's very few times that I will look at all four passages 37 00:03:11,000 --> 00:03:21,000 in the lectionary and struggle with which one has the best to preach from. 38 00:03:21,000 --> 00:03:27,000 If you have a piece of paper, we've read, and I appreciate David Malvo, 39 00:03:27,000 --> 00:03:31,000 our lay leader, youth lay leader. 40 00:03:31,000 --> 00:03:33,000 He's a local. 41 00:03:33,000 --> 00:03:38,000 We appreciate his leadership this morning, but he read the Acts passage, 42 00:03:38,000 --> 00:03:41,000 and he read the Gospel passage. 43 00:03:41,000 --> 00:03:45,000 I'd like you to write these other two down that you can go back in your own time 44 00:03:45,000 --> 00:03:49,000 and check them out, but it's Psalm 23, one that you're very familiar with, 45 00:03:49,000 --> 00:03:55,000 and then 1 Peter 2, 19 through 25. 46 00:03:55,000 --> 00:04:01,000 And I want to say to you, the question is about abundant life, 47 00:04:01,000 --> 00:04:06,000 but the answer is about the sheep and the shepherd. 48 00:04:06,000 --> 00:04:11,000 Say the answer is about the sheep and the shepherd. 49 00:04:11,000 --> 00:04:19,000 Recognize that many of us struggle sometimes because we get a little confused 50 00:04:19,000 --> 00:04:24,000 about who the sheep and the shepherd are. 51 00:04:24,000 --> 00:04:28,000 So I want to say that the sermon titled this morning is simply, 52 00:04:28,000 --> 00:04:31,000 we're all one of the sheep. 53 00:04:31,000 --> 00:04:34,000 We are all one of the sheep. 54 00:04:34,000 --> 00:04:41,000 If you apart and counted in God's kingdom, we are all one of the sheep. 55 00:04:41,000 --> 00:04:48,000 Can you say, I'm a sheep, you a sheep, we a sheep? 56 00:04:48,000 --> 00:04:53,000 I know that was kind of an ebonic moment, but you know, just go with me. 57 00:04:53,000 --> 00:05:01,000 I'm a sheep, you a sheep, we all sheep. 58 00:05:01,000 --> 00:05:06,000 You'll get that by the time we get through this message, amen? 59 00:05:06,000 --> 00:05:11,000 John 10 starts out with, really, truly, I tell you, 60 00:05:11,000 --> 00:05:16,000 who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate, 61 00:05:16,000 --> 00:05:22,000 but climbs in by another way, is a thief and a bandit. 62 00:05:22,000 --> 00:05:27,000 That's a tough way to start a passage, because the first thing we'll say, what? 63 00:05:27,000 --> 00:05:30,000 That ain't me. 64 00:05:30,000 --> 00:05:36,000 She just told me I'm a sheep, we a sheep, all together we sheep. 65 00:05:36,000 --> 00:05:41,000 She doesn't say anything about being a thief or a robber. 66 00:05:41,000 --> 00:05:45,000 So in your Bible, I hope that you have one of those Bibles you can underline and write it, 67 00:05:45,000 --> 00:05:52,000 but underlining there, those two words, thief and a bandit. 68 00:05:52,000 --> 00:05:58,000 And then it goes on and says, the one who enters the gate, say the gate, 69 00:05:58,000 --> 00:06:05,000 is the shepherd of the sheep. 70 00:06:05,000 --> 00:06:13,000 So the other two things we want to look at is the gate and the shepherd, their connection. 71 00:06:13,000 --> 00:06:15,000 Okay? 72 00:06:15,000 --> 00:06:31,000 And then it goes on to say, he calls his own sheep by name, and the sheep is his voice. 73 00:06:31,000 --> 00:06:41,000 So if you a thief and a bandit, then you must be in the process of becoming a sheep. 74 00:06:41,000 --> 00:06:43,000 You're soon to be a sheep. 