Worrying Sheep by Kevin Allen October 30, 2022 · Centerpointe Apostolic Church (Murfreesboro, TN) Kind: sermon Scripture: Luke 12:22-26, Psalms 23, Psalms 23:1-6, Isaiah 53:6, John 10:11, John 10:14 Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/kevin-allen--worrying-sheep Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page. Free to copy and share with attribution. ------------------------------------------------------------ Luke chapter 12. Jesus is speaking here. So if you have your Bible with you, if you have a red letter edition, you'll see these are his words when he says: Then, turning to his disciples, Jesus said, "That is why I tell you not to worry about every day life, whether you have enough food to eat or enough clothes to wear. For life is more than food, and your body more than clothing. Look at the ravens: they don't plant or harvest or store food in barns, for God feeds them. Are you — and you are far more valuable to him than any birds. Can any — excuse me — can all of your worries at a single moment to your life?" I'm going to repeat that question that Jesus asked right there: "Can all of your worries at a single moment to your life?" Verse 26: "And if where he can't accomplish a little thing like that, what's the use of worrying over bigger things?" For a little while this service I want to preach on a very simple title: "Worrying Sheep." There's a lot of anxiety in our world today, a lot of worry. It's almost palpatable; you can feel it, people. But that has never been God's desire for his people, to allow anxiety to rule the day. It seems to be a constant in our world. I know I'm not the only one who feels that it's there; it's around us. Most everyone we run into is busy living a hurried life. I don't remember it being this way, and I'm really not that old — I'm getting older by each minute, but 46 years old. I, I remember a time when it seemed as though people had more flexibility. Somewhere along the way, it seems as though hurry became the order of the day. I don't know if you're aware of this, but Tuesday is November the 1st, which means the holiday season has arrived. For some in the room, me saying that just immediately brought anxiety into your mind. There's a few of you, though, that brought joy. There are some that you've probably already have your Christmas playlist going. I'm sorry about that; God can save you too. I'm thankful that we have a God who knows where we are. I'm thankful that we have a God that knows what we face. Worry and stress and anxiety are placed in our lives for one purpose: to test our trust in God's plan for where we are. Most of the stressful moments in life only produce things that affect our abundant life. That's what Jesus said he came for: to give us life more abundantly. But what I have discovered in my time is, a surefire way to rob the abundance is to allow anxiety and worry to take main stage in my mind. Speaking to somebody today, I feel my Holy Ghost engaging right now, that somebody needs to hear the word I have for us. We are all in such a hurry. If we're going to have a true abundant life, we must have complete expectation that God is in control. Even when I seem to be out of control, my God is in control. There's never been a moment he's not been in control, whether I feel it or not. It's a truth that I have to hang on to. Because we're all in such a hurry, we tend to live life right there on the edge of our seats, and then we miss out on life because we feel like there's just no other way to live. But I bring to you another way to live. It's a way that was expressed a long time ago by one of the most popular of people who have written in the word of God: David, at possibly the most famous of all passages in the Bible, the 23rd Psalm. David purposely pins words that make an impact in our life if we will learn how to slow down long enough and embrace them. Very often it's read at funerals, in the final moments, as people are beginning to reflect about their life. But what I find the irony in that moment is, he's talking about the way we should live and not the way we should die. So it's from this that I want to launch into my sermon today about worrying sheep, because I feel like the word of God is bringing a different way to view life for you and I. And I don't know about you, but I feel like we live in a world that needs a different way to look at it. I don't like the way the direction is going. I don't like feeling like I'm in a hurry all the time. I don't like the impact it makes in my life. And I'm a person who doesn't deal with a whole lot of anxiety, but yet I find myself being wound tight for what seems to be no reason at all. And when I get my to thinking about why I feel the way I do, it doesn't make sense. It seems as though there's a spiritual push behind it. And I feel like that's a truth that an enemy is trying to use: whether or not we're going to be bad or busy, either way he can accomplish the same thing. Psalms 23 is so familiar that many of you can quote it. David says: "The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside still waters. He restoreth my soul. He leadeth me in the past of righteousness for his name's sake. Yea, though I'll walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me. Thy wrath and thy staff, they comfort me. Thou prepare us the table before me in the presence of my enemies. Thou anoint us my head with oil; my cup runeth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever." I want you — I want to ask, and I want you to think about this question. I want you to just let it settle in for just a moment in the mind right now, okay? In fact, it may be the best way to do this, for those who are paying attention to me in this moment: will you close your eyes for just a second so that you can reflect on this question? Here's the question. Please think about it: What kind of life do you really want to live? What kind of life do you really want to live? You can open your eyes. You see, the alternative to having God be your Shepherd is to live as if I have no Shepherd at all in my life. Now, shepherding is something that, if you've been around church, have been raised in church, it's — it gets referred to from the time you maybe went to your Sunday school class. You, you hear the connection and the words and the terms, but it's not something that we see a lot in our world today, especially here where we live. It's not like you, you drive around, you see, uh, herds of sheep crossing the road. You don't really see that here. We see a lot of cows; we don't really see a lot of sheep. But the word of God makes a lot of connections and referring to you and I as sheep, and sheep needs Shepherds in their life. Left alone, sheep will never survive. They don't have the ability, the capability. They have to have a Shepherd who watches over them. So when I think about this scripture here, I see that there's really only one option, and that's to have a Shepherd. For to not have a Shepherd in my life, and for me to be referred to as a sheep — for you and I, that means if I go alone, it's not going to turn out good. Yet how many times do I find myself trying to go alone? You see, every day, every moment, I have to go through life with a burden and the weight that I'm going to carry all by myself. That's what happens when I choose to not have a Shepherd in my life. Life without a Shepherd is a life on the edge of the seat, with all this unnecessary worry that I'm trying to juggle, I'm trying to pack away, I'm trying to put in places where it doesn't belong. Anybody else find yourself with unnecessary worry? Anybody find yourself being worked up over something that's really not big a deal, but yet, even though you tell yourself it's not that big a deal, you can't stop the worry? Can anybody identify with me today, that there's something there forcing and pushing, coming behind it? You worry about your job, or the fact that you don't have a job. Or you worry about your marriage, or the fact that, that you're never going to get married. Or you worry about your health, or the health of the people you love. Or you worry about money, or you, or you worry about education, or you worry about your future, or you worry about your life. You worry about all these things; they just — they find themselves piling up and stacking up. And even the best of us, at times, find ourselves dealing with this stuff; we don't know what to do. How many of you have worried about something already today? Already today there's been some anxiety, some anxious moment, something there that's just gnawing away at the back of your mind even as I'm speaking in this moment right now. It's always there; it's always right there, but just, just behind the scenes and every thing you do. How many of you have discovered that worry is a constructive, wonderful way to live life? No, no. We don't like it. We, we don't want it. How many of you find yourself, when you don't have any worries, you're worried? Yeah, because you're like, "It's something, something is going to happen." Why? Because it's going too good right now. It's almost like when you have, when you have little kids, a house and everything's quiet, all of a sudden what happens? If your parent, what happens when things are quiet? Something's wrong. Yeah, it's better when noise is going on, because the moment it's quiet, it's never good. Yeah, sometimes they're worries like that too. We're like, "Wait a minute, I don't have a worry. I got to have a worry. Please give me a worry. I don't know what to do without worry." Isn't it sad that we've gotten so used to it that we don't feel right without it? Do you feel like that's how God wants us to live? That's not how I interpret the scriptures when I read it, is that he wanted his people, his children, to live in a constant state of being so wound tight that everything caused you to worry. No. Instead, I read it here about light burdens and easy yolks. But why is it that my everyday life doesn't always go that way, when I feel like what I'm carrying is so heavy and so burdensome that oftentimes I wonder how I can survive the next day? So I want you to know there's another way to do life. It's a life to live in contrast of what is going on all around us. It's life in the presence, in the protection of a shepherd. But here's the deal, and this is where the fight comes in oftentimes with you and I, is we hesitate relinquishing