Psalm 23

Good morning everyone. Go ahead and find your seats. My name is Brian Balman and I'm going to start us off in a word of prayer. Father in heaven, we are grateful to be here. We need you, God. I need you. As we dive into your word, we ask that you would be doing a work in our church. We ask this in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. For those of you I don't know, my name is Brian Bowman. I am a husband. I am a father. And I have been at this church for about 10 years now. At a church that's been around for a century, 10 years is nothing. But this church is less than 25 years old. So now I am an old man, grizzled. And I spent most of my time here involved in life groups or men's ministry, things like that. But 6 months ago, I had an opportunity to join our church elderboard. So for 41 years, just doing ministry in the body the last 6 months doing leadership in a different capacity. I still remember sitting over here when we were doing some kind of a prayer and they said, "If anyone here is on our elder board, will you please come up here and lay hands on this person?" And it kind of catches you for a second. I'm like, "Wait, shouldn't those guys go up? Is that me?" because I'm new to the role. And so, one of the things I always think about is what does a person in the pew think about what's going on at the church. There are a couple ways to look at this. Number one, we still have a building that's the same. We have theology that's the same, but churches are changing behind the scenes structurally. So, the one anothers continue no matter what. We still pray. We're involved in evangelism. We want to volunteer. In fact, our team just came back from Ecuador. I don't think we made this announcement and we had 150 people in the mountains of Ecuador pray to receive Christ. So, good things are going on. Praise the Lord.

Behind the thing behind the scenes, things need to change and have been changing in a structural capacity. We are a different church behind the scenes than we were two years ago or 5 years ago. Some of you know we're working with a consulting agency. If you're brand new, you're like, "Why are you doing that?" Well, the goal is to not repeat past mistakes and to create a clear plan for the future. Let me give you an analogy just in case you're saying, "I don't think behind the-scenes structures matter that much." I want you to pretend, and I haven't done this, so just go with me here. I want you to pretend that you are prepping Thanksgiving dinner for your family, your immediate family. But one hour before your mom, mother-in-law, and several of your favorite aunts show up and say, "We're going to help you put Thanksgiving dinner on, and 25 extra people are showing up." That would create some level of confusion and need for organization. So, I'm up here in part because Travis was in Philadelphia this last week meeting with the center consultancy working on a plan for the future. So silence doesn't mean nothing's going on or there's friction. In fact, there are good things going on behind the scenes. So please be encouraged. Let's kick let's get into our uh sermon today. We will be in the 23rd Psalm. So please turn in your Bibles there. The Bible has so much variety. Last week we can be in Genesis 10 talking about the Tower of Babel and how man is collectively waring against God and coming together to say we are going to make a name for ourselves. And then next week we can be in the 23rd Psalm talking about how individually we need a shepherd to lead and guide us. I think the 23rd Psalm has to be right up there with the Lord's Prayer in passages of scripture that have been repeated millions of times. Even if you don't go to church, you've gone to a memorial service or a graveside service in which the 23rd Psalm has been read. This psalm talks about the Lord as our shepherd, asking us not to want because he will provide. It talks about going through times of great darkness and saying, "Don't fear because God is with you." And it ends by saying that God will be following us with his goodness and mercy all the days of our lives.

The term shepherd here in Psalm 23:1 is used specifically. There are tons of other names that God uses in the Psalms. For instance, rock, deliverer, shield, fortress, king, help in time of need. And all of these things are good. But a shepherd is a unique role. A shepherd is someone who walks beside sheep, keeps them under control, knows them, knows their needs, helps them when they fall, get stuck, and try to run off. Have you ever been at an elementary school and seen those preschoolers, their backpacks are bigger than they are, and they are holding those little ropes walking along? Those ropes are called safety walking ropes. They have handles or rings. And this is and a definition. This is a common classroom management tool used to keep young students safe, organized together, particularly during field trips, fire drills, or moving through crowded hallways. Sheep are directionless. They get lost easily, and they will literally follow their leader over a cliff. Hypothetically, I'm told people can be like this. Maybe you have seen that. The goal here isn't to say that sheep are dumb and you are dumb, but rather we need a shepherd. We need to be led by God. So, if kids can get lost in a 15 ft hallway, we can get lost in life. I was in the third grade before I ever heard an adult use a bad word. I lived in a sheltered home. I've heard a few more swear words since then. And here's what I do know dealing with people. Adults have problems. Because problems are normal in the human experience. We are like sheep in the cauldron of life who can get lost, distracted, stuck, and make bad decisions.

