[SPEAKER_00]: Good morning, my name is Shelby and I'll be reading from Psalm 23.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Lord is my shepherd, I have what I need.
[SPEAKER_00]: He lets me lie down in green pastures.
[SPEAKER_00]: He leads me beside quiet waters.
[SPEAKER_00]: He renews my life.
[SPEAKER_00]: He leads me along the right paths for his name's sake.
[SPEAKER_00]: Even when I go through the darkest valley, I fear no danger for you are with me.
[SPEAKER_00]: Your rod in your staff, they comfort me.
[SPEAKER_00]: You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.
[SPEAKER_00]: You annoy my head with oil, my cup overflows.
[SPEAKER_00]: Only goodness and faithful love will pursue me all the days of my life.
[SPEAKER_00]: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord as long as I live.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is the word of the Lord.
[SPEAKER_01]: Thanks, Peter.
[SPEAKER_01]: All right.
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you, Shelby.
[SPEAKER_01]: You guys have a seat.
[SPEAKER_01]: Shelby, what's your Bible version?
[SPEAKER_01]: What's your version?
[SPEAKER_01]: CSB, cool.
[SPEAKER_01]: I know we have different Bible versions, ESV, NIV, NISB, whatever one that you read, CSB.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's kind of helpful.
[SPEAKER_01]: It can be really helpful to read some different versions when you read through, especially a very familiar passage, like Psalm 23.
[SPEAKER_01]: A lot of you guys, if you have Psalm 23 memorized, it might be like King James Version, or NIV, or something like that.
[SPEAKER_01]: But it's good, you know, it's good to kind of hear some of those other,
[SPEAKER_01]: Translation just because you can kind of get the nuance a little bit of that surely your goodness in level follow me It's what my version says the CSP says pursue me, which is really a good word We're gonna talk about that here in a second um about just sort of the the the way that David as he was writing this almost thinking about God's God's pursuit of us right to fill up our our cup and Man, just bless us and give to us all the days of our lives and into really I believe what he means there is eternity
[SPEAKER_01]: So, Psalm 23, if you have your Bible open it up to Psalm 23, we are here last week.
[SPEAKER_01]: In Psalm 23, we stopped at verse 4 and we're really going to look at those last two verses today.
[SPEAKER_01]: You prepare its table before me and the presence of my enemies.
[SPEAKER_01]: You annoy my head with the oil, my cup overflows.
[SPEAKER_01]: Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I will do all in the house of the Lord.
[SPEAKER_01]: forever.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, we were on vacation down at the beach.
[SPEAKER_01]: There was a day we were sitting just hanging out by the water and you know our little son August turned two a couple days ago.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's he's down there and I'm sitting there with me and there was these other little boys over a little bit down the beach and they were probably
[SPEAKER_01]: 789 10 like your old boys wrote four or five of them and they were just having a ball there They were like digging a hole over there, you know, and they were kind of using their hands to dig a hole And we had some tools we had like shovel stuff like that so one of the boys comes over to me And he asked me could they borrow you know some of the tools and I was like, yeah, man.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, go ahead
[SPEAKER_01]: And they saw August sitting there, so it's like the 78-year-old boys and then August, and they just thought August was the greatest thing they'd ever seen.
[SPEAKER_01]: They thought he was super cute.
[SPEAKER_01]: So they were like, we want to dig a hole for him.
[SPEAKER_01]: You think he'd want to hang out on the hole if we fill it with water?
[SPEAKER_01]: And I was like, I mean, I don't know, dude, he'd probably, you never know what that was going to do.
[SPEAKER_01]: So they did.
[SPEAKER_01]: Anyway, they started digging this hole and they're like, kind of digging it up the beach.
[SPEAKER_01]: And they had like calling him over there and he's like checking it out and he goes and he sits in the hole And so now they want to fill it up with water.
[SPEAKER_01]: They're trying to make him like a little swimming pool is what they're doing But they had dug this hole like way back here on the beach, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: And then they're trying to like they keep a run and back and forth to get the water One of the and so they got like cups and they got a little buckets that I had given them in that kind one of these boys literally had a coat can and He was running into the ocean with a coat can that I mean it's just for like 20 minutes He was sit there like this
[SPEAKER_01]: And he come back and it would be like, okay, three drops.
[SPEAKER_01]: So you know what I mean, it was like ridiculous to watch.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm watching this whole thing take place.