over to the shepherd, because the shepherd is the one who makes the decisions for us. The shepherd doesn't show up in front of the herd and says, "All right, everybody, raise your hoof if you're in favor of going over here; though those opposed, raise your hoof." No, he doesn't do that. The shepherd knows what's best for the sheep. The sheep's responsibility is to follow the shepherd. The only decision they have to make is to follow the shepherd. The shepherd will take them where they need to go, well present them with the only option they need. But left alone, they have to make decisions from themselves, and it's in those decisions oftentimes the worry and anxiety come. And we live in a life, in a world, where there is so many choices. I remember several years ago that we were down in Orlando, and we were going to give the mouse our money. And as we were preparing for our time there, we went to the Walmart there in Orlando. If you just want to have a good time and it doesn't cost anything, let's go to Walmart and hang out; there's just some interesting things that go on at Walmart. But this one was even more interesting because there's people from all around the world coming to that Walmart. And I remember, as I was watching a family, they were in full-blown lockdown, standing looking at the Pop-Tarts, because there was so many varieties of Pop-Tarts. And I remember this little girl going, "Dad, there's so many flavors." Now, I'm a guy who typically likes options, but sometimes our world brings so much at us, it's almost overwhelming. Anybody besides me: when you go to a restaurant you've been to before, you know what you're going to get before you get there? In fact, the only reason I go to that restaurant is for that thing. When you say, "Do you want to go here?" I'm like, "Don't want to eat that thing" — doesn't matter what's on the rest of the menu, because I found the thing that I want to go eat. Narrow it down, because it helps take away the anxiety. For some of you, you really struggle with decisions, and it just locks you down. You can't — the more options, the more you can't move. It's a real thing, how it affects us. You see, David understood about shepherds because he was a shepherd. He's writing about something he knew first-hand knowledge about. He himself had been there. He had — he himself had seen the fate of any sheep that went away from the shepherd. David knew that sheep don't take care of themselves. He knew that sheep required more attention and meticulous care than any other class of livestock. We sheep, in this day and age, require so much, because we are such busy little sheep. You see, I've come to realize that hurry is the great enemy of the spiritual life today. Hurry: we got to pack it all in, and we got to do it all. We're in a constant state: how fast can we get it done? You see, it's only when you get outside of the culture you're in, sometimes, you can see the air of your ways. One of the things I've, I've picked up on, and on the times that I've spent outside of the United States — been blessed to travel, visit many places — and what I have noticed is that in other countries they view meal time differently than we do. All right, what do we do? We pull through the drive-through, we order our food, we get mad if we wait six and a half minutes for them to cook it. We will drive down the road at 80 mile an hour, driving with our knee, looking at our Instagram page, putting taco sauce on our taco, passing cars, because that's what happens when we get in a hurry. But you go other places and they sat down. And this is — and, and, and, and my wife — I'm preaching this message; my wife probably going to take a lap at some point. It's okay, she lives with me, because I'm preaching a lot about stuff that I deal with myself. I go and travel out of the country and I sit down and I want to order, and they're never in a hurry. And everything inside of me is coming unglued because I'm like, "We have been here for an hour; why have we not gotten the check?" Why? Because I'm in a hurry. And I have to be careful, because my hurry robs joy from me. It also robs joy from Chastity, but it robs joy for me. Hurry is the great enemy of spiritual life in our world today. What I mean by that is, where we are living right now, there's a difference between being busy and being hurried, okay? You can be busy and yet not be hurried. But there's something that happens when we find ourselves in a hurry. Being busy is in our condition, a condition of the body. But being wired up with different capacities, we can be busy. I can multitask. Anybody else a multitasker? I can multitask. I can't — I'm, I'm decent at it, pretty good. Some people are better, some people are way worse, but I'm decent. I can multitask. Jesus was often busy; he had many things to do. But to be hurried, that's a different story. To be hurried is a disease of the soul. To be hurried means that I'm internally so preoccupied with my worries and my own little agenda that I become unable to live in the presence of my heavenly Father who loves me, to be unable to be fully present with the people that I love, that I'm around, because I'm always preoccupied with something else that