JUL 1 2018 | Rest: Finding Spiritual Rest S1E2 | He Makes Me Lie Down

Sea Change Church · Rest: Finding Spiritual Rest · "He Makes Me Lie Down" Pastor Adam Stadtmiller · July 1, 2018
Automated transcript. Not reviewed for accuracy.

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside quiet waters. He restores my soul. He guides me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You have anointed my head with oil. My cup overflows. Surely goodness and loving kindness will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. The word of the Lord.

It's never good to start your series on rest realizing you'd forgotten your notes and having to run and hitting the pulpit out of breath. What's amazing to me is how quickly, on a Saturday, looking on YouTube for home improvement videos because you've got a workday planned, right, can degenerate into hours of watching When Animals Attack. Cobra versus Python. Tiger versus Water Buffalo. I'm watching, and I'm deep down the rabbit hole. It's like Morpheus has come to me, and he's all, do you want the red pill or the blue pill, which is home improvement?

And I'm like, I got to see how far this rabbit hole goes. I want that red pill, man. And I am going to look as much, you know, next thing I see, it's kids jumping bikes, stupid things kids do on bikes. I mean, you name it. We are surfing just everything that it had to offer in regard to When Animals Attack. And I was watching the National Geographic. So some of it was good. I can say it was educational, right? But I'm watching the National Geographic, and it's the great, how many of you have seen it, the migration of the water buffalo migration or whatever that thing, the bison or whatever that thing is.

And they move like in millions, you know. And there are moments where like they get into stampede mode, and they are like crushing the young and going over, crocodiles are trying to eat them, but they're just crushing them. And it's just utter chaos. And the thought that I had, because it really reminded me of church staff, like what I grew up with, and it was on. No one gets that. Just this like, let's, we don't know what to do. Let's do something, you know.

And if we make enough dust and enough commotion, people will be attracted to it, you know. It's like a scene, you know, like when you're driving down the road, and there's like a crash, and everyone's going to stop to look. And we'll call spiritual activities spiritual development or spirituality. And I just knew that for so long I was in places where I felt like I was just on this treadmill where God was happier, like if I was just doing something.

Like, you know, rather than just sit and figure out what to do, just do something. Just as long as you're on the treadmill, as long as you're moving forward. And when you come to the 23rd Psalm, which today, in part two of the rest series, which I hope you're enjoying. I know it's life, it's absolutely life-giving to me. When you come to the 23rd Psalm, one of the things that really stuck out to me is that the shepherd is never requiring anything of the sheep.

There's no commands to the sheep in this. There's no, like, expectations. There's just, it's just packed rich with blessing. He doesn't tell the sheep, get out there and make some wool. Please, just grow your wool a lot better. Or, you know, whatever sheep, the sheep stuff that sheep do. Go do your sheep stuff. There's none of the sheep stuff that he tells them to do that would be beneficial. As you'll see at the end of the notes, it's interesting that the shepherd, there's a place where they end up dwelling for eternity.

It's like, you would have sheep, if you want to have sheep, where do you put them? You put them in the sheep pen because they're, like us, they're just a mess oftentimes. And, you know, and so instead of doing that, where do the sheep end up living? It says they'll dwell where? In the house of the Lord forever at the end of the 23rd Psalm. Which is very interesting that Jesus wants his sheep, which we would never, I mean, how many people have a pet sheep in their house?

Maybe some do. Currently, my house, this is the number. I think we have 25 fish. We found four feral cats, which we have fostered now. If you need a cat, a kitten, let me know. We have our own regular two cats. We have my French bulldog. This is why I'm watching when animals attack because I'm deathly afraid to go to bed at night. And the school's ball python that's about this long. In my house right now. Not restful.

So maybe I would let the sheep stay in my house. Who knows? But we see that. And today in the 23rd, we're going to look at the 23rd Psalm. And imagine God as a shepherd and being a sheep. And there's a reason why God uses agrarian, agricultural rhythms in the scripture. There's not a lot of God the businessman's CEO. You are my, you know, corner office executive. And, you know, you've got to make your margins. It's going to be the Cadillac or the steak knives, you know.

