Christine Caine - He's Got Your Back
Hey! Hi, everyone. I am so glad that you have joined us today. I know that God has a word in season for you. It's not an accident that you have tuned in. Okay, I'm so fired up. You all know that I'm from Australia, in case you wondered what this accent is, y'all. Y'all, this is what the accent is. And this is how the queen speaks English, not really, but this is kind of like the proper, the proper English from the colonies. We say awesome. It's very distinguished, awesome, as opposed to my american brethren that go awesome. But anyway, so very similar.
Anyway, that's got nothing to do with anything, but in Australia what we do have is a lot of sheep. In fact, the first opportunity I had to preach overseas was in New Zealand. And when you are in Australia, some Australians think that New Zealand isn't overseas, they think it's just the east coast of Australia, but it is actually a three hour flight, and in New Zealand, the awesome thing is that there is actually more sheep than people. So there is sheep wherever you go, anybody that knows, now, Australia's got a whole lot of sheep as well.
And so I kind of grew up, and sheep were not unfamiliar to me, now I'm not a real farm girl, so I'm not gonna pretend. My husband loves the outdoors and he loves farms, and he loves chasing sheep and doing, I don't know, it must be a boy thing maybe, I don't know. But I'm a city girl, I like my macchiato in a nice car, city. I like exhaust fumes, and I like to hear traffic, and you know, whatever. But what I'm going to do today and in this series is, I'm going to unpack what is actually one of the most famous psalms in the entire Bible.
We see it often on Hallmark cards, and yeah, I might already lose you because I'm saying that this is the best known Psalm. Of the 150 psalms, this one is the best known, but I know you're not gonna want to miss one minute of this, and I know that you've tuned in today because God's got a word for you. This series is called He's got your back because I want you to know that your God has your back. That no matter what is going on around you, God's got your back, God is for you, God's got a plan, and God's got a purpose for you.
So we're gonna turn to Psalm 23. And the scripture says, the Lord is my shepherd. Don't we love that? The Lord is my shepherd, not he was, but he is my shepherd. I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters, he restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil, for you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil, my cup overflows, surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord, forever and ever.
Now, over 200 times we are called sheep. Obviously God wants us to get the point. Now sometimes we could think that we are just like too smart and too cool for this but the fact that in scripture over 200 times we are called sheep, I'm like, I better find something out about sheep. And a little bit more than just the sheep I drive past in Australia and go, hi sheep! And they go bleats, that being interpreted is hello. And so, in the midst of all of that, I better know a little bit more about some sheep. In Isaiah 53:6, of course, the prophet says that we all like sheep have gone astray. All of us have got a propensity to wander away from the path, to wander away from the purposes of God.
So you know, sheep are clueless. I know you don't know this. Every now and again my kids show me things on youtube, I make jokes with them and I go, you know, it's the youtube, and they go, mom, you're so old. And so it's like one youtube, and they show me this little youtube thing where all these sheep were coming up to a cliff and because one sheep jumped off the cliff, it was so sad, all these other sheep, and all I could think about is my mother, when I was growing up, she used to say Christine, when I'd say mom, I'm doing this because all my friends are doing it. She'd go, so if your friend jumped off the harbor bridge, would you jump off the harbor bridge Christine?
You know, all parents kinda go, would you do everything? But apparently, sheep would. Apparently sheep would be the ones that would just jump off because that's what they're like. Sheep just follow, sheep just go, and then they're just gonna jump off, they're a little bit clueless. And sheep need a shepherd. Sheep actually need a whole lot more protection and care than any other livestock. They really do. They're defenseless, they're needy, they've got a very small brain. And God's calling us sheep, I'm just letting you know this. They've got a very small brain, they're a little bit ignorant, they're frightened, they're very very frightened, and they're wayward wandering, and they can't run fast 'cause they've got little legs.
Have you seen a little sheep? They've got little legs. And they don't have sharp teeth to like fight off predators and so they need a whole lot of protection. And you know, they're just not that bright. And so I love that. It's with that introduction David dives in to the Psalm and he says, the Lord is, the Lord is my shepherd. And there's something about that word is, not the Lord was, not the Lord will one day be, I want you to know that whatever you're confronting today whatever circumstance you're in, you might be in a situation where you know, you're in a marriage crisis, perhaps you have got a doctor's diagnosis that has just spoken a word of terminal cancer over your life, perhaps one of your children has wandered away from the purposes of God and you're like going, does anybody see? Does anybody know? Does anybody care?
I want you to know that in the midst of your challenge, in the midst of your adversity, the Lord is your shepherd. He is a very present help in your time of need. God doesn't wait until our time of need is over and then come to us. It is in our time of need that he comes and so David says, the Lord is my shepherd. Right now, he is the one that is protecting me, it's a present tense word, and he will tend to us, he knows that we are sheep. No matter how bright you are, no matter how smart you are, no matter how intelligent you are, how articulate you are, how connected you are, how resourced you are, we all have this place in life where we feel vulnerable, where we feel exposed, where we need a shepherd. We need one to guide us and to lead us.
And I love this, David says, the Lord is, Jesus says in John chapter 10 verse 11, he says, I am the good shepherd. And the good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep. Jesus says, I'm the good shepherd. So it's important that we understand the relationship between a shepherd and a sheep because Jesus is our good shepherd. Everyone's got a shepherd, believe it or not. For some people their shepherd is their money. For some people their shepherd is their job. For some people their shepherd is their lover or their spouse or their partner or their friend. Everyone's got a shepherd, there's no doubt about it. Some it's their gift or their talents or their career.
Everyone's got something or someone they go to that gives them a sense of significance, of security, of protection, of affirmation, a sense of strength. The unfortunate thing is any shepherd outside of Jesus is going to let you down. Any shepherd outside of Jesus is not going to be able to follow through ultimately on what you think that they can give you. No person can give you what you can only get from God. No person can be the savior that Jesus is because he is the only Savior that there is. And when you set people up or things up to become idols in your life, you can go to the bank on this, 100% of the time, at some point those idols would let you down. That's because they do not have the capacity to be God. They do not have the capacity to be your shepherd.
