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The Lord is my Shepherd
22nd August 2023 • CROWD Church Livestream • Crowd Church
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Discover a fresh perspective on one of the most beloved passages in the Bible with our latest talk, "The Lord Is My Shepherd". Join us as we take you on a journey through Psalm 23, revealing its profound insights about God's character and our relationship with Him.

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Welcome to Crowd Church, a digital space where faith is explored, hearts are

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inspired, and everyone is welcome to discover the meaningful life Jesus lives.

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brings us.

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Now this month, this August, we are going to be doing things

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just a little bit differently.

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If you've been to one of our live streams before, you will have seen hosts buzzing

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with energy and doing real time engagement in the comments, doing something

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that we call Conversation Street.

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Oh yes, we like live streaming, we like Conversation Street.

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But for this August, our usual live stream will be taking a little sabbatical.

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The members of the crowd team, just like many of you, We'll be taking

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this time to rest, recover, and recharge with our loved ones, just

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as God rested on the seventh day.

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We believe in the importance of Sabbath, of taking rest, of taking time off.

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To renew our spirits and regain our strength.

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So during this time, what's going to happen?

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Well, you'll still see a scheduled video going out each week as usual, what we call

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the non live Livestream, but instead of our regular real time hosts, you know, the

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live thing, we'll be taking a step back.

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We won't be doing Conversation Street.

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Mind you, that said, there is a chance we'll be joining you in the comments.

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Uh, as each live stream goes on, and to make this period a little bit more

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special, we've invited four, yes that's right, four fantastic guest speakers

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who will take you on a unique journey exploring their favourite psalm each.

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Now these psalms have spoken into their lives and they're excited to

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share their insights and reflections.

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If this is your first time with us, a huge welcome to you.

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You can find out more information about Crowd Church on our website at www.

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crowd.

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church.

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So, I hope you're excited.

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We are looking forward to this time of renewal and hope that the powerful words

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of the Psalms will bring you peace.

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Comfort and a little bit of inspiration for your life.

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Thanks for being with us.

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Thanks for being part of the crowd family.

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We can't wait to reconnect with you live, refreshed and ready to continue on the

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faith journey together in September.

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But remember...

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At Crowd Church, you are always welcome here, and we will see you in the comments.

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So let's get into the Psalms.

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Psalm 23.

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It's a beautiful, poetic, powerful psalm that helps us to understand

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something profound about who God is, and something profound About who we are.

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The Lord is my shepherd.

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The Lord God, He is my shepherd.

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I love this psalm.

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It is a psalm I committed to memory many, many years ago.

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It's a psalm I often recite and pray through the day.

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Sometimes I pray in the darkest hours of the night.

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It is a great psalm.

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To memorise and meditate on.

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For example, you could, if you wanted, just go through the psalm,

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each verse emphasising a different word each time, and see how

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God speaks to you through that.

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The Lord is my shepherd.

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The Lord is my shepherd.

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The Lord is.

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It's a certainty, it's not a might be.

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He is my shepherd.

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The Lord is my shepherd.

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Just an idea if you're wanting to meditate on the Psalms.

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Another thing I love to do when reading the Bible and the Psalms is to

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highlight what I call the God Verbs.

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Verbs are doing words.

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What are the God Verbs?

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What is it that God, the Lord our Shepherd, does in this Psalm, Psalm 23?

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He leads, He restores, He guides, He is with us, He comforts us, He prepares

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a table, He anoints us, He pursues us.

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There's so much in this psalm that God is doing.

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But what I want to focus on today is how this psalm helps us to understand

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our relationship with God because there are lots of ways of understanding and

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articulating God's relationship with us.

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There's lots of different metaphors that try and use our limited...

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Human vocabulary to try and express the relationship between

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Almighty God and little old us.

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For example, some people think of God as like the big boss

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and themselves as the workers.

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And so they're always trying to work out what they need to do for God.

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A far better, healthier picture is that of God as Father.

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And we're his children, both in the Old Testament and New Testament, when

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God wants to articulate his great love and passion for his people, he

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is described as the groom, and we as people as the bride, the bride and

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groom, a metaphor of love and union.

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There are lots of different ways we can think about who God is and

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how we relate to him, but here in Psalm 23 we discover that God is

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the shepherd and we are his flock.

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You and I are the sheep of his pasture.

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And Jesus used that language all the time to describe himself as the

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good shepherd and us as his sheep.

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Just a couple of quick caveats here before we dig into this text more deeply.

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Firstly...

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Anyone, absolutely anyone can make God their shepherd.

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Anyone can become one of his sheep, his flock.

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You simply need to ask him to cleanse you and forgive you of your sins.

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God is holy, God is pure and our unholiness separates us from him.

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So we come to him and we come to Jesus and we ask him to cleanse us and

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forgive us and that's what he does.

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And then we get welcomed into his family, into his flock, we take on

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a new identity, we belong to him.

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That's the first little caveat, anyone can be part of this flock.

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Secondly, sometimes you hear people say, oh well, you know,

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Jesus never claimed to be God.

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He was just some nice moral teacher, some rabbi, some guru like everyone else.