[SPEAKER_01]: They're having a ball.
[SPEAKER_01]: They're having a good time.
[SPEAKER_01]: But man, what an illustration I was thinking about that of just how we live our lives trying to fill ourselves up at times.
[SPEAKER_01]: with the Lord who is so good to us and so full of blessing and so rich and grace and mercy and love.
[SPEAKER_01]: And yet how off, I don't know, how often do we kind of take our little vessels that we have in and of ourselves and just think that you know what the way to kind of relate to the Lord and know the Lord and walk with the Lord is that I just gotta kind of every day run back into that ocean and just scoop a little bit.
[SPEAKER_01]: So that I have enough and then run back in and just try to fill up my own little hole and realize that it's kind of pointless to do that in my own power and my own strength.
[SPEAKER_01]: Then I just got to keep running back and we're just running back and forth, running back and forth, exhausting ourselves, wearing ourselves out, trying to be full.
[SPEAKER_01]: When really the way that the Lord, I believe, is just calling us and inviting us to live our lives.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's just a live in the ocean.
[SPEAKER_01]: to just take ourselves, and submit ourselves, not that we're doing this every day.
[SPEAKER_01]: And okay, I had my little bit, I've used the illustration before you guys have seen this, but we're not, we're not just trying to fill up a little bit every day and get some, and then you know what if I had a bad day, man, stinks, I'm empty today.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm struggling today, and I'm not full today.
[SPEAKER_01]: What does David say here in Psalm 23?
[SPEAKER_01]: My cup.
[SPEAKER_01]: Overflows.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let me ask you this.
[SPEAKER_01]: Did David ever have a bad day?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, lots of bad days.
[SPEAKER_01]: David had bad seasons.
[SPEAKER_01]: David had hard things go on in his life.
[SPEAKER_01]: And yet, a guy like that, and again, redavid story through first saying, you'll second saying, we'll read through the songs, look at what David goes through and ask yourself, how can a man like that say my cup overflows?
[SPEAKER_01]: Because David isn't hoping that every day, he can just get a little bit from the Lord, and then maybe that's enough for that.
[SPEAKER_01]: David lives his life like this.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now listen, see how that thing fell over?
[SPEAKER_01]: Can you even see the cup in there?
[SPEAKER_01]: It fell over, had a bad day.
[SPEAKER_01]: Still full, still full, my cup overflows.
[SPEAKER_01]: How does our cup overflow?
[SPEAKER_01]: How do we live in the provision and the goodness and the blessing and the abundance and the grace and the mercy and the hope and the joy and the contentment and the peace of the Lord?
[SPEAKER_01]: How do we live in that?
[SPEAKER_01]: Not by just coming to him for five minutes in the morning, hoping that we get enough for the day, by living in him.
[SPEAKER_01]: abiding in him so that good day and bad day.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's in me and I'm in him.
[SPEAKER_01]: I've asked you all this question for us.
[SPEAKER_01]: The cup in the water is the water in the cup.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, always we are taught in the New Testament again and again we are in Christ and Christ is in us.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is how we live.
[SPEAKER_01]: Good days and bad days, whether I'm upright or fallen over, my cup is full.
[SPEAKER_01]: I overflow in the Lord and this is what David says here.
[SPEAKER_01]: As he says again,
[SPEAKER_01]: My cup of a flushable before he says that here's how he's kind of letting us see this picture.
[SPEAKER_01]: So he's kind of turned his illustration as we're reading through Psalm 23.
[SPEAKER_01]: The Lord is my shepherd.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's the first four verses.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now here in five and six, it's the Lord is my host.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's kind of turned this illustration, this visual from God is our shepherd to God is our host.
[SPEAKER_01]: God is setting a table for us.
[SPEAKER_01]: God is feeding us.
[SPEAKER_01]: He is providing water for us.
[SPEAKER_01]: Still the same as like the shepherd does for the sheep.
[SPEAKER_01]: But now it's like
[SPEAKER_01]: And he's just blessing and he's pouring out his love and his grace upon it.
[SPEAKER_01]: She says, you prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's an interesting thing to say, and you prepare a table before that's enough that God prepares a table for us, but he says you prepare a table for me in the presence of my enemies.
[SPEAKER_01]: What is that about?
[SPEAKER_01]: Why would God do that?