So yes, it's okay, I love Nick, he's my husband of 23 years, but he's not my God. Only Jesus is my Savior. And I need to let him off the hook from trying to be to me what only God can be to me. I love what I do, I love our organization, I love A21, I love propel but what I do is not my God, because it would never ever be able to deliver ultimate satisfaction that I can only find in Christ. The Lord is my shepherd. Only Jesus is my shepherd. Everything hinges, in the Psalm, everything hinges on that personal pronoun. The Lord is who? My shepherd.
See, if he's not your shepherd, the rest of the Psalm is not gonna make sense. If he's not your shepherd, you're not gonna be able to connect to everything else that comes out in this Psalm. I want you to know, that the Lord wants to be your shepherd. You might be viewing this today and you just feel vulnerable, you feel exposed, you feel isolated, you feel lonely, I wanna remind you that in and through a relationship with Jesus Christ, the Lord can be your shepherd. God loves you. You are created by God for a relationship with God, and it's Jesus that connects us to God, it's Jesus that connects us to the grace of God.
And friend, you can open up your heart and simply invite Jesus Christ into your life as the Lord of your life at that moment, guess what? The Lord is your shepherd. The Lord is my shepherd. Scripture says, my shepherd. Unless he's my shepherd, the rest of the Psalm doesn't belong to me, so I wanna make sure that he's my shepherd. He says, I shall not want. There's some benefits to this shepherd. There's some benefits to being in Christ. He says, I shall not want. That means I'm not gonna have any lack. I shall not want, I refuse to live with a void. I refuse to live with an ache or an agony that I have been deprived, because the Lord is my shepherd. Not people, people are not my shepherd. Things are not my shepherd. Experiences are not my shepherd. Addictions are not my shepherd, the Lord is my shepherd, and because he is, then it is impossible for him to run out.
So I've got all the joy I need, I've got all the love I need, I've got all the peace I need, I've got all the goodness I need, I've got all the kindness I need, I've got all the comfort I need, why? Because God does not lack, and the Lord is my shepherd, therefore I shall not want. So every now and again, you gotta talk to that soul of yours, and say hey soul, I know you feel downcast, I know you feel like you're in lack, but you shall not want, 'cause greater is he that is in you, then he that is in the world. You shall not lack, you shall not want.
Adam and Eve, the Bible says once they ate of the fruit of the tree, they were naked and afraid and so they hid. Instead of running to God, God came into the garden and he said, Adam, where are you? Where are you? And I think so often our shepherd comes he goes, where are you? Now you gotta understand, when God asks where you are it's not because he doesn't know. I mean he is God, like he knows. But he's trying to get you to locate, where are you, where did you go? Where have you gone into hiding? Where have you hidden from my presence instead of running to my presence? Instead of partaking of my love, partaking of my grace, partaking of my goodness, partaking of my provision?
He's your provision, I love it, it says, he makes me to lie down in green pastures, he makes me. There are some things that God has to make you do. And, you know I remember both of my daughters, they were not prone to want to take a nap. I used to say to them, take it while you can kid. I mean you're gonna get there, someday you're gonna grow up and go, I wish I had nap time. I wish I could go back to that. As I'm getting older I'm like, this nap time thing is awesome, it is like, awesome. But sometimes, remember when your kids were little you had to make them? You had to make them have a nap time.
Well I think there are some times that God says, he makes me, he makes me to lie down in green pastures. I get this picture of like, every now and again, God goes, get down now. And I go like, all right, I'm sprawling. Because we go for it nonstop. But he makes us, he says okay, I want you to lie down in green pastures. They're not pastures that lack, but they're green pastures, like pastures that are flourishing. They're pastures that will nourish you. They're pastures that will give you great, great, a sense of nutrition and vitamins, and spiritual strength all over again.
But sometimes he's gotta make us do it. Because our human nature tends to want to run at a million miles an hour, and it's like we're doing all these things for God, and God's like, excuse me, I just wanna know you. I just wanna be with you. I want you to be in my presence, I'm gonna make you lie down. And you think I've forgotten you, but I haven't forgotten you. You think I've sidetracked you, but I haven't sidetracked you. You think I've forsaken you, I haven't forsaken you. You think I've pushed you aside, I haven't pushed you aside, I'm just making you to lie down. I'm just giving you a little bit of time to replenish, a little bit of time to rejuvenate, a little bit of time to strengthen, because you've been running so hard you're running out of steam and you didn't even realize it. And I care so much about you, I care too much about you to continue to allow you to just run out there unhindered because you're just exposed to all of the elements, and you've become a target for the enemy and the enemy can take you out.
So God says, how about we just lie down? How about we just lie down? And some of us, we're not good at that. Some of us we're a little bit too good at that, but some of us, we're not great at lying down. Because we've got a shepherd that cares for us, first Peter 5:7 says, cast your care on him. Because he cares for you. I want you to know that today that God cares for you. In a world that just doesn't care, how often do we hear that? I just don't care. Tell someone that cares.
In Australia we have a saying, do you want 40 cents? Which means, do you want the money for a public phone call so that you can go and call someone that actually cares. And it's like, us aussie's, we're pretty like harsh but, but I want you to know that God does care. When he says, cast your cares, if you've got the image of a fishing rod, it's like, cast that care on to God because he cares. And I know sometimes at night we lie there and someone just watching this program right now, you've tuned in and you've cried yourself to sleep so many nights thinking, does God see? Does God know, does God even care?
And you've turned this on right at this second. Because God wants me to tell you that he cares. He sees, he knows, you are valuable, you do matter. He hasn't forgotten, he hasn't forsaken. He's bottled every one of those tears of yours, and your breakthrough is coming. Your provision is coming. Your hope and your answers are coming, don't give up. God sees, God loves you, he knows, and he cares. He says, cast your care upon him.
I love Psalm 121 verse four says, behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber or sleep. I love that, I was going through a particular time a few months ago and you know, if we're not careful for all of us, anxiety can start to take over, and do you notice that the enemy loves to hit mostly at night? Just when you start, and all you need to do is rest, but all of a sudden you're bombarded with every scenario. I mean you could write a horror movie based on what's going on in your head about what's gonna happen.
