When I'm Distracted and Stressed

Well, welcome to church. My name is René. I'm one of the pastors here at TLC. I'm so glad you joined us, particularly if you were here for maybe your first time or one of your first times last weekend and you decided to check us out at least one more week. We are so glad that you did, and maybe you're watching on Facebook Live or watching over in the venue service in Munskey Hall. It's just great to have you with us here today.

This weekend we start a new series, as you may have picked up, based on Psalm 23 called "Living in the Goodness of God." And here's why I think we really need to hear what we're going to be talking about during this month of April. On average, I just read this week, Americans on average send and receive 128 text messages a day. Now, I think that the average might be bumped up a little bit by teenagers, but we all get texts and Facebook notifications and a lot more every day. And this equals distraction because your head is in your phone and you're missing things that are right in front of you in real life.

And on top of that, you also get about 5,000 ad exposures every single day between radio and TV and websites and magazines and signs you see everywhere. And that equals dissatisfaction, right? Because of course, these ads are designed, you know, almost scientifically to make you feel dissatisfied with your life. Otherwise, you wouldn't feel like you needed their product. And on top of that, every day you get almost constant bad news, and that equals depression.

A man named Dr. Graham Davie is a British researcher who specializes in the impact of media. And he says, "Media exposure can exacerbate or contribute to the development of stress, anxiety, depression, and even PTSD, post-traumatic stress disorders." So we, all of us, are living lives of distraction and dissatisfaction and depression because, like never before in human history, we're being barraged by all of this sensory input all the time.

So how do you counteract that? Well, these days you hear a lot of people, especially in places like Santa Cruz, use the word mindfulness. What does that mean? Mindfulness means living in the here and now, calming down, being present instead of constantly being distracted and pulled into the past or the future or into dissatisfaction. And I agree with this idea in general, but I think specifically what we need to live in is live in mindfulness of God's goodness to us every moment of every day.

And that's why we're starting this series, Living in the Goodness of God. Grab your message notes that are in your bulletins that you got when you came in. You can pick these up on the TLC app as well if you're watching online. I want to do a couple of things in this introductory message. First, on page one of your notes, I just want to show you why focusing on God's goodness is so important in your life, maybe more important and more of a challenge than it has ever been in human history.

And then on page two, what I want to do is look at the very first line of Psalm 23 and then give an overview of where we're going to be going in that Psalm for the next two weeks. So first on page one, what happens when I forget about God's goodness to me? I want you to see this is not some lightweight series. Oh, Living in the Goodness of God. This is a serious issue for Christians today, maybe the single most serious issue we as Christians face because not living in mindfulness of the goodness of God.

I mean, first of all, you're disobedient to Scripture because Scripture says to fix your eyes on Jesus, to fix your thoughts on things above, not on earthly things, to always think of things that are good and excellent and praiseworthy. So you're not keeping Scripture's commands, but it's also impacting your own happiness and your relationships and your testimony as a Christian.

Four major negative consequences when I don't live in daily, hourly, constant mindfulness of God's goodness to me. Jot these down. Number one, I lose a sense of wonder, of course, at God's good gifts all around me. All those ads and texts and news blare so loudly that they drown out the children laughing, right? And the birds singing and the waves splashing and the spirit whispering right here, right now.

We lose sight of the fact that the Bible says every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights. God showers gifts on you every single day, every day, even when life doesn't go good. He is giving you good gifts because He is good all the time. Do you notice that? And do you give thanks?

And then second, when I lose sight of God's goodness to me, I start claiming credit for God's gifts, right? You start to say things like, "I built this business with my bare hands," who gave you your hands? Or, "I thought up my business plan totally by myself," who gave you your mind? "I got where I am today by the sweat of my brow." Who gave you your brow and who gave you your sweat? You know? Everything you have in your life you owe to God.

You wouldn't take your next breath if it wasn't for the goodness of God. You wouldn't be sitting here right now if it wasn't for the goodness of God. You wouldn't be alive if God hadn't made you to love you. Literally everything in your life, the ability to hear, to see, to taste, to smell, everything, the ability to do all those different things God gave you. Check out this verse, 1 Corinthians 4:7. What do you have that God hasn't given you? And if all you have is from God, why do you act as if you're so great as though you accomplished it all on your own?

Prideful ingratitude, not being grateful to God for his goodness, is a very serious issue. It's probably the root of all sin, prideful ingratitude. It's judged by God in Scripture. And the more people are ungrateful, the unhappier they are because they see nothing as a gift of grace. They see everything in their lives in terms of either, "I earned that," or if they don't have it, "I deserve to have that," and so they're not happy.

