How Do You Spell Trust?

But as I said, Albert is a man who loves the Lord and you're about to find out as he preaches, he also loves the word of God and brings it with a passion. So let's welcome Albert Tate. Thank you. Amen. Good morning, good morning, good morning. I'll tell you, Twin Lakes is the only place where a black man will jam to bagpipes. I tell you, only place in the world. Last time I was here, we had the bagpipe, so I said, my man Dave Burns is in town. Y'all know Dave Burns, don't you? So I said, "Dave, I want to bring a little bit of my culture." So I just want him to just give me a little organ while I talk. Amen. Is that all right? So I'm so glad to be back here at Twin Lakes and I didn't come alone this time. My wife is with me and she is pregnant with our third baby and I'm so excited about that. I'm so excited, let me see. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm excited about that.

In the CDs that I brought, I want to tell you a little bit about those. One is called A Journey Through Psalms. One in particular message that's very encouraging is entitled The Perfect Storm, The Perfect Request, and The Perfect Response. Every now and then in life, you'll find yourself in the perfect storm. In those moments, you need to know how to pray. Perfect request. When you're praying, you need to know what to expect God to say back because he always gives the perfect response. If you know anybody that's going through a storm right now, this would be a great gift for them. Or if you're going through a storm yourself, "Hey, let's just tell the truth. We're all either in a storm, coming out of a storm, or on our way into a storm." Amen?

The second CD is called Thy Kingdom Come, Thy Will Be Done. The question is, his kingdom will come, his will be done on earth as it is in heaven, but through who? God wants to bring his kingdom through your hands, through my hands. What does it mean for God to bring his kingdom to earth through our hands? So it talks about the Lord's prayer, but not just, "Lord, teach us how to pray," but, "Lord, teach us how to live, and Lord, teach us how to go and bring thy kingdom through our life for your glory." Amen? So those will be back in the back, and I'll try to actually get back there and greet and meet some people and hug and kiss babies and stuff. You don't even have to vote for me. I won't get nothing out the deal. I mean, I already got my check and everything. So we're good, we'll just go and just have a good time. Amen?

This morning, we're going to go through, we're going to look at a very familiar passage of scripture. I just want to challenge you early. Don't theologically check out on this one. My prayer is we look at Psalm 23, this very familiar passage of scripture. My prayer is that God will give us fresh eyes and fresh ears to hear his word again for the very first time. Amen? Let us stand as we hear the word of God. Let's stand together. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside quiet waters. He restores my soul. He guides me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for you are with me. Thy rod, your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil and my cup overflows. Surely, somebody say surely. Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Let's pray together. Father, I thank you. God, I thank you so much for your word. God, I thank you so much for your presence in this place. Now God, as we sit at your feet, we pray that you would bring about a transformation in our lives, the kind of transformation that only comes through the power of the Holy Spirit. So God, we pray that your glory, your weightiness will rest in this place as we come to you seeking guidance, seeking correction, seeking your word. It is that in, Father, that I pray that you would stand in my body, think through my mind, speak through my vocal cords, those things that you would have us say, know and do. May the words of my mouth, the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight. Oh Lord, you are my strength. You are my redeemer. Have your way in Twin Lakes today. In Jesus' name, every heart said, "Amen." Amen. You may be seated in the presence of the Lord.

As a kid on Thursday nights, the lineup on TV was phenomenal. The whole family would stop and we'd gather around the television there to watch the Thursday night lineup because as a kid, we had the Cosby Show and then right after the Cosby Show, cheers would come on. Now we grew up in a holiness church, so as soon as my mama saw the bar, we'd get rushed off into the bedroom. But the Cosby Show, man, Theo and Heek, I mean, they're just great lessons. Well, that was a commercial that used to run all the time back in those days and it stuck with me even still today. It's a little awkward for church, but it's a Rolaids commercial. It's a Rolaids commercial and there's this guy and he was on a chalkboard and he'd ask the question, "How do you spell relief?" And then they would spell R-O-L-A-I-D-S, which could be really confusing for a third grader by the way. Make those spelling tests really hard and really confusing. Everybody remember that commercial, the Rolaids commercial?