It's, you know, whatever you're going to get or you're getting fired. And God doesn't put that. And so we're going to look at that. And then we're going to look at the voice of the shepherd in John 10. And in John 10, we really see, I think, the parallel New Testament scripture. And oftentimes, if you find a scripture that you really like in the Old Testament, there's probably a parallel New Testament expression of it that will bring full context to it.

And so one of the questions in John 10 that it asks, and you'd have to assume the same for Psalm 23, is that these sheep have to know the voice of the shepherd. And they can discern the voice of the shepherd beyond any other voices that they're hearing. Carrie and I were just recently in the Inner Hebrides, which are some islands off Scotland, about the height of Norway up there. And there was sheep everywhere. And now I guess the shepherding is being done on all-terrain vehicles.

I don't know if you saw that. There's a lot of that. And the dog's on the back of the all-terrain vehicle. Very cool. And there's a whistle. And then all of a sudden, these sheep, they would hear his whistle. And they would hear his voice as he'd call me. He had like a call. And then they would just all come. It was unbelievable. I guess what I just want to start with is what are the voices you come running to? Like all of us are being called by something.

And are those voices so strong and so loud that you no longer have the ability to even hear when the shepherd calls? The shepherd's not a taskmaster. And in Psalm 23, you see that he is a complete giver. And so we see that, that the Psalm 23 is immersed in peace and rest. And we'll get to the voices here in a moment. Let's go to verse 1 straight into the scripture. The Lord is what? My shepherd. And God has many, many analogies and metaphors to break down who he is and who he wants to be.

But the shepherd one is obviously very close to his heart. I mean, David was a shepherd. The shepherds were the first ones that the angels come to out in the field. I mean, shepherd's a big deal for God. And to understand the way of the shepherd is so important. In scripture, God is portrayed as a what? A great shepherd. And this is one thing in regard to nothing is rarely accomplished in a stampede except for chaos and tyranny and brokenness, which is what stampedes create.

This is one thing that we need to see with a shepherd is that rarely will you see a shepherd running with his sheep. I've actually, I've seen a shepherd. That's not true. I saw it. We had a lot of time to look at sheep. That's kind of what we, we like to go get cottages in a place where there are no people and just animals and sea view and watch thing. And so we would watch the shepherd come and there was, I mean, I thought I saw a thousand sheep for every person I saw when we were there, which for seven days when you're living in the chaos of Southern California, it's just a really good thing.

Like, you know, what's so interesting now is our vacations are no longer restful. It's like our vacations have become high adrenaline, like let's just go jump off a plane, which is fine. We can go all do that. But I don't know about you. Maybe it's just because I'm getting older. 49 in August. I just want to lay, I just want to sit, man, drink a cup of tea and just chill and remember who I am, if that makes any sense.

And I did see a shepherd chase a couple sheep just because they were close and he could catch them. But for the most part, he wasn't leading them through calisthenics. It's just not a shepherdy thing to do. I don't know if there's any, you know, I know Bryce has a couple alpaca there in the back. You're a chicken farmer. So this is like going, so if you need some eggs, Bryce, raise your hand, would you, right there in the back?

Yeah, we have a chicken farmer. I love it. You've taken it way beyond like hipster interest in chickens. You have a ranch now, which I love. You're getting this. And speaking, I'm just going to preach right at you. You get a big smile on your face. I love it. And rarely are you going to see a shepherd running with his sheep. And I guess the question is, is what pace are you running? Now, obviously, you know, if you have a medical tragedy, like I said, you're a single mom, single dad trying to survive, whatever it is, there's times where the pace ramps up.

Miss Kim says, told us this week as she's praying, well, you know, I'm not going to say that. But it's difficult to survive as a single mom. And that's something that she's done for a very, she did for a very, very long time. She's our children's minister. C.S. Lewis said, we need to be careful when our outside is bigger than our inside. And perhaps you've seen, I think it's Doctor Strange, where they have the TARDIS.

Is that the thing? Is that the one with the TARDIS? It's that sci-fi thing. But it's basically the, what is it? Doctor, yeah, I don't watch it. But nonetheless, my wife loves it, like binging. And I know they have this little blue telephone booth. And like, it's called the TARDIS, right? And you walk into the telephone booth, and it's just a little telephone booth. But when you get in, all of a sudden, it's like 20 times the size.