And I remember a few months ago, it was just, it was relentless. The enemy was just bombarding me, and I think I was helping him too, because sometimes instead of casting our care on God or bringing every thought into captivity to God, we help the enemy we go, oh no, you didn't think of this scenario, and then we give him another 10 scenarios of just how much worse this situation can be, and off we go, and I'm telling you, I don't even realize how creative my mind is until I get to that hour of the night. But there was point I said to Nick, I've had it. I'm done with this. The Bible says be anxious for nothing, but in everything with prayer and thanksgiving and supplication, make your requests known to God, and the peace of God that surpasses all understanding shall be guard your heart.
So I said okay, I'm gonna take God at his word. He told me to be anxious for nothing, but in everything with prayer, supplication, make my requests known to him, so I wrote down my requests, Nick thinks sometimes I'm a big cray cray, and I said right, so I'm telling God, there is a making my requests known to him, very loud, and so I made my requests known to God, and then I said, so now God that I've done that, you've told me to be anxious for nothing, so I'm not gonna be anxious for anything because I've made my requests known to you, and now God you've promised that your peace that surpasses all understanding, it makes no common sense, it makes no rational sense, I should be stressed out right now.
I should be freaking out right at this moment, but you know what? I'm not going to be because your peace that surpasses all understanding, you've promised that it will guard my heart. So Lord, your word says that you never sleep and you never slumber. Therefore there is no point both of us being awake. So if you see the devil, tell him I'm going to bed. I'm going to go to bed, and I am not going to stress, and God, since you don't sleep, you can worry about this issue, and you can sort it out.
Some of us have not slept for weeks you are watching this and you've literally not slept through for weeks. You've been suffering with with insomnia, you've been suffering with anxiety, it just seems to be so out of the ordinary, and there's nothing you seem to be able to do to stop the anxiety and the stress and what's going on, I want you in this moment to bring and cast your cares before the Lord, I want you to know that he does care for you, and I am believing God that from this night you're gonna bring that before the Lord and the peace of God that surpasses all understanding is going to guard your heart. You are gonna sleep through this night, that anxiety's gonna go in the name of Jesus Christ. Depression is gonna lift off your life, in the name of Jesus Christ, and you will know the freedom and the life of God, and you will sleep unhindered through an entire night in Jesus' name, and wake up a different person, free and full of the Holy Spirit of God.
And so that's what we must learn to do. Because he makes us lie down in green pastures, he leads us beside still waters, still waters. Some of you have got so much chaos going on in your life you wouldn't know what a still water was if you tripped over it. And it's not just because you drink sparkling water instead of still. I wonder when was the last time you had stillness in your life? When you had still waters, when you felt like hang on a minute. I wanna remind you just because everyone in your life's going cray cray doesn't mean you have to. Just because every circumstance in your life is going cray cray, doesn't mean you have to.
You could go, you know what? This doesn't make sense, and christians, we have to get good at this. Because our world is chaotic, our world is divisive. There is so much contention out there there is so much hostility out there, that somewhere we're gonna have to learn to navigate this stuff, and basically learn how to lie beside still waters. And to know the stillness of God. So many of us man, we just want the next dopamine rush, that's the world that we live in. We just want the next social media rush and it's like a dopamine rush, and we're scrolling and we're cropping and we're editing and we're filtering, and we're just like how many likes do I've got? How many followers have I got?
And have I done, and you're going cray cray, literally. 'Cause it's a dopamine rush, and everything in our society is geared to give us that. And if we have more than 30 seconds of stillness, we don't know what to do. People are bored. In an age of technology and entertainment like never before, it is astounding to me how many bored people there are. And what bores us is any sense of standing still. Any sense of stop, any sense of being in the peace of God, and the only thing that replenishes us is the still water. He pulls us out of chaos and drama.
Some of you are addicted to drama. You are the biggest drama queen in your life. You love your drama. You wouldn't know what to do if there wasn't a crisis. You'll make something up just because. That's how you feel alive, and it's so dangerous, what we've gotten into, it's so dangerous. He says in Psalm 46:10, be still and know that I am God. He says in exodus 14:30, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord. In First Kings 19:12, there is a still small voice. The voice of the Lord is not in the wind, it's not in the earthquake, it's in the fire. He said to the prophet, the still small voice.
I wonder, can you still hear the still small voice? Or have you drowned out that still small voice with so much chaotic activity, so much entertainment, you are so over-committed in your diary, you are so busy texting everyone, scrolling through everyone else's life, that you don't even know what it's like to be still anymore, and you've missed the voice of God, and you're missing the presence of God because you don't realize you find God in the still places. Is the still small voice still echoing loudly in your life? I'm believing God we're gonna discover that still place again, in Jesus' name, in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.
PART 2
Hey, everybody! Welcome. I'm so glad that you've joined us today. I know that God has a word for you and I'm believing that it's gonna transform your life. We're talking from the series, he's got your back, because man, don't we all need God to have our back, and I love it. Of course the most known Psalm of the 150 Psalms, the most known Psalm is Psalm 23. I'm gonna read it again because somebody needs to hear it, and you know, oftentimes we could just switch off without realizing the power. There is a reason this is the most read Psalm in all of the Psalms. The Bible says, the Lord is my shepherd.
Remember, we talked about the fact, not he was or he will be, but he is. Whatever circumstance you're in right now, the Lord is your shepherd. I shall not want. I want to serve a God that has no lack, a God that is full of abundance. Whatever it is you need today. You need joy, there is no lack. You need peace, there is no lack. You need goodness, there is no lack. You need gentleness, there is no lack. You need kindness, there is no lack. You need mercy, there is no lack. You need grace, he has no lack. God does not run out. He says, I shall not want. I love that, I love that. I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures. I love that. Not brown pastures, just green pastures. But he makes me to lie down.
Sometimes God says, take a nap, sweetheart. Take a nap. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me: your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies: you anoint my head with oil: my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever and ever. Amen. I mean, what a promise. So we talked about the fact that he leads us beside still waters and he restores my soul. What a promise. Did you know that God can restore your soul?
Now, if you are like me, then you know what it is to have a wounded soul. You know, I was the kid that was left in a hospital unnamed and unwanted when I was born. I was sexually abused at the hands of several men for many years. So my soul was deeply wounded. You know scripture tells us that we're to love the Lord our God with all our heart, all our soul, and all our mind. Our soul is very important to God. Our intellect, our emotions. It's the heart of our emotions is our soul.