All right, be patient with me with the slides. The Lord being our shepherd is very good news. This is the critical foundation for the entire passage. If God isn't our shepherd, none of the rest of this chapter makes any sense. Everything else in this chapter hinges on God being our shepherd. King David wrote this. He was both a shepherd by trade and he saw God shepherd his life in a number of different seasons. He saw the need that he had for God and the need that his sheep had for him. Does your heart want to be led by God even in difficult times? This is a question to ask yourself honestly because we will excuse ways in which we push back against God.

The Bible gives us a number of verses that talk about people as sheep. Isaiah 53:6, "All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all." In the New Testament, Jesus talked about being the good shepherd, laying down his life for his sheep. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. This is the first line of the chapter with God as the great shepherd. The psalmist is saying, I have all the provision I need and I will lack nothing. I shall not want. I shall not lack. If God Almighty is gently leading and walking beside me, I can tell myself, "I do not need anything more than God provides." Now, that doesn't mean you shouldn't want a promotion at work. But that does mean if the door is shut to that promotion, you shouldn't say, "God, I'll only be happy if I get that promotion." In the hierarchy of sins, our want or our covetousness is typically not at the at the top of the list, but it did make its way into the Ten Commandments, which makes me think it's pretty important. You might think of murder, lying, adultery as things that should occupy your time and energy to avoid. But the reality is that in Exodus, we see coveting is a pretty big deal. The antidote to coveting is saying, "I will not be in need." The Bible takes this very seriously. Exodus 20 says, "You shall not covet." So far so good. We're thinking, okay, coveting is kind of this nebulous idea. But then the Bible gets more specific. You shall not covet your neighbor's house. Haven't we all wanted someone else's house? Maybe you live in the countryside and you'd like to live in the exciting city. Maybe you're a person who lives in a slum in a major city somewhere and you'd love to live in the country. Maybe you'd like a house that's bigger just because size looks important. Or maybe you're in a big house full of chaos and you would love privacy. But then the commandment gets even more personal. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife. Uh-oh. You should not say, "I bet that guy's wife didn't nag him about Valentine's Day. I bet that lady's husband is like a romantic comedy." Friends, it's not true. Here's what I've learned reading counseling books and just meeting people is that everyone has something going on. Don't we all? Now this is the G version but I think we all know that these things and our wants and desires can escalate to an unhealthy level. They involve status, possessions.

I I would say that a powerful picture of this happened in my own life. Okay, I'm going to share a quick story with you. I'm at work and a guy comes into my office and I can tell something's wrong. You ever seen that in someone's face? You're like, "Something's going on." This is years ago. And I said, 'Are you okay? And he tells me, "I'm really not. My wife's leaving me." Now, there's two sides to every story. But what he told me was, "I'm just a steady Eddie. Fix cars for a living. I go to church on Sunday. I watch a few TV shows at night, and then I repeat." So, he's just as steady as the day is long. He said, "My wife wants to go to Las Vegas with her friends and be somebody fancy and cool." Okay, so again, there's two sides to every story, but here's why I'm telling you the story. What that guy was, okay, hold this for a second. My coworker hears about his situation. Now, she's 30 years older than him. There's nothing going on there. But my coworker had a verbally and sometimes physically abusive husband. He was a mean guy. He wasn't a good guy. Auto mechanic guy whose wife is leaving him comes in and pays a bill. My coworker meets him and then she comes to me and goes, "Why would any woman ever leave a guy like that?" Don't we all have a situation where we think something else is exactly what we need? The reality is that God has given us a situation and we can trust him and work through that. We don't have to covet all these other things that we think will make us happy. In verse two, we read, "He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. If you are a young parent, I have a recommendation for you. Put on as many Bible YouTube videos, as many Christian radio stations, as many Bible things as you can. I have a memory in my head of Psalm 23 as a kid and seeing this gigantic green pasture and a cartoon shepherd with a cartoon sheep. I'm sure some of you think of that as well. Here is a modern rendition of what I'm talking about. Ah, yes. Jesus in Ireland after the spring hanging out with his sheep. In the past, our church has done trips to Israel. Uh we've had guys at our church who taught Bible in Israel. They say if you go to Israel, you start to see the New Testament or the whole Bible really in color. Here is what Israel looks like. David had no concept of what the United Kingdom looked like during a storm. He saw a lot of desert. So, I want us to get this idea out of our head that a green pasture and still waters is a lottery ticket of everything you've ever desired. Now, it is comfortable, but it's different than you think. Here's probably what they were referring to. Okay. Sometimes, um, we will say to God, "God, I don't see this green pasture. I don't see these still waters. Why don't you show it to me, God? And God is shaping our character and causing us to giving us an opportunity to follow him. Okay, quick Bible Bible example here. Where are we right now with Pastor Travis preaching? We're in Genesis 10. Table of Nations. We've already talked about um Abra, we've already talked about uh Adam and Eve, the fall, table of nations, and soon we'll be in the patriarch patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. Genesis then ends and we go to what? We go to the Exodus. The Exodus has Moses displaying God's power with 10 plagues, leading the children of Israel out of Egypt, leading them with a pillar of fire. And did the children of Israel say, "Lord, we hath seen your miracles, and we will never complain a day in our lives." No. They whine like your kids on a road trip. If you think seeing a miracle will make you not complain or trust God, every single thing in the Bible that we see goes against that, you must determine in your heart that you will say, "What I have from God is what I need and I will trust God."

