It is vital that we trust in God to lead us in life.

Ross Sawyers: 00:01 We all have a number of apps on our phones, and one of my favorite apps is the Waze app. And what I enjoy about this particular app, is the ability it has to get me from one place to another in the most efficient route possible. And when I put in my address, for example as to where I want to go, and I put that there, then it'll tell me how long it will take me to get there, tell me how many miles it is, and it'll give me the exact time that I'm to arrive, and then it makes adjustments along the way. When this app begins it says, as there little sub-line, outsmarting traffic together. And I think it does a fantastic job of outsmarting the traffic, and she's talking the whole time and giving verbal directions, at the same time there's visual directions, and there's both, so it's really helpful. Now I've found when I'm out of the metroplex, or even in the metroplex, that the app will take me some strange places. And I can't see what this app is able to see, and almost without fail, I will end up exactly where I need to be, and it seems like it's the most efficient time possible in the way that I get there. Rarely, I have been misled by this particular app. There are times have been misled, but rarely have I been misled. There we go, 400 feet, I turn on Ira Woods Avenue.

Ross Sawyers: 01:45 With this app, I think it's a good picture for us of where we are in the 23rd Psalm. And there actually is someone that is never wrong in the path or the route which they lead us. The question would be, do we actually follow where it is that this person is leading us? Will we follow the one who's described as the good shepherd? Will we follow the lead of our God? Is that who we will follow? He never misses on the right path that he has in store for us.

Ross Sawyers: 02:24 Now, when we think about the first four verses of the 23rd Psalm, it has the theme of shepherd and sheep. And we spent some time already in verses 1 and 2, and we're spending a week at a time on each verse of the 23rd Psalm. Now last week, in church humor, somebody came and they put this in my yard, and have a picture of it here. It says, dear Pastor Ross, you've been flocked. And they made several sheep out of plates, and had those multiple places they're around the yard, and then they were thanking me for loving, feeding, and caring for all of the sheep. I'd been working in the yard in the back, and I was a little bit messy, but I appreciate the Psalm 23 kind of shepherd and sheep humor as we think about this Psalm.

Ross Sawyers: 03:17 Now, when we think about the one who's the true shepherd, the one who's the perfect shepherd, the one who is God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. He is the one who leads us, and he's my shepherd in verse 1, he's very personal in who he is. And when we follow the good shepherd, we are marked by him, it's personal to be one of his, and we are tracking in his steps and following his lead. We hear his voice through the scriptures, primarily through his Spirit, who works in and through us, and leads us, and we're following him. And we will not want, the scripture says, meaning we'll be content as we follow the one who is our shepherd.

Ross Sawyers: 04:03 In verse 2, "He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside quiet waters." We're deeply satisfied when we follow the one who is our shepherd, and we're well rested in him. The good shepherd leads us in paths that are good and right, they're satisfying, and they're restful. We've been thinking in just a big idea of the 23rd Psalm, about confidence for the future. We've certainly been in times that are unknown, and the future is unknown. The future is always unknown to us, and yet this has added another layer, or layers, of complexity to that which is unknown. And yet, we know that in God himself, there is confidence for the future. That's where our confidence lies, it lies in God himself, and we can trust God for the right path to follow.

Ross Sawyers: 05:07 Now, what happens when we do not trust God? What happens when we choose our own path? What happens when we think we know a better route? Multiple times I've gotten frustrated with the Waze app, as I'm thinking, no, that can't be right and I'll go my own path. And I'll end up back on the path of the Waze app, because the app actually knew what it was talking about, and it was avoiding traffic and so forth for me. What about when we drift or wander and get off path, I've been accused way more than once of drifting while I'm driving, in my thoughts, and just kind of wandering, and I miss an exit or whatever. It probably is concerning, it should be, I'm working on that. But what happens when we wander off the path that God has for us?

Ross Sawyers: 06:00 Well, there is a way for us to be led to the right path. And that's how I'd like us to think about this third verse of the 23rd Psalm, led to the right path. In chapter 23, verse 3, now just the very first part. It says, "He restores my soul." So this is the idea of what happens when we've chosen to go our own path, our own way, we've wandered, we've drifted, we're prone to wander as human beings, just as sheep are prone to wander. Now, the idea here is that God himself refreshes, restores, and renews the very core of who we are.