Now, if you came to Jesus with a wounded and a broken soul, just saying a sinner's prayer and becoming born again spiritually does not mean that your soul is instantly restored. I like to say God created us body, soul, and spirit, and so he cares about our body, soul, and spirit. And a lot of times when we're born again, we know our spirit's born again, but we know that if we had cellulite on our thighs before we got born again, we still have cellulite on our thighs once we pray the sinner's prayer. And honestly until we stop eating the krispy kremes and get on the treadmill. That cellulite is coming into glory with us. It will be there.
So we get it with the body, but for some reason we think our soul is just instantly born again, and a lot of the issues that we have are not spiritual issues. They're soul issues. And so I remember I would like be able. I'd listen to a sermon and I'd have two or three good days and then I'd find myself regressing again, back into patterns of destructive behavior or negative ways of thinking, and I would wonder, what is wrong with me? And I would think, I'm not spiritual enough, so if I just pray more, if I just fast more, if I just go to more church meetings, if I just read the Bible more.
And so many of us, we are on this treadmill. We're thinking, if I just do more spiritual activity, I'm gonna get well. And then we give up on God, not because we've given up on him, but we think he's given up on us. We think, you know what? I'm just a loser. I felt like that for years. I'm just like, what could God do with someone like me? I so desperately want to please the Lord. I want to live obedient to the Lord. And I couldn't work out why I just kept negating, just kept going back into negative patterns of behavior. I couldn't work it out, and I thought all this prayer, all this fasting, all this reading the Bible, but I still don't seem to be making a whole lot of progress because I didn't realize my issue was a soul issue.
It wasn't a spiritual issue. And I was trying to put a spiritual band-aid over something that was a soul issue, and I had to let God into those wounded places. Do you know what 12 years of abuse does to you? I needed people to teach me tools. Okay, Chris, this is where you've been broken. Do you know how I was so full of unforgiveness. I was so full of bitterness. I was so full of shame. I was so full of anger. I was so full of broken ways of thinking and reacting to people, but that was because my soul was so damaged and my soul was so wounded, and I needed help. I have no problem getting a trainer to help me with my body. Why would I have a problem getting a counselor to help me, to renew my mind and my soul, and just as I have a pastor to help me with my spirit, I don't know why, where counseling ever got a bad rap, because it has helped me so dramatically, but it was a soul issue.
And so I didn't know you could let the Holy Spirit into those parts. You know, I had locked him out of certain areas of my soul. A lot of us do that. We make silent vows, don't we? I made vows, almost put a double deadlock padlock on it. No one will ever do that. I will never trust like that again. No one will ever get that. And I was locking God out of the very places that I needed him to come and bring healing and wholeness. You don't think that showed up in my marriage? You don't think that showed up in my parenting? You didn't think that showed up in my leadership?
Now God had this great plan and purpose for me, but my soul needed restoring, and we'd love to go, man, I just wish it was a prayer. I wish I could tell you that I came out on one altar call. Someone spat on me, laid hands on me. I fell over, got back up, and went, woo! I'm healed. But I need you all to know it took a lot of years for that damage to set, and it took a lot of time for God to bring healing. Now of course God is the one that did the healing, but I had to partner with him to allow him to do that.
I remember when I snapped my ACL on a ski accident and I had surgery and a hamstring graft, and when I came out of surgery the pt in Australia came to me and he took me immediately. I mean in Australia we're pretty tough, so he comes straight in and says, we're gonna start rehab immediately. I'm like, can I wake up first? Like is it okay? And he said, Christine, most people don't recover fully from the injury you've had. I did the worst thing you could do. I snapped my ACL, tore my MCL, my meniscus, fractured my knee, did everything. He said, if you were a professional athlete, he goes, it would be almost impossible for you to come back to that level because of the damage that you've done.
He said, but I need you to know that actually your right knee is now stronger than your left knee after your hamstring graft. It's actually stronger. He said, but the pain that you're gonna have to go through in the recovery process so that you can get full movement back in your knee and you can run again and you can ski again and you can get back to all the fullness of your life before the accident, he said, a lot of people don't get to that 100%. They might stop somewhere at 70% or 80% because he said the injury happened quickly. So yes, it was excruciating pain, but the pain was so sudden, so quick, and then through shock it just stopped.
He said, I need you to know that the pain of the recovery process is gonna be way worse than the pain of the injury. And he said, so you have a choice, that you can either recover completely or partially. It's up to you. You can recover quickly or slowly. It's entirely up to you. The degree to which you are willing to embrace the pain of recovery is the degree to which you're gonna recover.
After 12 years of abuse, the abandonment, the rejection, it went deep, it went deep, deep into my brain and deep into my very very wounded soul, and I'd gotten used to like a lot of people. We don't want to let God into some of those dark places, as if we think he's going to be shocked, as if we think he doesn't already know what's going on. It's not that he's in heaven going, oh I had no idea. Wow. I didn't realize what I was getting when I got you. I did not realize how jacked up you really were. Indeed. It's why he went to the cross at Calvary, because he actually knows more than we even do how messed up we really are. We're not a surprise to him, but he wants to restore our soul, believe it or not.
And what we have to do is allow him to come in and to do that, and I love it in the message Bible in the book of John. I love Eugene Peterson's translation. He says, the word became flesh and moved into the neighborhood. But most of us, we don't want God to move into the neighborhood. We're like, please don't move in. I will visit you on Sunday. I may visit you on Wednesday night, but I do not want you to move in. On Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, it's not pretty. It's not pretty at my house on Monday, Tuesday. So Jesus, I'll visit you on Sunday, and we think we're gonna get healed with a visitation once a week.
If it's been a really good Sunday, you could normally stay being a Christian through Monday. On a really good week, even Tuesday you might still be nice. But by Wednesday, your evil twin has now appeared. Jekyll and hyde has just happened and you are just back to how you were, spiraling out of control, and you just can't seem to be able to stop it and you're wondering why you're thinking the thoughts that you're thinking, why you're saying the words that you say, why you're back to those destructive habits, why you're back surfing on that particular website, why you're back doing this, and you're wondering, what on earth happened? And by Friday you hate yourself. And Sunday you crawl back into church and go, here we go again.
And I tried praying and I tried fasting and I tried tried tried to be good, and I'm just not, and you spend the next 30 years of your Christian life no longer really believing God, not because you're bad, but because your soul's broken, and your soul's wounded, and you didn't allow the Holy Spirit to come into those areas, and then work with him through a process of allowing him to restore. It says, he restores. We think that is instantly going to renew it, but he doesn't say, I'm gonna instantly renew you. The thing he does instant is save you.