And then third, when I forget the goodness of God to me, I stop asking God for help. And this is huge because I get this idea. God isn't good. This is very personal for me because for many years of my life, I thought of God as a mean parent. Yeah, God's my father, but he's a stingy parent. He's a judgmental father, and he doesn't really care.

You know, did you ever go to church, maybe you grew up in a church where the pastor would say, "God is good," and the people would answer all the time, and then the pastor would say, "And all the time," and the people would say, "God is good." Have you ever heard that before? Let's try it here. God is good, and all the time, try it one more time. God is good, and all the time.

I got to a place in my life where I didn't say that in church because I actually thought, "I don't know if that's true," and when people would say it, I would cringe. And when you get to that place, when you forget how good God is, what happens is you start depending on yourself all the time, and you censor your prayers because you think God probably doesn't care about this.

But look at what Jesus said. If you as imperfect parents—how many imperfect parents do we have here? Can I see a show of hands? How many perfect parents do we have here? Yeah, okay, one, right over there. Thanks, Marcia. But Jesus says, "If you as imperfect parents know how to give good gifts to your own children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who what?" Ask him. Ask him.

Let me ask you this. When's the last time you prayed a prayer like this to God? He said, "God, I know you're good, and I believe you are good, and you're good all the time. And so since you're a good God and you want to give good gifts to those who ask you according to Jesus, then here's my need." And then you tell him about your upset stomach or whatever it is. There's nothing too big. There's nothing too small. If it's big enough to worry about, it's big enough to pray about. And worry's not going to solve it, but prayer will.

So you ask God, believing he's good, and then you wait patiently for God's timing to deliver the right answer. Of course, God rarely gives you the answer immediately. God's not a vending machine. If God gave you everything instantly, you'd be incredibly selfish. But when you do see him as good all the time, you ask him for every need. If you don't see him as good, you ask much less frequently.

And what happens is that stunts your relationship with God because you're praying less and less, and you're living as a practical atheist because you're not really in relationship with God. And then fourth, when I forget God's goodness, and this one is really the biggest reason that I wanted to do this series, because let me just be blunt and bold as your pastor. I see this fourth symptom just running rampant throughout not just Christianity in America, but in this church as I talk to people.

So I'll be very bold here. I hope I don't offend anybody, but it's this. I become pessimistic about the future. When you forget God's goodness to you, you become pessimistic about the future. You lose hope. And what happens then is you become vulnerable, vulnerable to discouragement, vulnerable to quitting. And also listen, you become easy prey to anybody who comes along and affirms your negative belief. Everything's going to hell in a handbasket and then tells you, "I have the key to a better future."

But David tells us this in Psalm 27, the connection between future hope and believing in the goodness of God. In Psalm 27:13–14, he says this, "I would have despaired unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living." But since he did believe in the goodness of God, he says, "Instead, I thought, wait for the Lord. Be strong. Take courage. Wait for the Lord." He says, "Instead, I thought, I'm going to wait. I don't see the answer right now, but just because life is not good does not mean God is not good. Don't confuse life with God.

We're not pantheists. Life can be very difficult at times, but I believe God is good all the time. And God knows best all the time. And I will see the goodness of God, even though it doesn't make sense to me right now. You know, later on in this service, we're going to sing a song that is a line, "You're never going to let me down." Praying to God, "I know you're never going to let me down." Do you believe that?

Now, that doesn't mean you'll always understand. It doesn't mean you'll never feel disappointed in God's answer. It doesn't mean you'll never be confused by what God's up to. What it means is you trust that God is good all the time and that ultimately God is going to work out all things together for good. It means you believe God is good and all the time you didn't really believe that. God is good and all the time somebody said hope is anticipating God's goodness. I really like that. The foundation of all hope is a belief in the goodness of God.

Now, before you flip your page over, let me just say this. As I see so many Christians losing hope, I can't help but think that it's because we're not living as the Bible tells us to. Living in the goodness of God, in mindfulness of God's goodness to me every day. This is why truthfully I do not think there is a subject that is more important for Christians to hear than this one right now because this has to do with your relationship with God, and that's got to undergird everything else.

I'm very concerned that on the one hand in this church and nationally I see many Christians, and many of them are older people who are afraid of the future, their future, the nation's future, the world's future, and there are a lot of negative things going on so I understand that. But then on the other hand, I see a lot of Christians, many of them are younger people, very concerned about all the social ills that plague our world, and there are a lot of social ills that plague our country and our world so that's understandable too.