It is so difficult to trust God. But we must realize that God has our best interests in mind.

God can restore us and lead us even when we don't see it. Our great shepherd, he is leading men and women and taking them to places they think they cannot go and accomplishing them in them a purpose that they never thought possible. It will be harder than you think and more rewarding than you think. It is God's plan to restore your heart, to lead you in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Can you trust God in this? Can you actually say, "I don't see these green pastures, God, but I know that you can do all things." This is where the comfort comes in. Because when we really sit and think about it, maybe you're at a graveside service of of some saint of God. You're saying, "God, you were faithful in their life. God can do the same thing for you.

I know that I am tempted to think exterior things will make me happy. But I want to give you a testimony of a person who I I follow in the culture. Uh tech entrepreneur and richest man in the world, Elon Musk. Uh put his whole life out there uh doing a biography with Walter Isacson. I read the biography. Musk is a really complex person, but he's really honest about things. And here's what he said on Twitter last week. This couldn't have been better for a sermon about not wanting. Musk says on Twitter, "Whoever said money can't buy happiness sure knew what they were talking about." Musk could spend 25 to $35 million a day for the next 35 years and not extinguish his wealth. His next compensation package with Twitter could make him the first trillionaire in the world. But we need to pray for him and others because God is in the midst of taking broken lives and restoring them. Now, we're going to take a quick break from the sermon, and I'm just going to talk about what I'm always going to talk about in a sermon. So, the Bible here talks about restoring the souls of men. But I want to talk about God's revival that restores the souls of the lost in our culture. Okay, just give just bear with me. I remember being in either junior high or high school and a French missionary came to our house and said, "The French people are much more private than Americans. The French would never show up to a Billy Graham crusade, but they could use this newish tool called the internet to watch videos and then contemplate what the person is saying about evangelism. My wife helped remind me how we all live in different algorithms on social media when she said this to me the other day, "Who is Joe Rogan?" And I thought, "Wow, I thought everybody knew who Joe Rogan was. He's the most famous podcaster in the world. But then I realized 18 to 35 year old men know who Joe Rogan is, but a lot of other people don't. So here's what I want to tell you. 18 to 35year-old men are not by and large church attendees. We're now in a post-Christian culture. But over 30% of them every day will watch or listen to a podcast. Now the leading podcasters in the world are having Christian men show up. Joe Rogan had tens of millions of views of Wes Huff, a Christian his um a Christian his historian and expert on biblical manuscripts break down the reliability of the Bible. Jake Paul's podcast, he's a Instagram, he's an internet personality and boxer, he had Cliff Connectley come on and share the gospel for two hours. Friends, they're using bad words. They're saying inappropriate things. Are they kid-friendly? Probably not. But if you're a 25-year-old guy, this is who you listen to. So pray that our great God would be using podcast to restore young men in our culture. They are guys who will never come to our church on their own, but they are hearing a gospel proclamation led by a wise person on a podcast and they are hearing this news for the first time. Okay, sidebar over. Let's keep going.

Point number two, the shepherd protects. Going to go to verse four. 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. I am the king of looking at other people and thinking, "They probably got it together. They probably don't have anything going wrong." Then you get to know them and you realize we all have something going on, right?