75 00:06:43,000 --> 00:06:45,000 You're waiting to be touched to be a sheep. 76 00:06:45,000 --> 00:06:46,000 There's still hope for you. 77 00:06:46,000 --> 00:06:51,000 So if you say, oh my goodness, I've been found out I'm a thief and a bandit 78 00:06:51,000 --> 00:06:56,000 because I've been trying to go in the other window and God's been telling me to come through the gate, 79 00:06:56,000 --> 00:07:03,000 and I just realized right now I'm a thief, don't you hope? 80 00:07:03,000 --> 00:07:05,000 Because guess what? 81 00:07:05,000 --> 00:07:13,000 You've already told me that you a sheep, I'm a sheep, we all in here sheep. 82 00:07:13,000 --> 00:07:15,000 I didn't say anybody was a thief. 83 00:07:15,000 --> 00:07:17,000 I didn't say anybody was a bandit. 84 00:07:17,000 --> 00:07:21,000 I'm just reading what John says. 85 00:07:21,000 --> 00:07:26,000 So if you want to get mad with me, go into your prayer closet later on in the day, 86 00:07:26,000 --> 00:07:30,000 confess unto God, and figure out when you was having your thief moment, 87 00:07:30,000 --> 00:07:33,000 and we don't have to talk our lives. 88 00:07:33,000 --> 00:07:35,000 Because we've all been a thief in the night. 89 00:07:35,000 --> 00:07:41,000 We've all stepped away from what God has given us as the preferred way to live our lives. 90 00:07:41,000 --> 00:07:45,000 We've all said, oh look Jesus, you go ahead and whip that. 91 00:07:45,000 --> 00:07:47,000 I'm going to give you these three things. 92 00:07:47,000 --> 00:07:48,000 I've got these other two. 93 00:07:48,000 --> 00:07:53,000 And see, we're not a full-time thief. 94 00:07:53,000 --> 00:07:57,000 We're just a sometime thief. 95 00:07:57,000 --> 00:08:01,000 Because see, we realize that we've given God three things, and we've held on to two things, 96 00:08:01,000 --> 00:08:04,000 and the scripture says, give everything unto the Lord. 97 00:08:04,000 --> 00:08:07,000 So we say, now look, we're not real, real thieves. 98 00:08:07,000 --> 00:08:10,000 I mean, we ain't being caught. 99 00:08:10,000 --> 00:08:17,000 So while we up here in church, I'm just going to go with the past and tell them I'm a good sheep. 100 00:08:17,000 --> 00:08:23,000 But you don't have to confess on me because it says confess unto the Lord. 101 00:08:23,000 --> 00:08:29,000 But we've all been a thief at some point in our lives. 102 00:08:29,000 --> 00:08:34,000 You may not be feeling now, but you know, soul or a little something, something along the way. 103 00:08:34,000 --> 00:08:44,000 Maybe it was in the office and you took a box of paperclips because you needed them for the kids before at the house. 104 00:08:44,000 --> 00:08:54,000 Or maybe you just picked up a few boxes of old tile they was going to throw out at the plant in the maintenance department, 105 00:08:54,000 --> 00:08:59,000 and they don't use that stuff no more. 106 00:08:59,000 --> 00:09:02,000 Yeah, I know. 107 00:09:02,000 --> 00:09:04,000 We serve a forgiving Savior. 108 00:09:04,000 --> 00:09:07,000 Confess and just go on. 109 00:09:07,000 --> 00:09:16,000 Or maybe you work at the grocery distribution and they had put some stuff to return to the sales people because the bag was gross, 110 00:09:16,000 --> 00:09:20,000 and you said, hang on, new number, throw that out, no one. 111 00:09:20,000 --> 00:09:27,000 I'm going to dump it in my own little plastic bag and leave the wrappers for the Keebler Cookie Man, okay? 112 00:09:27,000 --> 00:09:34,000 See, I can speak from experience because I used to sell Keebler cookies in one of my previous lifetimes. 