But here's my concern for both the older and the younger saints. I was reading Martin Luther King Jr. this week on April 4th, which was the day of his assassination, and to paraphrase what he said—and he said a lot, he said this a lot—he said people who want to work for social justice just need to be careful because they can end up focusing so much on evil that they lose sight of the goodness of God. And it's living in the goodness of God that keeps you energized to fight the good fight whether you're young or old or in between. It keeps you recharged to make a difference. That's what keeps you motivated. That's what keeps you encouraged, and I cannot think of a better way to learn this than in Psalm 23.

Psalm 23 is the antidote to bad ideas about God, to forgetting about the goodness of God. And you know I actually want to challenge you to memorize this whole psalm this month. Now many of you may already have this memorized, some of you don't, but it's short. You can do it. Why do I say memorize Psalm 23? Do it as a deliberate counteraction to all the media input that's clamoring for your attention all the time. So when you feel overwhelmed this month, when you feel stressed, you can go to Psalm 23 in your mind, in your memory. Try it. It's going to make such a huge difference, and it's going to be so rich for you as every week during the month of April we took another verse or two from the psalm and examined it.

Now this morning I just want to dive into the opening line, and then for the rest of this month we're going to go through this whole psalm, but just this opening line is enough to change your life. Just the opening line is enough to relax you, de-stress you, refocus you, and here it is. The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. Let's say that aloud together. The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. Do you believe that today?

We're just going to focus on three key words real quick here. First, the word shepherd. This whole psalm is a poem, it's a song lyric about a shepherd and his sheep, but that's a big problem for us in our culture because the problem is most of us have never really been around any sheep and most of us do not know any shepherds. How many of you have ever been a shepherd? Can I see a show of hands? Anyone. We've got one person over here. That's it. There's one.

So everybody in these days had somebody in their family, usually the younger people and the older people who took care of the family flock of sheep, but the danger for us is that the whole central metaphor of Psalm 23 just sails right past us. And that's why to get ready for this series what I did was I read lots of interviews with shepherds, and some of them were Christian shepherds writing books about Psalm 23, but some of them were just shepherds talking about sheep, watched lots of YouTube videos about shepherding and so on, and I was looking for what do they think as experts think we civilians need to know about their job.

Well, they said first to understand shepherds you need to understand sheep, and I think I can summarize everything I heard and saw from shepherds about sheep with three words. Jot these down. First, sheep are dirty. They are dirty. One of those shepherds said, you know, almost every other animal will clean itself. They said cats obviously give themselves baths, dogs clean themselves, raccoons, you know, wash their hands, elephants take baths, even birds take baths, not sheep. They literally cannot take care of themselves. They get filthy. They also overeat. They need a shepherd just to cleanse them. They get so dirty.

And then sheep are dumb. They are just not exactly the Einsteins of the animal kingdom. And this is probably not a surprise to anybody here, but the way the shepherds expressed this was so funny. I read one shepherd, Ed Winton, who's a shepherd out in West Texas, and he put it this way: sheep are just born looking for a way to die. In other words, if there is a way to get themselves killed, they will find it. They get into predicaments they cannot get out of by themselves. They need rescue constantly. We're going to be telling you some of those stories in this series, so sheep are dirty, dumb, and defenseless.

They're defenseless. Did you know that sheep are one of the only animals in all of creation without any defense mechanism? I mean, look at this: there is nothing about this creature that is intimidating whatsoever. Just big, soft prey, you know. Think of this way: I was thinking about this almost every other animal is a pro or a college team mascot. Have you thought about this? I mean, of course the predators are all represented—bears and lions and tigers—but even like the marlins or the ducks or the banana slugs, you know. At least banana slugs are kind of repellent, but not sheep. Nobody's going to be intimidated by this, nobody.

In fact, somebody said, can you imagine what a school with a sheep mascot would even do for their cheer? You know, we are the sheep; victory is yours to keep. What would they even do? You know, we will not make a peep. And sheep are not just defenseless against predators like wolves; they're also defenseless against their own stupid selves. I read this week sheep will sometimes eat the food they love, certain kinds of grass, so much—and this happens very frequently apparently—that they have, how can I put this delicately for the 9 a.m. service, a potentially fatal gas problem. It builds up to the point where they actually roll over and they can't get up anymore, and their gas in their intestines will kill them unless they have a shepherd who comes along and does some, you could call it, medical intervention.