needs to happen. It robs you of the joy God has for you. It robs you of the abundant life he came to give you. Hurry. I'm reading another book by John Mark Comer. There's a quote in there; it says, "Hurry is the great enemy of the spiritual life in our day, because it will keep you from actually experiencing God's goodness and care from one moment to the next." It's kind of an odd thing to think that the enemy of our soul, if he can't get you to be separated by God from sin, then he's going to work really hard so that you find yourself in a hurry, because when you get in a hurry, you miss experiencing the presence of God. See, for some — and I'm fixing the hammer somebody's toe right now — for some, what went on at the end of the song service right there, you got a little uptight about, because you were ready for me to go ahead and get up here so that I'll get through this, so you can get to where you need to go, because checking church off your list was something you needed to do today, because as long as you can check church box off, you feel good about yourself. The enemy has robbed you. That hurry robs you from experiencing the almighty presence of God that was moving. It's the enemy of our soul, I'm telling you. In our day today, where we live, the kind of world we live in, where everything's fast-paced, it has to happen, we're going to squeeze it all in, we're going to do everything, we're going to experience life, and you're missing life, because life's not about a list that you check off. I said that if the enemy can get you so wrapped up that you miss what God's trying to do — why is it that we intelligent individuals find ourselves only truly engaging with God when we find ourselves standing in front of an ocean on vacation, or looking at the mountains, or the changing of leaves, and it's all of a sudden in that moment where we're, "Oh, there's a God who's good"? Why does it take that, when the reality is he — he's not just good in that moment; he's good in every moment of your life? But hurry comes in and it steals that, and he gets you so anxious and so worried. These little sheep are just running around, not on her hooves — I say hoof; I'm out already. It's possible to go through life, or this illusion, that someday things are just going to settle down, and then you wake up and you're 46, and you got a bald spot, and you got a freshman in college, another one driving, you're like, "How did this happen to me?" Things go — you keep telling yourself, at some point it's going to settle down. Someday somebody's going to come and, and fix this problem. But nobody does. It's not your boss, not your spouse, not your friends, not your parents, not your education. Because here's the deal: you must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life. You got to figure out what it is you got to do to, to put the brakes on that, because it's stealing God moments from you. In fact, I think we need to say this out loud together: "We must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from our lives." Because it's robbing us. We are, we are worried little sheep. Look at your neighbor right now, say, "We are worried little sheep." How often do we forget God's mercies are new every morning? How often do you forget that God's mercies are new every morning, that every day I wake up, I have new mercy? Yeah, somebody — we, we were cutting up a little bit out there in the foyer, uh, uh, before life class started, about, uh, a lot, the lottery, right? And, and people get so caught up. And yeah, really I am; there's just so much to say, but I'll say this: Do you know what's better than winning the lottery? Is that you wake up every day with new mercy. That's, that's better. I don't care how much money it is right now. Whatever the amount is — it could be a billion dollars, it could be 10 billion dollars, it could be enough for you to buy Twitter from Elon — you know what's better than that? Is you got new mercy today. You got new mercy today. But how often does hurry Rob that truth from us? Did I get up already wound up because of everything I got to do and all I got to accomplish, and this is happening, and that kid is sick, and this is happening at the workplace, and this isn't going my way, the next thing I know, I have forgot about mercy. Hurry, we'll rob it; it'll steal it from you. And we just unknowingly give it away. Nobody here has to be so smart, so clever that you've earned this day. You earn this day, it was a gift. When's the last time you thanked him for the gift of today? You just said, "God, thank you for today." I'm telling you, it's one of the most convicting things that's hit me in the past few years, of how many days I've taken for granted, how many times I got up and even in my prayer I didn't tell him thank you for today. I'm not guarantee tomorrow, and if I get it, I better thank him, because it was another gift. And we shouldn't get to the end of our life, when we only have a couple left, till we say, "Oh God, I'm sorry I never said thank you for all the years." No, every day I got new mercy. Every day I get up, I got a brand new gift to live a life he's calling me into, and I'm not going to stand by and let anxiety and worry and