What if God's love is chasing me and I don't even know it?
WATCH
Hearing the Shepherd, 4 of 4 from February 1, 2026
“When Jesus is our Shepherd we can be certain of His goodness.”
Psalm 23:6 by Michael Lockstampfor (@miklocks)
SUMMARY
This sermon ends a series on Psalm 23 by showing how it speaks to everyday life, not just death. In verse 6, the Hebrew word for “follow” means to be pursued, so God’s goodness and His steadfast covenant love (chesed) are actively chasing believers. This faithful love calls us to turn from sin, live as honored guests in God’s household forever, and form daily habits of abiding in Christ, soaking in Scripture, and trusting His goodness rather than living cynically.
REFLECTION & DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
💬 Have we come to God repenting of our sin?
💬 What blessings from God are we ignoring or overlooking?
💬 How are our habits here on earth preparing us to encounter Jesus’ presence in eternity?
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All joking aside, good morning, church. I'm glad to be together with you. We've been in a series the last couple of weeks going real, real slow through Psalm 23. At the risk of like giving you an image that you were like immediately going to check out on, like, we have looked at this picture of. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
He leads me beside still waters. And this is a psalm that is probably familiar to many of us. And there's a lot of our neighbors and our friends who will know this psalm primarily from interacting with it in like, funeral scenes settings when somebody passes away. This is a psalm we often return to in our grief. And it's, it's beautiful and it's great and I think it is absolutely helpful in that context.
But I. As we were kind of praying through what is how to start off our year, what should we spend our time focusing on? We thought that it would be helpful to spend a couple of weeks sitting with this psalm to see not just what it has to teach us about dying, and it does have things to teach us about dying, but what it has to teach us about living and what it has for us for life. And so I hope it's been helpful for the last couple of weeks. If you have missed these, and as I give a recap in just a couple of minutes, you're like, that sounds more interesting.
I'd like to hear more. The good news is there are three weeks worth of sermons already in our podcast feed. If you listen to podcasts, it's on our website. It's on our YouTube channel on our website too. There's like blog summaries if you'd rather read it than hear me talk for another hour.
Like, that's. I get it. So, so we give you all those options so that you can catch up to speed. But as we start, like, let's. I just want to read it.
And I usually, like, wait until we pray before I read it, but let's read it together. Psalm 23, it's on page 573 in the blue Bibles, if you'd like to navigate there. And I'll Read it and then just give you a quick summary. Then we'll pray and we'll jump in. Psalm 23 is a Psalm of David.
It says this. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul.
He leads me in 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 you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil.
My cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. And I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Amen. The Lord blesses the reading of his word.
So just as a recap, before we jump in and spend our time, most of our time, in verse six, it starts off with, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. So we see an image here of a shepherd, somebody who is guiding sheep. And shepherds in the Middle east are, like, hard dudes. They work hard. They're outside a lot.
They're working with their hands. They have to be on the defensive all the time. Hand to hand combat is a must with wild animals and all that kind of stuff. So, like, being a shepherd is not like a cushy job. It actually is really, really difficult.
And so we'd see, like, the Lord is my shepherd, I'm a sheep. God is my shepherd. He's taking care of me. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters.
He restores my soul. When Jesus is our shepherd, we lack nothing that we truly need. He gives us everything that we need. When Jesus is our shepherd, we lack nothing that we truly need. Then he leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I'll fear no evil, for you're with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. So as we're going along, like, we tend to think, okay, I have everything I need. God has provided richly for me. I'm good.
I need nothing else. And he's like, yeah, yeah, now it's time to leave. And we're like, no, no, no, no, let's not go anywhere. Like, let's just stay here where it's comfortable. But we saw that, like a healthy flock, a healthy sheep is a sheep that's on the move.
And the shepherd has a purpose for us. And so he moves us and he leads us on the right paths. And very often the right paths lead us underneath the shadow of things that appear to like that they will kill us. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, like we, when we follow and we walk with our shepherd, he leads us in places where we are in danger, and yet they are the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. So he's working on his reputation as the good shepherd.
And he is always prepared. His rod and his staff are always at hand. He is ready to defend us when we need. And so when we follow Jesus direction, he handles all the danger. That doesn't mean there isn't any danger.