It's this big, giant interior. And one of the things I think that's happening is the exterior is getting bigger, and our interior is getting a lot smaller to the point where it's so confined, it's choking us to death. And I believe that we are created, I'm pretty sure, to be agrarian people, to only have an understanding of what is actually happening on a regular basis within maybe a one or two days horseback ride of us.

But now we are all so connected to what's happening in the far reaches of Thailand. We're just overwhelmed. And it's so hard to make sure that your inside is bigger than your outside. And if your outside is bigger than your inside, the pace at which you're living is going to speed up. And so we need to have calibrators. We need to have breaks. We need to have perhaps spending 1%. You know 1% of your day with God is 15 minutes?

Give or take. 1% of your God. You just give God 1% of your day. Give him an inch, he'll take an eternity. Give him a minute, he'll take an eternity. But 1% a day, what are the things that you are using to calibrate? And one of the things that Eugene Peterson says in his book, and if you want a book on rest and ministry, there's a book called The Pastor that is central to every guy I disciple. And I tell him about it personally, one-on-one discipleship with them.

Harry, Bryce, these other guys, and they become their favorite books. And Eugene Peterson says, we've got to get to the point where Tuesday looks like Sunday and Sunday looks like Tuesday, as opposed to kill ourselves for five days so we can, and by the way, it was Loverboy that sang, everyone's working for the weekend. I got it wrong last week, and I was like on Monday it hit me. It was Loverboy and not Tom Fogarty or whatever I said.

I just want to correct that. Nobody even cares, right? I don't care. But as we look at this idea of like we're just trying to make it through the week to survive. And so I guess the question is, if you're running too fast, why are you running so fast? Like what's the point? And a really good calibration tool, let me just give it to you, Ecclesiastes. Read the book of Ecclesiastes in bulk. Like I'm talking like binge listen.

Go to the audio or binge read. We don't really do that anymore. But binge listen to Ecclesiastes. Because in the end, all these things that we're often fighting for, in the end, this is a guy who was the richest man of all time, Solomon. If you do the math and calculate what it was worth then and now and what he owned, everything at the end, he's all, this is just meaningless. Unless I'm doing it for God. And so we see that the shepherd is never a hard driver.

And we can't let our outside be bigger than our inside. And does this adequately represent your life? Now here's a good question that I put in the notes. Who is shepherding you? And look, we love to live, I mean we shepherd ourselves, right? We love to live under the illusion that we're completely being self-shepherded, perhaps. But there are so many voices that when your phone rings, it's a shepherd. When it buzzes, it's a shepherd.

And the question is, I have a friend, and I go out to eat with them, and we can't have a meal without them answering their phone during the meal. I don't like going to the store with them because when they go in, if the phone rings and they're paying for their food, some of you guys are in service industries, you understand this, they just start talking. And the thing that's in front of them is no longer the most important thing.

I think we're going to get to the point where our beeper has a beeper. So, you know, you can have call waiting or whatever. So we can live in as many realities as possible. You know what's so interesting? The less we live in the moment, the more we're seeking after virtual reality. I can't even get a handle on reality. Last thing I want is virtual reality. I want to learn how to smell a flower and let it do to, you know, my brain chemistry, what it's supposed to do.

You know, be careful what you make a habit. Be careful what becomes habitual in your life. And I just want to say, who's shepherding you? And so when that phone rings or that one person calls who basically has you on a leash because you're afraid of losing the relationship or whatever it is, what's calling you? Or perhaps it's the Holy Spirit. And I want to say when the Holy Spirit speaks to you, there's a way different sense that comes on it.

There's a way different peace. And it says the Holy Spirit will never drive you to burnout. Because the Holy Spirit, if you are living according to the Holy Spirit, you will never burn out. It is impossible to burn out if you are following the Spirit. Because he will never lead you to burnout. Because the entire message of Jesus is that if you are living in abundance, you will never run on empty. You will be on overflow.

John 10.10. That life. And moving and following that. And so what are you following? Who are you following? Here's a couple of things. The voices. And I want to help you try to define some of the hard-driving voices we follow. I think one is other people. Psalm 55, 2 through 3a says, Give heed to me and answer me. I'm restless in my complaint and I'm surely distracted. Because of why? Because of the voice of the enemy.

