Encountering God // Is Jesus Enough? // Pastor Josh Evans

Amen.

I love that song. And that's what we've come here to do today is to worship our Lord and bless his holy name. Well, listen, it is good to see you here at Union Grove today. If you're excited to be at church, say amen. And I tell you, I'm grateful that you are here and a great attendance. And I'm thankful I was thinking about this this morning. Last weekend, last Sunday, we all gathered got up really early to celebrate the resurrection.

I was thinking this morning, hey, that that tomb is still empty today. And that's something we get to celebrate each and every Sunday. And so it's not just once a year. That's something that we look forward to, and can can celebrate each and every every week. And so I'm glad that you are here today. I do want to recognize and reiterate what Pastor Bailey said, if this is your first time, thank you for being here.

And we appreciate you being here. One of the things that we are passionate about as much as anything else is connecting with people for the very first time. And so if you slipped in, maybe the first time ever at our church or the first time in a long time, make sure that you fill out one of those new here cards, not just so that we can have your information and kind of hound you or anything like that. We just want to connect with you.

And we want to get a free gift in your hands as our way of saying thank you for being a part of the service here today. And then if you've been attending for a while, we have not done a starting point in several months. And so if you have been attending here for quite some time, many of you have been coming for several months, and each and every week, and you kind of are curious about what it's going to take to become a member here, or you possibly want to call Union Grove, your church home, we would love to invite you to starting point. And that's an exciting time that we have to connect with new people. It's your on ramp for membership here in our church. And so if you're interested in joining this community, we would love to invite you that's going to take place on Sunday, the 30th of this month at 530. And dinners provided and so that's usually why people come to that just kidding. That's just a thing. But we'd love to feed you a meal, talk a little bit about our church and how you can connect better within our church and you can sign up for that on line. Well, if you have your Bible, go to Psalm chapter number 23.

While you're turning, I want to invite you as well to this Wednesday night, we have a spaghetti dinner. And you say why is that? And what is that benefiting? Is that just to feed us?

Well, that's a part of it. But this is to benefit all of the kids in our church who are going to camp this summer. Camp is a big thing here in our ministry, we send kids to junior camp and students to student camp each and every summer. This year for our kids camp, we have, I believe close to 25 kids gone, which is amazing.

That's more than last year. And we are super excited about summer camp for our kids and our students. This Wednesday night, we are going to have a meal, spaghetti dinner down in our cafeteria before the evening services. And the money is going to go straight to our kids camps. I want you to come and give them some money they're going to serve you all the kids and their families are going to help you and serve you on Wednesday night. So plan on if you can to be here and and come donate some money to them so that they can help pay for camp one thing because I was a student pastor one thing many years before this but camps gotten so expensive and like everything else has gotten expensive camp is the same way it's a lot of money to send kids to go to camp and so families are are sending some of them one two kids in the summer and sometimes it's like 350 400 to get to camp and and I want as a church let's come around that let's don't let money be the reason kids aren't going to camp this summer and let's try to help them out just a little bit and so if you can be here Wednesday night we would greatly appreciate your your support. Psalm chapter number 23 and it's been a while since we've been in our Psalm series I probably could have just said we're starting a new series and none of you would have even caught that or understood that and but we started a series about a month and a half ago entitled encountering God and this is just a study through some of the most impactful Psalms from the book of Psalms and we started this and we did like three weeks in the series and then we broke out of the series for a few weeks and did a series on vision talked about where we're headed as a ministry and as a church and then last week was Easter and so today we are picking our series back up entitled encountering God you see the Psalms is a book of songs they are written to be sung as praises to our God like we were singing even this this morning and the Psalms speak directly to some of the most practical questions that we face in the Christian life so we've looked at questions about how do we be happy and how do we enter in the presence of God and things like that and today's question is simply this is Jesus enough in other words is a relationship with Jesus enough for for me well in Psalm chapter number 23 we find I mean listen this is the most familiar Psalm that there is okay so if you've been in a church for any length of time even if you are brand spanking new to church Psalm chapter number 23 you can probably quote this because it's pretty it's read at funerals it's read all of the time it's the most familiar Psalm I believe that there there is but in Psalm 23 David talks about this question and answers this question is Jesus enough for us is Jesus enough is a relationship with Jesus enough here in verse number one he answers that question the Lord by saying this the Lord is my shepherd I shall not want in fact let's say that one verse