That means that when we follow Jesus, he handles all the danger. And we saw last week, you prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil, My cup overflows. Talked about how there's like a shift here that's happening in these verses where we've had this picture of a shepherd and his sheep. But here as we reflect on the Lord's goodness, we realize that he loves us more than just sheep.
Sheep, we're more than just livestock. Although oftentimes my prayers just sound like I don't know what to do. He actually, the picture shifts where we are no longer considered sheep. We're considered honored guests that the shepherd is showing his Middle Eastern hospitality to. He's welcoming us into his tent, he's preparing a table.
He's taking care of all of the enemies. And so they can make a bunch of noise outside the tent. We're safe with our shepherd. When Jesus is our shepherd, he is bold with his generous grace. He sets a table before us even though there are enemies all around and even though they make noise.
So that's as quick as I can do it. I did it much, much longer for the last three weeks. And so if you want to go back and listen to those, I think that some of that will be helpful to you just to sit and reflect and take some time here at the beginning of the year. So as we take a next step, just closing out this series and taking a look at these verses, I'm just going to ask for us to pause one more time and to pray together. It's our habit to pray the disciples prayer.
So I've got the words here on the screen if you'd like to pray out loud with us. I think it's beautiful. I love, I love it when we do that together. But more than I want to hear your voice more than I want to hear your voice. God wants to hear your heart.
And so let's just pause and take a deep breath before we say this so that we're thinking about what we're praying before we pray. Pray it. Okay, let's breathe together.
And we pray. Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. Amen. Psalm 23. If you're still trying to navigate there, it's on page 573 in these blue Bibles.
And these blue Bibles, like, the reason why we bought them is because you can read them from space. They are giant print. It's what I use every week. And so if you need a Bible in, like, a modern translation that's easier for you to read and you don't have one at home, just write your name in that one. I would love for that to be our gift to you today.
Take that home, but make sure you write your name in it, because if you bring it back, it's going to look like everybody else's. So do that. Okay.
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil, verse 6. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. And I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life shall follow me.
Follow me. We talked about how shepherds often will lead their flock from the front, that they'll have a song that they sing, or they'll kind of vocalize as they walk along, and the sheep will just kind of follow along. And I told the story about, like, that one guy that the tour bus saw that was driving the sheep from behind, and they were like, hey, like, shepherds usually lead from the front. Why are you driving from behind? And he says, I'm not a shepherd.
I'm a butcher. Like, I'm pushed from behind, right? So here, though, we have a following. There's something that's following us as we're going through life. There's something that's following us.
And in fact, like, that Hebrew word, follow me is probably kind of a weak translation of that. Like, it's kind of soft and it's pretty. It sounds nice, but it's probably soft most of the time. When that word is used in the Hebrew language, that word is used in a military context, usually. Follow me.
Something is following me. It is chasing me. I am being hunted. Like, there is something that's after me. I am running away from it.
It is pursuing me. I am being hunted. Like, that is concerning because, remember, we're sheep. We are easily distracted. We feel like we're in danger a lot.
We're like, okay, there's something that's coming. There's something that's following me. There's something that is going to get me. It's hunting me. It's pursuing me.
It's chasing me. Surely, friends, goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. Goodness and mercy. Whoa, okay. All right.
Can take a breath. Goodness and mercy. I could be hunted by them, right? Like those guys. I don't know.
The mustache is not great, but, like, if we call him goodness and mercy, like, okay, we'll go with that. Okay. Goodness. There's a psalm, another Psalm in Psalm 16 says, I say to Yahweh, you are my Lord. You're the one that I surrender to.
You are my Lord. I have no good apart from you. Goodness. Goodness is following me. Goodness is chasing me.
If I have anything that is good, it comes from God. If I think there's times where there's neighbors or times that we are tempted to believe, like, I don't know, the world's kind of busted. Everything's bad all the time. It's bad, it's bad, it's bad. I feel bad.
Like, things are bad. Stuff is bad. And so we read verses like this. Goodness is going to pursue me. Like, that's really, really nice.
I'm glad the Bible believes that. But the Bible doesn't know, like, how life actually works. Like, there's badness that's pursuing me. Surely, goodness. But if you are my Lord, I have no good apart from you.
If the world was only bad, if the world was only sin, if the world was only darkness, we would never know.