The idea, the folks at the Rolaids company, they said, "Whenever people find themselves in need of relief," and if you haven't, then you trust me, you will, "Whenever you find yourself in need of relief, we want you to immediately think Rolaids. We want your mind to immediately go to Rolaids." So how do we spell relief? R-O-L-A-I-D-S. Well, this morning, friends, I want to talk about a word that we throw around in Christian circles all the time. I want to talk about the word trust. Much like the folk at Rolaids, I want to ask the question, "How do you spell trust?" What does trust look like in your life? Whenever you find yourself having to trust in need of trusting, what comes to mind? What do you immediately think of? What does trust look like in your life?

David is going to help us through Psalm 23. He's going to help us and give us a picture after picture after picture of what trust looks like in our lives. It is my hope and my prayer that we would leave this place spelling trust a little differently, that we would leave this place with a picture of what trust looks like in our lives. In order for us to get started here, I need the first three words, the first three words of this Psalm. I want to give them to me the first three words. The Lord is. I just want to let that hang out there for a little bit. The Lord is. He is. If you don't get that, you can't get the rest of this Psalm. The Lord is. He is. He is. He is that which was, that which is, and that which is to come. You can hit rewind, go all the way back to the beginning of time. The Lord is. If you don't get it, fast forward and go all the way to the end of time. The Lord is. He is. He is the source. He is the author. He is the finisher. He is the creator. He is the center. He is the first and the last. He is the alpha and the omega. He is the beginning, the end. He is all that we need, all that we could ever desire, all that we could ever long for. The Lord is. He is. He is the source. He is the center. Nothing is that came without him. He is that he is that he was that he still is that he always will be. The Lord is. He is.

I think I'm ready for the next word now. The Lord is mine. I can take ownership of who he is. I have a personal relationship. I can be possessive with who he is. The Lord is mine. I can know him and be known by him. It's a personal thing. I can have a personal relationship with this great big old God that is all that he is. He is all that within me. The Lord is. And I have a relationship with all that he is. I have access to all that he is. All that he is by nature. I am by grace. The Lord is mine. I have a personal relationship. He's not some God out in the cosmos that doesn't see me, but we don't have a high priest that can't feel the infirmities of our affliction. He is mine.

Ready for the next word now. The Lord is my shepherd. He puts a description on it. He adds a dynamic to the relationship because you know every relationship has a dynamic of my marriage with my beautiful wife. It has a dynamic. She tells me what to do and I do it. That's the dynamic of our relationship. That's how it happens. So he puts a description on this relationship. He gives you a picture of how this relationship is carried out. He said the Lord is my shepherd. Shepherd, shepherd, shepherd. A quick study of shepherds will show that shepherd's job is to watch over the sheep. Protect the sheep. Provide for the sheep and anticipate the needs of the sheep. When the sheep goes astray, he goes and recovers the sheep, restores the sheep back to the flock. The shepherd protects, provides, oversees, anticipates the needs of. That's what the shepherd does.

A quick Wikipedia study of sheep will show that sheep are dumb. Sheep are just plain dumb. Well, if you're like me, you're already doing the theological math here and you're adding this thing up. Okay, well if the Lord is the shepherd, that means we are the sheep. Did we just get called dumb by the Bible? Yes we did. Because it's important for us to know and to be reminded that we're the dumb ones in this relationship. See, he knows all things and we know nothing. We need to be reminded that he's in control. He's the shepherd. He's the provider. He's the cover. He's the protector. He's the one that anticipates the needs. That's who he is because if we don't remind ourselves like that, then we'll find sheep coming together trying to act like shepherds.