[SPEAKER_01]: What does that even mean?
[SPEAKER_01]: That actually happens.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think many times throughout scriptures we see this idea of God blessing his people in the presence of their enemies.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know the story of the Exodus.
[SPEAKER_01]: in the Exodus when Israel leaves Egypt, what do they actually do?
[SPEAKER_01]: They plunder the Egyptians.
[SPEAKER_01]: And God tells them this is going to happen.
[SPEAKER_01]: You're not only going to go out of Egypt, they're going to give you all their stuff, and you're going to take it with you, and they do, and then they come to the Red Sea, and then what happens?
[SPEAKER_01]: God sends, and it's said, like God turns Pharaoh's heart again, and he sends Pharaoh in the army after the Egyptians at the Red Sea.
[SPEAKER_01]: Why?
[SPEAKER_01]: I think there's one reason for that.
[SPEAKER_01]: God wanted an audience.
[SPEAKER_01]: for what he was about to do, and he gets one, and God does say that, I will get glory through them as I send my people through this sea.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so he splits her at sea, says he pushes the water back with the great land, and the Israelites go through it.
[SPEAKER_01]: The Egyptian army pursues and the water crashes in back over them, and the rest who didn't go in, Pharaoh, and whoever else that not the army, but the people who were watching, I mean, they had a story to tell now.
[SPEAKER_01]: The enemies of the people of God,
[SPEAKER_01]: saw the glory of God.
[SPEAKER_01]: You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he didn't tell Israel to turn around and fight the Egyptians, did he?
[SPEAKER_01]: There are times when God's people fight in the Old Testament.
[SPEAKER_01]: We see that and that's a different context.
[SPEAKER_01]: But in this situation, he didn't tell Israel to turn around and fight the Egyptians.
[SPEAKER_01]: He just tells him, walk forward, walk through the miracle that I'm going to do, let them see it.
[SPEAKER_01]: The point I think here being, listen, anybody can fight their enemies.
[SPEAKER_01]: Anybody can do that.
[SPEAKER_01]: God's people can do something miraculous.
[SPEAKER_01]: We can feast before our enemies.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think for us, listen, I don't know if you would say you have enemies.
[SPEAKER_01]: I hope you don't, I hope you don't have enemies.
[SPEAKER_01]: But if you do, or if there's somebody in your life that dislikes you, or do you just feel like they are against you, let me first say this, if someone is your enemy, it better be because you're living a Christian life, not because you're a jerk.
[SPEAKER_01]: All right, I let it be, let it be that they don't like you because you love the Lord.
[SPEAKER_01]: And you're living a life of righteousness.
[SPEAKER_01]: Actually, let's look at a passage on this.
[SPEAKER_01]: First Peter, go to first Peter with me towards the back of your Bible.
[SPEAKER_01]: Peter has a couple of different things to say about this.
[SPEAKER_01]: First Peter chapter three and chapter four, a couple of different passages.
[SPEAKER_01]: I want to read these to you because Peter's talking about this exact thing.
[SPEAKER_01]: Preparing and table before me and the presence of my enemies, just how do we live our lives, even if we have people that are against us.
[SPEAKER_01]: He says, who is going to harm you if you are eager to do good?
[SPEAKER_01]: But if even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed.
[SPEAKER_01]: Do not fear what they fear, do not be frightened, but in your heart set apart Christ as Lord.
[SPEAKER_01]: Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give you a reason for the hope that you have.
[SPEAKER_01]: But do this with generous and respect, keeping a clear conscience so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.
[SPEAKER_01]: Look at chapter four, look at chapter four, verse 14.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because what he says, if you are insulted because of the name of Christ, again, that's the important caveat here, not because you're a jerk, but because of the name of Christ, you're insulted, you are blessed, for the spirit of glory, and of God rests on you.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you suffer, it should not be as a murderer or a thief or any other kind of criminal, or even as a medler.
[SPEAKER_01]: However, if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name.
[SPEAKER_01]: So if someone is your enemy, let it be for the sake of Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let it be because you're walking, we talked about this last week, walking the path of righteousness.
[SPEAKER_01]: And if that's the case, that's the case.
[SPEAKER_01]: You can't help if everybody likes you or doesn't like you.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, that's going to happen in this life.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: Number two, how do we live with people that hate us?
[SPEAKER_01]: What does Peter say?