If we were born without eyes and we had no perception of light, we would have no way of knowing that there was something that could possibly be light. Like, if there is. If there was only bad, we would never know that there was a possibility that something could be good. And so if there is good in the world, and I suspect that even on our most cynical days, we might look at the world and go, you know what? It's not all bad.
Somebody cared for me. They smiled at me like, it's not all bad.
I was really, really down. And, you know, that person just called me out of the blue like, it's not all bad. Like, it's hard and they are exhausting and they will not stop asking me for things. But, man, sometimes they cuddle up and snuggle me. And it's not all bad, right?
And if there is any good, it comes from Yahweh. Surely goodness and mercy will follow me. Goodness. This is crazy. There's an author, David Gibson, and as he's kind of reflecting on these verses, he says that this verse in particular is astonishing.
It's an astonishing confession of faith that in the changing scenes of life, which are full of evil, pain and suffering, none of those things indicate that God is bad.
In an astonishing confession of faith that the changing seasons of life, which are full of evil, pain and suffering, never indicate a bad God. Goodness will follow me, surely.
And mercy. Now, mercy, I don't often, like. I don't like talking about the original languages. A ton of. Because I don't want you to feel like you have to learn Hebrew in order to understand the Scriptures.
It could be helpful for you. It could make it a lot worse. Like, I've seen. I've seen, like, learning the original languages make more and more problems and more and more questions, and that's it. And the translations that we have, if you're choosing a good translation, like the English Standard Version that we use, like some other ones, like, then you can read God's word and understand it, and God will speak to you.
I trust our translations. Um, but like. So that's why I don't talk about it a ton. But mercy, you gotta hear, you gotta know about what. Mercy.
Because we've talked about it a little bit already. Mercy. The word mercy is chesed. Remember Chesed. You want to say that.
It's fun, right? You get clean off the back of your head from your neighbor behind you. Hesed.
Hesed is. It can mean mercy. Like, but that's kind of like. That's kind of like the weak side of what it is. It's mercy.
When the translators were, like, working on it in the 50s, they were like, we need to invent an English word that carries this. And so they came up with the word loving kindness. Loving kindness. If you look at the New American Standard Bible, every time hesed shows up, it'll be loving kindness. Often in the English Standard Version, they'll translate hesed as steadfast love.
So if you're reading the ESV and it says steadfast love, oftentimes in the Hebrew scriptures, the Old Testament, that word is hesed behind there, right? So I don't know why they didn't do it here though. And so that's why I'm telling you, they said mercy instead of steadfast love. If they had said steadfast love, this would have been a much simpler point to make in my sermon and you guys would not be bored. Hesed often, it is perhaps the single most theologically significant term for understanding God's posture towards his people.
If you want to know who God is and what God is like, then spend some time doing some research on hesed steadfast love, loving kindness. This is a covenant love. This is a promised love that like, I will do what is in your best interest regardless of how you respond. This is like the foundation of what marriage is supposed to be. Hesed, we made a promise together and I will be faithful.
Though everything else fall apart, though everything go wrong, though you turn your back on me, though you walk away, I will remain faithful, steadfast. And not faithful steadfast, Just putting up with you, just waiting for you to turn around, like, I will pursue you and I will work diligently for your best interests. Hesed steadfast love we talked about at the very beginning. We said like the Lord, when you see the Lord in all caps, that's God's personal name, Yahweh. And as he reveals that, he reveals also at the same time repeatedly, I am the Lord, I am the God who is, I am who I am, I am self existent.
And also almost every time that he says that I am the Lord, he talks about his hesed as well. I exist all by myself and I have faithful steadfast love intrinsically tied to his identity as being the self existent God, the only one who actually is he continues to reinforce his posture of faithful covenant love. Like, cool, Michael, I'm glad you're excited about that. I don't get it. Listen, it cannot just be this hesed.
It cannot just be random acts of kindness. It can't just be God. Be like, I don't know, I'm feeling kind of nice tonight. Here's some things for you and some blessings for you. It's not just random.
It's not just like, I opened up the book and I saw a verse and like, I guess this is my life verse for the rest. No, it can't be random. It's a steadfast love. It's based on a commitment. The two parties that are talking about Hesed.
There's two parties, and they are tied together. They cannot be separated. It is not random. God does not see you as just some randomly generated number. You're not a bag of genes and genetic mutations and decisions that just accidentally happened.
