Rabbi Schneider - Is Your Heart Broken?
We're looking at the 23rd Psalm and we're discovering how David knew God as the one that supplied every need he would ever have in life. You know, the Lord wants us to have such confidence in him that we look only to him to supply all our needs. Yes, he brings things into our life, he brings other people into our life, he brings finances into our life, he brings many, many things into our life, but he wants us to discover that he is the only source and that when we look to him alone, we'll have everything that we'll ever need.
Father, we bless you today. We're so thankful, Father God, that we don't have to look all over the place, Father, being vulnerable, but we can look to you alone knowing that you will give us everything we'll ever need. Thank you Jesus, that you said that if we would seek first your kingdom and your righteousness, everything, everything else, everything else would be added unto us.
So we're considering this paradigm, this truth today, from Psalm 23. This is now the second part of this series, He is All We Need. I encourage you to get this entire teaching. You can contact us by the information at the end of the broadcast today to get the entire series. I'm just gonna begin to read in verse number 1. I'm gonna read into verse 3, and then we're gonna pick up today in verse 3 because I covered up to that point last time we were together. Hear the Word of God: The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside quiet waters. He restores my soul.
I left off last time at verse number 3, the first part of this verse: He restores my soul. Do you know that when Jesus introduced himself in the temple, the synagogue, he began to read from the Book of Isaiah? And he turned to a portion in the Scripture in which he said, the Lord has appointed me and anointed me, listen now, to heal the broken hearted. Think about what David said there. He restores my soul and Jesus said he was anointed to restore the broken hearted.
I want to ask you today, does this resonate with you? Is there any brokenness in your soul? David said, he restores my soul. And so I want to ask you today, is there a part of your soul that needs restored? Have you recently suffered a broken relationship and you almost feel like there's a crack in your soul. Maybe you've been betrayed. Maybe someone that you felt love for left you. Maybe someone that you loved deeply passed away. Some of you have been through divorce. Some have been abused. I want you to know, there's good news for you today. Jesus has the power to restore our souls.
Do you know the world tells us that time heals all things. That's not true. Time does help often times, thank God. But I want you to know, it's not just time that restores, it's not just time that heals, God's the one that heals. And the reality is there are some situations and some brokennesses that time cannot heal. There are some people that have suffered something so deeply, some people that have gone through such an emotional wound, some who have become so broken that all the time in the world wouldn't heal them. The good news is, Jesus can heal every broken spot in everyone's soul that looks to him. The Bible says, he that looks to him will not be disappointed and that everyone the looks to him will be saved.
Now some of you right now, you're feeling that brokenness. Your, you've been struggling with something. You're broken inside and you know it. You've been calling out to God. You've been having a hard time getting over whatever this thing is. Jesus loves you today and I'm gonna pray right now for you.
Jesus, right now I want to thank you that you are here, that you are present, that you're the God of the now, Jesus. And right now I release in your name restoration and restorational healing to every soul that is reaching out to you by faith as they are watching this broadcast. Jesus, I speak restoration and healing to every broken heart under the sound of my voice. Holy Spirit, I ask you right now to bring healing and restoration to every heart and every soul. And I ask, Father God, that you would cause faith to spring forth into everyone that's watching this broadcast right now that needs restoration, that needs their heart healed. And Father, right now I believe that something supernatural is happening, that they're not just hearing a preacher preach a sermon but I believe right now, Father God, that the Holy Spirit is moving. And Father, there's a transference of the anointing and of the Holy Spirit that is being imparted to your people's lives right now, that Father, even as they're listening to my voice you are healing them.
And I speak right now a word of healing and restoration over your soul. The Scripture says, by his stripes we are healed. And I say to you in Jesus's name, by his stripes you are healed. And I encourage you now to keep reaching out to Jesus, to keep pressing on, and you're gonna that find you're gonna get over this thing, that your brokenness will be healed, your brokenness is being healed, and will be healed completely, and is healed in Jesus's name. By his stripes you are healed. As David said, beloved one, he restores my soul. It doesn't matter what you've been through. It doesn't matter who you are. He is your answer and he restores your soul, hallelujah and Amen. David continues on here and he said: He guides me in the paths of righteousness. I talked about that last week.