[SPEAKER_01]: How do we live around people that don't like us, that are against us?
[SPEAKER_01]: And whatever way, Peter said this.
[SPEAKER_01]: One, commit yourself to God's faithful care.
[SPEAKER_01]: to live with the joy that he gives, even in sorrow.
[SPEAKER_01]: Three, live with the hope that you have in Jesus, even in dark times, and continue Peter's that continue to do good.
[SPEAKER_01]: Just continue to walk the path of righteousness.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because here's what you're doing when you do that.
[SPEAKER_01]: You are sitting at the table of the Lord and feasting in their presence.
[SPEAKER_01]: that they're not seeing you trying to fight against them, they're seeing you feasting on the goodness of God.
[SPEAKER_01]: As they might hate you as they slander you as they come against you, whatever that may look like, what you do is you sit down at the table that God's invited you to, and you just feast upon his grace and his mercy.
[SPEAKER_01]: And at some point, hopefully, prayerfully, they would actually see that.
[SPEAKER_01]: And they might ask you, Peter said, always be ready to give an answer for this.
[SPEAKER_01]: They might ask you and go, why do you have such hope?
[SPEAKER_01]: Why do you live with such a joy and such peace in your life and you can just go because I got a feast I'm eating every day.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm living in the Lord and no matter what happens to me today What wind what waves what struggles what suffries?
[SPEAKER_01]: I know where I am and who's I am So I'm okay if you don't like me.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm okay with that because I know I'm right with God
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm feasting upon him, and I'm sitting at his table.
[SPEAKER_01]: You prepare a table before me and the presence of my enemies.
[SPEAKER_01]: He says, you annoying my head with oil.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's about, what is that about anointing?
[SPEAKER_01]: It's about joy and gladness.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's kind of a couple of things that anointing symbolizes for us.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's joy and gladness.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was also, it was customary at a meal, because David's talking meal here.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's talking host.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's customary at a meal for the guests to be anointed on their head, on their feet, which is important.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're going to talk about that in a second about anointing the feet of somebody.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, that was customary.
[SPEAKER_01]: So it was about joy and glad, kind of symbolized.
[SPEAKER_01]: Hey, this meal that we're eating together, this is a meal of joy.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a meal of gladness.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm glad that you're here.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm glad you're in my home.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I'm anointing you and David, say, man, this is what God does to us.
[SPEAKER_01]: God isn't begrudgingly feeding you every day.
[SPEAKER_01]: God doesn't begrudgingly invite you into his kingdom.
[SPEAKER_01]: God loves you.
[SPEAKER_01]: He wants to annoyance your head with oil and in fact as we have as Christian people by faith in Jesus have the Holy Spirit that is And we are annoyance it that is the anointing that we have the Holy Spirit who lives within us the joy and the gladness and the peace of God living in your soul
[SPEAKER_01]: by the Holy Spirit.
[SPEAKER_01]: We are God's anointed in and because anointing also means God's favor and God's choice.
[SPEAKER_01]: That is his prerogative.
[SPEAKER_01]: It is his favor.
[SPEAKER_01]: It is his choice to anoint his children.
[SPEAKER_01]: to anointing his children with his own spirit.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think about the Apostle Paul.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's sometimes anointing, but we want anointing to look a certain way when God chooses you, brings you in and makes you his own.
[SPEAKER_01]: Man, we want that to mean, okay, I just haven't easy life now.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think about the Apostle Paul.
[SPEAKER_01]: Apostle Paul was anointed for ministry, but in Acts chapter 9, God makes it very clear to him.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus tells him, I will show you how much you must suffer for my name.
[SPEAKER_01]: And there is joy, and there is glad, and I mean, read Paul's letters will be going through Ephesians, read Galatians, read Philippians.
[SPEAKER_01]: You can't miss the joy that the Apostle Paul had in his anointing even through the suffering, the hardest of things that he went through.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, jail and beatings and stonings and shipwrecks, all the way to his death.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he said, I'm being poured out.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm being poured out like a drink offering.
[SPEAKER_01]: He told the Philippians, upon the sacrificial offering of your faith.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he told them to rejoice and be glad with him.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, can you live your life that way?
[SPEAKER_01]: Or you know, even when you're having a bad day, even when you're being poured out, you're not losing anything.