Ross Sawyers: 06:45 Phillip Keller, who wrote the book A Shepherds Look the 23rd Psalm. I mentioned it a week ago, and I'll lean into it probably next week as well, and definitely today. It's the best that I've found for having insight into the shepherd and the sheep, and what's being referred to in this 23rd Psalm. Well, in Keller's book, he says that the reference here is to cast sheep, that sheep that are basically wanders away from their flock. They stray from the flock, and oftentimes they might find a hollow place to rest. And let's just take our little friend here, and say that he's moved away from the flock, and he finds somewhere that is a more hollowed out place, a comfortable place to rest. And I can't get this one to actually rest, but just imagine away from the flock, and he found a place to kind of lay down. And as he lays down there, away from everybody else, he's gotten away from the shepherd and from the sheep. Well, he might stretch, and he might just kind of start to roll over a little bit and relax. And what happens is when a sheep does that, sometimes their wool is too heavy, and sometimes they're heavy themselves, just a little overweight, and the sheep will actually roll over and end up on its back, upside down. And while this is not a live sheep, the sheep is frantic when it's upside down, but it has no way to right himself, he's completely dependent on the shepherd to do so. Rather than letting me just show you this cast sheep, let me show you a live video of a cast sheep. I think this is a phenomenal descriptor of what happens.

Video Clip: 08:44 Hello, I'm Andy Nicholas. I'm a sheep dog trainer in England. I'd like to tell you how you might be able to do a sheep a big favor, and save its life. If you're a person who likes to go out walking in the countryside, it's a good idea to keep your eyes open for any sheep that might've got on their backs. Unlike many other animals, sheep don't roll onto their backs for a good scratch or even for fun, and they certainly don't sleep on their backs. This sheep is in a desperate position, if it can't get back onto its feet very soon, it'll die. Sheep are particularly prone to getting cast, as it's called, in the run up to lambing time. That's during the spring, with the extra weight of their lambs inside them, the pregnant mums are very top heavy. And if they roll over, that extra weight makes it extremely difficult for them to get back up again. If you see a sheep in this position, it's very easy to save its life, imply walk quietly and steadily up to it, and roll it over. Once it's the right way up again, the sheep will probably run back to the flock. But as you can see, this sheep's still quite what wobbly, she was probably on her back for some time, and is finding it hard to balance again. If this is the case, it's worth pausing to make sure it doesn't fall over again. When I helped her up, this ewe panicked so much she nearly toppled over again in a haste to get away from me. This is because she was already in shock, she knew she was in terrible danger of dying on her back. Sometimes if you see a sheep in this position, as you approach it, the sheep might make a supreme effort and struggle back onto its feet by itself. If it does, rest assured you've still saved its life by giving it that extra incentive to get up.

Ross Sawyers: 10:43 How cool that we get to see a picture, both live of what happens, and then this idea here. And what happens, and what he described, is when that sheep is turned back around then the blood, which had had trouble circulating because it was upside down, and now I kind of stumbles and staggers. You saw that picture in the video, and then it just kind of makes its way back. Sometimes the shepherd will actually massage the legs of the sheet before he takes off, and helps it to be able to just regain its strength before it heads back. But now it's safe with the shepherd again, and safe with the flock, with the community that, that sheep is a part of.

Ross Sawyers: 11:36 Now, there's two different kinds of people that search for sheep when they're cast. One is the shepherd, and we see pictures of that in the scripture, and Jesus talks about it. And he says, that the shepherd is the one who, when a sheep is missing, if there are a hundred sheep and one is missing, then he'll leave the 99 and he'll go search for that one. And he knows, especially in hot weather, that if that sheep is cast somewhere, that the sheep will not survive the day. If it's colder weather, it might survive a few days. And the shepherd is on the lookout for the sheep. And so our predators, those who want to take advantage and kill the sheep, he's easy prey when he's a cast sheep in a vulnerable position. Now the shepherd doesn't come to the cast sheep and get on to it, and be angry with it. Rather, the shepherd is tender towards the sheep, and is helpful in righting the sheep, and helping. And sometimes not only will the sheep run off, sometimes the shepherd will carry it, and you may be seeing pictures of a shepherd carrying a lamb around his neck, and he might do that to give the sheep time to recover back in the safety of the shepherd. Well, that gives us the idea of the shepherd in the sheep.