You never see sheep coming together, planting the little coo. I'm sick of this shepherd always leading us down. I want to go my own way. You know, I want to do my own thing. You don't see sheep doing that because they got the revelation. They're dumb. David reminds us, he says, he's the shepherd and we're the sheep lest we begin to take on shepherd-like activities. See, many times we try to sit in the seat of the shepherd in our own lives and we wonder why we end up lost. We leave our sheep responsibilities and we begin to try to take on shepherd-like responsibilities and we wonder why things go haywire in our lives. He reminds us, he says, I'm the shepherd. That means you're the sheep. You do your job and I'll do mine. You stick to your job description and I'll stick to my job description. And if we can follow our roles, then we'll be good.

Says the Lord is my shepherd and I'm the sheep. Therefore, because of who he is and because of his job description in my life, I shall not want. Now if you're anything like me, red flags are going up all in your mind because when I think about this thing, I shall not want, I think about my life and the whole lot of wants I got. I want more square footage because my wife's shoes take over the whole house. You know, and it's been a hard thing for us. We're working, we're going to see a therapist this week. We weren't trying to work through this thing, you know? I look at my life and I got all kinds of wants, all kinds of things that I want. And then you got this passage that says, if you delight yourself in the Lord, he'll give you the desires of your heart. He'll give you the desires of your heart. And sometimes I wrestle with that. Does that mean he's going to give me whatever I want? No, we're too carnal for that. We'll want somebody else's wife. We'll want somebody else's job. Come on, you know us and our humanity. We'll be in a prayer group and somebody was saying, "Oh, I'm struggling on my job. Pray for me." And somebody else would be like, "Lord, I always liked her job. She lose it. Can I have it?" It's like, "What?" It's like, "She keep her job, man. What you doing?" You know? But we're so carnal. So it doesn't mean that he'll give us whatever we want. He'll give us whatever we desire. It says, if you delight yourself in the Lord, then he will give you the desires of your heart. He'll teach you what to desire. He'll give you a thirst for righteousness, a thirst for a hunger for truth. He'll give you your desires. He will give you his desires. He will teach you to desire his will and his will alone.

Because the Lord is my shepherd, therefore, I shall not want anything outside of the shepherd's provision for my life. Do you see that? It says, because of who the shepherd is, because of his role in my life, I want desire. I won't want anything outside of his provision for my life. So if the shepherd ain't providing it, I'm not wanting it. Do you get that? For some of us, that messes us up. It messes us up even in some of us, even in relationships we're in now. Because we're in relationships that didn't come from the shepherd. And we'll go out and we'll get into something and then bring it to the shepherd and he'll be like, "I don't know what you're talking about. Lord, would you, me and Jimmy, we're having such a hard time in our relationship. Could you help us in our relationship?" And they're like, "Jimmy? Who's Jimmy?" I don't even know who that is. As a matter of fact, I hadn't talked to you since you had that flat tire on the freeway six months ago. You were in a relationship? I didn't even know you was in a relationship. I never heard of Jimmy. And I know Jimmy don't know me. You see what happens? So we go out and we get ourselves into stuff and then we try to bring it back to the shepherd to fix it. David says the Lord is. He is. There's nothing outside of him. The Lord is.

And it's beautiful because the Lord is mine. My personal shepherd. He anticipates my needs. He provides for me. So therefore, because of who he is in my life, I shall not want anything outside of his provision for my life. Got any wants this morning? Got any desires this morning? I challenge you, take them to the shepherd. I think we're ready for the next part now. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green patches. Man, why you got to make me lie down? You know what I mean? Why you got to make me? Why you got to be so rough, Jesus? He says, "I'll make you lie down because I know how you are because you will just go and go and you will run and run and you will begin to add on stuff and it will begin to trump the priorities and you will set the wrong priorities. Your agenda will be full and you'll be so consumed with your stuff that you will lose sight of my stuff. So I love you too much to leave you like this. So even if I have to make you lie down, I'll make you lie down."