113 00:09:34,000 --> 00:09:38,000 See, some people come into this as a second career, but I think I've had two or three. 114 00:09:38,000 --> 00:09:40,000 You know, we'll talk about it later on. 115 00:09:40,000 --> 00:09:44,000 But young in my life I sold Keebler cookies. 116 00:09:44,000 --> 00:09:54,000 And I would get to the store and I'd say some of the people were tearing up my cookie bag because they knew I had to give them credit. 117 00:09:54,000 --> 00:09:59,000 And I'd see all these other plastic bags in the back and I'd say, why are these back here? 118 00:09:59,000 --> 00:10:06,000 What do you do with those cookies when you give credit? 119 00:10:06,000 --> 00:10:10,000 I said, I have to put them in a plastic container and destroy them. 120 00:10:10,000 --> 00:10:17,000 Don't destroy them because they ain't that bad, only a few got cracked up. 121 00:10:17,000 --> 00:10:20,000 And I just knew folk was tearing up my cookies in the back. 122 00:10:20,000 --> 00:10:26,000 I'm building the slaves and they're stopping on the boxes so they can get credit for those cookies. 123 00:10:26,000 --> 00:10:36,000 And somebody was stealing them and it may not have been you, but you may have been the benefactor of the stolen cookies. 124 00:10:36,000 --> 00:10:42,000 So you was not a direct thief, you was a sub-thief. 125 00:10:42,000 --> 00:10:49,000 What a mighty God we serve because we say we are sheep, you sheep, we sheep, us, okay? 126 00:10:49,000 --> 00:10:59,000 So God is moving us from the mindset of what it means because he's blessing his sheep. 127 00:10:59,000 --> 00:11:10,000 So today's message simply is about what's the connection between the sheep, the shepherd, and the gate. 128 00:11:10,000 --> 00:11:15,000 I said the sheep, the shepherd, and the gate. 129 00:11:15,000 --> 00:11:26,000 The gate is where we enter into God's house, God's preferred place for our life so the abundance can begin moving forward 130 00:11:26,000 --> 00:11:34,000 because we have to be in the place and the place is being who God is calling us to be. 131 00:11:34,000 --> 00:11:42,000 But if he says come through the gate and we sneak through the back or we come in a side window 132 00:11:42,000 --> 00:11:46,000 or we come in a way he hasn't called us to come in, we're out of order. 133 00:11:46,000 --> 00:11:56,000 So one thing about this passage is it makes it really, really clear Jesus is both the gate and the shepherd. 134 00:11:56,000 --> 00:12:03,000 Read the passage closely, look at the connotation of what it means to be a shepherd and the gate 135 00:12:03,000 --> 00:12:10,000 because the gate is the place, is the doorway, is the entry, and Jesus says what? 136 00:12:10,000 --> 00:12:17,000 In order to get eternal life, in order for you to have salvation, you've got to come through me. 137 00:12:17,000 --> 00:12:27,000 The gate must be open and the shepherd is waiting for you to come. 138 00:12:27,000 --> 00:12:31,000 What's the benefit of coming? 139 00:12:31,000 --> 00:12:41,000 Well, we all know the 23rd Psalm. It says, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. 