Ross Sawyers: 13:09 And there are also ways that you and I end up wandering, and straying, and really, we end up looking like this sheep, upside down and frantic. And there's a number of things that happen when we wander away. It could be because of sin in our lives that we wander, and it puts us in some kind of an upheaval. And whenever we're walking in sin, or living in sin, those things that are opposed to God, the one who is the good shepherd, we're vulnerable. And when we're vulnerable, we're easy prey for the enemy. We're easy prey for Satan to take advantage of us when we're in a sinful lifestyles, when we're doing things opposed to God. We are in an environment that Satan thrives when we are in sin.

Ross Sawyers: 14:10 Children and teenagers today, I would say are some of the most vulnerable in our culture. And the reason I say that is for multiple reasons, but one of which, is the deluge of social media. And as I mentioned a few weeks ago, and I listened to someone talk about, we're all being discipled by something, and so many of our children and teenagers are being discipled by social media. And the bulk of what they're seeing on social media is not coming from a biblical or Christian worldview, and Satan is taking advantage in leading so many of our children and teenagers away from himself, and away from that which is actually good for them.

Ross Sawyers: 15:09 Interestingly, on another note, the way that we can stray, or become cast, is by chasing after good things. CS Lewis said, "That good things are often what keeps us from ultimate things." And oftentimes that's what Satan does, the enemy does, he takes advantage of things that are actually good things, and he takes that in such a way that for us, we make them ultimate things. For example, sports, it's good, those are good things. And yet, sports can become ultimate in our lives. And that's just one example of many, of something good. It also could be that we get way too comfortable, things are convenient, there's ease. And we had a lot of that comfort and convenience removed recently haven't we? It's coming back, but we know what it's like to have some of that removed, and we can get way too comfortable. And comfort's not a bad thing, but if it's become an ultimate thing, then it keeps us from being about that which God would have us to be about. We can actually be cast down because we've gotten too heavy with all the things of the world, even good things in this world.

Ross Sawyers: 16:30 Well, there's another way I think that we can end up cast, and we've seen a real uptick in it in these last two, two and a half months, and that would be through anxiety and loneliness. There's a large number of people right now that are upside down with anxiety and loneliness, and frantic for someone to help right them, and help them to move forward. Alasdair Groves wrote, or actually did a little video online called, Is It Okay For Christians To Feel Anxiety? And it's interesting, he talks about that the deeper kinds of things that are troubling, like if there's imminent danger to ourselves or to other people, that anxiety or concern that that's a natural reaction, it's okay. He said, the problem comes when we turn to the wrong refuge, when there's anxiety in our lives, the question is what do we do with it? Where do we take it? And the way he talked, he said, often times we distract ourselves, we take it to other places. We might eat more, we might binge on Netflix, or there's all kinds of things that we might choose to do to distract ourselves, rather than taking our anxiety to the Lord. We stay cast, because we go to the wrong place, we take our anxieties to substitutes for God. He said this, anxiety actually is a highway to the throne of God. When we think about paths and being led the right way, I love that idea, because God himself is the one can right us, and he's the one that can calm us. He's the one that will take our anxiety, and help us to settle in and to work through it. This coming Wednesday a counselor, who attends our church, will be leading a time to help with anxiety. And at the end of the service, I'll give you the detail of how you can be a part of that. Now, we just think this is such a critical issue in our day, and we want to continue to do what we can to be the best help if that happens to be a challenge or struggle for you.

Ross Sawyers: 19:10 Now, the second thing I said was loneliness, and I think that can also cause us to become cast, and loneliness has been on the uptick as well, right, because there's the shelter in place. So many people you live alone, you might even be in a family and your lonely, that happens as well. But on both of these counts, on the anxiety and on the loneliness, these can lead to despair in a hurry, and we want to make sure we counter those. What the loneliness does, it reveals to us that we're made to be in community with each other, we're made to be in relationship with one another. And I just want to assure you that God is the one who is searching for you in your loneliness, and he wants to set you right. And in relationship with him, we are set right when we walk intimately with him. And we can find a contentment, and we can find companionship, in relationship with him. He's designed the church to be community, so that we find relationship with each other, and community with one another in the church body. And so there are a number of ways that when we're vulnerable in loneliness, that we can find a solutions to that. And God is the one, he's the good shepherd, he comes and tenderly meets us where we're lonely and carries us through. And I just want to encourage you to lean in to the Lord, and lean into your community, with whatever challenges there are with anxiety and loneliness, and we can begin to walk in ways that can be a help.