He chose for you to be born. He chose for you to be. Is not an accident. It is not random. It's hesed.
I chose to be in a relationship with you. It is a loyal love. It is loyal. It is. It is.
Regardless of what's going on, I am faithful. I am true. The old English, like, and this is weird, because English is weird in general, but, like, the old English, like, word that comes closest to this hesed idea is a word we don't even use anymore, almost. It's troth. Troth.
Like, I've never heard anybody say troth. The closest you've heard is, we are betrothed. We will be betrothed. We are going to be in that faithful, covenant, promised relationship. It is both a commitment for the best of the other, and not just the commitment and the strength of to follow through with what has been promised.
I think a wedding may be the worst way to start a marriage. I go on record and say it.
You got two families, they don't really know how to talk to each other, and now they got to throw a party together in front of all the people that they love the most. Right? There's a lot of stress that goes into weddings. Right? You guys are looking at me like I'm crazy, but I think I'm right about this.
Okay? That's why there aren't so many. Well, here's the deal. Like, I think I love Kenya.
It is weddings. Weddings are nice, but we want the day to be perfect, and it's got to be beautiful, and everything's got to be just so, so, so, so, so, so. And that's fine. I think it's great. It's gonna be a test of what comes next.
But, like, a marriage is not what happens on the wedding day. A marriage is what happens three years in and seven years in and 10 years in and 25 years in. And when we have lots and when we have nothing and when you're doing well and when you're not doing well, and when none of us are doing well, but we're trying to hold it together. Like, that is the trothal. It is both a commitment for the best of the other, which you can make a commitment all day, but it is also the strength to follow through with what has been promised.
And Lord knows We need some of that.
Chesed.
Here's the deal. God's perfect. Like, perfect perfect. Like the perfect is perfect. Like, you think you know what perfect is.
There's some perfectionists in here. I love you to death. You're not perfect enough. And that might give you anxiety for me to say that to you, but, like, it's true. Like, God is perfect, perfect, perfect.
Like, as perfect as could be. He not only has the aspiration for perfection, he just is okay. And he is perfectly righteous. And that's a problem, because you ain't. Even if you're trying to be, you can't be okay.
And so he has this, like, demanding requirement for perfection and perfect righteousness. And he also has this hesed, this passionate, compassionate mercy and steadfast love. He holds both of those together. He is both Yahweh and the God of chesed together all the time. And so when you have a demanding righteousness plus this passionate mercy held together in perfect unity and absolute tension, it requires us to be people of repentance.
Like, that's just the math of it. When I look at God and when I hear what it is that he is, what he is describing of me, I'm like, God, you're perfect. You're absolute. You're the creator of all things. You exist by yourself.
You don't need me for anything. You don't need me for lunch, you don't need me for dinner. Like, you don't need me to make sure that you feel good about yourself. Like, you're just perfect. And you invite me into this relationship that I contribute almost nothing to except for the need to be saved.
And you choose that. You opt in. You know how broken I am, and you still opt in. And you're passionate about what you love. You're passionate that you love me, not because I'm lovely, but because you're who you are.
And what do I do with that? How can I be so broken, more broken than I ever want to imagine? How can I be so loved than I would ever be willing to accept from another being?
It requires that we repent, that we look at God and say, I got nothing for you. I'm sorry. And all that stuff that I've been doing, all those thoughts that I let manage my behavior, I'm going to set those aside and I'm going to trust that it's your goodness and your mercy that's pursuing me.
There's some verses that we've looked at together here recently as a church body. In Hosea, chapter 10, we've used them as the framework for our grove initiative. And I'm going to ask you before we leave to be praying for that. But I want to just revisit these verses in Hosea chapter 10 real quick because we've looked at these, but these are not just like verses for that. This is like, there's something for us here.
Ephraim was a trained calf that loved to thresh. And I spared her fair neck, so I made it easy on her. But I will put Ephraim to the yoke. Judah must plow, Jacob must harrow for himself, Sow for yourselves. Righteousness reap steadfast love, reap chesed.
Break up your fallow ground, for it is the time to seek the Lord that he may come and reign righteousness upon you. Here's the invitation. It's an invitation to come home, be open to God's healing hand, deal openly with your heart, Acknowledge that there is something that's broken, that I've taken the easy way out, that I loved all the blessings of God. I love to eat, but I didn't like to work like, deal with that.