140 00:12:41,000 --> 00:12:49,000 He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters and he restores my soul. 141 00:12:49,000 --> 00:12:57,000 That ought to make you shout because the reason that the shepherd is so intense about us becoming who he wants us to be 142 00:12:57,000 --> 00:13:06,000 is because he wants to restore. Some of us have forgotten what a good soul feels like 143 00:13:06,000 --> 00:13:13,000 because we become comfortable coming through the side door. 144 00:13:13,000 --> 00:13:19,000 We've even made a commitment to side door living. 145 00:13:19,000 --> 00:13:24,000 I'm going to give God these three things and God need to be happy with these three unangrazing. 146 00:13:24,000 --> 00:13:30,000 Because see, I've got this Jesus. 147 00:13:30,000 --> 00:13:36,000 Everybody ain't going to be willing to say those other two things that were strangling you to death. 148 00:13:36,000 --> 00:13:42,000 But I can admit the things that I did not give to God and leave with God has strangled me over and over 149 00:13:42,000 --> 00:13:48,000 until I had to get down on my knees and say, Lord, I confess. 150 00:13:48,000 --> 00:13:51,000 I'm sorry that I held those last two things out. 151 00:13:51,000 --> 00:13:56,000 I'm sorry that I kept them in my pocket thinking I could handle it all by myself. 152 00:13:56,000 --> 00:14:05,000 I'm sorry that I didn't commit fully and completely to coming through the gate. 153 00:14:05,000 --> 00:14:12,000 But Psalm 23 says, he restores me. 154 00:14:12,000 --> 00:14:19,000 But then if you go up to the ask passage and you look at what it says, it says the last verse of what we read says, 155 00:14:19,000 --> 00:14:22,000 praising God and having the good will of all people. 156 00:14:22,000 --> 00:14:29,000 And day by day the Lord added to the number of those who were being saved 157 00:14:29,000 --> 00:14:38,000 because they came through the gate and they met the sight. 158 00:14:38,000 --> 00:14:44,000 But I like this 25th verse in 1 Peter to write it down. 159 00:14:44,000 --> 00:14:50,000 Just write the passages down, 1 Peter 2, 19 through 25. 160 00:14:50,000 --> 00:14:54,000 These are all part of lectionary, just kind of a commercial here. 161 00:14:54,000 --> 00:14:56,000 What is lectionary? 162 00:14:56,000 --> 00:14:59,000 Lectionary gives four passages every week. 163 00:14:59,000 --> 00:15:06,000 And the common lectionary is set up so all Christian churches have an opportunity to preach from it, 164 00:15:06,000 --> 00:15:10,000 Baptist, Methodist, Catholic, anybody who loves Jesus Christ. 165 00:15:10,000 --> 00:15:17,000 The common lectionary is set up by a common group of leadership and there's three common years. 166 00:15:17,000 --> 00:15:25,000 But every Sunday there's an Old Testament, there's a Psalm, there's an Epistle, and there's a Gospel. 167 00:15:25,000 --> 00:15:28,000 And they have a connecting link between each other. 168 00:15:28,000 --> 00:15:35,000 Some churches read all four and our worship team, we choose to read the Scripture and the Gospel. 169 00:15:35,000 --> 00:15:40,000 But the important part is there's a thread between all four of these passages 170 00:15:40,000 --> 00:15:43,000 and the thread this week is the shepherd. 171 00:15:43,000 --> 00:15:51,000 But 1 Peter 2, verse 25 says, for you were going astray like sheep, 172 00:15:51,000 --> 00:15:57,000 but now you have returned to the shepherd and the guardian of your house. 