Ross Sawyers: 20:58 There was a third thing I would say here that didn't mention at the outset of this. What about betrayal? Remember Peter, in some of the most crucial moments of Jesus' life, and Peter actually denies Jesus three times in a really brief moment. And yet through the cross, after the resurrection, recorded at the very end of John chapter 21, we find Jesus with Peter, and he's restoring him. And really that's what I've been describing, is there's so many ways that we become cast, and yet God is about renewing and restoring and refreshing the very core of who we are. That's who God is, and that's what he does, that's what the good shepherd does. Jesus asked Peter three times, he said, do you love me? And each time Peter said, you know, I do. And then Jesus said, well shepherd my sheep. In the last time, he says, tend my sheep. What a beautiful restoring for Peter, three times he denied Jesus. Three times Jesus says, to make sure that there's an affirmation of love. And then he says, this is what I want you to do, tend my sheep. He gives him incredible responsibility, he refreshes and restores his soul. If you're in need today of being restored, God is the one who can bring about that restoration.

Ross Sawyers: 22:59 The second part of this verse, "He guides me in the paths of righteousness." Once were restored, and in walking with him, the Lord is our shepherd, it's personal, right? It's a personal relationship, and we're walking with him, and satisfied and rested in him. And then we get off track, and we're cast, and downcast, and dejected, and things don't seem to go right, and he gets us right again. And now he leads us, he leads us in the paths of righteousness. Again, Phillip Keller, in his book, talks about how the shepherd guides the sheep on the right path to the right destination. Sheep are creatures of habit, and left to their own, they will continue in the same path again and again and again. And that path will take them to whatever pastures they're in, and they will graze in that pasture until there's nothing there. And they'll gnaw down until it gets to the roots, and then it destroys the roots, so it destroys the land. And then it's no longer healthy for them, for what they're eating. And apart from the sheep being guided and led to somewhere else, they'll keep going in that same rut, that same path again and again. And they'll feast and eat on that, which is not good for them.

Ross Sawyers: 24:21 Sounds like human beings, doesn't it? We get in ruts and paths that maybe start out okay, but end up in destructive patterns. So what does the shepherd do? The shepherd is constantly leading and guiding the sheep, just moving them along into new pastures. Guiding and leading, taking them to places that they didn't necessarily desire to go, but every time when they're on that newer ground, they're grateful, and they're appreciative of where they are. This idea of path gives us the same idea as like a cart track, or a wagon rut, as someone described. Where the earth is soft initially, and the wagon is going over that particular earth and dirt. And then over time, because it gets wet and hard and dry, then those tracks hardened and dry, and just stay in that path. What we want to make sure, is that we're not in these broken and exhausted kind of paths. Rather, we want to be in those paths that are the right paths, the right paths that God has, the most refreshing paths of life, and those are the ones that are paths of wisdom and of life.

Ross Sawyers: 25:49 If I could, what I'd like to do is take you through a scriptural path of how God leads us in the right path. And before we can actually live a right life, and a place where we have the most freedom and joy, we have to be made righteous. Let me explain. In Psalm 119:105 it says that, "Your word is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my path." And that's why I want to take us on a scriptural path. He guides me in the paths of righteousness, he guides me in those paths, and he can guide us through his word. In Psalm 19 verse 7, it says, The law of the LORD is perfect, restoring the soul; The testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple." Our soul restored in the Lord. In Proverbs chapter 4 verse 26, the writer of Proverbs says, "Watch the path of your feet And all your ways will be established." Watch the path of your feet. Throughout Proverbs we're seeing a descriptor of a life journey, and there's a major contrast that goes through this book of the Bible, it's a path of wisdom or a path of foolishness. And he says, watch the path of your feet, watch where you're going, and then all your ways will be established, if you go in the way of wisdom.