I'm not saying people are enemies. Guys, David, we'll get into David in fall. I cannot wait to get to the Crown series. We're going to do David the Crown. Yes, we are stealing the title from Netflix. But the years of his life where he was living in that. And he had some issues. He has dropped off my top five favorite biblical figures. He was, now they switch around. You know, like your greatest movies list. But there's just things about David that I just don't want for my life.

Although he was like the number one guy for the longest time. Now I'm like a Uriah the Hittite guy. Like I just love Uriah the Hittite. You know, a whole bunch of others. We can talk more about that. So everyone's not our enemy. And David had a lot of enemies. And he, you know, the last thing he ever said, I think the last thing he ever said to Solomon was like, Make sure that guy's life ends in blood. Because he had promised he wouldn't kill him.

So then he goes and has Solomon do his whole hit list for him. Which is kind of a joke. And he says, Make sure that that guy's head, that his gray, old gray head doesn't go down in peace. And that he dies in his blood. I'm like, Yeah, not the guy I want to be. You know, even though he had this amazing heart for God. And the question is, there was voices of the enemy. Not that, we never want to put people in that enemy category.

We want to believe that God is all, A person's always one moment, one heart's cry from redemption, regeneration. But people can be crazy makers in our lives. And you might need to distance yourself from someone who becomes a crazy maker in your life. And that is not a permission to go, you know, divorce your spouse. But I did write an article, if you want to look it up, on redemptive separation and what that looks like.

Where, you know what, sometimes we just need a break. And we are committed to each other for life, forever. But there needs to be some ways where we can make this a safe place again. And you can look up that on the internet. But other voices. Who is the crazy maker in your life? Maybe it's your boss. I don't want to be a crazy maker. I used to love chaos. I couldn't get out of bed without chaos. I couldn't have peace unless I had chaos.

You ever understand that? You ever know somebody? Like, they can't have peace unless they have chaos. And there's always, you go to a wedding, there's always one person who is in the family that has to take center stage, it feels like often. Not all the time. Where it's just, they're just the crazy maker, you know. And having chaos. I dislike chaos. And I never want to be an employee. I mean, excuse me, a co-worker. Because I do have the, I am the lead pastor.

But I want to see the people I work with as co-workers. And one of the things they will tell you I regularly say is, please, work less. Or work differently. Or work in a way where our heart and what you see on the outside reflects what's going on on the inside. Where we're not being crushed. One of the things I try to do intentionally is sit at that desk. Or at the couch. You might see me when you come in. Sitting at the couch.

I didn't used to do that. I used to run around. Where's my notes? I actually did that earlier. Because I do lose my notes a lot. I'm a little scattered. But I try really hard to be a pastor that's a person that somebody might want to follow. Not just because we're winning. And growing. And breaking all the schematics. But you say, there's something in that person's life. They smile an awful lot. Like there was a peace.

There was a joy. There was a rest. And I want our staff. Not that we're always going to live in that moment. But I want us as a church. And I want the people who come to this church. Because this has to be a top-down model to reflect the peace that we are bringing. That this is a sanctuary. Not a factory. We are not a spiritual factory. And so who's your crazy maker? And I told them. I had a meeting with staff this week.

And I said, look. If I'm being a crazy maker. If I'm having an issue. I want to release you to talk amongst yourselves. And if you need to come talk to me. Then sit me down. And also learn how to say no to me. I had three staff members I spoke to this week. And I said, please say no to me. Well, we trust you. And we believe you. And they're hard workers. That's one of the problems. If you have any sense of anointing.

Or any talent in the field that you work on. That people want to believe in you. They want to partner with you. And so they'll just say yes. But sometimes at the cost of their own health. And so one of the things I said. Chris was in the meeting. I said to Chris. Actually, you're really good at saying no to me. I've said that multiple times. So I don't have to tell her. Absolutely not, Pastor Adam. I will not sing that song.

I hate that song. Is your boss a crazy maker? And can they not say no? We are never going to win as a team. Not win. But we are never going to succeed as a church. If we can't have dialogue where your staff is like, I think that's a bad idea. And so maybe work. What are the crazy makers? And if you can identify that. Maybe you can extricate yourself from the situation. Besides a voice. So other people are a voice. They call.