And then David continues on in verse number 3: For His name's sake. It's important to understand that what God does, he does first of all for his own name's sake. Now we don't fully understand what that means, but you know, God does everything for his own glory. He glorifies himself. We've been chosen the Scripture says in the Book of Ephesians, to the praise of his glorious grace, that he called us out of darkness into his marvelous light to the praise of his glorious grace. You see, God has a purpose for your life. He loves you and he's gonna be faithful to you for love's sake and for his own name's sake. That gives purpose to our life.
When we understand that God that began a good work in us, we'll complete it for his own name's sake. Beloved, that gives great confidence and great security. Paul said, I am confident of this one thing, that he that began a god work in me will complete it unto the day of Christ Jesus. Paul talks about this phenomenon also in the Book of Romans, chapter 9 through 11, that God shows mercy to whom he shows mercy, he hardens whom he hardens, he does all things according to his own will. And then Paul gets done and he says, to him, through him, and for him are all things. God's got a call on your life. It's for his name's sake.
He's gonna be faithful, beloved, and complete that which he started in you. God has a purpose for your life and it will be completed. There's purpose and meaning, beloved one, individually for you, for each one of you that are called by the Lord. As we continue on, in the 4th verse David says this: Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, David's gonna continue on here, he's speaking of protection.
Now when David wrote this, I want you to understand he was walking through the valley of the shadow of death. He wasn't simply, you know, pondering this thought. He wasn't speaking it as a mere platitude, as a poetic pleasantry. No, David was walking through the valley of the shadow of death. Saul was hunting him down for his life. There were, there were many, many men that were looking to kill David. David was hiding out in caves for fear of Saul and his men. Yet David was able to say, even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, David was saying, I am protected. And you know what, you're protected. You and I have to live knowing that God's protecting us. The arm of man can never protect us.
You know, whenever Israel fully trusted God, they were victorious in their battle. But as soon as they began to make allegiances with foreign armies because they thought it would give them more protection, they began to lose their battles. You see, God's the one that protects us and I want you to know, beloved one, God is calling you and I right now. He's challenging you during this show to trust him to protect you. Many of us are living in fear. We're afraid someone's gonna break into our house. We're afraid someone's gonna rob us. We're afraid we're gonna get in an accident. We're afraid for our loved ones. God protects us.
The Bible says, even in this fallen world where there's danger that lurks all about, we're protected. David said, Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, he said, I will fear no evil for Thou art with me. You see, not only are we protected and not only does he want us to know we're protected, but he wants us to even go on from there, to have courage. Not only to recognize that we're protected, but even to take the next step forward. David went on to say, I will fear no evil. In other words, he was offensively courageous. Not only was he not cowering in fear by saying I'm protected, but he went even beyond that to go on to the offensive and he said, I will fear no evil.
And God wants you and I to develop such an offensive posture of faith, beloved ones, that not only are we not running from the devil, but we're chasing the devil by faith in God and his Word. God wants Satan to run from us as we exercise faith in him. Satan, you're a liar. You're the accuser of the brethren. We reject you. We crush you under our feet. We bind every spirit of fear and we say like David, Father God, I will fear no evil. Do you know that over a hundred times, beloved one, in the Bible God told us not to fear? Over a hundred times in the Bible, God told us not to fear. Jesus said that hell was for the fearful and the unbelieving. But God said we're not to be like the people around us that keep crying conspiracy.
You know, they're afraid of this, they're afraid of that, afraid the government's out to get them, afraid the economy's, you know. No, God said, no, you're not to be like them. That's for the people that don't know me. You're to be confident in me because you're gonna be like a spring that's gonna bear fruit during every season, whether the sun is shining or whether you're going through an intense storm. You're gonna continue to be fruitful in times of prosperity on earth and in times of famine. God said, fear no evil. David said, I shall fear no evil.
Let's say it together before the Lord: I shall fear no evil. Again, I want you to say it with me because you know what? Your faith will not rise above your confession. I want to ask you a question. Does God want you to be afraid? Does God want you to be afraid of getting old? No. Does God want you to be afraid of driving? No. Does God want you to be afraid that someone's gonna break into your home? No. Does God want you to be afraid of getting sick? No. No, God doesn't want us to be afraid of anything. Jesus said to his disciples, why did you fear, ye of little faith. Let's take our confession. Let's not be confessing our fears. Let's confess God's Word. David said, I shall fear no evil. I want you to confess it with me together. Ready? I shall fear no evil. Let's say it again. I shall fear no evil. I will not be afraid. I will trust in the Lord and I will not be afraid. I will trust in the Lord and I will not be afraid, like David. Let's say it one more time. I shall fear no evil.