stress Rob that gift from me. How many things are just there? How many sunrises have you taken for granted? How many sunsets — besides Joanne — if you know, you know, and that's funny. Yeah, how many have you taken for granted? How many of you just like go? How many moments of your child's laughter have you just let go by? How many, how many things, because you're in a hurry and you're worried, and it's got to get done, and you're always on a timetable, and you're always on a schedule, and it has to be this and it has to be that? You know what doing: the enemy is robbing your life. He's taken one gift at a time, and you're just willingly giving him over to him. At the end of the day, that all that really happened is you just went through another day, or you pat yourself on the back for some accomplishment you had, when God, in all his mercy and grace, gave you the splendor of just simply looking around and acknowledging that he's there. Michael and I and Sean Long and Caleb were on a little two-wheel therapy ride earlier last week through the mountains, and we were kind of lost — not really lost, but kind of lost, them somewhat lost on purpose — somewhere in North Carolina. I don't know where it was, just somewhere over there. And we're tooling along, and then I got to thinking about, you know, I really don't know 100 where we are. You know, we got GPS, and that's all great if you have cell service. We're kind of two along there. And here's the deal about it: so Michael has my old motorcycle. I want to know about my old motorcycles: you get about 125 miles and you need gas. And by need gas, like, you need gas. We're like 130 miles into this, and I'm like, "Lord, I don't know where I'm at, and your Beauty's really cooled all around me right now, but here comes worry tumbling in, robbing me." And I'm praying — it's a good thing I was in the front; you couldn't see me. But they're praying, because my gas light's on too. And they're like, "There's not even remote sign of civilization; there's just leaves." And they were beautiful. But all of a sudden worry's starting to rob the beauty from me. But I'm aware that he's there. And you're all going to make fun of me — I know you're gonna make fun of me, so go ahead and make fun of me; won't be the first time you made fun of me. But I pray, "God, please, will you just let there be a gas station around the corner?" And guess what was around the corner? But not just any gas station: it was like from, from 1921. It had one pump, a gravel lot. I'm pretty sure Michael had to crank on the side of the thing, but it had gas. No, I'm gonna bring it up, because he's a good God, and he's all around me, and he's all around you. But we can let worry and anxiety Rob the fact that he's all around us. When we're worried, a little sheep — there's a, the gift of a Shepherd. Jesus, who, who knew all about Psalms 23, says in John 10:11, he says, "I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd giveth his life for the Sheep." Oh my goodness, how wonderful is that statement, that he gave his life for you and I? Do you want a Shepherd in your life? I hope you do. The Good Shepherd here lays down his life for his sheep. Those were not just words, but he died on a cross for you and I. So here's the deal. Here's the deal with this shepherding thing: if you've never allowed Jesus to be the shepherd of your life, today would be a great day to do that. In fact, here in a few minutes — it says I end this message — there's going to be another opportunity down here, and I'll help pray with you that he will become the Good Shepherd of your life. I was reading up about sheep some more — been a while since I studied out interesting things about sheep. There's a guy named Warren Gill; he's a professor up at the University of Tennessee. Says that sheep spend around 10 hours a day grazing, and they do most of the rest of their day just walking around. They spend this just chewing the cud. Chewing the good — there's another term for that. You know what the other term is? Ruminate. That is ruminating. Now, people ruminate too. The difference is sheep do it regularly, recreationally. They're just, they're happy out there. He happened to see some in the South there. There's, when you say that they're happy just chewing the cut — same professor says the ruminating response requires that sheep be comfortable and relaxed. The only way you can really ruminate is to be relaxed. So when you see them out there and they're, they're relaxed — he writes, in rumination, sheep have this sleepy, pensive expression. I got to think that's a lot of when people are listening to my sermons. Are you ruminating right now? See, we need to learn about the habit of ruminating — not because things bother us, but we need to realize that I can only do that the way I'm supposed to when I'm comfortable and relaxed. You see, what we need to be chewing the cut on is the goodness of God, that as I'm going about my day, I'm just — he's a good guy. I have new mercy today because of him. He provided a gas station out in the middle of nowhere just for me. See, when I begin to chew the cud on the goodness of God, it has a way of just relaxing me. Does anybody know what I'm