173 00:15:57,000 --> 00:15:59,000 That's good news. 174 00:15:59,000 --> 00:16:06,000 Because each of us have gone astray on Sunday at some point in our lives 175 00:16:06,000 --> 00:16:13,000 and we needed that guidance of the shepherd. 176 00:16:13,000 --> 00:16:21,000 I'm not a country girl so I don't pretend to know what it's like to have sheep on a hill 177 00:16:21,000 --> 00:16:24,000 and have a shepherd tap them with a cane. 178 00:16:24,000 --> 00:16:28,000 I don't even know what the cane is called. 179 00:16:28,000 --> 00:16:32,000 Shaff, hey, I knew you knew. 180 00:16:32,000 --> 00:16:35,000 I knew there was somebody to help bring it back to my remembrance. 181 00:16:35,000 --> 00:16:40,000 But can you imagine the shepherd just tapping with the staff saying, 182 00:16:40,000 --> 00:16:42,000 come on back, you've gone too far. 183 00:16:42,000 --> 00:16:48,000 You're almost on the edge of the land and I don't want you lost to the wolves. 184 00:16:48,000 --> 00:16:54,000 Can somebody say, I don't want you lost to the wolves? 185 00:16:54,000 --> 00:17:01,000 He has a contained area, but even with all the things that he has rocked off on the hill, 186 00:17:01,000 --> 00:17:06,000 there's no necessarily gate up there that you can see, 187 00:17:06,000 --> 00:17:10,000 but there's a way that the shepherd brings you through the gate 188 00:17:10,000 --> 00:17:18,000 and taps you on the shoulder with the staff so you don't go too far. 189 00:17:18,000 --> 00:17:24,000 I'm a sheep, we're sheep, we're sheep. 190 00:17:24,000 --> 00:17:28,000 He taps all of us if we want to. 191 00:17:28,000 --> 00:17:33,000 He taps kids that are nine years old playing with pimples. 192 00:17:33,000 --> 00:17:37,000 He taps old people who go to sleep on the back row. 193 00:17:37,000 --> 00:17:40,000 He taps children up in the quiet stand. 194 00:17:40,000 --> 00:17:43,000 He taps ushers on the corner who want to talk. 195 00:17:43,000 --> 00:17:46,000 He taps us all. 196 00:17:46,000 --> 00:17:52,000 I mean, just tap them. 197 00:17:52,000 --> 00:17:56,000 He is a respecter of no person. 198 00:17:56,000 --> 00:18:02,000 He is a full, unashamed tapper. 199 00:18:02,000 --> 00:18:06,000 He say, I see you and you mind? 200 00:18:06,000 --> 00:18:08,000 You hear my voice. 201 00:18:08,000 --> 00:18:10,000 I know you do. 202 00:18:10,000 --> 00:18:11,000 I'm tapping you. 203 00:18:11,000 --> 00:18:13,000 Come on back in. 204 00:18:13,000 --> 00:18:15,000 I mean, he's good. 205 00:18:15,000 --> 00:18:16,000 He got this. 206 00:18:16,000 --> 00:18:17,000 He got this. 207 00:18:17,000 --> 00:18:19,000 And you can't deny that he got this. 208 00:18:19,000 --> 00:18:20,000 You can just hear it going on. 209 00:18:20,000 --> 00:18:22,000 Nobody else can hear the beat. 210 00:18:22,000 --> 00:18:24,000 And he be just talking, hey, I hear you. 211 00:18:24,000 --> 00:18:25,000 I feel you. 212 00:18:25,000 --> 00:18:26,000 I'm talking to you. 213 00:18:26,000 --> 00:18:30,000 Do you know how many of you hear this? 214 00:18:30,000 --> 00:18:31,000 What is going on? 215 00:18:31,000 --> 00:18:33,000 Nobody else hear the beat but me? 216 00:18:33,000 --> 00:18:36,000 You be like, oh, man, that was my song. 217 00:18:36,000 --> 00:18:42,000 And he gets us that way because he is a shepherd. 218 00:18:42,000 --> 00:18:44,000 And he has the staff. 219 00:18:44,000 --> 00:18:46,000 And he's got the gate. 220 00:18:46,000 --> 00:18:49,000 And he wants everybody inside the gate. 221 00:18:49,000 --> 00:18:50,000 And he wants everybody. 