[SPEAKER_01]: You can pour out all day long, but you're still in Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: You're still full, your cup still overflows.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because you're anointed in the Lord, filled with this Holy Spirit,
[SPEAKER_01]: And so that picture of my cup overflows, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: Not just my cup is anybody in here consider yourself a glass half empty kind of person.
[SPEAKER_01]: Anybody glass half empty, any pessimists in the room?
[SPEAKER_01]: Nobody's gonna, yeah, you don't wanna admit that, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: Any glass half full kind of people?
[SPEAKER_01]: Who's a perpetual optimist?
[SPEAKER_01]: All right, cool, but this isn't even that.
[SPEAKER_01]: This isn't even optimism.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is just fullness.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm full, I'm overflowing in the Lord.
[SPEAKER_01]: in God, in Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think about the story in Matthew 14 with the disciples when Jesus feeds the 5,000, you know?
[SPEAKER_01]: And he tells the disciples that you give them something, walk around, give them, you know, dish out the food and all that, and they have more than enough, everybody eats their fill is what it says.
[SPEAKER_01]: Each their fill, cup overflows, each their fill.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then they actually pick up how many basketballs left.
[SPEAKER_01]: 12.
[SPEAKER_01]: for who?
[SPEAKER_01]: The disciples, because they're full too.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then, Jesus goes up on a mountain.
[SPEAKER_01]: The disciples go get in a boat, and they're out in the middle of the lake all night long, rowing against the wind, and then who comes walking on the water to them?
[SPEAKER_01]: But Jesus, and then what does he do?
[SPEAKER_01]: He gets in the boat.
[SPEAKER_01]: Their baskets were full.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now their boat is full.
[SPEAKER_01]: What's the point?
[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus is the fullness.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus, you got Jesus, you're full to overflowing.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's the point.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus was always trying to paint this picture.
[SPEAKER_01]: He was using bread, but he was really trying to show them, I'm the bread, I'm the water, man, you might not have anything else in this world right now.
[SPEAKER_01]: And you might feel like everything has been being taken away from you or just missing or your frustrated and life is not going the way and I get it because that we have, we all have seasons like that.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you know Jesus, if you are abiding in Christ,
[SPEAKER_01]: all things are ours in Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so he goes to this line here, surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life.
[SPEAKER_01]: goodness in level follow me, I still have these showbees birds.
[SPEAKER_01]: I like that pursue me.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's really what the word means.
[SPEAKER_01]: Not just how just like following along behind it's it's running after.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's what the word means to go after.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now I can be in a positive context or a negative context.
[SPEAKER_01]: That very word in Hebrew.
[SPEAKER_01]: Somebody's chasing you.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let me ask you a question.
[SPEAKER_01]: What if somebody's chasing you?
[SPEAKER_01]: Is that a good thing or a bad thing?
[SPEAKER_01]: The answer is depends on the person chasing you.
[SPEAKER_01]: It depends on who they are, what's their character, and it depends on what they want, what's their intention?
[SPEAKER_01]: So I was chasing you, that's got a bad character and bad intentions, not a good day.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I was chasing you with a good character and a good intention, that's a good day.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we know God, God never lies, God never cheats, God never does evil, God never tempts us, but God pursues us,
[SPEAKER_01]: His pursuit of us, He will run after us, His people, all the days of our lives.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think about the story of Adam and Eve.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is the very first time we see God's pursuit.
[SPEAKER_01]: Is it not?
[SPEAKER_01]: God tells them very clearly, Genesis 1 and 2.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is your garden.
[SPEAKER_01]: You have all this paradise.
[SPEAKER_01]: You eat from any tree in this garden, don't eat from that one tree.
[SPEAKER_01]: Knowledge of good and evil.
[SPEAKER_01]: Or you will surely die.
[SPEAKER_01]: And of course they do.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then in Genesis 3, verse 9, it says that they go and hide themselves because they hear God walking in the garden in the cool of the day.
[SPEAKER_01]: I would imagine this was every day for them that they heard the Lord walking through the garden, as they enjoyed intimate relationship with Him, fellowship with Him every day.
[SPEAKER_01]: But this day was different.
[SPEAKER_01]: Something had changed.
[SPEAKER_01]: What had changed?
[SPEAKER_01]: They had changed.
[SPEAKER_01]: God had not changed.
[SPEAKER_01]: God's still walking in the garden.
[SPEAKER_01]: God still just pursuant as people.