talking about? There's a deal: we have options. I like options. But we have this option: that I can allow him to be my shepherd. And if he's my shepherd — shepherd, his rod and his staff, it comforts me, that even in correction I'm being comforted. Or if I get myself in trouble, he pulls me back to where I need to be. And I have this assurance that my shepherd is watching over me. Therefore I have the ability to think on how good he is and the blessings that are a part of my life. And I'm not a worried little sheep, but instead I'm a happy little sheep just ruminating. See, when I look back at what David was writing, there is a simple way of living this life. It's this way: "The Lord is my shepherd." But that's something I have to embrace. It's, it's a reality that I have to remind myself of sometimes, because life has a way of overwhelming me. Life has a way of coming at me fast, and things change, and, and I'm not always in control. So it's in those moments I have to stop for a minute, maybe even close my eyes, and say, "The Lord is my shepherd. The Lord is my shepherd. The Lord is my shepherd. He knows where I am. He knows what I'm going through. And even though it's not making sense, what's in my life right now, I have to trust that my God is good, and he sees me, and he knows what I'm feeling, and he knows I'm overwhelmed in this moment, and I need him to pick me up right now, because this is more than I can face and more than I can take. The Lord is my shepherd. The Lord is my shepherd. I'm not shepherdless. I'm not on my own. I'm not by myself. But he will be there with me." But to do this, we have to understand a couple of things about this. First of all, the Lord is — he's not an idea, he's not philosophy, he's not some abstract thing. He's real. He's more real than this building we're in right now. That's how real he is. The Lord is. And not only is the Lord is, but the Lord is my — it's personal, it's me. It's not just something out there for, for, for, for just the — it is for the masses, but it comes down to where I am right now. He knows me. He knows specifically where I am and what I'm going through. I'm not some far away thing in his mind, but it's personal with him. The Lord is my shepherd. He's my shepherd. He cares for me, he loves me, he protects me. I am his sheep. And when I get in trouble, he comes to where I am. And it's those things I need to dwell on. So instead of you and I ruminating on one problem, one trouble, or one relationship, or not having enough money, or the my health is bad, or my kids are going through this, or some future outcome, I don't need to ruminate on the fact that the Lord is my shepherd. The Lord is my shepherd. I need to start my day off reminding myself that the Lord is my shepherd today. Whatever else comes after that, I can handle. And the reason I can handle it is because the Lord is my shepherd. I don't know what else is there, but I know this truth: he's my shepherd; he will guide me through. But I love that David didn't just stop there, because he goes on and he says, "The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want." This idea that David has, that because the Lord is a good shepherd and he's caring for me, he is providing for me, and I can actually have joy and a grateful life because of that. See, I don't have to live — and are you okay with me? Everybody okay? You know, give me just a couple minutes. We all right? I'm gonna do it anyway, but I just thought it'd be nice and ask. See what happens is this is: we end up just becoming a collection of appetites, okay? Will you let me unpack this a minute? I don't have to be and live in a way every day of my life with just unsatisfied desires, because the Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. The alternative this way is, is, is, is consistent discontent, never enough. Sheep are basically one big appetite walking around, the four legs; that's what they are. And what a sheep want to do is to satisfy its appetite. And the way sheep generally do this is by following the other sheep in front of them. One of the most famous passages in the Old Testament is in the book of Isaiah. It says this, in Isaiah 53:6: "All we like sheep have gone astray." How does the sheep go astray? It's usually because they're following the sheep and not the shepherd. It's a humbling thing that we're told that we're sheep, because it's really stupid. And God's saying, "Hey, your sheep" — what he's saying is, "Hey, you need me." Yeah, you think you're smart, but you're not. You're not. It's humbly — she — they're not done, man. They're not dynamic. They're really just dull. They're passive. They, they, they're just following animals. If, if one sheep goes off the cliff, the whole herd will go off. There's not a moment any of them stop and say, "Well, hey, wait, Sally just went off, and I hadn't seen her come back." No, Sally goes, I go. There you go. That's what, that's what she'd do. Hey, they follow. That's why you have to have a shepherd. "All we like sheep have gone astray." It's a good thing people aren't like that. It's a good thing we're higher in our intellect, isn't it? Yeah, it's a good thing your mama never had to say, "Well, if one friend