222 00:18:50,000 --> 00:18:52,000 He say, yo, I know your name. 223 00:18:52,000 --> 00:18:53,000 I know your mama. 224 00:18:53,000 --> 00:18:54,000 I know your daddy. 225 00:18:54,000 --> 00:18:55,000 I know your people, people. 226 00:18:55,000 --> 00:18:58,000 Just come on back in here. 227 00:18:58,000 --> 00:19:00,000 Don't care where you've been. 228 00:19:00,000 --> 00:19:04,000 I'm ready for you to come home. 229 00:19:04,000 --> 00:19:08,000 Ready for you to come home. 230 00:19:08,000 --> 00:19:13,000 And I say to you this day, everybody 231 00:19:13,000 --> 00:19:15,000 has been a stranger. 232 00:19:15,000 --> 00:19:18,000 If we're willing to admit we've been a thief, 233 00:19:18,000 --> 00:19:20,000 maybe we want one in the night. 234 00:19:20,000 --> 00:19:26,000 Maybe we will get the thief in the afternoon. 235 00:19:26,000 --> 00:19:31,000 But thanks be to God, you don't judge little thieves, big thieves. 236 00:19:31,000 --> 00:19:35,000 It's all for you, for him. 237 00:19:35,000 --> 00:19:38,000 But he also does. 238 00:19:38,000 --> 00:19:44,000 Jesus, who died on the cross for your sins and mine. 239 00:19:44,000 --> 00:19:49,000 He gave us an advocate and a comfort in the Holy Spirit. 240 00:19:49,000 --> 00:19:53,000 And he's calling you for that, to say, you've heard me. 241 00:19:53,000 --> 00:19:55,000 You know my voice. 242 00:19:55,000 --> 00:19:57,000 I am your shepherd. 243 00:19:57,000 --> 00:19:59,000 Say a few things to me. 244 00:19:59,000 --> 00:20:00,000 I love you. 245 00:20:00,000 --> 00:20:01,000 I care for you. 246 00:20:01,000 --> 00:20:04,000 I've got abundant life waiting for you. 247 00:20:04,000 --> 00:20:07,000 Will you come in the gate? 248 00:20:07,000 --> 00:20:09,000 Will you walk through the door? 249 00:20:09,000 --> 00:20:12,000 Will you stand when I've asked you to stand? 250 00:20:12,000 --> 00:20:18,000 Will you be women, men, children, boys and girls, teachers, preachers? 251 00:20:18,000 --> 00:20:22,000 Will you be the sheep I've called you to be? 252 00:20:22,000 --> 00:20:28,000 Or will you be a thief and a robber? 253 00:20:28,000 --> 00:20:34,000 This day, you have the choice. 254 00:20:34,000 --> 00:20:38,000 Because you're woke. 255 00:20:38,000 --> 00:20:40,000 Everybody didn't wake up this morning. 256 00:20:40,000 --> 00:20:42,000 Everybody didn't see this day. 257 00:20:42,000 --> 00:20:44,000 Everybody didn't have this moment. 258 00:20:44,000 --> 00:20:49,000 But all of us in here are woke right now. 259 00:20:49,000 --> 00:20:52,000 We can speak to what it means to be a good sheep 260 00:20:52,000 --> 00:20:59,000 and know a good shepherd who loves us with all his heart. 261 00:20:59,000 --> 00:21:06,000 So I say to you today, this is a different version of the Psalm, 262 00:21:06,000 --> 00:21:10,000 23rd Psalm that I will close today with. 263 00:21:10,000 --> 00:21:12,000 But I want to share with you. 264 00:21:12,000 --> 00:21:16,000 And it simply says, the Lord is my shepherd. 265 00:21:16,000 --> 00:21:19,000 That's relationship. 266 00:21:19,000 --> 00:21:21,000 I shall not want. 267 00:21:21,000 --> 00:21:25,000 That's all the supply I can stand. 268 00:21:25,000 --> 00:21:28,000 He makes me to lie down in green patches. 269 00:21:28,000 --> 00:21:32,000 Baby, baby, baby, that is Sabbath rest. 270 00:21:32,000 --> 00:21:34,000 He leads me beside still water. 