Urban City Podcast. Hello. Hello.
You’re listening to Spiritual Lessons with Joanne on the Urban City Podcast Network. I am so excited to be back with you guys to share the word of God. It’s been such a pleasure being able to do this.
So I’m just excited to share what God has placed on my heart today. I hope you guys have had an awesome day. And I’m ready to just share what God has for us today.
So I do want to start with a prayer and then we’ll jump right into the word. So Father God, in the name of Jesus, Lord, we come to you first, thanking you for blessing us with another opportunity to share your word, to share your love, to share your peace, to share our experience with you. God, I pray for every person that is going to tune into this podcast.
And I pray, God, that something will be said that will open their hearts more, that will open their minds more to welcome you in, to want to learn more about you, to want to have a close and intimate relationship with you of their own. Lord, we love you so much and we thank you. Holy Spirit, we invite you in to speak through this podcast today.
Say what you want to say. Do what you want to do and move how you want to move in the mighty name of Jesus. We pray, amen, amen, amen.
Again, I’m so excited to be here just to share the word of God with you guys. So today I do want to share the book of Psalms. So we’re going to do, we’re going to read Psalms 23.
And what I want to do, I’m going to read it through from the New King James version. And then we’ll come back and talk about what it means. Now, Psalms 23 has really and truly been everything that I’ve needed.
It leads me, it guides me and everything that we need on this journey called life. We can find the answer right in the book of Psalms 23. So if you’ll take a minute, grab your Bibles and read along with me.
Again, I’m going to read from the New King James version. And then we’ll just discuss line by line what it means, what each line means in the book of Psalms. So please grab your Bibles, which is your sword.
It’s your weapon. And we’re going to read. The Lord is my shepherd.
This is a Psalm of David. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want.
He makes me to lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul.
He leads me in the path of righteousness for his name sake. Yea, 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 runs over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Amen.
Psalms 23. And it covers every situation, every area in our lives. So I want to go back over it line by line just to kind of explain this book and what it actually means when it says the Lord is my shepherd.
Now, I took some time as I was preparing for this to go through each line and just share what God has shared with me and allow the Holy Spirit to speak right now as we do this podcast. Amen. So the Lord is my shepherd.
A shepherd is a guide to the sheep. So a shepherd, of course, guides sheep, keeps them, protects them, watches them, covers them, keeps them from getting lost, keeps them safe from the wolves and from being prey to some other animal, right? The shepherd shields and it guides and it protects. And just the other day, I was going through a situation and I was reading and I was saying, the Lord is my shepherd because I say this just to calm my spirit.
I say it to keep me at peace, right? So I was saying, the Lord is my shepherd. And when I was thinking about a shepherd and how the shepherd will leave the 99 to go and save the one. And I felt like that one just earlier this week.
I felt like that one that God had to leave the 99 to come get me, to come find me, to come save me, to come protect me, to come and cover me. And he did just that. God loves us so much that if it was just us, if it was just you, he would have sent his only son.
If it was just you, he is our shepherd, right? And the second line says, I shall not want. In the message Bible, it says, I have everything that I need. Everything that we need, everything that we could ever need in this life, in this journey called life, we can find it in God.
If we need a father, my father just passed in December. If we need a father, if we need a mother, my mother passed in 2016, August of 2016. If we need a sister, if we need a brother, if we need a confidant, if we need a doctor, if we, whatever it is that we need, the Lord is our shepherd and we shall not want.
Whether you need money, whether it’s finances, whether it’s whatever it is, if you call on the name of the Lord. I read the other day about God being the vine and us being the branches and anything that we need, we can ask and we can be sure that whatever we ask, it will be listened to and it will be acted upon. Please be sure to go back and read John chapter 15.
But anything that we ask God for, if we believe and if we knock, in the word it says, if we knock, the door will be opened unto us, right? But it’s all about having your close and intimate personal relationship with God. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want.
He provides everything that I need. The Lord shall, um, the Lord shall provide all of my needs according to his riches in glory, not mine, but his amen. He makes me to lie down in green pastures.
That means he gives us rest. Some people say I’ve been grinding for 163 days. I’ve been grinding for these many days straight in the word of God.
It says that he gives us rest and he gives us sleep as we rest. And as we sleep, our body is restored. Our body is reset, right? So he has given us rest and he has given us sleep, right? So the Lord is my shepherd.
I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside the still waters.
In order to get into the presence of God, in order to hear the still, small voice, guess what you gotta do? You gotta be still. We in this, especially in this day and time, we feel like we gotta always be moving. We gotta always be running.
We gotta always be doing something. We can’t sit still. We just work and work and work until we finally collapse and fall asleep and wake up and do it all over again.
That’s not the way he designed us or our bodies to work. A lot of times if we keep moving and keep running and keep going from this to that, to this, to that and not resting, our bodies will find a way to make us sit down and make us rest, right? He leads me beside the still waters. Be still.
Take a minute to be still. Take a deep breath in and take a deep breath and let it out. Take another deep breath in and let it out and invite the Holy Spirit in and let him do what he said he would do.
He would calm our spirit. He will give us rest. He will give us peace in the name of Jesus.