They have to pick the sheep up and kind of go—basically this is how the bagpipes were invented. That part's not true, but all the rest is true. I guess the point that I'm making is when we're compared to sheep in the Bible, it ain't exactly a compliment, right? But it's so true, and we're like this, right? And that's why we need a shepherd because here's what shepherds do vis-a-vis what sheep are like: shepherds nurture because sheep can't take care of themselves. Like we're going to look at in Psalm 23 next week, it says he makes me rest in green meadows; he leads me beside peaceful streams; he renews my strength. We're going to be in this verse next weekend because so many people just feel exhausted.

Some of you, if you just make it to one weekend, next weekend is going to be the one in this series for you because your good shepherd wants to help restore you and relax you and ease some of that stress. Shepherds nurture, and then shepherds guide because sheep are dumb and would get totally lost without the shepherd. And in two weeks we're going to look at this verse: he guides me along right paths, bringing honor to his name. Now, if you're like me, nothing stresses you out as much as indecision, having to make a choice. Well, guess what? You've got guidance from your shepherd.

Now some of you go like, like a woman I spoke to after the service last night, "That's great that we get guidance from the shepherd, but how does God guide me? How do I know what God's will is for my life?" Doesn't that ever torture you? Well, we'll be talking about it in two weeks. So shepherds nurture and guide, and shepherds protect because sheep are defenseless. And the fourth week in April we're going to look at this: even when I walk through the darkest valley, you know God is good all the time, and all the time God is good, but that doesn't mean life is always good. We go through dark valleys, but I will not be afraid, for you're with me; your rod and your staff, they're going to comfort me.

Listen, you are going to go through dark valleys; I guarantee it. But God will not abandon you because he is your shepherd. So these are all felt needs we're going to be addressing in this series. And by the way, in the lobby we have little square invite cards that have all these felt needs and a line from Psalm 23 on them and the church's website and service times. I just want to encourage you, if you feel you know somebody who could use some message about stress or exhaustion or God's guidance or God being with them through dark valleys, pick up one of these square invite cards in the lobby and invite people. I really believe people need to hear this, so let's get them in the doors.

This is what a shepherd does. Now, second word: let's look at who my shepherd is—the Lord. And in the second word, I really want to dig into it because in the English translations you can miss the power of this word. In English, the word he chooses to use here is spelled out usually L-O-R-D in all caps. Did you notice that? That's the translator's way of letting you know this is the very special Hebrew word Yahweh. Now, David had a lot of other Hebrew names that he could have used here—El Shadai, El Elian, Adonai—those are all words used for God in the Bible, but he chooses the most sacred, the holiest name for God, the name this was so holy that it got to the point where when Jewish people saw this name, it was so sacred they wouldn't even say it out loud.

Whenever they were reading the Bible and the text read Yahweh, they would say out loud the word Adonai instead, which means Lord. And it was so sacred that if a scribe needed to write Yahweh, afterwards they would cleanse themselves with a ritual bath, and they would destroy the pen they had used to write the name. That's how sacred they considered this name. Why was this word considered so holy? Because it was seen as the actual name of God.

I want to drill down into this for a minute. Yahweh is very close to the Hebrew verb for to be; it simply means I am or the one who is. And the idea that it's getting across is the Lord is the only being who exists completely independent of anything else. Philosophers would say God is the only non-contingent being—not contingent on anything else for his existence. He needs no food or sleep or parent or origin; God just is. He's eternally present. It's a little bit like an artist is not dependent on his painting for his existence, and Yahweh isn't dependent on anything because Yahweh is the artist, the creator of everything.

Now just try to take in what this means. I read this week that there are at least 250 million stars—250 million times 250 million stars. We can't conceive of a number this big, but to put that into perspective, if you could transport the most powerful telescope on earth to the Alpha Centauri system, which is our nearest neighboring star system, and look back our direction with the most powerful telescope on this planet, you'd be so far away at our closest neighboring solar system that the earth could not be seen even with that powerful telescope. And the one who spoke all that into being with the word, the Lord, the non-contingent creator of all, is my shepherd.

What I'm trying to get across is who could possibly better care for you than Yahweh? Now, in case the idea of the non-contingent creator of the cosmos being your shepherd is tough to get your head around, well, the Lord is your shepherd, and he loves you so much, and he knew that this would be tough to conceive, and so he came to us to show us this aspect of his character. And he, Jesus, said this: my purpose is to give you life in all its fullness. I am the good shepherd, and the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. This is how he defines himself.