together the Lord is my shepherd I shall not want I shall not want in other words here's what what David is saying I want you to really understand this and I recognize anytime we come to a familiar passage of scripture it's easy to kind of just zone out a little bit kind of doze off kind of get an early start to your Sunday afternoon nap here in the next few minutes and I want you to look and recognize that God wants to give you a fresh perspective about Psalm 23 and that's my intent here today so I don't want you to look at this and be like oh I know everything there is to know about Psalm 23 and so I don't need this today it's not for me I really think that God can give us something fresh here today but what David is saying here in Psalm 23 verse 1 is this that in the shepherd in the shepherd that is in a relationship with the shepherd I do not lack anything what he's trying to say when he says I shall not want he's talking about I don't lack anything that in a relationship with the shepherd I have everything that I that I need the word want can be translated lack and he's saying that in him I have everything that I need in in life now I know that for us in our culture that's a pretty big statement Jesus is everything that we need and in him we lack nothing the reason why that's difficult for our culture to understand is because we live in a very greedy discontent culture don't we we live in a very greedy discontent culture in other words we can't be content for anything right God blesses you with a car and what happens you need a new car God blesses you with a nice house and what happens you need a a new house God blesses you with with whatever fill in the blank and we always feel that we need something more we're always wanting something more and it is difficult for us to become content God blesses you with a good job and you need another job God blesses you with a position and you need more than that or you need to move up or God blesses you with fame and that is not enough you see in our culture it is difficult for us to ever become content to become content and here's what David is saying here in Psalm 23 he's saying that in the shepherd in a relationship with Jesus I'm content because in him I have everything that I that I need I have everything that I I need he's going to go on here and as we dissect this passage he's going to say that I have everything that I need even in the good and the bad sometimes it's easy for us to to think yeah I got everything that I need when life is good when everything's fine everything's good you're standing on the mountaintop then it's easy to say yes praise God bless his holy name I have everything that I need in him but David actually is going to go on and say I have everything that I need in the shepherd when I'm standing on the mountaintop but when I walk through the valley I also even in the valley and even in the face of my enemies I have everything that I need I want you to understand that David wrote this at a difficult time in his life in fact David's life was not easy you know it's easy for us to look at his life and think what he was an anointed king he was a warrior right he was one of the the greatest the greatest king that Israel had ever seen but on the same token to all of that he was a murderer right he was an adulterer but yet in the middle of all that he was a man after God's own heart he went through life where he was hunted his life literally he was scared because Saul was trying to kill him so so think about that that in the midst of all of that in the midst of yes he was an anointed king yes he was a shepherd boy yes he was the greatest king that Israel had ever seen yes he was a man after God's own heart but also yes he was hunted for his very life hiding out in caves hoping that Saul wouldn't find him and kill him he was also an adulterer and he was also a murderer and he said in the middle of all of that whatever season he was in whatever part of life whatever life threw at him he says in the shepherd i have everything that i need my question to you today is do you understand today that in jesus you have everything that you need you have everything that we need in the shepherd we have all that we need we lack nothing you say how does he provide everything that we need just a few things from psalm 23 here today first here's what the shepherd does for your life the shepherd fills your soul the shepherd fills your your soul if you look at verse two of our text so he says verse one the lord is my shepherd i shall not want he maketh me to lie down in green pastures he leadeth me beside the still waters now now we know that the shepherd provides peace and that's really what the waters and what the green pastures is is signifying but i want you to understand something i think there's a greater thought here behind this what do sheep usually do in green pastures they eat right they eat so if you put a herd of sheep whatever i'm not really an outdoorsman so i'm assuming they're called a herd right and so you put a bunch of sheep out in a field and these sheep are going to eat they are going to eat okay that's what they do in fact my parents they have next to them they live on a big parcel of land and next to them these people that moved in several years ago they they have a bunch of sheep in their backyard in their field in the backyard so we rode the golf cart this week when i was spending some time with my family we rode by them and all the sheep are out in the middle of this field and they are eating you see that's what sheep do when they are in a green pasture they are going to to eat and so here he says that that the father the shepherd he makes us to lie down in green pastures now thinking about the sheep and a green pasture and then eating the only reason you would find a sheep lying down in a green pasture is because they are completely full they are completely full so what in essence david is saying here when