Ross Sawyers: 27:21 One of my favorite verses, not quoted often, is Psalm 16:11. And the Psalmist is speaking to God, and he says, "You will make known to me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; In Your right hand there are pleasures forever." The joy and the pleasure that all of us are seeking is found in God himself, in his presence, in the presence of the shepherd. The sheep are satisfied, rested, they're in the greatest position of delight when they're with their shepherd. And God says, this is where pleasure is found, and this is the path of life. The question is, who will we allow to lead us? In a culture where words and ways, continue to defy God, or God's ways, which lead to flourishing and freedom. There pure defiance today, and it's increasing as each day passes of what God's design is, in almost every aspect of life. Now, will we allow a 21st century culture to lead us into paths that aren't right paths, or will we allow the good shepherd, God himself, to lead us into right paths?

Ross Sawyers: 29:05 Jesus, when he came onto the scene, in Matthew 7 verses 13 and 14, he said, “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. “For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it." Jesus says from the outset, remember Jesus declared himself to be the good shepherd, and he declared himself to be the door that leads to life. And he says that door is narrow, it's a narrow gate, it's a narrow path that actually leads to life. But it's a broad path, there are multiple ways that lead to destruction. The invitation is for every person to come into that narrow door, through Jesus, to that path that gives life. In John 14:6, Jesus further clarified. He said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me." Jesus says the way to God is through himself, it's through Jesus. The way is actually a person, the path is Jesus, and the truth is a person, it's Jesus, and life, is Jesus. It really is all about Jesus, in John 10:10, abundant life, it all is found in Jesus.

Ross Sawyers: 30:30 Now, how do we receive that kind of life? What happened so that we could receive it? In Second Corinthians 5 verse 21, "God made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. He knew no sin, but on the cross he became sin on our behalf." He took on our sin, he became sin on our behalf, all our shame and guilt, he took all of that on himself. So that, we know from other places in scripture, so that those who believe what Jesus did on that cross, we might become the righteousness of God in him, in Jesus. We're not righteous, Jesus is, and he invites us in to that righteousness. It's what he declares us to be, that's who we are today. That should be such an encouragement that today, the way God sees you, is through Jesus and sees you as righteous if you've received what it is that he's done on your behalf.

Ross Sawyers: 31:37 Interestingly, in First Corinthians 1:30, we see how everything is summed up in Jesus, "But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption." So that path of wisdom with us started in Proverbs, Jesus himself is the wisdom, he's also the righteousness that we yearn and desire to have. In Second Corinthians 5 we see the motivation for the way we live now, and it's the love of Christ. For the love of Christ controls us, that we not live for ourselves, but for him who died and rose again on our behalf. We've now entered into that righteous path, and we're motivated by the love of Christ to live a right life, to live on that right path. In Ephesians 2:10, Paul says that "We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them". Now the shepherd, when the shepherd gets his sheep on the move, he is prepared in advance where he's taking them and the path by which he'll carry them. God has prepared in advance the good works that you and I are to walk in. We follow his voice, follow his lead, we follow the way he's prepared, and he has his good works ready for us to walk in.

Ross Sawyers: 33:08 And one of those that was a surprise to us as a church this last week, or week and a half ago, a man in our church, he works for a business that distributes food to restaurants, was given the opportunity to give just multiple boxes of food away to charities. And he was able to choose where it goes, and he called us and he said, hey, would 121 be interested in these boxes of fruits and vegetables? And we said, yeah. So this past week 400 boxes were delivered to the community around us, and then to other churches that there's a need for this, just a beautiful way to serve, and to walk in a good works God's prepared. We didn't plan that, that was something that God gave us, in all the ways he worked through it. This week, we'll be distributing 1200 boxes of food to the community and beyond. And I just invite you, if you have any interest in being a part of distributing, or that's a need that you have, or, you know, someone that has that need, would you just go to our mission site on the website, and you can sign up to volunteer to help deliver. We want to do this in person, our team has done a phenomenal job of going face to face, and just really loving people and meeting needs and asking how they can pray for them. And if you'd like to be a part of that, we need several people over the next few weeks. What if I have the opportunity for the next 12 weeks to deliver 1200 boxes of food a week? It's an unbelievable opportunity to serve, and God has prepared the people to lead at 121, and now we're looking for people to be a part of it. Isn't that cool?