Middle East when camels, they carry people and they carry luggage across the desert. At the end of a trip, many times it's not an uncommon picture to see the rider of the camel carrying people and carrying luggage, carrying things that they call the camel the beast of burden. He was carrying the burden, carrying the weight, but he wouldn't sit down because his knees he was so used to standing that he refused to bend down so the people in the luggage could get off the back of the camel. So the rider, the driver would have to do is take twigs and take sticks and you would see him just whacking and whacking and whacking away at the back of the camel's legs. And eventually after a long time, sometimes even to the breaking of the skin, blood streaming down the back of the camel's legs, all of a sudden you see the camel have to whack, after whack, after whack, he'd slowly begin to wobble and eventually fall down on his knees and when the camel would get down on his knees, then the driver could roll the burden away off the back of the camel.

If you get it early, I won't have to preach as long. Jesus loves us so much that every now and then he'll have to whack and whack and whack knowing that it's only when we get down on our knees can he roll the burdens of this world away, can he carry the weight of this world off of our backs. Only when we humble ourselves, drop down on our knees and recognize that Jesus, you are the shepherd, you are the provider, you're the one. I can't do it in my strength but when I surrender and humble myself to your divine will, then and only then can you relieve the burdens off of my back. Got any burdens on your back this morning? They come in heavy. The message today might be a little confusing because I don't want you to leave here stronger, I want you to leave here weaker. Because your problem is that you've been too strong and you've been standing in your own strength and standing in your own power and trying to control the situation, trying to control, trying to hold this marriage together, trying to hold the kids together, trying to hold the job together, trying to hold the money together and God has said it's too big for you. You can't hold it. It's too heavy for you. I don't need you to be strong, I need you to be weak because Paul says it was only in my weakness was His strength made perfect in my life.

We always pride ourselves and say, "Lord, make me stronger." I say, "No, no, no, no. I need you to be weaker because it's when you surrender and in your weakness, then my strength can be made perfect." Some of us, our problem is we're too strong. We're holding the things of this world. We're holding all this stuff and we're coming to church and we're saying, "Lord, give me strength so I can hold my junk. Give me strength so I can hold my mess. Give me strength so I can hold my burden. Just get me stronger if I can just get through another week." No, no, no, no. God don't want you to get through another second like that. But He says, "I love you too much to leave you stuck there holding it so I'll make you lie down." But watch where He puts us. He says, "I'll make you lie down." Here it is in green pastures. Not in a dry desert place, but in a fruitful place where there you can receive nourishment for your soul. There's fruit there. He says, "I'll make you lie down in green pastures." He says, "I'll lead you beside the still quiet waters." Ever wonder why still quiet waters? Because you'll never see sheep drinking from running water because the water's too loud and it scares the sheep. They're afraid of the loud running water because sheep are dumb. So He says, "I'll lead you beside the still quiet waters. I'll bring you away from the loudness of your life." Because many of us, our life is so loud, we have to turn it down so we can hear the voice of God.

The relationship is so loud. The anxiety is so loud. The porn addiction is so loud. The struggles are so loud. The relationship is so loud. The job is so loud. He has to turn our lives down. And there in the quietness, shh, He restores our soul. Some of us, it's not that God isn't speaking. It's that your life is so loud you can't hear the shh, still soft voice of the shepherd bidding you come. So He says, "I'll turn down the noise of this world and there, beside the still quiet water, I will restore your soul." Because you can't keep running like this. Some of you, you come into church and you've gotten out and you sat in the pew, but you're sitting on empty. Your tank is on empty and you just want to get a little bit more so you can make it through next week, a little bit more so you can make it to the fall, a little bit more so I can make it through the holidays. And you don't have anything left. That's why the marriage is struggling because when you come home, you don't have anything left. Or the kids and there's tension with the relationships because you don't have anything left for the kids. And then you come to church. You don't have anything left to even give God because you're running on fumes. He says, "I love you too much to leave you like that. So I'll make you lie down in green pastures and I'll lead you beside the shh, still quiet waters because in this place, I can now restore your soul."