he says he make it the shepherd makes us to lie down in green pastures he's saying that in a relationship with the shepherd we are completely full that we don't need anything else and we can lay down in the green pasture because we are entirely full right one of my favorite foods uh is going to a japanese steakhouse how many of you love japanese food okay right right on you are my people okay i love it and so every year for my birthday a lot of times we'll get together and we'll go sit down at a japanese steakhouse where they like cook it in front of you and things like that i have a hibachi grill at my house and i try to do that and it never works out as good as they do at the restaurant but i'll tell you this when i go to those places it's a ton of food right they give you a ton of food and when you leave there you are completely full and completely satisfied to where afterwards most people when they're leaving those places are like now we really need a good nap we need to go lay down after this because we are completely satisfied and we are completely full what david is saying about a relationship with jesus is that once you go all in on your relationship with jesus in him he fills your soul up he fills it up to the point where you don't need anything else you are completely satisfied in him same thing verse two when he says he also leads us beside the still waters when you think of sheep when they go beside water they're going to be drinking that's what sheep do beside the still waters what david is suggesting is that the shepherd quenches the thirst of the sheep you see he quenches the thirst of the sheep and so when he says that he leads the sheep he leads you and i beside the still waters what he's saying is you are completely full you are completely satisfied and you do not thirst any more you see jesus the shepherd he fills your soul some of you in here today are looking for everything else to fill your soul up some of you are searching for it you're searching for it and you might say that if i could just get a new job then my soul will be full if i could just be recognized over here then my soul would be full if i can get just a little bit more money then my soul will be full if we can just get this new vehicle or this new house then my soul will be full and what david is reminding us here in this psalm is this is that it's not found fullness is not found in all the material things that this life has to offer you fullness is only found in a relationship with the savior a relationship with the shepherd and once you have a relationship with the shepherd your soul can be full it can be full the second thing we see is not only does the shepherd fill our soul the shepherd restores our soul verse three he restoreth my soul he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name sake the word restore in english means to repair or we we say to fix something in other words you could restore an old house right or you can restore an old old car but the hebrew word actually means to return or to bring back the hebrew connotation for this word restore is actually meaning to repent it's like you're going one direction and he will take you in a another direction so david is saying that when he talks about restoring his soul remember david experienced some difficulties david experienced some weak moments in his life weak moments to the point where he committed adultery weak moments where he became a murderer murderer and he lied about it tried to cover it up you know that guy that that's the one that's writing this okay that guy said that the shepherd restores our soul he restores our soul in other words he gives us the ability to get up and keep moving in the right direction he restores you he repairs you he puts your broken life back together that's what he's saying when he says restore ourselves philip keller he wrote a book on psalm 23 and the interesting thing about the book is this is that philip keller actually had sheep and so he wrote it from the perspective of a shepherd and so he dissected psalm chapter number 23 and he mentioned something very interesting about this uh this verse and this the fact that he restores our soul he said now we all know this because we've heard it preached a thousand times that sheep are not the smartest animals in the world right right you've heard it said sheep are dumb and and sheep do stupid things you know i i showed you one time i was talking about sheep and i showed you a video that i saw on social media that a a sheep got rescued from this massive ditch uh in turkey and uh and so he rescued him and and this guy pulled out the sheep out of this ditch that he couldn't get out of and then he goes taken off running and then he jumps right back in the same ditch many of you have seen that uh before on social media you see sheep are not the smartest animals to have ever lived well one thing about sheep that philip keller says is very common with sheep is that sometimes sheep will fall over onto their back and they can't roll themselves over very well he says he can't tell you the number of times that a sheep in his herd would be out in the field and he'd roll he'd fallen over and he can't roll himself back up sometimes to turn around and so when he finds himself on his back he needs some assistance to kind of roll over it's like when you find a a bug like a beetle or something and they're on their back you know and they're just kind of they can't get up they can't you know they can't get up by themselves and what philip says about sheep is a lot of times if they roll over and they find themselves on their backside they can't get over and back up on their own so they need the shepherd to come alongside of them and help them to turn back over he says that's what he believes that this verse is talking about when it says that the shepherd restores our soul he's saying that once we fall down and by the way how many of you fall down from time