I want you to understand that. The Bible says if you believe in your heart and confess with your mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord, you will be saved. It's instant, from darkness to light, from death to life. That is instantaneous and that is almost one of the only instantaneous things that has happened to me in my Christian life. Everything else has been a process. So yes, are you able to have your soul restored after being abandoned at birth and 12 years of abuse and broke? Yes. But is it a process? And is it great if it's in your ability to do so, to get help and to get counseling and learn new tools of how to function?
Is it great to learn, okay, and I love the book of Romans. It says, do not be conformed to this world but be ye transformed by how? By the renewing of your mind. Why are we in the word? Because I have got to start new ways of thinking in my mind because I thought wrong for decades. I believed lies for decades. I didn't even know what was lies or what was truth until I got into the Word of God, and if I believed a lie for 22 years, being saved isn't gonna suddenly teach me the truth. I've encountered the truth of Jesus, but it doesn't mean I know the truth of his word about who I am and what I have in him, and so I had to go through a process.
Too many Christians, they want to be translated into their destiny rather than transformed into what it is that God has for them. We want to bypass the process of transformation. Now the whole process in our Christian life is that we are being conformed and transformed to the image of God, and so if there was a lot of damage before coming to Christ, let me just say there's a process to healing, but he restores your soul. I want you to know that you can find restoration in Christ. You can find hope in Christ. That your history does not need to define your destiny. That there is healing, there is redemption. I am living proof that you can start bad and you can finish good in and through a relationship with Jesus Christ. I am living proof that he heals and that he restores, but you've got to work with him. You've got to work with him and allow him to restore your soul. I need you to know that it's an ongoing basis.
See, so many of us, we try to get our soul restored by people, and then we get disappointed when people don't turn out to be God. People can't be God. Your spouse cannot be God. Your friends, some of you, you cycled through friends because you're exhausting to your friends. You're exhausting to them because you want them to be a mini Jesus, and they can't be a mini Jesus, so you won't just love them for being a friend because you're demanding from them what you can only get from God. And while you do that you will live forever disappointed and you will wonder and you will feel like, man, those people are letting me down. Those people, they're not letting you down. It's just they cannot fulfill what you want them to fulfill in your life.
Some of you are trying to get your soul restored through substance abuse, and it's that extra glass of wine or popping that extra pill or getting that extra prescription written from the doctor that doesn't know the other doctor's really God. And you know what? You think you're under control, but your soul's broken and you're damaged, and while you think you're under control you're getting more and more out of control, and I want you to know that there is a God that can bring healing, that can bring freedom, that can bring redemption into your life. You're running to pills. You're jumping in from one bed to the next bed trying to make some guy or some girl help fill the void on the inside of you, but you can't get your security or your significance or unconditional love or value or esteem from another person.
It doesn't matter how many beds you jump in. You're not gonna get ultimate meaning or ultimate fulfillment through people. You're not gonna be able to get ultimate meaning and fulfillment by swiping right and swiping right. There's only so many swipes you can do until you finally get to the end of yourself. It's only gonna be found in Christ. The thing that you're looking for is only gonna be found in Christ. Only he can give us rivers of living water that will never run dry. People run dry. Substances run out. You will wake up. You will sober up.
In fact, someone's just watching this right now. You're like, I don't even know how I got onto this channel. Man, I just came to. I know, and you're wondering if you're still on the acid trip because there's some chick yelling at you on the TV. But I want you to know that God orchestrated this. You are not on a trip. You are right here in reality, and God paused this long enough to say he cares for you, he's got a plan for you, he's got a purpose for you, he's got a destiny for you, and your latter days are gonna be greater than your former days. You don't have to worry about all of that. But we're trying to fill ourselves with stuff that's never gonna fill us. It's never gonna fill. Only God can restore our souls.
You were created by God for a relationship with God, and it's Jesus that connects us to God, and it's Jesus that connects us to the grace of God. Only he can restore your soul. Only he can lead you to paths of righteousness. Do you know, in a world that is highly morally compromised, in a world that is highly unrighteous, sometimes we wonder and those of us that are parents, we're like, how are we gonna raise kids in the midst of this? How are our kids gonna make good moral choices in a world that says any moral choice is okay, that you could just choose to do whatever you want to do? It seems almost, even in our current society, like it's old-fashioned to have any moral values. It seems like it's old-fashioned.
I remember, I was working out in this particular place and I made friends and I'd change gyms every now and again because I want to meet people that don't know the Lord, but when you meet people that don't know the Lord it's amazing because they live like they don't know the Lord and it's awesome. Her and I have a very different idea on what brings fulfillment. Like she cannot believe that I have been married to one man for 23 years and only been sleeping with one man for 23 years, and she's like, aren't you bored? And I'm like, no. And I didn't really know what that meant until really like I got into her regular sort of dating life and you know she's had several marriages. I'm not saying everyone's like this. I'm just saying that she is like this. She's awesome, I love her, but it's like fascinating to me.
I think this is exhausting. I don't actually know where you find the time for it, but that's okay. And she's on several different dating sites and got several of them going at once and sometimes at nights there's like multiple dates, and I'm like, look, I just said to my friend, it's like exhausting you just telling me this. How do you even keep up with it? It's like woo. Anyway, I'm looking at the world, going, okay. It used to be cray-cray, but I have now become my mother because I'm the one that's now saying, it wasn't like that in my day. But anyway, I am now that person going, we're just getting more and more innovative of how sinful we could be. But in the middle of it all, as a parent you go, wow, my kids are growing up in this world.
My kids are growing up in a world where there is to have any form of sexual ethic you're considered outdated or bigoted or ignorant, so how do you bring them up with guardrails? How do you bring them up with moral boundaries and guidelines? How do you convince them in a world where it's do whatever you want to do, be whatever you want to be, how do you convince them that God's way is the best way? And are you convinced yourself that God's moral standards are the best standards, that God's ethics for life from the scripture are actually good for us personally and good for us as a society and great for us as a family? I mean, you've got to really work through this stuff, because nowadays it's not gonna cut it in our world to simply go to your kids, well God says. And they're like, and? I could scroll 100 other sources at once and the internet says and this is what other people say.