Invest yourself in a right walk with God and receive Chesed.
Our personal recognition of our sin and our personal hunger to seek G D until he refreshes us is going to be the thing that brings healing to our families and to our workplaces and to our city.
There's big problems. I know there's big problems. I hear about them all the time.
But it starts with us.
So have we come to God repenting of our sin? Like actually saying, I turn away from this. Repenting is like a fancy word. It just means turning away. I'm turning away from the things that I know are killing me and I'm turning to God.
Have we come to God repenting of our sin? Friends, surely goodness and mercy are hunting me. Mercy, Chesed.
If you read some of the books on Psalm 23, like commentary, some of the newer books, there's something that they do that it's a little bit frustrating to me. They'll take parts of this verse and they'll say, surely goodness and mercy shall follow me. And they'll look at that word surely, and they'll go, well, surely. It can also mean only. It can also mean only.
And so what they'll do is they'll write this long chapter about how it's only goodness and mercy who are following me all the days, that of all of the things that I thought were following me, all the dangers and blah, blah, blah, that ultimately at the End of all of it. It turns out that it was only ever goodness and chesed that was following me all the way. And like, that's nice and that's sentimental, but I do think that that kind of undermines the rest of what the psalm is saying.
It's not as though we get to the end and we realize that there was never any danger. It was all rainbows and unicorns the whole time. It's not only goodness and mercy that follow me. It's that they are hunting me in the midst of everything else that's trying to destroy me. That God is pursuing us in the midst of everything else that is broken.
He's pursuing us for good and for life.
Surely goodness and mercy are hunting me down daily. I think it's surely. I think we walk away at the end of this psalm with a confidence. As I look at my shepherd, as I look at my shepherd, I'm not looking at me. As I look at my shepherd, I can have confidence that it is his goodness and it is his loving kindness, his mercy that is going to be chasing me all the days of my life.
So what blessings from God might we be ignoring or overlooking?
Because when Jesus is our shepherd, he's bold with his generous grace. And when we follow Jesus direction, He handles all the danger is when Jesus is our shepherd, we lack nothing that we truly need. And when Jesus is our shepherd, we can be certain of his goodness.
I don't know if you thought about it lately. Sometimes in my bad days, I feel like God's just out to make my life miserable. Like he's just testing me all the time and he's just always trying. I feel like I'm making progress and then pulls the rug out from under me. Like sometimes I'm like that.
You guys are better people than me, so it's probably not like that for you. Like, sometimes I get cynical, but when I think about it, when I actually, like, stop and think about it, if God wanted to squash me, he'd have already done it. There's nothing stopping him.
And if God wanted to destroy you, he would have done it already.
But sometimes I think we believe more and we trust more in Murphy's Law than we trust in Jesus grace. And may that not be true of us. May we not be people who are cynical. May we be people who are infatuated with the goodness of our shepherd. And we are certain that he is chasing us with his goodness.
His goodness and his loving kindness are certain they are reliably available to those who belong to His Flock to his family. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. And I shall dwell in the house of Yahweh forever.
I shall dwell in the house of Yahweh forever. House. You can use house. But I think, too, remember, we're talking about a tent. We're talking about a shepherd, somebody.
So we're taken back to that table, the giant Bedouin tent, and the meal is laid out before us. We're feasting in safety and security. And this is home. Surely, surely goodness and mercy shall follow me. And I shall dwell in the house of Yahweh forever.
The first word of this psalm is Yahweh, the Lord. And the psalm ends with the Lord forever.
We are welcome in his tent. We're welcome. He invites us in. We are welcome.
Not just in the temple in Jerusalem, not just in this church building, like in the house of the Lord.
We belong to his family. We're honored guests. Like, that's the foundation of our identity, is that he has called us and he's made us his children, and he seated us at his table, and we live there. Like, we dwell there. Like, sometimes I walk into somebody's house and, like, I gotta mind my P's and Q's and I want to make sure I don't offend and blah, blah, blah.
And sometimes I walk in a house and I like him kicking my shoes off, and I'm going to the fridge, I'm like, why is there nothing in here? Because it's my house, right? And surely and surely goodness and mercy shall follow me. And I shall dwell in his house. Like, I will dwell in his house.