All of us will face trials and sometimes those trials are excruciating. Sometimes they're small, sometimes they're little. But we all need to be reminded that in our worst days, we should not fear. Three weeks ago, Travis reached out. That's our senior pastor. He reached out to me and said, "Brian, can you preach? I'll be in Philadelphia." I said, "Sure." I was on my way to a conference for work. As I'm lying in bed at the conference, I had gotten an email about work and it kind of irritated me and I was thinking through ways to respond and I was mad. And then I thought, are you a giant idiot? You were preaching on Psalm 23, green pastures, still waters, won't fear. And now you're mad at some silly little work thing. Sometimes those things are small, but sometimes we have life situations that are really big. I will say I friends, is there any more powerful imagery in the Bible than the valley of the shadow of death? Can anything be more grim or scary? In fact, it's so powerful that even in our secular culture, people will steal this. Perhaps some of you remember in the mid '9s when the number one song for a time said, "As I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I take a look at my life and I realize there's nothing left. I see heads bobbing." If you're like, "Of course, Brian, that was Kulio's Gangster's Paradise." I have bad news for you head nodders, you are dangerously close to hearing from the AARP.

But here's the reality. The valley of the shadow of death is like a rattlesnake. You might I've heard it said, you might confuse something else for a rattlesnake, but you're never going to confuse a rattlesnake for anything else.

The value of the shadow of death can also be translated as dark as death or deep darkness. I don't know what God has done or is doing in your life, but I do know this that God sees you and our great shepherd walks beside you in good times and in bad. And he wants a meaningful relationship with you.

So, I'm going to tell you about how we got here to this psalm. Okay, this is a personal story and I need your patience because I I I don't want to get the people confused. Now, number one, please know this. Nobody at this church who ever preaches a message is going to preach about someone here. Okay? It's totally inappropriate to ever talk about or fight enemies or anything else from a pulpit to a congregation. Churches do that on occasion. We're not going to do that. Okay, that's not going to be us. About a year ago, I reached out to a group of friends to do an event, but one of my friends didn't get back to me. These are people that live way out of state, and I thought, "Something's wrong. Why isn't this guy getting back to me?" Sent him a few more texts, voice memos. Over the course of the next year, didn't hear anything. So, I'm already got my alarm bells are kind of going off. And then I was told, "Hey, he's got some serious stuff going on." So I've got my friend I'm concerned about. And then a mutual friend of mine is a detective. Okay. So I'm just friend I'm concerned about detective. So I'm concerned about my friend and we we learned that something was going on, but the the what was happening was really vague. It's the worst feeling. Just the worst. My detective buddy calls me and goes, "Hey, I got an update for you." And it's not good. So, I remember taking a walk, taking this phone call, and my detective buddy says, "Our mutual friend has had basically started a second family somehow in another state." What a disaster. Right now, I know I know this guy. I know his wife. I know his kids. I'm going, "What happened? How does this happen?" And I remember being so sad and so distraught. And I said to my detective friend who's really insightful. I said, "Why can I not handle this? I just can't handle it." He said to me, "Brian, I think you're really good at taking action, but you're not good at being sad." And sometimes life brings us to a place where we are sad.

So, I came home and said, "I've got to get my Bible out and I have to read Psalm 23." I hope that this psalm can be an encouragement to you like it was to me. The thing about the Psalms in general, there's 150 of them, is that they cover all the human emotions. Now, people need to get counseling. I've been to counseling a million times. People need to talk to good friends, but we can also spend time in God's word having our emotions checked and journaling or thinking through emotions. Here are some quick examples. I am lonely and afflicted. Psalm 25. My life is spent with sorrow. Psalm 31. I am sorry for my sin. Psalm 38. Why are you cast down, oh my soul? And why are you in turmoil within me? Psalm 42. Shame has covered my face. Psalm 44. Grief. My eyes waste away because of grief. I want you to know that the shepherd sees your worst days and most difficult emotions and won't love you any less.

I think I've neglected the Psalms as an adult and I want to get back into them because I want to flesh out emotions and and wrestle with God and think through things that are difficult. Because even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I want to fear no evil because God is with me.