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Yes, he did claim to be God.

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All of the time, if you understand the language and the

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culture of what he's saying.

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When he says, uh, for example, he's a good shepherd, the

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religious leaders were outraged.

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Because only God was the shepherd.

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And just like C.

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S.

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Lewis famously says of this, he says that Jesus is either God, as he claimed,

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Or some madman, or lunatic, or liar.

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They're the options.

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So anyone can be part of Jesus flock, and Jesus is our good shepherd.

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He's God.

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Just one example of how he talks about himself as God.

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The final little caveat...

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Before we dig into the text is this, that I've got teenage boys, so I am well aware

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from their insults that to call someone a sheep is not a good thing, it's an

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insult, you sheep, you sheeple, it's meant negatively, those who blindly, mindlessly

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go with the flow and with the crowd and Have no need to think for themselves.

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But you know, when we're described here in Psalm 23 and in the Bible

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as sheep and God as our shepherd, that is such a positive thing.

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It's such a good thing.

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It means we belong to Him.

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It means we are precious to Him.

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It means that He will look after us and protect us and provide for us.

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All of those promises in Psalm 23 of guidance and restoration and

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rest are ours because we're His.

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We are the sheep of his pasture.

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So you might think, I'm no sheep, I'm a free thinker, I'm the master of my own

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destiny, I do things my way, well...

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And good luck with that.

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How is that working out for you?

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I used to think of myself as some deep, academic, philosophical, big thinker.

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But that led me to the conclusion, A, there must be a God.

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B, such a God is good and loves me.

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And C, that God knows me better than myself and what's best for me.

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And as I follow Him and His pattern...

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That's when life starts to work.

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I'm so glad to be one of his sheep.

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So we're thinking about God's relationship with us.

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That he is the shepherd, and that we are his sheep.

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And, and that actually means, uh, the Hebrew here, it's the Lord is my shepherd.

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It's Jehovah Rohe, or Yahweh Rohe.

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Rohe is a bit more than shepherd.

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It's a bit more than a hired hand in an employee sense.

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It's about...

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A livestock owner.

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That's what it means when it says he's our shepherd.

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We belong to him.

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Sheep are precious.

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They're valuable to their shepherd.

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You are valuable to God.

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Sheep are known by their shepherd.

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They are marked by their shepherd.

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It's about ownership.

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Identity, Value.

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One way of living life, one theory for smashing life for those who think they

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aren't sheep, is to think, well, okay, I've got to make my life work, I've got to

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get everything sorted, this existential, ambitious, driven, striving, where it's

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all down to me and my effort, I've got to work for this, then I've got to take

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the best gym membership out for the best body, then I've got to have some amazing

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holiday to recover from all of it.

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I feel exhausted just thinking about that way of living.

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But there is another way to live.

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Jesus is our Good Shepherd.

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Just imagine being a sheep for a moment.

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Imagine you've got your head down, you're munching on grass.

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You hear the shepherd calling in the distance.

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You start to follow the voice of the shepherd.

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As you look up, you realise the shepherd has led you into green pastures.

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The Hebrew for that translates literally as...

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An Oasis of Vegetation, and he makes you lie down beside still waters, he begins

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to restore your soul, you're refreshed, you're nourished, you're sustained, and

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it's all his doing, all you had to do was follow, all the sheep had to do.

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Was to lie down.

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This is the Christian life.

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This is the life of grace.

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I often say the effort of grace is surrender.

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The effort of grace is to yield.

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It's to lie down.

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It's to let God be God, to let God do what only God can do to rest in him.

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There is an effort in an intentionality to that, but that's how we find true peace.

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Now, that does not mean that bad stuff won't happen in life.

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It doesn't mean there won't be dark times.

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God doesn't say we won't walk through dark valleys.

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He says, even though you walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we

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will walk through the dark valleys.

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You may be walking through a dark valley right now.

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You may feel darkness and death are casting their shadow over you.

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But there is a promise for us, his sheep.

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Jesus, our Good Shepherd, will be with us.

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He is with us in the valley, and he has a rod and a staff.

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In his hands are a rod and a staff.

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People debate the meaning of those.

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I tend to think of one, maybe the rod, I don't know.

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One he's using to keep me moving forwards.

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When I get stuck in darkness, when I get stuck in despair, when I pitch my

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tent in the valley of self pity, I'm so thankful that my shepherd gives me a

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little nudge, a little prod, to keep me moving through it, and not to live in it.

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Of course, there's a rod and there's a staff, because he's our shepherd.

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We are precious sheep to him, that means he's fighting for you, he's

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protecting you, he's fending off the wolves and those things that might

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cause you harm, because you're his sheep, because he's your shepherd.

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Verse 5 then says that our shepherd prepares a table for us.

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in the presence of our enemies.

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He prepares a table in the presence of our enemies.

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Now a number of years ago I did a talk, a series of talks on spiritual

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warfare and during one of those talks I asked an artist in the church just to

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paint whilst I preached on this verse.

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And that's what she did, she produced an incredible piece of artwork of a table.