My house will be in his house. I will live with him in his house.
If our hope is only for this world, like, I think it's not enough. Like, if everything goes bad here, we still have hope that in the end there will be a restoration. And we do have a home. Our identity is part of his family. He's given us a purpose, and he's diligently cared for us in what he's called us to do.
Like that is the nature of what he has done. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters.
He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. And even though I walk from the valley of the shadow of death, I'll fear no evil.
Remember, it's all about Him. And then we can't help but turn our talking to Him. We've talked about him. And as we talk about him, we have to talk to him. I will fear no evil, for you are with me.
Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my my head with oil. My cup overflows. I have more and I have more and I have more and I have more.
And surely, certainly as I look at you, God, your goodness and your hesed are hunting me down every single day of my life. And so I know I've got a place to live with you.
When Jesus is our shepherd, we can be certain of his goodness. Even as our lives are shaped by our identity, our purpose and our calling. Under the diligent and the capable hand of God, our good shepherd, we ultimately look ahead to abiding in his presence fully and forever. Did you know that that's kind of what eternal life is? Jesus gives a definition of what eternal life is.
When I think of eternal life, I think of life that doesn't end. It lasts forever. Right? When Jesus talks about eternal life, he says eternal life is to know the Father, that I have a relationship and a knowing and an understanding, a personal, like one to one relationship with the Father. He says it in John 17, 3.
You don't believe me. This is what it says. And this is eternal life. This is the definition that they know. You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.
Eternal life is knowing God.
Okay, I think I'm getting there. I'm learning, I'm growing. I'm starting to know. What does that look like in the daily. How does that affect my current life?
My current life is to be set apart by His Word. What does it look like for eternal life today? It looks like me spending time in His Word and him setting me apart, like, changing what I was into, what he's making me to be. Being set apart by His Word. The Bible word for set apart is sanctified.
And so Jesus puts it this way, sanctify them, those who know you in truth. Your word is truth. Set them apart by what is true.
Well, Michael, that sounds great. I'm happy for you and all you church people, you guys get to know God and pretend like everything's fine in the world, okay? Like, listen, I got other things to do, friend. Do you have nothing else to do? I have nothing better for you.
I'm a simple guy. I just try to tell you what's in the book. But if you want to have a productive life, a productive life looks like Abiding, living in the house of the Lord, abiding in Jesus.
He said it this way, Abide in me, live in me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing if you want to have a productive and a full life.
It looks like abiding in him, being set apart from by his Word and knowing the eternal God Yahweh, the self existent Yahweh, abounding in Hesed.
But how are our habits on earth preparing us to encounter Jesus presence in eternity? Like, if I look back, if I look at this slide, I'm like, that seems like a lot of eternal stuff. It's like, cool. I'm happy that you see that. But listen, how are our habits on earth today preparing us to encounter Jesus presence in eternity?
Because this is practice.
The things that we invest ourselves in here now are going to have seeds that bear fruit and grow and mature. So how are our habits on earth preparing us to encounter Jesus presence in eternity?
Do we let those cynical default settings of our brain and those angry outrages that like just flare up immediately whenever we see something going wrong in the world? Do we let that drive our being? Or are we being reshaped by his word to know him, to be like him and to live in him? Because I think that's what he's inviting us into is when Jesus is our shepherd, we can be certain of his goodness. Let's pray.
Jesus, you know the book, like you know what's in here, you know what you meant. And so, Lord, if I've misrepresented you in any way, I just ask that those things would be quickly forgotten. But God, where your word has been declared clearly, God, I ask that you would not let us shake it off, that you would set us apart by your truth. Your word is truth. And so would we not be able to walk away from hearing about your chesed or your goodness and just shrug, but that those ideas would get stuck in our head, Lord, that they.
That we would spend time chewing on them. And Lord, that you would work them down the 12 inches into our heart to restore our soul.
We can't do it by ourselves.
The best heart surgeon in the world can't operate on themselves. And so we know our need for you and we ask that you would do the work that only you can do. Spirit, would you convict us of what is sin and help us to repent? Spirit, would you convict us of what is good and righteous and help us to trust that Father, Would you change our minds and would we be shaped by you?
It's in Jesus name that we ask. Amen.