I can hear all the type A personalities asking, "When we gonna do something? All this sitting around, I gotta go to work on Monday." Because the idea of being restored doesn't necessarily mean inactive. He's getting you ready. He says, "I'll lead you down the paths of righteousness." Implication is, "Here, I'm gonna take you somewhere. We gonna start moving and I'm gonna put you in the paths of righteousness, righteousness of the right place, of right standing. I'm gonna put you in the right place at the right time for the right reason." He says, "The difference is it won't be for your name's sake, but it'll be for my name's sake." You see the difference? He says, "Yeah, yeah, we gonna move and I'm gonna take you down the paths of righteousness. I'm gonna put you in the right place at the right time for the right reason so my name can get its right glory." He says, "I'm gonna take you down the path of righteousness. Simply put, I'm gonna hook you up. I'm sorry, hook you up. I'm going to bless you immeasurably in ways that you cannot stand to receive. I'm gonna hook you up because I'm gonna do for you what you cannot do for yourself and I'm gonna do it in such a way that when people see what I've done in your life, they won't say, 'Wow, good job, Albert.' They'll say, 'Wow, thank you, Jesus. That must be God.'

It's kind of like when I was looking for a wife. I was looking for a wife and I was failing miserably. I was failing miserably. Relationship by relationship, it was just terrible. You know what I mean? I see sometimes, I don't know if you all ever do this. You ever see somebody you used to date like in the mall or somewhere and you walk by and you don't really say it out loud, but you whisper under your breath, "Thank you, Jesus." Come on, just tell the truth. You all know, you all ever see them or they're on Facebook and you're like, "Oh, there's something." So you look at the pictures and you'd be like, "Oh, thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Amazing grace. I once was lost, but now I'm found. Thank you, Jesus." You all know I was blind. Clearly, I was blind. But thank God I see. Come on. Amen, somebody. Amen.

I remember I got a whole list of them. I just block them on Facebook. I can't even look at it. Until one day, I went to a funeral. And at the funeral, my wife was, she was singing. What my wife did, she was just this fine woman in a black suit. And I saw this woman. I was like, "Lord, have mercy." Because you know, you're giving praise for the great things he has done. Amen? Amen. And I remember my sister, she was singing at a funeral. Leaning up to my sister, I said, "I think I just met my wife." After the funeral, I got her phone number at a funeral. Let me tell you something. It takes a lot of game to get a number at a funeral. I'm just going to keep it real. It takes some game. I'm sorry. Game. Influential in speech in a way to persuade its listeners on their side. Game. I got her phone number two years later. We've talked every single day. I remember when I proposed to her. All my friends would look at me, look at her, and then look at God and say, "God, if you can do it for him." Because there's no way he's supposed to be with a girl like that. The Lord must have done this. The Lord did this.

He says, "I'm going to put you in the right place at the right time to get the right phone number so when people will see it, they'll give my name glory." That's what he wants to do in your life. He says, "I'll lead you down the path of righteousness for my name's sake. I'm going to bless you, but it's going to be for my name's sake." I love it. Then I think we're ready for the next part now. He says, "Gay, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death." Wait a minute, Lord. How did we end up here? I thought we were just sitting in green grass drinking distilled water. All of a sudden, we end up here. Is your navigation system broken heaven, Jesus? What are we doing in here? The shadow of death, Jesus? Of death, Jesus? Could it be that even when following Jesus, you'll still have some dark days? Even when following the good shepherd, you'll still have some dark days.

See, I got to come against this terrible theology that's broken away in the church today. This bless me, bless me theology. This theology where these preachers get in the pulpit and they tell you that, "Oh, when you follow Jesus, everything's going to always go your way. You're going to always get what you like. And the sun will always be shining and your breath will never, ever stink." No, no, no, no, no, no. Jesus says, "If you want to follow me, you take up your cross, deny yourself and follow me." This journey with Jesus Christ requires sacrifice. You have to deny yourself. You will have dark days. But he says, "Even in your darkest day, yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death." He said, "It ain't death, it's just the shadow. You don't have to fear, you don't have to worry because the Lord your God will be with you." He says, "Even in dark times, the Lord your God will be with you."