jumps off the bridge, you're gonna jump off the bridge too." You know what she's saying? You're bad cheap. All right, I'll stop with those jokes. When we get caught up in that mentality, that's what happens. It's called herd mentality, flock mentality. The herd of the flock says you can be happy if you have a bigger house, a better car, if you make more money, better clothes, wider teeth, fresher breath, slimmer body. What's crazy about this is, the discontent is promoted around your body alone is staggering. Think about it: what goes on, how much time we put into the way we're like — no, I'm honestly, I'm, I'm from being healthy. I try to be healthy. I do. I want to be healthy. I feel like I got really good mandate in the scriptures that this is the temple of God and I need to be doing stuff with it. And that means more than just not smoking and drinking, because we Apostolic, sometimes we, we, we, we started in a feast, the Pentecost — we ain't quit eating since. We all need to be paying attention. But here's the deal: you think about how this works. You know, we talked about, you need abs of iron and flatter stomach and sleeker thighs and bigger shoulders, if you were just, you know, bigger in the Northern Hemisphere and slimmer in the middle. And where does this come from? Where does this come from? I'm asking you a serious question now: Where does it come from? And for some of you, you haven't been happy in a decade because of a number on the back tag of your shirt. Man, Pastor, you're getting down the weeds. I am, because I'm tired of you worrying about stuff that you don't need to worry about, because it's robbing you of God moments all around you. There's another way to live; it's called a life of gratitude. "The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want." What he has given me, I am thankful for. Living in a life of gratitude, I will find satisfaction in the shepherd's presence more than the shepherd's gifts. Now you're thinking, "Well, there's some presents and gifts." I'm not talking about that; with the T, it's an SE — the presence of my shepherd versus the gifts of my shepherd. Some people are unhappy because they haven't got the gift they wanted, when the greatest gift you'll ever give is he's here. We live in such a goofy world. I don't have enough time in this message, and I'm already way over my time. But far too many are possessed by their possessions. So you did it, so it's big, so it's great, so it's fast, so it's Sleek. So what? It all burns; it all goes away. And if your identity is in that, what a sad little person you are, because I'm supposed to be identified with him, and there ain't nothing bigger than him. Man can't build anything bigger than him. We can't come up with anything bigger, and we can't think of anything bigger than him. His ways are above our ways. So if you want to be the biggest and the baddest, then be in him, because there ain't no bigger than him. "Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures." He, he makes me — do you see this language? David, a guy who understood being a shepherd, says that he — my shepherd, my shepherd makes me lie down. Why is it some of us — why is it some of us act like two-year-olds? We never want to rest. "I'm not sleepy. I'm not leaving." I remember that I had kids too. You're like looking — I'm like, "Just go, just like, you know, they waste naps on the young." Why is it, at this age, nobody's encouraging me to take a nap? That's what I want: "You need to take a nap." Okay, yes, please, I will be a good boy; just let me go down and take a nap. Instead, that stopped in kindergarten. Do they even do that anymore, man? See, now we'd have to get a bigger nap pad. I'm just gonna be honest with you, because some time ago I noticed I make Wesley nervous when he rides with me. He's expressed it a time or two. Now, when he was our student pastor, he had a nickname. Anybody remember Wesley's nickname when he was driving? Swervin Stevens. Wesley gets preoccupied with other things. One of those things is never getting from A to B the way you're supposed to. He takes the roundabout way. I'll bring this up for reason: Wesley's my friend; I knew I could pick on him. But when he's driving, I'm always thinking, "Why are you going this way?" Because there's way quicker way to get there. Because guess what I'm doing? I'm just so wrapped up in hurry. This is therapy for me. I'm wrapped up in hurry. I'm like — that's why I've said before, usually if we're going somewhere, you're going to ride with me, because I can get there faster. I'm not really sure about your driving now. Wesley will attest that he gets in, he makes sure his seat belts on. The deal is this: it's a control thing, because you tell yourself, "I can control." And what, what, what a facade that is. It's fake. You're not in control. You're not in control. You think you're in control, and the more you think you're in control, the more really you're not in control. What's in control is the enemy, is run in your life. He's robbing you of the God joy moments that are around you. What gives sheep assurance that I'm drawn to — clothes, and musicians can come — is that you can get into the green pasture where your soul