Now, I'm going to give two quick analogies, uh, two quick stories. One about money, one about physical safety. because the Bible says, "Even though I'm in this valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil because you are with me." And it's easy to lean on things of this world. So here's here they go. Number one, in 2024, the United Methodist Church had a schism. That's a nice way to say they got in a theological war. American and European United Methodists were not following the Bible, and they got in a fight with the African pastors who were growing dramatically and wanted to hold on to biblical fidelity. So the Europeans and Americans controlled all the money and they started to lean on the African pastors and basically threatened to take away pensions. So this one African dude was such a stud. He said, "If you think you can threaten us with money, you don't know the God we serve." Dude, there's a phrase in sports, the guy has ice in his veins. This dude has ice in his veins because he's leaning on God and not on money. Let me tell you another story. This one is a little different, but it it goes to physical safety and what we trust for that. Uh in 1993, the US was teamed up with the United Nations and they did what was supposed to be a routine mission in the East African capital of Moadishu. While they were there, a helicopter was shot out of the sky. It crash landed. Have you all ever been in a car wreck? You know how that hurts? Imagine a helicopter falling from a couple hundred feet. There was a multi-day firefight. A lot of people died. It was really embarrassing and tragic. The helicopter pilot was named Mike Durant. He broke his back, his femur, his face, basically everything. For 11 days, he was held captive by his enemies in that city. This story became a book and later a movie both with the title Blackhawk Down. Neither is kid-friendly. This is not kid these these are not devotional kid things. This is a story to help you think through security and safety and where you trust. So in a city that has millions of people somewhere down there is this captured pilot. You know what his friends did? They flew a helicopter in the middle of the night over the city. It's pitch black and they yelled, "Mike Durant, do not be afraid. We are coming to get you. Mike Durant, you are not alone." And then they blasted his favorite song from AC/DC so that he would hear it and know that they were up there. It would be tempting to think if I'm stuck in a bad place, man, having the full weight of the US military is a safe place to be. But that's not what the Bible says. The people who captured Mike Durant thought maybe we'll use him as a bargaining chip. US negotiators showed up and said, "We have hundreds of tanks showing up and we are prepping to bulldo this entire city to get him back." Friends, when the Bible says, "I will fear no evil, for you are with me," it is greater than a hundred tanks being deployed with the sole purpose to get you back. Amen. The greatest comfort in this world is knowing that God is with you. Here are two verses from the Psalms to help put this in perspective. You have put more joy in my heart than they have when grain and wine abound. Meaning, God, you bring me more joy than when secular people win the lottery. Or how about this? Some trust in chariots and some trust in the US military coming to save a captive. But we trust in the name of the Lord our God. At this at the time that Psalm 20:7 was written, there was nothing greater than a horse and a chariot. I mean, these guys had sticks in the desert. A chariot was terrifying. And 50 years from now, the US government or whoever else could have an army of Arnold Schwarzenegger looking terminators mowing people down on a battlefield and God will say, "Don't trust them. Put your trust in me and do not fear, for I am with you." He goes on to say at the end of verse four, "Your rod and your staff, they comfort me." This doesn't mean that trusting God is all always easy. In fact, a rod was used to beat off animals. This is like David fighting off a lion. And a staff was used to correct the shape. Sheep's going to fall off a cliff. Pull him back from the cliff.

So, one of the question that comes up is how old was David when he wrote this? Did he have supernatural insights like Jonathan Edwards? Or did he write this as an old man reflecting on his life? I tend to think he was older only because I've seen in my own life what the last decade has shown me. But maybe he was younger. David committed a ton of sin. He was killing people. He was committing adultery. He was then killing more people to cover up his adultery. David had a lot of problems, friends. But the reason why the Bible calls David a man after God's own heart is not because of all these he was somehow his good outweighed his bad, but because he confessed his sin. This is why Psalm 51 says, uh, "Purify my heart, cleanse me from within." David said, "I need to have my sin forgiven by God." I know when it comes to being with this verse, your rod and your staff, they comfort me. In my own life, I've realized, man, I make a lot of I do a lot of dumb stuff. I told a young guy at this church a while ago, I said, "You remind me a lot of myself 15 years ago, and that means you're going to have to get used to saying sorry to a lot of people." Now, when people give me correction, I think two things. Number one, they're probably right. And two, I'm so thankful they had the courage to say something. How can we ever improve without people giving us honest feedback? It's so valuable.

Verse five and six says, "You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil. Surely uh my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy will follow me. all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

I used to think that this meant a table was prepared and my enemies were there and I was like dodging arrows or bullets but somehow was safe. But as I studied this passage, I found out that's not what it means at all. In fact, it means that God has conquered your enemies. They are metaphorically tied up watching God lay out a table of communion with you. We are not a hospitable culture. We go out to eat with people. We don't have people to our homes very often. But throughout history, hospitality was a big deal. Have you ever walked into a restaurant and saw people who were clearly very good friends? The goal of hospitality at this time was to bring a stranger into your home and cross that threshold from stranger to friend. So the first four verses of this chapter are shepherd to sheep, but the last two verses are friends sitting together.