271 00:21:34,000 --> 00:21:37,000 Oh, that's refreshment. 272 00:21:37,000 --> 00:21:41,000 He restores my soul. 273 00:21:41,000 --> 00:21:45,000 Meditation, that's healing. 274 00:21:45,000 --> 00:21:47,000 That's shadow-routed healing. 275 00:21:47,000 --> 00:21:49,000 You know what I mean? 276 00:21:49,000 --> 00:21:53,000 He leads me in the path of righteousness. 277 00:21:53,000 --> 00:21:55,000 That's cap on your shoulder. 278 00:21:55,000 --> 00:21:57,000 Hey, I got your attention. 279 00:21:57,000 --> 00:22:00,000 Don't shut up with your mouth, guidance from above. 280 00:22:00,000 --> 00:22:02,000 That's like, oh, I see you everywhere you go. 281 00:22:02,000 --> 00:22:07,000 You can't escape me because I see you. 282 00:22:07,000 --> 00:22:11,000 For his name's sake, that's purpose. 283 00:22:11,000 --> 00:22:14,000 Not just any purpose, but the purpose that you were born for 284 00:22:14,000 --> 00:22:16,000 and you were born for and you were born for 285 00:22:16,000 --> 00:22:20,000 and I was born for, the purpose because it's in Jesus' name. 286 00:22:20,000 --> 00:22:24,000 Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, 287 00:22:24,000 --> 00:22:28,000 that's testing, testing of our faith. 288 00:22:28,000 --> 00:22:30,000 Understanding what he's calling us to do, 289 00:22:30,000 --> 00:22:34,000 that's a test that we can pass 290 00:22:34,000 --> 00:22:37,000 because it says I fear no evil. 291 00:22:37,000 --> 00:22:39,000 Oh, but that's protection. 292 00:22:39,000 --> 00:22:44,000 Coming from the top of my head to the soles of my feet. 293 00:22:44,000 --> 00:22:48,000 Thou art with me, that's faithfulness. 294 00:22:48,000 --> 00:22:51,000 Thy rod and thy staff comfort me. 295 00:22:51,000 --> 00:22:53,000 Oh, Holy Spirit, that's a discipline 296 00:22:53,000 --> 00:22:56,000 because the Lord knows if he disciplines us, 297 00:22:56,000 --> 00:22:59,000 he loves us and he cares for us. 298 00:22:59,000 --> 00:23:01,000 He doesn't let his children fall short. 299 00:23:01,000 --> 00:23:06,000 Thou prepareth a table before me 300 00:23:06,000 --> 00:23:08,000 in the presence of mine enemy. 301 00:23:08,000 --> 00:23:11,000 That's hope beyond hope, beyond hope. 302 00:23:11,000 --> 00:23:14,000 That's a deliverance of reconciliation. 303 00:23:14,000 --> 00:23:19,000 Thou anointed my head with all, oh, but that's consecration. 304 00:23:19,000 --> 00:23:24,000 My cup, whew, runneth over. 305 00:23:24,000 --> 00:23:26,000 That's abundance in the name of Jesus. 306 00:23:26,000 --> 00:23:29,000 That's more and more and more and more 307 00:23:29,000 --> 00:23:31,000 than you can ever imagine. 308 00:23:31,000 --> 00:23:35,000 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me 309 00:23:35,000 --> 00:23:37,000 all the days of my life. 310 00:23:37,000 --> 00:23:40,000 That's a blessing from above. 311 00:23:40,000 --> 00:23:43,000 And I will dwell in the house of the Lord, 312 00:23:43,000 --> 00:23:52,000 that's security forever and ever and ever. 313 00:23:52,000 --> 00:23:54,000 Ain't that good, eternity? 314 00:23:54,000 --> 00:23:56,000 Ain't that eternity good? 315 00:23:56,000 --> 00:24:01,000 If that's what it's about, being a shepherd, 316 00:24:01,000 --> 00:24:03,000 count me in. 317 00:24:03,000 --> 00:24:04,000 I'm a sheep. 318 00:24:04,000 --> 00:24:06,000 The doors of the church are open. 319 00:24:06,000 --> 00:24:13,000 Where you stand.