So let me just say, if you're not prepared to live it, don't preach it, because your kids will see through the hypocrisy any second of the day. If you are not prepared to live what you believe, to live out your faith and to live from a place of integrity and ethics, then don't expect that anybody else is going to follow you, because it's not cool. There was a time when even society respected that, but nowadays we live in such a world of compromise, such a world where the lines between right and wrong and black and white, they've been so marred that basically it's not that you're gonna get applauded by anyone for making the right choices, but you have to do this because you really are living for the approval of one, because God's about the only one that truly is gonna give you any approval for it, and everyone else is gonna think that you are outdated or that you are just old-fashioned or that you are just adhering to something that is archaic and irrelevant, and in fact some people would think it's even damaging and it's even dangerous that you would have such a narrow view about so many things.
And in our world of tolerance and in our world of postmodernity and everybody just being free and individualistic and doing whatever you want to do, I'm telling you, you're gonna have to have a conviction from the Holy Spirit, from the Word of God, and basically make a decision. As for me and my house, we're gonna serve the Lord. That it may not be cool in our world, but I'm going to do what the word says. I'm gonna do what the Bible says, because I believe it is the way to a flourishing life. But you know, we don't have to do this alone, and I know in a world where there is a lot of tension, in a world there are just so many conflicting worldviews, that the Bible promises that he, he, Jesus himself, he is gonna lead me in paths of righteousness.
And you know what? I pray that over my daughters. I say, God, I pray that you would lead them in paths of righteousness. In a very unrighteous world, in a world that is full of moral compromise, in a world that is very selfish and self-absorbed and self-indulgent, in a world that is hedonistic, in a world that is secularized and pluralized, God, I pray that you will lead my daughters in your paths of righteousness and they will follow you, in Jesus' name, in Jesus' name.
PART 3
Hey, everyone. I am so glad that you have joined us today. I know that God has a word for you. I am loving this series. We're gonna wrap up this week the series on God's got your back, and of course we're in the most famous Psalm of the 150 Psalms in the Bible. I mean, this is written on Hallmark cards. This is written anywhere you go. Why? Because it is ministered to so many people, and I love afresh that it's ministering into our hearts, it's ministering into our spirits, and I know today that as we wrap up this series that God's gonna minister to you. For some of you today, this is literally gonna be a life-transforming word. I just want to start by reading this Psalm. There is so much power in it from top to bottom.
The scripture says in Psalm 23, the Lord is my shepherd. I want to remind you today. Not he was, not he will be. Right now whatever you're going through, the Lord is, he is your shepherd. I shall not want. I love it that in a world full of chaos and a world full of divisiveness, I don't have to want, that God can be anything I need him to be in this moment. He can be my peace in chaos. He can be my joy when there is a lot of sorrow going on. He can be my goodness when there's a whole lot of badness in the world around me. He can be my kindness when people are being unkind to me. You shall not want. Whatever it is that you need, your God can supply all your need according to not how limited we are, but according to his riches in glory.
God can give you what no other person can give you. God can be to you what no other person can be to you. God can do for you what nobody else can do for you 'cause our God is able to do exceedingly abundantly above and beyond anything you could ever ask, hope, or think. He is so much more than anything else. It says, he makes me to lie down in green pastures. I love that. We were saying that he makes us because sometimes you need a push to lie down. Not if you're over 50 anymore. You're like, I'll go, I'll go, I'll go willingly. I love nap time. I want nap time. He leads me beside still waters. When there's a whole lot of chaos going on, I want you to know that your God will lead you beside still waters so that you can have some clarity, you can have some peace in the midst of that. He restores my soul.
We talked a lot about that last week, that he restores it. There's a process of restoration that happens, but God can restore your soul no matter how wounded, how damaged, how scarred, how fragmented you've been. Because of the pain of your past I want you to know that if you would entrust it to him, your God will and can restore your soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness what a great thing. He leads us in those paths, and they're paths of righteousness. You don't have to freak out about the will of God. You've got so many people going, oh no, where's the world, God? As if somehow you're gonna step. Look, he is big enough. If you step out of it, he'll get you back in. It's okay. He is God.
So many people, they are paralyzed and crippled because they're so scared of missing the will of God. I'm going, honey, it is easier for God to steer a moving ship than to get something up and happening, so just stop moving. Don't freak out. What if I miss it? He's a big God. You won't miss him. If your heart is for him, you will find him. You are not going to miss your God. Continue to go there towards there. And so it says that he leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Even though, even though, not even if.
Oh I wish it was even if. But even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you, you Jesus, are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemy. I was hoping. I read that lots of times. I was hoping it would say, you will take me out of the presence of my enemies into a Michelin Star restaurant and prepare a table for me. But like no, no, sweetheart. Right there in the presence of your enemies, that's it. So eat your fries, cheesy fries. Thank you. Put some chili on it too. Yes, awesome, okay. And so in the presence of my enemies, you anoint my head with oil: my cup overflows.
Surely, not maybe. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever and ever. I love this. You know he shifts where we're going today from the first person dialogue. He shifts there to the third person. I'm sorry, he goes from the third person. You are you are you are. The Lord is my shepherd. You make me lie down. It's like talking third person who God is. Now he shifts to first person dialogue. He says, even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death. Now we've just suddenly shifted.
Now, you've got to understand, David would literally as he was being chased by the Philistines, he would have been going through a valley, a dark ravine, and it could have been a life and death situation for him. He says, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death. At night, he could have been taken out by the Philistines. This wasn't just like a really nice, I'm having a bad day. Oh God, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death. No, he's like literally walking through a valley of the shadow of death and he could have died. He didn't know what would be waiting for him.
Have you noticed how low valleys are? Valleys are really low, and you have to know that in our Christian life we all walk through valleys. Some of us think that somehow we're super spiritual if we just soar with the eagles all the time, and I need to tell you there is no soaring without some valleying as well. In 30 years of following Jesus, I've had plenty of valleys. I wish I could tell you it's all been high mountaintop experiences, but it really hasn't. There's been plenty of valleys where I have felt chased by enemies and it has been so dark and I've had dark nights of the soul where I did not know if I was gonna make it. I didn't know.