They post something on your Facebook page. You know, you can just press hide and not respond. Just FYI. The devil is a voice. Scripture is really clear about that. And getting to the place where you can hear a voice and say, that sounds a lot like Satan. That sounds a lot like Satan. And it is, Satan's job is to deceive you. So, you have to realize, when he gives you a great idea to take your life in this direction or that direction, it's going to look really, really good.

He's going to come to you like he did with Eve and say, you are going to be like who? God. And you're going to know all about sin and damnation. But he leaves that part out. And we have to sit back and imagine not only what the best thing would be, but perhaps imagine the worst outcome. Now, some of us are kind of good at that. But I recently have been doing an exercise when I get a new idea of what's the worst thing that could happen as opposed to living in some visionary fantasy.

Because I love to say, vision doesn't suffer details. It's funny. My staff just looks at me. And so, in regard to that, I try to look and say, what's the worst thing that could happen? Or this incremental step, which will find you out. Whatever sin that is, whatever you're doing, that little thing, it will find you out. It is impossible to habitually, and be careful what becomes a habit. What you do habitually will eventually find you out.

Your day of reckoning is coming. It might not be tomorrow. It might be next week. But it is coming. And the devil has a voice. And we want to be able to look and say, and when you look at the outcome, using a multivariate analysis of your life and your emotions and your abilities, to look at that and say, okay, this might not be from God. And to sense in your heart, if sometimes I just get a small little voice, a seat of peace, it will say yes.

And I know that that is the right answer. But the devil sounds like this. And John 8, 4, Jesus speaking to religious people, which, you know, he was in a bi-governmental system of Roman tyranny and religious tyranny, and he was in the middle of it. And he says to the religious tyranny, you belong to your father. Wow. The devil. And you want to carry out your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding on to truth, for there is no truth in him.

And when he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. If we slow down, you can begin to hear. Remember, once we slow down, we can begin to hear. And slowing down, I'm not just talking about distraction. When you sit, just take 1% of your day. I just dare you. For the next month, 1% of your day, 15 minutes. Get up. Recently, my quiet times had fallen apart. I just had to start again.

Back to the basics, 15 minutes. So now, get up. Instead of checking something else, get my cup of coffee, sit down, turn my timer on. It was funny. Today, I was like, I was done with 15, and I had like two hours before I had to leave for church. I got up early, and I'm like, and it gives you an option to go backwards again on your iPhone, so I could go backwards. And so I could actually turn it into a half hour. And I was like, after two days, I was like, I want a half hour.

Like, 15 isn't enough. Maybe you need to rebuild that so you can hear the voice. You know, maybe that big, giant plant, maybe that dream you have has no sense of God's voice in it. But from your perspective, it looks great, because we're so often become in bondage to our own opinions, wants, and desires. The voice of the devil, do you know what it sounds like? If you can't point, I don't want to be too definitive, but somewhat definitive.

I don't think you can be somewhat definitive now that I think about it. If you can't point to a time when the devil has tried to deceive you in the last, I'll give you six months. I'd like to say a week, but we'll just go six months, where you said you can look and say, that was the devil trying to deceive me. You have no clue what the devil is doing in your life. None. Especially if you're trying to follow God. If you can't look to one thing and say, that was a demonic deception.

Not like your attack or something's going wrong, but something looked good, but it wasn't. If you can't point to one of those in your life in this last six months, you have no understanding what the devil's plan is for your life. I went to a thing, Carrie and I went, when we really had some breakthrough in our life, up to a thing in Redding, California, where they help you identify the framework that the devil uses to lie to you.

It's a five-day intensive with just me and her, and two other people in a room. It was like intense. If you're not ready to go down the rabbit hole, do not go. And we went to that, and it just, I can't tell you the release of bondage from a Masonic past, all the things that came out of our family, generational stuff. We walked out of it breathing again, and able to hear the voice of God clearer. First voice is other people's.

The second is the voice of the devil. Let's move on. This is a good voice. Voice of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is what? Contrary. It's a contrarian to the spirit. And the spirit, what is contrary to the flesh. They're in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. That's self-gratification versus delayed gratification versus just learning how to say no to yourself. How often do you say no to yourself?