to time let's be real and honest we all do there's not a person in here that falls down okay and a lot of us we fall into sin and we struggle and we make mistakes and we struggle and we sin and sin and sin and a lot of times it's as if you are standing there sinning in your own sin and you can't get back up and keep going and david says that the shepherd comes in and he restores you he flips you over and he helps you move forward in your relationship with him some of you today i don't know where you're at some of you need restoring some of you are right there right now you are deep in your sin and maybe nobody in this room knows about it but you are as as if a sheep is laying upside down and cannot get out of it and you might even wonder and question hey what is the way out of the sin that i'm committing right now it could be alcohol abuse it could be drugs it could be sex it could be pride it could be pride it could be anything in your life and you are upside down in it and you don't know how to get out i would suggest to you today that david said that the shepherd would love to come in and restore your soul back to him today you see that's the beauty of a of a shepherd he restores our soul then it says he leads us in the paths of righteousness in other words as he's restoring our so our soul that david says that the presence of our savior he guides us to righteousness so after he lifts up the sheep and helps them to keep going he actually is the one who leads them and guides them in the paths of righteousness in other words if you need restoring today and you say pastor i am in sin today nobody knows about it but me maybe and i am deep in my sin here today and i need restoring that the restoration that our shepherd provides for us is he comes in he restores your soul but he doesn't just leave you there to figure it out on your own aren't you thankful for that no in fact as he lifts you up and restores your soul and completely forgives your soul he also wants to lead you in the paths of righteousness he wants to teach you how to live for him you see the shepherd he fills our soul he restores our our soul then in verse four we find that the shepherd comforts our soul the shepherd comforts our soul this psalm is honestly one of the most comforting psalms there is that's why it's read at celebration of life services most of the time is because this psalm provides comfort to us it provides encouragement to us and here in verse number four we find that the shepherd a relationship with the shepherd he comforts our soul you find in verse four yea though i walk through the valley of the shadow of death i will fear no evil why because thou art with me thy rod and thy staff they comfort me you see valleys are those rough moments of life where everything that is bad is surrounding you how many of you have been in a valley before raise your hand okay you're in a valley and and we know what that's like when you're when you're in a valley and and it seems like no way out right that you just can't get out uh that the bad news keeps on coming you know what i'm talking about where it's just one thing after another it's just bad bad bad bad bad and what that is is he's saying that is a valley type experience david had been there david wrote this in the midst of a valley in the midst of a valley understanding that there's no way out that i can't get out i don't even know the way forward and that the enemy and the valley is surrounding where everywhere you look there is just a mountain for you to have to climb to get out of it and he's saying this that in the midst of those valleys we do not have to fear we don't have to fear in other words i don't fear when bad things come into my life you say how in the world can we do that we live in a fearful society right everybody everywhere you turn around it's fear fear fear fear fear that's what that's what we are always faced with fear how do you go through life without being fearful it's not looking and from the valley at the mountains that surround us and say well i don't have to fear because i know good days are coming i don't have to to look at the mountains around me and say i don't have to fear because just around the corner something good is going to happen in my life that's not what david's saying so i don't want to suggest to you today that if you're in a valley here this morning that you don't have to fear because you know there's a good day coming and and just hey something good is going to happen in your life in the next few weeks i pray that it does but i can't guarantee that and david understood that and so the psalmist he doesn't say hey listen we don't fear because a good day's coming right around the corner he says we don't fear because the presence of the shepherd is with us you see i don't if you're in a valley here today don't be looking around for the way out to say hey when i get out of the valley then i don't have to fear or don't say man i don't i don't have to fear because i know good things are going to happen i mean how many bad things can happen to me at one time right so eventually something good no no i pray it does but let me tell you this you don't have to fear in the middle of the valley because the presence of the shepherd is right there beside you you see that's the comfort that he provides us god is with us that's the most comforting thing that i could ever share with you today that god is with us he is with you the shepherd walks with you his presence is what comforts us it's it's not your circumstances that provide comfort it's the presence of the savior it's the presence of the shepherd that provides the comfort that our soul is looking for his rod and his staff they comfort us you see the rod and the staff that's the weapon that the shepherd uses to protect and to direct his sheep and when you think about the rod and the staff david did not have to fear because the enemy can't touch him that doesn't mean that