Satan, we break your back and we break you off our lives. Father, we exercise faith in your Word. We need not be afraid. We're protected as we walk through the valley of the shadow of death. Father, we're confident that you're with us. Jesus said, you will never leave us or forsake us, that you Jesus, told us not to be afraid. We choose to love you. We will not be afraid. We'll be confident in your love, in Jesus's name and for his glory, Amen and Amen, and Amen, and Amen.
This is so important. Do you know that being afraid is breaking fellowship with God, thinking about that. Because when we choose fear, when we allow the devil to make us afraid, at that point we lose confidence in God's love. And if you think about it, that's a sin. So I want you to consider that when you and I allow the devil to make us afraid, we are broken in terms of our fellowship with God. Our fellowship with God is broken because we're not trusting in God's love, and we can't experience fellowship with God at the same time we're fearing.
And not only are we breaking our experience of fellowshipping with God by allowing our self to believe Satan's lies that make us afraid, but beyond that we're even bringing dishonor to God because we're believing Satan's lie rather than believing God's word, rather than believing what Jesus said, rather than believing what David said, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. I will not be afraid. Rather than believing what Jesus said and what David said, we're believing Satan's lies.
And so when you and I allow the devil to make us afraid, we actually are bringing dishonor to God by allowing ourselves to believe the devil's lie, rather than believing in God's love. And even as Satan went before God and started saying things to God, oh look at Job, you know. Look at Job, he's gonna... You know, Satan is able then to go before God and to mock God because we're believing his lies rather than trusting in God's love. So I want to challenge you right now, being delivered from fear, being like David, developing a heart of David that said I will not be afraid, developing the heart of David that said I shall not fear, it's a question, beloved, and its' an issue of the glory of God. It's about God.
I am not gonna let Satan come before you and bring you dishonor because I chose to stop believing in your love and stop trusting you, and believe the false mental image that he put in my brain to make me afraid. Think about it, how many of the things that you've been afraid of have ever actually happened to you? And on occasion if something did happen that you were afraid of, wasn't fearing it actually worse than when it actually happened? Because when it actually happens or something difficult happens, God's there; though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I'll fear no evil for God's with me. God's already there.
And so I just want to encourage you, beloved one, the heart that David had, you and I can have too. God did not give us a spirit of timidity or a spirit of fear, the Scripture says, but of love, and power, and joy. And we need to realize and recognize that living a life of fear is not acceptable. It's not an option. We have to declare war on fear. We have to recognize, beloved, that to live in fear is to live opposite of the life principle that's ours in Christ Jesus.
Let me ask you a question. When was Jesus ever afraid? Did you ever see Jesus afraid in the gospels? Never. And when his disciples did get afraid, remember they were on the boat and the storm came. And you know what, in the natural we understand. In the natural we understand why the disciples got afraid because it was a very dangerous situation. And yet in the midst of that situation that appeared dangerous, Jesus was sleeping on the boat. Now I believe that the reason the Father had him sleeping on the boat was to show us how we don't need to fear anything in the natural world no matter how dangerous it appears.
And then they woke Jesus up, shaking him, panicky. Don't you care that we're gonna perish? Jesus rebuked the winds just like he'll do in your life and my life. He rebuked the waves. And he said to them why did you fear? Why are you doubting? And then he explained the reason why. He said, ye of little faith. He said, where is your faith? He said, why were you afraid, Jesus said? Where is your faith? Why were you afraid? Where is your faith? You and I need to come to grips with the fact that it's not Jesus's will for us to live in fear. David said, even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. You may be in a difficult situation right now. I don't know what you're facing, but you know what? God doesn't want you to be afraid.
Father, I speak life and courage over your people right now. Jesus, I release courage to your people right now. Jesus, we take ahold of you. We take ahold of your power. We take ahold of your Word and we confess by the power of the Holy Spirit, I will not be afraid. Jesus, we know that you're a God of courage and that you have given us your very life. And we receive your courage now, Jesus. We want to live with the heart of David, that even when he was living in what appeared to be dangerous circumstances, he had a life principle in him that was stronger than the thing that was outside him. And he said, I will not be afraid. Jesus, thank you that you live inside us. Thank you that greater is he that's in us than he that's in the world. And Jesus, by faith in you we declare, I will not be afraid because I love you, Jesus, and because I trust you.