can be restored. But it's going to take the shepherd slowing you down. You see, sometimes he, he brings things into our life and he slows you down, and you're trying to pray away the very thing he's trying to use to slow you down, because you're like, "Come on, come on, Shepherd, let's go. I'm trying to follow you. This is work better if you'd go faster. Look, just point your staff that way." And what are we doing? We're saying, "Oh, God's in control of my life; I'm just driving." No. He, he maketh me to lie down. See, when you lie down, you, you can't really go anywhere. "The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down green pastures. He leadeth me besides still waters." See, sheep's scarier; they get scared — they really, really, really, really, really easily. So he, he can't take you to the Russian waters. Can't take — you know, sheep are covered in, in — what, what is sheep covered in? And what does wool do when it gets around water? So guess what happens if a sheep falls in the river? They're not going to bob. So he has to take him by the Stillwater. "But I want to go, I want to go." "No, no, no, I'm going to make you lie down. I'll lead you over here to where it's safe for you to be." If I have unrest when I lose control, I'm missing the God moments in my life. As I was studying this out — as a wrap this up tonight, today — as I was researching, I found out that in England and Ireland and Scotland, sheep worrying is a criminal offense. That sounds nuts, doesn't it? You're like, "Who's going out there? Are people going out, 'You little sheepy, you're never going to make it in life. Look at you, you're so dumb'?" Now, sheep worrying, because what happens, it's anything that stimulates the sheep can cause physical things to take place inside that, and the shepherd knows that. That's why if, if it's a — if it's a somebody's like, if you're just out walking your dog, your dog gets off the leash and runs into hurt a sheep — here's, here's what happens: is it physical, documented thing, it is that you look it up later. I know you don't believe me, so Google it later. She worrying, because it causes the sheep the used to spontaneously abort their babies. Physical conditions doing this. Hey, someone will actually die because of the anxiety word that hit them. So, so the Bible says all we like sheep, and guess what, the enemy knows: if I can worry them, I can abort their future. Foreign, I can get them so caught up in the stress and the worry and the anxiety that are robbed the God moments in our life. And by robbing the God moments in our life, I can steal their future. Speaking to somebody in the Holy Ghost right now: there's somebody here that you've allowed too much worry in your life to rob the God around you who's trying to show you, "I'm right here. I just want to be your Shepherd. I will be your Shepherd. I will lay you down in green pastures where you can be fed well. I will lead you beside still waters where you can drink safely." But life hurries us up, and it gets caught up, and I'm missing out, and all this stuff, and all we're doing is aborting our future. Last scripture, John 10:14: "I'm the Good Shepherd, and know my sheep. I know my sheep, and then known of mine, has the Father knoweth me, even so I the Father, and I laid down my life for my sheep." That's what he did when he died on the cross for you and I. He gave us — the enemy was listening, and he said, "There's some of them I can't necessarily make them bad, but I'll hurry their life. I'll bring in all this outside stuff that makes them feel like they're missing out and things are all this, and give them the false illusion that they're in control. But the whole time, my main goal is to Rob them, because they're just a bunch are worried sheep." When our Good Shepherd has done everything he can to show you, if you'll let me be your Shepherd, you don't have to live a worried life. For he says, don't even the birds — they have food; they worry — aren't you much more valuable than them? Will you buy your heads in me? Oh God, you are so very good to us. You always have been. Maybe we didn't always see it, but you have always been good. Lord, I know that in this room today there are those who have not truly allowed you to be Shepherd of all of their life. I pray, God, for courage in the moment to step out and trust you. There's some, through the entirety of this message, they were so wound up with anxiety, God had a hard time listening. But I pray that your spirit would shine through in this moment, that they could feel and know and trust that, God, you don't desire that for their life. Reveal yourself to us, Lord, in this place. Lead us beside still waters. Make us to lie down in green pastures. Be our Shepherd today, in Jesus' name. This altar is open. If you've never invited him to be the shepherd of your life, I encourage you to come down to an altar; let us pray with you today. If you are someone who deals with anxiety and stress, someone that deals with a hurried life — I've told you mine; I deal with it on a regular basis. I have to work with God to unhurry my life. But if that's you, I invite you to come. Come down to the altar; let the shepherd walk with you today.