It reminds me of a story of me and my cousins. My cousins, y'all, my cousins were, I was a church boy, grew up in a church, but my cousins were these. They were these thuggish, ruggish dudes. They was, okay, thuggish. Gentlemen you would like to have if a fight was to break out spontaneously. Thuggish. These are dudes you wanted around if some trouble ever hit. So we go to this dance at their school and I remember I was looking clean this night. I still remember what I had on. I had on this orange jean, car canine outfit. It was an orange jacket with orange pants. It was beautiful. This was back in the 90s. You did that in the 90s. I had on this beautiful outfit and we was listening to our room dancing, listening to Bell Biv DeVoe, poison, poison, poison. Anybody know? I'm sorry. Maybe it's kind of like Mel Torme or something like that. Kind of like that. All right. So I'm dancing and all of a sudden this guy, he's just going off. He's pointing and cussing and cussing and point and he's coming and you know, actually go, "Oh man, this is about to be a fight." So normally, you know, whenever a fight break out, what you do? Everybody just kind of gathers around and kind of gets in a little circle. So I kept trying to get in the circle, but the circle kept getting around me. Realized he was trying to fight me. He wanted to beat me up. So still to this day, I can't imagine why he wanted to beat me up other than, you know, me looking so fly, my Carl Knaier jean outfit, you know. So he's coming around me and all of a sudden, my cousin... Here, let me get some... Man right here, come here and help me out. Yeah, you looking at me kind of weird. Yeah. In the blue shirt back there. Yeah, come here. Come here and help me out. I want you all to be my thuggish cousins. All right? Look real hard. Look real hard. Or constipated. It looks like the same thing. All right. And I need... My man right here in the plaid shirt, right here, come here. I want you to be the angry brother. Oh, hold on. Stay back there. Come back here. Okay. All right. Now I want you to just start cussing really loud. Go. No, I'm just... I'm just... About to see what kind of church Twin Lakes really was, you know? I'm okay. All right. So you're going to be all angry and pointing fingers just kind of coming at me. All right. And as you come at me, before he gets to me, y'all bum rush in. All right. So y'all come in. All right. Y'all come in. Bum rush. That means run with a sense of urgency. All right. Okay. All right. Cool. So he started coming in. Don't headlock him, man. Hold on. Grace, brother. Grace. Hold on. All right. So my cousins all of a sudden come right before this dude is about to punch me in my face. But when my cousins came, they were looking all hard and tough to where the dude that was trying to beat me up, he changed his mind and he walked away. You go back to your seat. Thank you. All right. But check this out. So for the rest of the night, y'all can only imagine how it was. I was like, "Yeah. Yeah. What? Yeah. Yeah." It'd be like, "What? What? What?" You know? So you know I was talking noise and stuff, but for the rest of the night, guess where I was. I was with my cousins. They went to the left. Let's go. We all went to the left. They went to the right. We all went to the right. Regardless of whether we were all together. What's the point? "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil." Why? "Because thou art with me." David is saying, "I don't care how hard the day. I don't care how difficult it is. I don't care how great the opposition." He's saying, "You don't have to fear because you don't have to fear." I don't care how difficult it is. I don't care how great the opposition is. I don't care how difficult it is. I don't care how difficult it is. I'll prepare a table before me, in the presence of my enemies. I'll prepare a table before you. Even with opposition still present, I'll prepare a table before you. I'll anoint your head with oil. I'll give you an enablement, a divine enablement that goes beyond your ability and taps into the supernatural ability. And then it says, "My cup runneth over." Wait a minute. Weren't we just on empty? But now, I got something left. My cup is running over. Because when I'm following the good shepherd, I don't have to run on empty. I can run with overflow. I'll prepare the table before me. He's providing for me in such a way that I have an abundance in my life.