All that we learned today about what shepherds do and who the Lord is, Jesus is saying, that's me. He is devoted to your care, so devoted to you that he even laid down his life for you. You know, we were just in the Holy Land recently, and one of the most ancient ways that Christian art portrayed Jesus was as the good shepherd. You see this image everywhere in the catacombs, for example. Can you see Jesus this way, the Lord this way? When you're hurt, he gently places you on his shoulders and he carries you. When you're lost, he looks for you. He loves his sheep, and his sheep love him.

When you see Yahweh this way, it has an amazing result that leads to our third word we want to look at: I shall not want. Let's just talk about wants for a minute. We live in a culture designed to exploit wants. Our culture is calibrated against contentment. Every catalog you get, every ad you see, every display in every store is designed to make you want more. You know, how do you tend to fill in this blank? I'll be happy when... How do you fill it in? When I'm healed, promoted, married, single, a homeowner, successful, famous, have more of my favorite stuff, get a degree, get a job in my chosen field, get a better job in my chosen field, get better co-workers at my job in my chosen field.

Now consider this: however you fill in this blank, if that never happens, could you still be happy? If not, then you need to think about who you have as your shepherd. Paraphrasing Max Lucado here, you have a God who hears you, the power of his love behind you, the Holy Spirit within you, all of heaven ahead of you. You have grace for every sin, direction for every turn, a candle for every darkness, an anchor for every storm—everything you need. And what can take that from you? Can any cancer infect your salvation? Can bankruptcy impoverish your sanctification? Can an earthquake even touch your heavenly home? No, not when the Lord is my shepherd.

Let's say that whole verse together again: the Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. That's the key concept today. The secret of contentment is absolute trust that God is good. The secret of contentment is absolute trust that God is good, and he will be good to me today and forever.

Now look up here for a second because I want to wrap up with this. Maybe you're thinking, "René, I actually don't know if I'm there yet. I believe in God, and I guess I like the phrase the Lord is my shepherd, but is the Lord good all the time?" You know, for years, years, years of my own spiritual journey, I really struggled with this. I knew it said the Lord is my shepherd, and I guess I believe that, but really, in my heart, I did not believe in the Lord as good because I thought, I know who I am. I am a dumb, dirty, defenseless sheep, and I am prone to wander. My heart does go astray, and when that happens, God wants to hunt me down and kick me and hit me on the head.

I thought if Yahweh, the non-contingent creator of the cosmos, is my shepherd, basically what I must do is just tick him off all the time. I thought of him as Zeus throwing down thunderbolts, and I was afraid, and I did not have a vital relationship with the Lord as my shepherd. If this is your struggle, then I want you to check this out. Look at the screen. There's a guy that we found out about who lives over in Israel, and he makes little videos about life in Israel to help explain Bible passages, and he captured unstaged video of this sheep wandering off away from the rest of the flock. This little guy gets so far away that the other 99 of the sheep, so to speak, are safe and sound in their pen, and he is still missing, and so the shepherd has to go looking for him, leaves the 99 to find him.

Now, how do you think the shepherd is going to act when he finds this little guy? Mad? Well, I want you to watch what happens. Watch how he rescues this guy. The first thing he does is make sure the sheep hears his voice, his call, so he doesn't scare him off. Watch this.

So, so, so, so, that's what a good shepherd does. And the times when you wander away—and who doesn't?—he doesn't hunt you down so he can kick you and hit you. He seeks you and calls you with affection, with love. And I just want to say, if this week you feel like I have wandered away, I believe he brought you here, and if you hear his tender whisper, follow him home because you're welcome there. He loves you, and Jesus proved that by laying down his life for you. He wants to put you on a shoulder if you're hurt, to lead you gently if you're lost, to make you lie down in green pastures if you're tired. The Lord is your shepherd. The only question is, will you let him be that to you today?

Say that whole verse with me again: the Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. Let's pray together. Would you bow your heads in prayer with me? With our heads bowed, I just want to give you an opportunity to respond to the voice of your loving shepherd and just say, "Lord, I have gone astray," or "I've even gone over into the care of a bad shepherd, but I want to be in your flock that you lead, and so I submit myself. I turn back to you. I want to turn my will, my life, my heart over to the care and direction and leadership of a good shepherd." Jesus, I'm only a sheep, so I don't understand everything that you're going to lead me into, but help me to just follow you and to be mindful of your goodness to me every day.

We confess we're like sheep; all of us have gone astray. We've sinned, and we need a shepherd to nurture and guide and protect, and so we come to you. We receive you as our shepherd now. In the name of our good shepherd, Jesus, we pray. Amen.