bad things can't happen into his life because david he experienced bad things but at the end of the day he knew that the only way the enemy could touch him or come to him was they had to go through the shepherd first let me tell you this that you're in if you're in a valley here today you don't have to fear you don't have to fear you say why because you have the presence of the creator you have the presence of your shepherd he's walking with you in the middle of your valley he is there in the middle of you being surrounded by your enemy he is there and his rod and staff are protecting you the shepherd comforts us the shepherd restores us the shepherd fills us and then the shepherd gives peace to our soul in verse 5 thou prepares the table before me in the presence of mine enemies thou anointest my head with oil my cup runneth over think about that phrase thou preparest the table before me the table signified peace right the table is is peaceful when you've had a bad day at work i don't know about you but i just want to sit and i want to enjoy the fellowship of the people that i love at the table in the evening you see it provided peace for our soul because we eat and we fellowship with those that we that we love and so david is saying this that in the presence of his enemies okay in the midst of his enemies surrounding him that in the middle of that god the shepherd provides a table for him to sit at and eat at think about that think about that in the middle of his enemies he doesn't say that the the shepherd will provide a way out or the shepherd's going to give you blessing whatever those are all a part of our life but he says this in the middle of my enemies when i'm surrounded by the enemies and that's all that i can see hey i got good news for you in the middle of all of that the shepherd provides a table for him to feast at signifying that he can sit down relax and eat and fellow ship with the shepherd in the midst of being surrounded by his enemies now i don't know about you but when we face enemies we usually want to fight them ourselves or we want to run from them right we want to run from them i'm a little bit of a mixture of both of these okay i think i can do it on my own for a certain time and then i want to run from them right i can remember as a kid i was that kid in elementary school i wasn't big at all i was a skinny skinny kid and and so a lot of times when i would be out on the playground or we'd be playing sports and stuff and things would get heated or whatever i would always be the one who kind of pushed and like initiated something and then i'm out of there i leave the gym right i'm running because i knew that if this gets intense man i am gonna get destroyed in a fight i can remember i had buddies around me who were bigger than i was when i was young and i knew i was scrawny but i could run my mouth with the best of them that's why i became a pastor by the way and um and i could run my mouth like crazy and i'd always run my mouth and i'd eventually get myself in trouble and i had guys around me who they knew man if josh gets himself in trouble he's gonna get destroyed in a fight and so we better come in and help while we watch him run away because that's just how it works you see a lot of times when we face enemies and i know that's a kind of a joke like physical enemies but if you but if you think about life and you face enemies a lot of us want to take them on ourselves we want to jump in there we want to handle the fight ourselves or we want to just get out of there we want to run from it we want to stay away from it and david is saying that in the midst of our enemies i got good news for you you can rest in the midst of your enemies and you can sit down and dine with the shepherd because he prepares a table for you in the midst of our enemies but not only that he anoint us our head with oil now oil in scripture represents the holy spirit and he says this that even in the presence of my enemies and even in the valley he grants us the peace and the joy that our soul needs in life and here's the good news it's overflowing you see he says david says that the shepherd a relationship with the shepherd is that when you have a relationship with the shepherd that when you're surrounded by the enemy he prepares a table for you and then he also anoints your head with oil so much to the point he gives you doses of grace and doses of mercy and doses of joy and doses of peace so much to the point that in the midst of your valley in the midst of your enemy that it overflows it overflows it's not just enough for you it's more than enough for you it's overflowing to give you the option to be able to to bless somebody else you see he gives your soul peace not only peace here and in this verse but we see peace beside the still waters and the green pastures he fills us he gives us the peace that that we need but i know if you're like me we think that that the presence of a savior should should kind of take us from all of the storms that we experience right i know that's how i am sometimes that when i experience a valley or i experience a storm a lot of times i look at it as man i must have done something wrong because if god really loved me he's not going to allow this to happen to me and don't look at me like you don't think that way as well i have people in my office all the time questioning like why in the world is this happening to me why is this valley happening why why is the enemy surrounding me and and we look at this and we wonder because a lot of times we think protection and the peace of god is taking us out of the valley and placing us onto the mountain and it's taking us away from the enemy and keeping us from the enemy but i want you to know that that's not always the way that god's peace works sometimes the peace of god or the peace that god brings into your life is not always the calming of the storm sometimes it is his sustaining presence with you during