Psalm 23:1a The Lord is my shepherd…

1. My sense of control in life is an illusion. 2. I am here, but I am not showing up.

1 Samuel 17:34-35 But David persisted. “I have been taking care of my father’s sheep and goats,” he said. “When a lion or a bear comes to steal a lamb from the flock, I go after it with a club and rescue the lamb from its mouth. If the animal turns on me, I catch it by the jaw and club it to death.

1 Samuel 17:36 I have done this to both lions and bears, and I’ll do it to this pagan Philistine, too, for he has defied the armies of the living God!

John 10:11-12 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd sacrifices his life for the sheep. A hired hand will run when he sees a wolf coming. He will abandon the sheep because they don’t belong to him and he isn’t their shepherd. And so the wolf attacks them and scatters the flock.

John 10:13 The hired hand runs away because he’s working only for the money and doesn’t really care about the sheep.

John 10:14-15 “I am the good shepherd; I know my own sheep, and they know me, just as my Father knows me and I know the Father. So I sacrifice my life for the sheep.

2. I am here, but I am not showing up. 3. The Shepherd knows his sheep.

3. The Shepherd knows his sheep. The Shepherd is trustworthy and faithful. The Shepherd sacrifices himself for his sheep. The Shepherd loves us intimately and uniquely.