[SPEAKER_01]: They had changed.
[SPEAKER_01]: Sin had entered in.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, shame has emptured in, entered in.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, hiding has become part of the story of her hide.
[SPEAKER_01]: A hide, a hidden, and what does God say to them?
[SPEAKER_01]: He does not say, what have you done?
[SPEAKER_01]: You didn't say, what do you guys have to say for yourselves?
[SPEAKER_01]: He didn't say, who do you think you are?
[SPEAKER_01]: The asks him a question.
[SPEAKER_01]: He asks them this, where are you?
[SPEAKER_01]: Where are you at?
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know what his tone of voice was like, man, I don't think it was angry.
[SPEAKER_01]: It doesn't seem like it was, cause God knows where they are.
[SPEAKER_01]: Of course we know this.
[SPEAKER_01]: God is omniscient.
[SPEAKER_01]: He knows exactly where there are.
[SPEAKER_01]: He knows what they're doing.
[SPEAKER_01]: He knows what they already did.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he knows there's going to be consequences for this.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let me just share some of it.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was always part of his story.
[SPEAKER_01]: He knew what he was gonna have to do when he created all this, inciting his son Jesus to redeem it.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he knew that had to start with that of an even the garden, so he knows.
[SPEAKER_01]: He knows what's going on here, but he asks them, where are you?
[SPEAKER_01]: Where are you?
[SPEAKER_01]: And again, that question, depending on who's asking it and who's pursuing you is either good or bad,
[SPEAKER_01]: God's character is good and his intention is good.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so we know that when God's asking where are you, he's not asking that to condemn you, he's asking that because he wants to redeem you, and he wants to invite you back into the table to have a seat and to feast upon him again.
[SPEAKER_01]: Adam and Eve had forgotten that he was their food really.
[SPEAKER_01]: Took their eyes off of him, put it on a stupid tree with stupid fruit.
[SPEAKER_01]: Just the thing right in front of me.
[SPEAKER_01]: You ever do that?
[SPEAKER_01]: You just want the thing right now, right in front of you?
[SPEAKER_01]: And we just miss God.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, literally, miss God, miss the force for the tree, so to speak, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: We, we can't see him and all his goodness and glory because we just got our eyes fixated on what's right here and I need that now and I want that now and then we partake and again and again and again and we find out that sin always makes promises it can't keep.
[SPEAKER_01]: promises fulfillment, promise is happiness, and then you get it, and you just realize now, now.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's what I'm left with.
[SPEAKER_01]: Embarrassed, dripping, scared, and I got to hide, where are you?
[SPEAKER_01]: This is God's first question to sinful humanity.
[SPEAKER_01]: Where are you?
[SPEAKER_01]: just come back to me, and that's his point.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he talks to them, and he does restore them.
[SPEAKER_01]: He actually closed them, and their story doesn't end to that day, do you ever think about that?
[SPEAKER_01]: God could have wiped him out, started over, right then.
[SPEAKER_01]: But their story continues, because God's just inviting him back in.
[SPEAKER_01]: You remember who I am?
[SPEAKER_01]: You remember what I've done?
[SPEAKER_01]: You remember how good I am?
[SPEAKER_01]: And live with me, walk with me.
[SPEAKER_01]: I will show you fullness of life.
[SPEAKER_01]: Don't hide from the Lord, submit to His pursuit, surrender to the God who will come after you.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, a word of caution as well.
[SPEAKER_01]: God does pursue us, but the Bible actually teaches us as well that there may be a time when His pursuit will end for you.
[SPEAKER_01]: Roman chapter one actually where Paul very clearly speaks to those who are living in perpetual sin, pushing God out of their knowledge, rejecting His invitation, in favor of the things that they can hold in their hands and the things that they can do right now in their lives.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it says three different times that God eventually will hand you over to those things.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you want to sit at some
[SPEAKER_01]: God will pursue you, and he will call you, and he will draw you to himself.
[SPEAKER_01]: And if you refuse him today, I pray it wouldn't be, but who knows when it will be the last time you will get that invitation.
[SPEAKER_01]: Don't refuse him.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's calling, and he's pursuing, and he's drawing us in, listen and follow him, and trust in him, and submit to him.
[SPEAKER_01]: The goal of his pursuit is to satisfy your soul with good food.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's the goal of his pursuit.