the storm you have to understand that when god provides peace for your soul it doesn't always mean that he's going to remove you from the storm sometimes he's going to teach you something and he's going to show you that all you need in the middle of the storm is him anytime there's a bad storm at our house at night specifically my kids always come to our room any of you parents have that happen in your life raise your hand if that's you okay a few of you say hey when there's a terrible storm outside and lightning's going nuts at night my kids always come to our door and and they have like a sleeping bag or a blanket or something and they want to come to our room okay and it never fails that a lot of times we always will tell them probably the first time it's like hey the storm's going to stop here in a minute go back to bed you'll fall asleep in the middle of it and everything will be fine so they'll leave they'll go back to their beds like the next big lightning or thunder that strikes outside both of them are back into our room like hey can we sleep in your room tonight and we'll say sure let's make you a bed on the floor whatever and they'll lay there and then it's never fails the storm's still going but within minutes they are sound asleep in our room you know what amazes me about that is i'm thinking as i'm laying in bed trying to go to sleep that the storm has not stopped the storm's still going the thunder is still roaring the lightning is still as bright the rain and the wind everything about it it is still there my kids they it's not that i was able to say okay that storm ceased and now they can sleep in the middle of the storm no they just wanted to be in the presence of mom and dad in the middle of the storm and that's all that they needed well what david is saying here is exactly that he says as you go through the valleys of life and the storms of life when the enemy is surrounding you he says listen you can rest because i provide peace not from the storm but i provide my presence which gives you the peace to walk right through the storm and to rest during the storm you see he provides peace for your soul not only that he blesses our soul verse six surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life david says that he cannot get away from the goodness and mercy of god i love that song the goodness of god that we sing we sing about it quite regularly here and we sing about that song and i love that that phrase where it says his goodness is running after us it's chasing after you and think about this goodness and mercy is following me you should be following god yes but let me remind you this that his goodness and his mercy is actually following you and surrounding you and i bet if we were to go around the room we don't have the time today but if we were to walk around the room and pass a microphone in here and don't get nervous some of you introverts are like oh my goodness am i in a church like that i'm nervous whatever if we were to do that i want you to know this that you shouldn't you won't have to look far enough to see god's goodness and his mercy it doesn't mean things have been easy in your life but he has still been good to you he has still been merciful to you he has still been good to all of us and let me tell you this the shepherd blesses our soul his goodness and mercy is chasing us and then lastly the shepherd walks with our souls the last last phrase of this or the last stanza verse of chapter 23 i will dwell in the house of the lord so david in the midst of running for his life in the midst of of worrying about saw saul killing him in the midst of all these things that david experienced he says here's the good news is that i have fellowship with the shepherd he says in the middle of my valley i can dwell in the house of the lord the word dwell it just means that we get to live there whether i'm in green pastures still waters valley or in the presence of my enemies let me remind you today and i want to encourage and i want this to comfort you whatever state you are in today still waters green pastures valley or the presence of your enemies the shepherd is there the shepherd is with you the shepherd is walking with you i love that song it's an old song and he walks with me and he talks with me and he tells me i am his own and the joy we share as we tarry there none other has ever known you see david is saying that it doesn't matter what his life is experiencing he has fellowship with the shepherd that word fellowship we have a relationship with the shepherd and in that relationship with the shepherd we have all that we ever need so much to the point that we lack absolutely nothing in our relationship with the shepherd think about that that word fellowship word fellowship that word fellowship you know we we love you know that that word we love to fellowship and don't you love those people in your life that kind of stick with you no matter what you know what i'm talking about you know those ones that it doesn't matter if it's a good day or a bad day they're the ones who reach out to you right they're the ones who encourage you they're the ones who listen to you they're the ones who's walked with you through the good and the bad and you have just experienced fellowship with them you've experienced the relationship with them i can think in my life i have a few friends who who are that to me that regardless of if it's good or bad they're the ones who are going to be there but i think my dad is probably one as much as anybody other than my wife that i think about more than anything when i think about this relationship my dad and i we talk like every single day i also talk to my mom if you talk to my wife she would say i'm a mama's boy but i'll tell you this me and my dad we always are are communicating and when something bad happens he is always the first person that i reach out to outside of my own family i always reach out to him first and and