I just think, you know, the last few years of my life have been so interesting, just a lot of loss and a lot of grief and I know part of that is just with getting older. As you get older people die more, just because like you're old and like you die when you're old. Just live long enough, it'll happen to you. It happens to everyone, both getting old and dying. Death is the ultimate statistic. One out of one will die. I bet you're glad you tuned in right now.
And you're like, what is this chick going on about? But what I am saying is, in 2016 I lost my mother and my sister-in-law who was my age within an eight-week period, and when you're living in another continent and your family dies in another continent and you're leading a large ministry, where do you get time to massively grieve or massively be able to process, and of course for me, my mother dying, it triggered so many mother issues for me. I was left in a hospital unnamed and unwanted when I was born. I don't know who my biological mother is. I know what her name is, but I've never met her, and I don't know her story.
And so, it was like there was a huge trigger, and God uses different seasons in your life and different triggers happen that unlock a different area maybe of brokenness or a scarring that he wants to heal, and if you continue to walk with Jesus, there's ongoing healing. It's not like it's a one-off thing. And so, it just started another process, and then of course losing my brother's wife, who was my age. That comes really close to home, when you start to be this age and you're like, wow, wow, this is like really quite amazing.
And then on Nick's side of the family. You just go, it's just one thing after the other. Then I had a time where someone who was very dear to me, a friend that I was very very close to, just for a whole lot of stuff going in her own life, made a decision to want to step back, and so it was another level of severing and loss, and I think it hit me harder because I'd already lost. I'd lost my mother, I'd lost my sister-in-law, I'd lost certain things, and then there was this other sense of grief and loss, and you've got to know, when you're kind of left in a hospital unnamed and unwanted and you have abandonment and rejection in your past, there are things that can affect you like don't affect other people.
Like my husband, anybody could leave him and he's like, whatever. The most secure guy on earth. He's like, I didn't even know they were with me to go, but anyway. It's like Nick is the most secure man I know. Like no joke. Which obviously, thank God. That's why he's been able to stay with a loony like me for 23 years you know. He's the most secure man I know, but for me, it might take a lot for you to get in. I'm a little bit of a slow burner, but once you're in, I'm Greek mafia. Like you're in. I mean there is loyalty. This is hotel California. You could check out but you can never leave, you know. It's like we are there. I will take a bullet for you. I will do anything for you. So once you have me, I'm there.
So then for you to choose that you're gonna step out of there, for me it dramatically impacts me, in a way that it doesn't my husband, in a way that it doesn't a whole lot of other people, right, wrong, or indifferent. We've all got our own version of... That's mine. That's my thing that is like that kind of abandonment, that kind of rejection.
That's where it's really scary for me to get to a place where I think I want to ring the bell. The Psalmist says, yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death. I'm in my 50s and I've been walking with Jesus for 30 years and I thought I'd walk through some of the darkest valleys that I could ever walk through, but I've never seen darkness like I have in the last couple of years, and I realize that there is an assignment that the enemy has sent to take us out, to make us want to stop, to make us want to give up, and he is relentless, so you have got to have good people around you.
Thank God that I have got great people in my inner world. Thank God I've got people that even if I was running to ring the bell, they'd like chop my arms off, so it's not gonna happen. They're like no, not on our watch. It's like you need those kind of people that are gonna say no. Thank God that I had the wisdom to say, you know, I need some help. I need to go and get some counseling, because thank God I've been walking with the Lord long enough that I knew this is a really dangerous place for me to be. I need somebody that's got an outside perspective, that is a Christian, that is spirit-filled, but is just a bring it counselor to talk me through some of this stuff and to help me come to a place where I know what's going on on the inside of me.
And what it was, I'd just been through this relentless three-year period of loss and grief and pain and it had brought up so many things in my life and I just needed help to say, you know what? I'm walking through the valley of the shadow of death and Jesus, in the midst of this, I can't see you. I can't feel you. I can't sense you. But I know that you're here, so you're gonna help me to find you in the midst of all of this. And I had to get to a place where he would help me to see that he'd never left me. He'd never forsaken me. I mean, in fact he gave me the grace to keep going. He was the one that gave me the grace to get help. He's the one that gave me people that are around me.
And you look back and you go, man, you were there every step of the way, that you never left me. You didn't let me ring the bell. I got to a place and maybe you're feeling like this. I felt like I was a quarterback about to snap and my own lineman came to take me out. It was like, who could I trust? What could I do? I felt like I've got all these people supposedly protected, and I'm like ready to snap, and I'm just taking it. When you get to that place, you're like whoa, I need some help, I need some help, and I need to see my God in the midst of this, that he is with me, that he has not forsaken me. And yea though I walk through this valley. You've got to understand there's a shadow of death.
Now when a shadow is cast, you've got to know that light's there, but sometimes you're in the dark part of the shadow so you can't see the light. The very existence of a shadow denotes that light is there. So I want to tell somebody today that you might be in this dark shadowed place and you might sense in your mind the absence of God and you might be wondering, where did you go, God? You've left me. I'm here to testify, and I feel like I've just walked through one so I'm not just telling you as somebody that once went through one. I'm saying, man, I've just come through, and I can tell you that wherever there's a shadow, that denotes that there is light just around the corner, and that shadow will chase you, but that light is greater, and God's light will shine on you. God's light will be with you. God's light will get you through this. He is with you in the midst of it.
Don't give up. Don't quit. Don't ring the bell. The greatest is yet to come in your life. There is so much more ahead of you. Do not stop. Some things, listen. We just won't understand. So much happened to me in that three-year period, and a couple of those things, I'm like, what on earth was that? But you know, the Bible says in Isaiah 55 that his ways are higher than our ways. His thoughts are higher than our thoughts. You're gonna have to settle this that some things you're just not gonna understand. This side of eternity. Neither am I, neither am I.
Psalm 119:68, the thing is that I know that God cannot lie. God cannot sin. And God cannot do evil. So even though some things in my life I'm like, God, I don't know how you let that happen. God, I feel so blindsided by that. God, I don't even know how that occurred. I have to come down to, but I do know, even though I don't understand that, I do know that you're good and that you do good. I do know that you can't lie, you can't sin, and you can't do evil, because that's not who you are. Therefore I'm just not gonna resolve that this side of eternity, and I'm going to have to have any peace in my life I'm going to have to learn to be able to live with the tension of that in my life this side of eternity.