[SPEAKER_01]: He is the good food.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's to satisfy you with his presence, to satisfy you with his word, to give you the hope and the joy and the peace and the contentment in your soul that you could not have.
[SPEAKER_01]: any other way, and he desires for that to be now and forever.
[SPEAKER_01]: He says, David, ends the song with surely your goodness and level.
[SPEAKER_01]: Follow me all the days of my life.
[SPEAKER_01]: And this is those who do.
[SPEAKER_01]: Those who submit to this pursuit, those who trust in the Lord and follow the Lord as he pursues you.
[SPEAKER_01]: If that is true for me, if I submit to that, then all the days of my life, I will see an experience as goodness and I, he says, I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, dwell on the house of Lord forever.
[SPEAKER_01]: John 114, the Apostle John writes that Jesus made his dwelling.
[SPEAKER_01]: That word, same word, that dwelling.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus made his dwelling among us.
[SPEAKER_01]: You see, Christ, just like we talked about last week, as Christ embodies that shepherd, the Lord is my shepherd.
[SPEAKER_01]: He leads us, He guides us, He protects us, He provides for us, all those things.
[SPEAKER_01]: As Christ embodies the shepherd, man Christ also embodies this host,
[SPEAKER_01]: Think about the last supper.
[SPEAKER_01]: Every Sunday we take communion together, but just think about that for a moment.
[SPEAKER_01]: Think about that story of the last supper where Jesus plays the host.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus is just embodying Psalm 23, five and six here.
[SPEAKER_01]: A table is prepared for His disciples, even in the presence of Judas Iscariot.
[SPEAKER_01]: As he sits there with Christ, he dips his bread with Christ, Christ eats into the disciples eat with him, the one who would betray him, but tray all of them.
[SPEAKER_01]: He had noointed his disciples, not their head this time, but their feet, see, wash his them.
[SPEAKER_01]: Peter's even confused about that.
[SPEAKER_01]: I should be, I should be washing your feet, Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: And Jesus, just, you don't understand what I'm doing right now.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I am anointing you.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm showing you the fullness of my love, the fullness of my service to you, and their cup overflows.
[SPEAKER_01]: Does it not?
[SPEAKER_01]: He actually gives them throughout the meal.
[SPEAKER_01]: They would drink four cups during that Passover meal, and one of those cups.
[SPEAKER_01]: He specifically raises to tell them there is now a new covenant.
[SPEAKER_01]: between God and His people, and agreement confirmed with my blood.
[SPEAKER_01]: You want to talk about your cup overflowing?
[SPEAKER_01]: The blood of Jesus overflows.
[SPEAKER_01]: It overflows to everyone who would come to Him and trust in Him by faith.
[SPEAKER_01]: That cup cannot run out.
[SPEAKER_01]: will never run out.
[SPEAKER_01]: The author of Hebrews makes this clear to us that the blood of goats and bulls it runs out.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's why it had to keep getting offered over and over and over again.
[SPEAKER_01]: The blood of Christ will not run out yesterday today or ever it will cover the sins of all who trust in Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: Our cup overflows and his goodness and mercy that brought him to earth.
[SPEAKER_01]: pursuing us and pursue us all the way, ran us down all the way to his own cross.
[SPEAKER_01]: To make a way in him, to make a way that in him we would dwell in the house of God forever.
[SPEAKER_01]: We are God's house.
[SPEAKER_01]: We actually learn that in Ephesians.
[SPEAKER_01]: Our His Spirit lives in us and we are the house of God in that sense.
[SPEAKER_01]: But also in eternity, we will dwell with the Lord.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is the whole story of the Bible.
[SPEAKER_01]: Do you know this?
[SPEAKER_01]: The whole story of the Bible can be summed up in.
[SPEAKER_01]: God's desire to dwell with us and we with him.
[SPEAKER_01]: Sin separated that Christ put it back together.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so we can dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's the band to go ahead and come back out.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're gonna sing one more song.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're gonna sing that song, the goodness of God today, your goodness should run and after me.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's it.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's that pursuit.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's the follows me all the days of my life.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're gonna sing that and just worship the Lord and that.
[SPEAKER_01]: And before we sing, here's, I just wanna end it with us.
[SPEAKER_01]: Having a moment here, just to think on this and kind of pray through this.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because here's what I know, y'all.
[SPEAKER_01]: I know that you just like me, you don't always have good days.