I love this next part. It says, "Surely..." Goodness. I love the old King James version. I grew up on King James. King Jimmy, like I like to call him. King Jimmy says, "Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life." Doesn't that sound a little counter-cultural? It seems like aren't we always chasing goodness and mercy? Hey guys, come here one more time. Come here one more time. This is what happens when you sit up front. Your goodness and your mercy. Y'all walk side by side, y'all walk that way. Seems like all of our life we're chasing and trying to catch up with goodness and mercy. Doing overtime, trying to get goodness and mercy. Working hard, slaving, trying to catch goodness and mercy. But watch this. The text doesn't say that. It says, "Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life." Regardless of where I go or when I get there, "Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life." He may not come when you want him, but he'll be on time. Y'all come on guys. Come on, come on, come on, come on up here. He says, "Surely goodness and mercy will follow you all the days of your life." You don't have to chase and try to find it. He says, "It'll follow you." Not only will his goodness and mercy and his grace and his love follow you, but it'll overtake you. It'll overwhelm you. Come on, big group hug right here. It'll overwhelm you. It'll overtake you. Y'all okay? Yeah? Y'all ever been this close to a black guy before? Y'all know what they say, right? Once you go black, you never go back, right? Thanks guys. Thanks, thanks, thanks.

Simply goodness and mercy will follow you all the days of your life. Finally, he says, "And I will dwell." I will dwell. I will stay in the house. I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. David says, "I'm not leaving this place. I had to go through too much to get here. I had to suffer and sacrifice too much to get here, but now that I'm here, I'm not leaving. I will stay in this place. I will dwell here forever, forever, forever, forever, forever, forever, forever, forever. I will dwell." Says, "I will dwell in the house of the Lord. I'm not leaving this place." We would ask David today, "How do you spell trust?" He would say, "R-E-S-T." He says, "I'm resting in its presence." Implication, this isn't a vacation. This isn't a staycation. I'm staying here. I'm dwelling here. I will rest. I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. I'm not leaving this place. Because David said, "If you're trusting but you're not resting, then you're not trusting." I'll say it again. If you're trusting in here today, but you're not resting, then my brother, my sister, you're not trusting because trusting means resting and dwelling and the shepherd's divine provision, knowing that I don't need or desire anything outside of what he's provided. And even if I got to go through dark days, I ain't got to sweat it. I don't have to trip because the Lord, my God, is with me. He's providing for me. He's given me an overflow. I will dwell. I will rest right here in the goodness and the provision of my shepherd. I will rest. I will not leave.

Are you resting today? Are you resting or are you running? There are three things that we do in this text. Everything else the shepherd does, there are three things that we do in this text. I shall not want. I will not fear. And I will dwell. I shall not want anything outside of the shepherd. I will not fear regardless of how dark the day because the good shepherd is with me. And I will dwell. I will rest in the arms of the shepherd because he is my provider, because he is my shepherd because he is. Father, I thank you. Pray that in this place today that we'll take all of our wants, all of our desires and that we will lay them at the feet of the shepherd. Father, I pray that instead of walking by fear that we would walk by faith and regardless of how dark the day in this place today, regardless of how people have come in this room facing some very difficult times. People have come to church not coming out of a storm, not on their way in the storm, but some people came in here in the heat of a storm and wondering do I hold on, wondering how can I make it through tomorrow? Father, I pray that they won't fear. They will be overwhelmed by the truth of your word. I will never leave you nor forsake you. You can trust me. I am the good shepherd. I pray that we shall not want it. We won't walk by fear, but walk by faith and ultimately that we will dwell. We will rest in you. Every time that we see trust, we'll always see rest and when there's rest, then we know that there is trust in you, the good shepherd. In Jesus' name, Amen.