Are you your best friend? Do you give yourself the best advice? Do you care for yourself as much as you care for other people? Will you do the things for yourself that you will do for other people? If you don't have any friends in your life who pull you aside, willing to risk whatever it takes to, in love, ask you difficult questions. Difficult questions. Let's say, it might be time to look for some new friends. That's why I keep talking to our staff and our elder board, because I can present as a very difficult person to come and speak to.

I understand that. There's very few weaknesses you will tell me about that at this point I haven't figured out. I'm sure there's some new ones around the corner somewhere. But for the most part, that's something I understand. And what I'm trying to constantly do is be a person that people can come and speak truth. You allow people to speak truth to you and have that. And be able to call you out and perhaps say, Hey, the way you talk to your mom or your children, that just seems carnal and wrong.

Like to look at your own carnality and figure out how far it goes. And one that's not in your notes that I want to add is in regard to technology. Technology is a huge voice. It's just calling. Snapchat is calling you. It doesn't have much to offer you. Grow your business. You know, I guess that's good. But I mean, how much is technology calling you? I am so close to going back to a flip phone. I am so close to going back to a flip phone.

I mean, and all you think about is what would I lose if I did that? What would you gain? You know, my dad, I said this. I didn't finish this point last week, but I thought it was really important. My dad used to drive around with a thing of quarters. And I didn't tell you why. So if you're not from a previous generation, 50 or older, he drove around with quarters because we had pay phones. My daughter saw a pay phone not long, long ago.

And she said, what's that? You know what I mean? The yellow pages came to our house. And I came into the house one day, and she's looking through it. She goes, Dad, did you see this? What is this? What is this dark magic, Dad? My dad had quarters because he would pull over twice a day. That was enough, by the way. That was enough to check your message in the morning, check them in the afternoon before you get back to people the next day.

There was none of this like zzz, zzz, zzz, that causes, you know, PTSD. Search phantom vibration syndrome. Search it. If your phone zips in your pocket when it's not actually on or you don't have it, you have a form of PTSD. I've had that before. My phone is constantly on silent. Because I've got to tell you, you're not going to be able to keep up with technology. You're already not able to keep up with technology. We're meant to be agrarian people.

It is so far beyond you. If you want to look at why the numbers of people's anxiety and fear and all these things and suicidal rates are spiking, go back and look at when the Internet started and put those two together. And see what is happening. We've got to slow down. It doesn't mean that you don't care about people. Because I didn't answer your phone the second you called. I'm trying to check. You know, I have an alarm on my phone.

So I know it's coming. And my body actually will, alarm will let me know. Your body's built to, God's created us, to not like to be startled. So if you set an alarm like three times a day, you'll probably start noticing that you will check your phone. It'll be like a minute before the alarm's supposed to go off. You can actually research that. God has done that. And so I just try to set my phone and say, I'm just going to try to care for people and get back to these things when I can.

Because I think it was one of the things that was killing us. And so technology is a voice. And, you know, what are you losing in the midst of it? And don't let people tell you because you're not at the front of technology that you don't care about people or have a clue. Let's continue on. And we're coming in for a landing now. New Testament counterpart to Psalm 23 is John 10, the parable of the good shepherd. John 10, 4.

When he puts forth all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they what? They know his voice. And not only do they know his voice, he calls them by name. I mean, it's just phenomenal. He calls them by name. That God knows your name individually. You're not just a herd. We can so get into the herd mentality. Eugene Peterson says that one of the things churches love is three things they love, noise, chaos, and crowds.

All things the devil adequately uses. What the enemy doesn't like is quiet, peace, one-on-one connection with people. What's the, I mean, we're seriously looking at unplugging everything in our house, like our internet, everything, just to get back. You know, TV was invented. One of the main reasons TV was invented was to get the commercials beyond your walls, was to have another, it was actually presented in a marketing meeting to have another voice in your home, to have another, to become a family member in the home to speak someone else's stuff into your house.

It's creepy. Hashtag creepy. Hashtag creepy. John 10.10, the thief comes only to still kill and destroy. That's what God, that's what the enemy wants. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. I'm the good shepherd. The good shepherd. That means if there's a good shepherd, there's what? There's a bad shepherd. What's shepherding you? Results, it says. Here, let's just finish up. Results of following the good shepherd.