In Deuteronomy 29:29, the scripture says that some things are a secret here on earth and I'm only ever gonna know them when I go to heaven. So there are some things that you're losing sleep over. There are some things that you are so fearful of. But this side of heaven we are not going to be able to have the answers to that, and the only way to move forward is to trust God and trust what you do know about him even when there are things you don't understand about what's going on around you, and I don't want you to be afraid of a shadow.
Have you ever heard people where you say, they're afraid of their shadow. Their afraid of their own shadow. The devil was trying to do that to us. He's trying to make us afraid. It's just a shadow. That shadow's been chasing us since the day we were born. That shadow of death, it's been coming after us, but in Christ death has lost its sting. In Christ we can look at the future, we can smile at that future, and we can live with confidence because that shadow has lost its power over us. Light takes care of us. Keep going despite the shadow.
The enemy wants this shadow to become your prison, but the truth is, just because you're in the dark doesn't mean that your shepherd is in the dark. You cannot see a glimmer of light, but your shepherd can. God is not in the dark about your station or about your situation or about your future. This will not be forever. You will get through this. You will walk into the likeness of what God has for you. You will. He says, I will fear no evil because you are here. It's the job of the shepherd to protect the sheep. The job of the shepherd, and so we don't need to fear evil.
So many of us are losing sleep at night because we're freaking out. What if, and if this happens, and if that. There is unprecedented rates of anxiety and unprecedented rates of depression on the earth like never before. People are so fearful about the future, so fearful about evil, so fearful about and violence, and I know, but the writer, the Psalmist says, I will not fear. I will fear no evil because God, I know that you're with me.
I know that our world is a little bit out of control. I know that there is terrorism and there's crime and there's violence and there's tsunamis and there's natural disasters and there's so much pain and there's so much suffering and there's school shootings and there's a whole lot going on, and we could all freak out right now in the world in which we live, and not only is it there, but it's worse because it's on our phones 24-7 and so we have access to it all the time. Barely does a major disaster happen without seconds with us knowing about it, and then you wonder why everyone is so anxious and everyone is so freaked out and everyone is so depressed and everyone's popping pills. It's because there is so much fear of the future, but the Psalmist says, I will not fear. I will not fear any evil because God, you are with me, and like a good shepherd you're protecting me. Your staff and your rod, they comfort me.
Now a shepherd uses a rod to get rid of the enemies of the sheep, to fend off the wild animals. You've got to know that your shepherd's fighting for you. He's coming after those wild animals and those demonic spirits and those evil thingss that are coming after you. God's got your back. That's what this whole, God has got your back. Yes there are times of pain and there are times of turmoil. I just told you about a huge one in mine, but you know, one in the midst of it all God had my back, and God continues to have my back. Your rod and your staff and a shepherd uses a staff every now and again to pull a sheep out of a dumb situation, 'cause we're dumb, and so some of us, we do dumb things.
And you're watching this today and you're like, Chris, I wish I could tell you that it was because of what everyone else did to me, but Chris, I just went off the path myself. I did dumb stuff myself. I got in that relationship and I knew what I was getting into. I got into those group of friends and I knew and I walked away from God. And you just think, man, God's given up on you because of the dumb stuff that you've done.
I want you to know, God does with sheep. He knows that we're dumb, and so his staff, he reaches in and he pulls you out, that you can never ever run away from the love of God or the grace of God or the mercy of God. The hand of heaven is chasing you down and he is not letting you wallow in that brokenness. He's lifting you out of it and restoring you and bringing you into his arms. His rod and his staff, they comfort us. They comfort us and he prepares a table for us in the presence of our enemies.
I wish this said that he'd take away our enemies. I'm telling you, I can't tell you how many times in the last couple of years I'm like, it would be great if you removed them. I would prefer that. I could do without the dessert. Just get rid of the enemies. That would be awesome. But you know, whenever you see the enemies, know that God is setting a table for what he's about to do in your life. We are in a battle. We know that from Ephesians six. And the enemy comes at us because he hates God and he hates the work that the Lord's doing in and through our life. And you'll know it's the enemy 'cause he's sitting at your table and he's telling you, you're not good enough, you're not smart enough, you're not talented enough. You don't deserve this. You're a failure. He'll start reminding you of all of your past and all of your sins, and he says, well who do you think you are? Why do you think you're doing?
Oh you'll know that the enemy's at your table, 'cause he wants to make you feel less than, but you decide who's gonna sit at your table. You decide, no, you have no place here, enemy. You cannot sit at this table. God has prepared a meal and a banquet for me in the presence of my enemies, and you are not gonna come to this table, and here is the deal. You've got to make a decision that you're not gonna lose your appetite for God in the midst of pain and trials and suffering, but you're gonna sit at that table and you're gonna feast on the Lord. You're gonna continue. You're gonna stay in church. You're gonna stay in the word. You're gonna stay in fellowship. You're gonna have people praying for you.
Because the enemy's trying to get you away from the table that God's prepared for you in the midst of your enemies, because that's where your nutrition's gonna come from. It says he anoints my head and the shepherd anoints the flock. Often you'll see a shepherd. Not that you look at shepherds very often, but you know I go to Israel, and you see the shepherds. You go, this is real! The Bible's real! Anyway, and so he does that because it keeps the ticks and the bugs out of their eyes and out of the ears of the sheep, and it also when bigger sheep come to headbutt them, it deflects it because of the oil.
So I want you to know that you and I need daily oil. We need daily oil, and we need daily anointing from the Spirit of God. You can't do this alone. Neither can I. That we need divine enablement from the Spirit of God in order to do what God's called us to do. And then I love it here. He says, surely goodness and mercy. I'm gonna call my backup team right now, because I've got a backup team. I want you to know that you've got some backup. You've got some backup, and the Bible says that surely you've got goodness, meet goodness, and this is mercy, and the Bible says, goodness and mercy are gonna follow you all the days of your life.
That means wherever you go, guess who's behind. Goodness and mercy. Whatever you try to do, you can't escape them because they're right there. Goodness and mercy. I've got backup. I don't know about you, but we've got a backup team. Sometimes you walk through your day and you go, I don't think I'm gonna make it, but goodness and mercy shall follow you all the days of your life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord. Not for one day, not for two days, not for three days, but forever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever. Amen amen amen amen amen.