[SPEAKER_01]: You don't always have good seasons.
[SPEAKER_01]: You don't always feel full, and certainly not overflowing.
[SPEAKER_01]: You don't always feel like man that table has been set and I'm feasting and I'm just enjoying the love and the favor and the blessings of God every day.
[SPEAKER_01]: I know you don't always feel like that, okay?
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't always feel like that.
[SPEAKER_01]: May I ask you this?
[SPEAKER_01]: Does that cup right there feel full?
[SPEAKER_01]: Does it feel wet right now?
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know how it feels.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I know what it is.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's full.
[SPEAKER_01]: Regardless of how it feels today, regardless of what goes on today, regardless of what anybody does to it today, if it's still in the water, it's still full.
[SPEAKER_01]: And if you're still in Christ, you're still full.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay?
[SPEAKER_01]: I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I
[SPEAKER_01]: Whatever's going on at work, whatever's going on in your family, whatever struggle, whatever loss, whatever sin, you remain in Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus said, abide in me, you abide in Christ, you remain in Christ, and however it is that you're feeling today, listen, those feelings are real, those feelings are valid.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not saying they're not, but however it is that you're feeling the reality, the truth of your fullness
[SPEAKER_01]: And so that's why, you know, that's why every day we can say with King David, you prepare a table before me.
[SPEAKER_01]: You had no weight in my head with the oil.
[SPEAKER_01]: My cup overflows.
[SPEAKER_01]: God, I feel awful today and I know my cups overflowing.
[SPEAKER_01]: We can pray that.
[SPEAKER_01]: God, I don't know why this is going on right now, but my cup overflows in you.
[SPEAKER_01]: God, I'm angry about this situation going up, but my cup overflows.
[SPEAKER_01]: God, I'm hurting with that law, I'm hurting with this grief, I'm hurting with this financial burden, whatever it may be, but my cup overflows.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because I'm in Christ and Christ is in me, okay?
[SPEAKER_01]: And so that is the, that I think is the message of that part of that Psalm and just from the lips of King David, a man who had the highest of highs, but the lowest of lows.
[SPEAKER_01]: You think you've had a rough life, I mean, King David could match it.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm telling you, and his cup overflows.
[SPEAKER_01]: So does ours.
[SPEAKER_01]: All right, so let's just, I just want to take a moment here and let's pray together, and I just want to give you a moment just to really think on this and pray to the Lord and just take whatever that is.
[SPEAKER_01]: Whatever may make you feel like your cups not overflowing right now, and just submit it to him.
[SPEAKER_01]: All right, so let's bow our heads together.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let's just bow our heads.
[SPEAKER_01]: And honestly, I just want you to name your emotion right now.
[SPEAKER_01]: Whatever your emotions are, and hopefully they're great, but if they're, they're not so great at the moment.
[SPEAKER_01]: Would you just in your heart and your mind just name that emotion to the Lord right now?
[SPEAKER_01]: If it's anger, if it's disappointment, sadness, frustration, guilt, just name it to God.
[SPEAKER_01]: Tell them how you feel.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then confess to him that you know you have given, he has given you a feast of good bread and good water in his son Jesus, that you know you are full to overflowing today.
[SPEAKER_01]: Could you just confess that to the Lord right now?
[SPEAKER_01]: And trust that that promises true.
[SPEAKER_01]: So Lord, I want to pray for all of us together.
[SPEAKER_01]: My brothers and sisters right here with me, who many of us may be walked in these doors today, just feeling empty, just feeling like we're not having a good day, a good week, a good month, a good year, a good decade.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know.
[SPEAKER_01]: But Lord, we just want to cling to the promise today that Jesus said, I am the bread of life, I am the living water.
[SPEAKER_01]: This cup is a new covenant in my blood that our sins are forgiven, washed away and redeemed by His blood.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so God, we just cling to the truth today that our cups are full, that we overflow with your goodness and grace right now.
[SPEAKER_01]: So God, we just pray that you would bring our feelings in line with the truth today.
[SPEAKER_01]: Even if we don't feel that way, that we would know it's true.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we would just trust you.
[SPEAKER_01]: And let us sing now, God, as we sing together of your goodness that is running after us because of Christ Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: His death, His resurrection, your goodness, pursues us all the days of our lives that we may dwell in your house forever in Jesus name.