talk to him but when things are good right we're still talking we're texting we're having that relationship and he's always there and here's what's amazing to me about that relationship it doesn't matter if it's good bad busy or whatever he's there he's there every one of you have somebody that comes to mind when you think about that type of relationship good bad whatever they're there and that means something to you well david's saying that even greater than my dad we have a shepherd who is with us providing peace providing comfort providing fullness providing all of those things everything that you need in life he is and he's provided for you so i don't know where you are at today i don't know everybody's story in this room i wish i had time to talk to every single one of you about where you're at today some of you are in the valley right now and i i mean you might not see a way out you might not see an answer and you might not have any idea how and the mountains around you as you look around the valley are too high and you think there is no way getting out of this i want to remind you that he is there and that should bring comfort to your soul some of you are are by the still waters right now and the green pastures and life's good in the good times don't forget that he is there sometimes when things are good we forget about them and then when things get bad we run back to them that's kind of how our society is don't forget if you're in the green pasture experience enjoy it thank god for it if you're walking by the still waters thank god for that but don't forget that he is there some of you are in the presence of your enemies right now you're in the don't look to your spouse next to you by the way okay some of you are in the presence of your enemies that you're like man i can't i can't run away from this i can't get away from it it doesn't mean that it's a person it could mean an obstacle it could mean a boundary in your life and you say pastor i have no way out and i'm just constantly surrounded by my enemy and regardless of whatever situation that you are in some of you are in here today and because of your situation you've been left anxious depressed angry fearful or lonely and you think that if you can just fix something in your life or if you could just change something in your life if you could just get a new job or a new relationship or a new friend or a new home or more money or a bigger promotion or a new job or whatever and you think if i could just change something or if i could just fix something in my life everything will be better and i want you to know that everything you are looking for is found in a relationship with this shepherd it's not found in a better job it's not found in more money it's not found in fame it's not found in popularity it's not found in a new relationship it's not found in any of those things stop looking there for everything your soul's looking for and start recognizing that everything we need is found in a relationship with the shepherd you can live and this is what's amazing to me you can live a life where you lack nothing you fear nothing and you are overcome with blessings you can live a life where you lack nothing fear nothing and are overcome with blessing in your life so much that the blessing is overflowing in your life everybody in here would say man sign me up for that that's what i want i want to live a life where i lack nothing man a life where i fear nothing and i wake up each and every day and i fear absolutely nothing man sign me up a life of blessing of course hey put my name down i'm ready for it say where do i go how do i find it the lord is my shepherd i shall not want you see everything you're looking for is found in the shepherd so to answer the original question is jesus enough is a relationship with the shepherd enough the answer is an emphatic yes in fact he's more than enough and he is all that we need and with him our cup overflows would you bow your heads with me nobody looking around i just want to ask you a couple of questions and this is a time of response it's a time of invitation and nobody's looking around don't be distracting to the people around you but you say pastor today i'm in a valley or around maybe you're surrounded by your enemies and you say i'm in a valley right now and and i don't know the way out and i just want you to be honest before god but also before me here today so i know exactly who i'm praying for you say pastor that's me i'm in a valley here today would you slip up your hand okay thank you i see that hands going up everywhere anybody else say i'm in a valley here today i see it thank you i see that hands going up everywhere thank you i see those hands you say i'm in a valley and i can't get out there's no way out and everywhere i look the mountain gets steeper and steeper to climb my way listen the shepherd the shepherd provides everything that you need to wear right there in the middle of your valley you can have peace you can dine at his table and he gives your heart peace your soul peace here today my prayer for you today is that you can find peace i'm going to pray we're going to stand everybody at this time let's go ahead and stand in fact and i want to pray for you and as the music continues to play i want you to come if you raised your hand and said i'm in a valley here today i want you to know you can find relief you can find peace you can find comfort all those things in the shepherd father blessing this invitation time god i think about everybody that raised their hands dozens and dozens of people in this room said i'm in a valley here today god i want them to know that in you in a relationship with the shepherd we have everything that we need blessing this invitation time father for it's in your name we pray if god spoke to you maybe you raised your hand and said i'm in a valley the altar is open come and and tell him and and recognize that he is all that you you need