Ross Sawyers: 34:56 God is just like that, and he does that for each of us individually, he's created us for good works. And we walk in the path that he asked for us in, and we do this by fixing our eyes on Jesus. How do we maintain it? In Hebrews 12 we're running this race it says, and here he says, let's run with the duress, the race that's set before us. That could be said, the race it's marked for us. And God has a race that's marked for each of us, a race to run, and we're running that race that he has for each of us, and that he has for us as a church body, the other church bodies in the area, and then across the U S, and the nations. And God has this race for us to run, and we do it in verse 2, by keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus. Now we're led by the Holy Spirit of God, and by the word of God, that's the way he leads us. We're in his word, we're being led by the Holy Spirit who's in our lives. Now, Mark Batterson said this in his book, In A Pit With A Lion On A Snowy Day, great title for a book. He said, "God is in the business of strategically positioning us in the right place at the right time. But here's the catch, the right place often seems like the wrong place, and the right time often seems like the wrong time." So when we think about that thought right there, that is how a lot of us feel. We think, okay, this is not the right time, or this is not the right place, it doesn't seem right the path that God has a on. So what are we to do about that?

Ross Sawyers: 36:25 The Coronavirus has brought tremendous disruption to our lives. I heard someone say this week that God specializes in disruption, perhaps he's moving some of us to new paths, something that will be greener and far better. Remember the shepherd moves the sheep, keeps them on the move. And God uses moments like this to scatter and to move us to different places where he wants to work through us. He is about leading others towards himself, this is God's heart, and this is his mission, and ours. And God uses moments like this to move us around. He may be moving people vocationally. He's moved us as a church in multiple things that we're doing now, and we're just trying to follow his lead, and what's this path that he has for us. So that we can best be about his mission of leading people to himself. There'll be worshipers of God, establishing worship, where there is none. Seeing people come to Christ, that didn't know Christ. Seeing people grow deep in their relationship with Jesus, that were not growing before. It could be like he's done with us in our neighborhood, we've met several people the last few weeks by walking in our neighborhood, something we weren't doing before. He's given us a whole new group of people to build a relationship with, and to pray for. I know for many of you, it's the same. For others, maybe it's a renewed heart for the nations. And still others, for people groups that are in our area. There's so many different people groups that are in the area where we are, it's a heart for people that are different than ourselves. And yet all of us, made in the image of God, are valued and loved by him. God is the good shepherd who goes after the lost sheep. Still others, you've had job changes, and some are facing even more with their jobs. Maybe God has you on the move to something totally different, or something in the same thing you were doing, but with different people, and he has reasons for that. You're going to follow that path, it didn't seem like now's the right time for that, but it seems like maybe that's what he's doing.

Ross Sawyers: 38:46 And in Psalm 23, we see, not only does he guide us in the paths of righteousness, the right paths, but the reason he does it is for his namesake. God does what he does for the sake of his own name. The shepherd, his reputation was tied up in the way that he took care of his sheep, the way he provided for them, protected them, led them. The wellbeing of the sheep was tied up in the honor of God's name, he cared for them well. And God is about his own name being glorified. And the most joy comes when we're living lives that glorify his name, in turn it becomes our desire to glorify his name. If this is his motivation, that he guides us in these right paths so that his name will be honored in the way that our lives are rescued and saved, in the way that our lives are changed, and protected, and loved, and valued, that draws people's attention to God. And in the same way, then we want to live in a way that we live for the glory and the honor of God.

Ross Sawyers: 40:20 That Waze app, where we began, majority of the time it's spot on, but not always. But God, he takes us on a path, he sees the obstacle, he sees what we cannot see, and we can trust that he will take us on the right path, even though it may seem like the crazy way to get there, an uncomfortable way to get there. But he sees it, he knows what we need to go through to get where he wants us to be. He leads us. The beginning of that app I said, when we turn it on, you put in your address, and say go. It says, we're all set, let's go.

Ross Sawyers: 41:12 We're all set today in Psalm 23, let's go with the utmost confidence in the future. Because our confidence is in God himself, the good shepherd, Jesus Christ, who voluntarily laid his life down for those who are his.

Ross Sawyers: 41:31 Well I want us to pray. And If you would, if you have personal prayer request, if you would this week we've started another way that you can communicate with us any spiritual questions you have, or any prayer requests. And if you would, if you would text prayer 121, and then send that to the number 94,000. And you'll immediately receive a prompt, and you'll be able to write out that prayer request, and we have teams of people that will pray for you, and then we can get with you on any questions that you might have.



Recorded in Grapevine, Texas.