There's a total comfort level here. I I wish the analogy of of a table is good. I mean, but think about this. The Super Bowl just happened. At the end of the Super Bowl, people turn off their TVs, but they take the Super Bowl winner, bring them onto a stage, they hoist the trophy, and talk about how great it was and how they sacrificed and everything was the season was all worth it. The losing team goes into the locker room and says, "Wow, we just lost." Imagine if they had the losing team be put in handcuffs and sit front row watching the winning team win. That's what God is saying here. In the presence of my enemies, I will have a table set before me with food. I will be refreshed with oil on my head and my cup will overflow. Living in a desert, water wasn't easy to come by. You just press a button at your house and water comes out of the the faucet. But in a lot of cultures, water was something that you really preserve. My cup overflowing means I have endless amounts of water. So, I love this idea of sitting at a table with God, of God saying,"I am a shepherd who's going to walk beside you and lead you faithfully and restore your soul. Even though you will go through difficult things like the valley of the shadow of death, you don't have to fear. I will correct you and guide you and lead you." And then God's saying, "We are friends." Matthew 8:1 says, "I tell you, many will come from east and to west to recline at table with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob." So God is saying, "The people who you think are heroes of the faith, that's the table that we sit at together. We sit there with God having close communion like Jesus did with his disciples in the upper room."

Okay.

Verse six says, ' Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life. This goodness here indicates a steady kindness from God. And mercy means steadfast love. God says, "This will follow you all the days of your life." So this won't be like following like, "Well, shucks, I'm behind him in the car. I hope I don't lose him through the red light." follow here is a much more consistent right on top of the person right beside them type of environment where God has his arm around you saying I'm going to walk with you the entire way showing you kindness and goodness. It is a pursuit that will not leave you. So the last our last point here is we have a hope of heaven. I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Even though in the Old Testament their idea of eternity wasn't as fleshed out as it was in the New to walk with God today and tomorrow they they were saying here God is never going to leave you. You'll walk beside him all the days of your life. So here's what we've seen. The Lord is our shepherd. He's commanded us not to want and not to fear. He will provide. He'll even provide in the darkest of our days. And he will take care of us providing richly and walk with us all the days of our life. What I'm going to do is throw out a few practical suggestions as we close. Okay? They're not tied to this as closely as they could be, but this is just something that's been on my heart as I think about how we can stay close to God and to his word. I believe that you should buy this ancient relic of the past. It is called a paper Bible. Many of you are using phones. Phones are fine. Phones do a lot of good things. But having a Bible is important. I'm not going to ever judge you if I see you using a phone, but I know for me, having a Bible and having an intentional time and place to read each morning is valuable. Sometimes I don't get to read very much. I read a little bit and I journal. That's what I do. Uh, phones can be used for devotionals, to listen to the Bible. They have their place. But increasingly the studies show that having an electronic tablet or phone we retain less and we're less connected to it. This is not a Bible thing. This is a just in all facets. Even schools are saying tablets aren't working for the kids. Okay. So find a place to be intentional. F get a Bible that can be yours that you can underline. One of the things I like about having a paper Bible is that I write notes in the back and I see God's faithfulness over the years. I also see heartbreak, but I'm able to write notes dur next to Proverbs saying, "Am I doing better in this area? Am I improving? Does God working in my heart?" I would also consider that you do that you think about memorizing Psalm 23. It's printed off here in like size 25 font or something. It's one page of giant font. It's six verses. of all the verses, this is a good verse, especially if you're going through a difficult time. And lastly is think about being intentional to read the Psalms. That's one of my goals this year is I'm going to read the Psalms and I'm going to journal through them. Okay? I get out a notebook and I write notes because it helps me to think through what I'm what I'm going through. Our friend Steve Walker, who serves on our leadership team here at church, is doing a book uh Reflections on the Psalms. So, that'll come out. I look forward to using that tool as well. So friends, I hope that we can see the Lord as our shepherd and he can help us not to want and we will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. So let's let's pray and close. Father in heaven, we are thankful for your provision. We ask Lord that you would take away our desire to want things that you have not provided. We ask that you would guide us and lead us. I pray that you would be comforting and walking beside those who are here who are in the valley of the shadow of death. God, be near them in a unique and supernatural way today. We ask this in Jesus name. Amen.