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Just imagine a dining room table and around this table there's a family,

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their They're feasting, they're eating, they're drinking, they're

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laughing, they're sharing stories.

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Now all around them, in the background, are dark figures.

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They're enemies.

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But the powers of darkness can't get to them.

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The powers of darkness can't touch them.

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Because that feasting family is surrounded by God's light.

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And I love that imagery, it's so defiant, so confident, as we do the

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feasting, God does the fighting.

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Again, it's all about the effort of surrender, the effort of yielding, just

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to hold your ground, the effort of grace.

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I want to finish with a final thought, verse 6 says, Surely goodness and mercy

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will follow me all the days of my life.

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Some translations say surely blessing and mercy will follow, others goodness

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and faithful love will follow.

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But the word I want to focus in on is the word follow, the

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Hebrew word radaph, radaph.

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God, our good shepherd, follows us with his goodness, his

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kindness, his faithful love.

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But radaph is more powerful than that.

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It's better translated as the word pursuit.

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God.

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Pursues me.

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In fact, it's even stronger than that.

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The first time the word Radaph is used in the Bible, it's used

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of Laban chasing down Jacob.

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It's used of Pharaoh chasing the Israelites as they escape Egypt.

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It literally means, Radaph means to hunt you down.

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God, our good shepherd.

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It's pursuing us, it's chasing you, it's hunting you down with all of

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his goodness and his mercy and love.

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The poet Thomas Francis wrote a poem about this called The Hound of Heaven.

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He tried to hide from God how he fled from God, he says how I fled.

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Him, down the nights, down the days, I fled him, down the arches

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of the years, I fled him, down the labyrinth ways of my own mind, and in

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the midst of tears, I hid from him.

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He goes on to talk about God's undisturbed pace, deliberate speed,

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majestic instancy, the hound of heaven.

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Hunting Him down.

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God loves you so much.

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You are so precious to Him.

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You're so valuable to Him.

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Uh, so when we stray, when we go our own way, when we get a

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bit lost in life, He pursues us.

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He goes after us.

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Such is His great kindness and mercy towards us.

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I heard a story recently about a sheep in New Zealand that had

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been lost, I think, for six years.

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I think the sheep was called Barak.

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I can't quite remember the details of the story.

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Google it.

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But because this sheep had been lost and hadn't been sheared for six years,

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the wool had grown so heavy that this poor sheep could hardly move.

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It was weighing it down.

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It couldn't see properly for the wool over its eyes.

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And they, there were these before and after photos when, when they found

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the sheep, I think they, they removed like 75 pounds, 35 kilos of dirty

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matted wool off the sheep in the sheep barrack, it could move again, it was

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free again, it was light again, it could see again, it could breathe again.

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It was brought back into the fold.

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Now, for some people listening to this, that is a picture of you.

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You, you thought that that freedom, doing your own thing in your own way,

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that thing you were pursuing was going to bring you into the life you wanted.

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But all it's done is weighed you down.

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Today, Jesus, the Good Shepherd, is calling you by name.

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He's calling out to you, come to me.

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He's searching for you, He's pursuing you, He's chasing you, after you with

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His grace and His mercy and His kindness.

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and His love.

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And as you come to Him, ask for His forgiveness, ask for His restoration.

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He is going to lift all of that heavy matted stuff off you.

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He's going to pasture you besides the waters.

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He's going to begin that work of strengthening and

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restoring your weary soul.

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The Lord is our shepherd.

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He's your shepherd.

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He pursues you in His love.

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And I pray that for every person Listening to this, watching this, that right now

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you would know the Good Shepherd with you, standing alongside you, leading you,

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guiding you, restoring you, comforting you, anointing your head to equip you to

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serve him in life, fighting your battles for you, and pursuing you with his

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great loving kindness, mercy, and grace.

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Amen.

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We hope you found today's exploration of the Psalms insightful and inspiring.

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Every psalm has a unique message, a distinct voice that speaks

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to the heart and to the soul.

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Now we would love to hear your thoughts.

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What did you think about today's psalm?

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Feel free, if you haven't done so already, to share your thoughts, your reflections

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and experiences in the comments below.

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I really, really look forward to seeing them.

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It's always great to learn from each other.

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on our journey of faith.

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So do get busy in the comments, do share them.

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Now, if you wish to reach out to us, you can find out more information about

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us, uh, and how to reach us, how to connect with us on the website at www.

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crowd.

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church.

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And don't forget, come September, we're returning to our regular live

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stream services, resuming the Origins series that explores the roots of

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the church through the Book of Acts.

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We are, we're like part way through it.

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We've got a fair bit to go.

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It's an exciting journey, so do make sure you are part of that by hitting

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that little bell, uh, subscription thing and notification thing if you

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haven't done so already on YouTube.

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Now remember, at Crowd Church, everyone, including you, is welcome,

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and everyone, including you, is valued.

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No matter where you are on your spiritual journey, there's a place for you here.

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Thanks for joining us.

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Thanks for being with us today.

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Until next time, be blessed.

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Stay inspired and keep exploring the beauty of faith.

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See you in the comments and see you back here next week.

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