Third, one, it will satisfy your deepest needs. I shall not want. A place of ultimate contentment. Getting to the place where you have less wants is the road to contentment. The more you want, the less content you will be. The more we seek God, the more he says he'll fill us. And here we see a complete satisfaction. One of the keys to rest and restoration is contentment. How content are you? Is Jesus and nothing enough?

It leads us to peace and restoration. In verse 2 and 3, it says he makes me, he does what? He makes me lie down in green pastures. He doesn't command me to lie down. He just comes and he'll do whatever. He'll come over and he'll lay them. I actually saw the shepherds pick the sheep up and lay them down on occasion. It wasn't, they didn't even have to do anything, but it was something that he was doing. I just got to say, God's not afraid to make you lie down.

He will allow you to break, to make you lie down. And there's a place that you will get in your life where your talents no longer suffice to fix what's wrong in your life. And if you've been there, you know it is a desperate place. Because you have spent your life making a business of being able to fix what you can with your gifts, talents, and treasures. I spoke to a person this week and they said, this has been my calling card my whole life.

And I've been highly valued for it. But in the situation I'm in, it isn't going to be fixed by me using these gifts more and I don't know how to fix it. I've been in that place. And I got to tell you what, until you come to the end of yourself, you can't really start to know yourself. The end of yourself is a really good place. And if you've not been there, I dare you, because Jesus has asked for anything. I want to dare you.

I dare you to pray for it. Or pray, God, if I'm doing anything you don't want, I pray every time I do something I'm not supposed to do that I get caught. Pray that one. That's a good one. You know, a lot of people in ministry should have prayed that a long time ago. It's better to get caught early if you're going to do anything, I would imagine. Again, results of following the good shepherd leads us into the house of the Lord.

And I preempted this. Surely his goodness and loving kindness will follow me. How long? All the days of my life. And I will, where are you going to live, sheep? I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. I got to tell you, the house of the Lord, there's no yelling. There's no door slamming. There's no zzzz of the phone. There's nothing coming on on a commercial that's semi-pornographic that your kid might walk in during a football.

You're just trying to watch a football game. You can't even watch the commercials anymore. And my kids have just learned when they hear the music, they cover their eyes. When my daughter was like six, she just knew. And, you know, you're racing to the TV to see these things. They protest violence, but then every other commercial is some woman getting dragged by her hair or beat up or a gun. Count them up. Wait until football season starts.

And then watch the commercials. I dare you to watch the commercials. And count the amount of times you see guns over and over again as people in that same industry keep coming and talking against it. I'm not making a political statement. I'm just saying take it out of the media. Let's take it out of the movies and the violence that purveys our culture. You won't find violence. You will find rest. You will find peace.

I ask, the culture of your home, the culture of your car, what is it? And if someone were to walk in, as you walk into India or Thailand or America or New York City or wherever it is, you will find a culture. And what we want to have is a culture that is life-giving. The final quote, as the worship team comes up, says, anyone can sail a ship, but it takes a wise person to navigate it to the land called blessed. God is the captain of your ship, and you are going to co-labor with him to navigate that to new waters.

And I encourage you, if you are not on calm waters, to do whatever it takes in your power and capacity to slow the heck down and learn the voice again of the shepherd. We're going to move into our time of communion. We'd ask that the communion leaders come. If you have never known Jesus or followed him, I'm going to give you an opportunity because this meal is an opportunity to follow Jesus. If what I spoke about today is God is speaking it to you, you'll know when you're hearing a voice inside of you.

You'll hear that voice. And if there is a voice in you right now saying, I want to follow Jesus, I want to ask if we just all close our eyes and bow our heads. And before we prepare for this meal, if there's anyone in here that would say, I want to follow Jesus, he's speaking to me, just raise your hand. I want to give anybody an opportunity to do that. That opportunity is still open at the end of the service if you've never followed Jesus.

And there's a different way that you're hearing about today that sounds antithetical to every treadmill you've been on. Speak to me or one of the pastors or the worship team or Drea or somebody else afterwards, and we would love to tell you about our shepherd Jesus who leads us in peace.