I have experienced it so many times and I’ll never forget this one time when I was married to my children’s father and he used to work. The whole time we were married 14 years and he worked at night and so I would always be up. He would get home about two or three o’clock in the morning and I’ll be up just busy body and just working, working, working, didn’t want to go to sleep, just working, working, working.
And one day, I remember like it was yesterday, God took me by my shoulders and sat me down on the edge of that bed and he said, be still. Be still. A lot of times we don’t want to be still.
We don’t want to be quiet because we’re afraid of what we might hear or we’re afraid of what we might experience. We might feel the pain that we’ve been trying to avoid. You know, we might have to think about the thing that we’ve been trying to not think about.
But I’m telling you any problem that you’re going through, any pain that you have gone through that you’re trying to ignore, it only screams louder. The more you ignore it, the louder it screams. And when I say the louder it screams, that means you’ll get headaches.
Your body will start to ache. You’ll get sick from trying to bury things that you’re trying to ignore or pretend that are not there. Be still.
He leads us beside still waters. Then he restores our soul. He resets us.
He rewires us. He restores us. He heals our weary souls.
But we got to be still and we got to invite him. We got to allow him to restore our soul. Amen.
He leads us in the path of righteousness for his name sake. The path of righteousness. And that’s not self-righteousness.
That’s not trying to do everything perfect. That’s not trying to say I’ve never sinned or man, I ain’t no sinner or I’m this or I’m that. I can do this or that, but it’s his righteousness.
Him changing us. Him moving us. Him restoring us.
Him washing us. Him cleansing us with his righteousness and for his name sake. Amen.
And I want to go back to when it says he restores my soul. God is a gentleman. The Holy Spirit is a gentleman.
He will not force you to do anything. You have to invite him in. You have to allow him to come in.
You have to allow yourself to invite him in and have that close and intimate relationship with him. He restores my soul. He leads me in the path of righteousness for his name sake.
Now, this one right here is a tough one. It says, yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death. That means even though I’m going to walk through this valley.
Even though I got to go there. I’m going to walk down this long dark road or I’m going to have to go through this pain. The pain of losing someone.
The pain of going through a divorce. The pain of losing a loved one. The pain of losing a job or the pain of losing a home.
The pain of being homeless. The pain of all of those things. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death.
People talking about you. People hating on you. People mistreating you for no reason.
All of these things. Even though you go through all of those things. You will fear no evil because he is with you.
He said in his word he will never leave us. And he will never forsake us. He’s always right by our side.
And whenever we feel separate from him. Whenever we feel that he’s not there. It’s because we’ve turned and we’ve decided.
God I don’t need you in this area of my life. Let me handle this and I’ll bring you in when I need you over here. God wants to be a part of every area of your life.
Everything that you go through. Everything that you deal with. God wants to be a part of it.
He said he would never leave us. He said he would never forsake us. No matter where we are.
No matter where we go. No matter what we go through. He will be right there.
We just have to allow him. Amen. Yea though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death.
We should fear no evil for he is with us. There’s a song that says even when I can’t see it you’re working. Even when I can’t feel it you’re working.
Sometimes when I’m on the worship team and sometimes when I’m leading worship. I’m like Holy Spirit I don’t feel you. I don’t feel the tingly’s.
I don’t feel the wanting to jump up and down and shout. But the Holy Spirit says I’m there. I’m with you.
And I’m singing through you. I’m using you. And it’s so amazing how I’ll be up there and I’m singing.
I’m like Holy Spirit I don’t feel you. But I’m going to give you the glory God. I’m going to give you the honor God.
I’m going to give you the praise. And I’m going to sing with everything I got. And somebody will walk up and say I felt the anointing all over that song.
And it’s like well Lord I didn’t feel it. But the Holy Spirit said your gift is not for you. When God blesses you with these gifts and talents it’s not for you to enjoy.
But it’s for you to share with his people. It’s for us to share our gifts with our brothers and our sisters. Amen.
Yea though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death. We will fear no evil for he is with us. His rod and his staff they comfort us.
The staff. A shepherd that’s shepherding sheep has a staff. And he used that staff to make sure to keep the sheep all together going in the same direction.
To keep them on the right path. To keep them to keep leading them and guiding them in the right direction. But again if one goes astray he’ll leave the 99 and go and find you.
He’s looking for you. He wants you. He loves you.
And he will leave the 99 just for you. Because he loves you so much. His rod and his staff they comfort me.
When I feel so uneasy. When my spirit is so disturbed. His rod and his staff they comfort me.
I pick up the Word of God. I read the Word of God. We read the Word of God out loud.
So that our ears will hear our voice speaking the Word of God over our lives. His rod and his staff they comfort us. Amen.
He prepares a table before us in the presence of our enemies. Yeah you’re gonna have haters. Yeah you’re gonna have people who don’t like you.
It don’t matter how good you dress. How smart you are. How pretty you are.
It doesn’t matter what groups you click you’re a part of. You’re gonna always have somebody. It’s always gonna be that one.
That just doesn’t like you. And there’s nothing you can do to make them like you. Right? He prepares a table before you in the presence of your enemies.
Vengeance is God’s. Don’t be trying to get revenge on nobody. Don’t let anything that somebody has done to you make you bitter.
Make you angry. Make you start mistreating people just because somebody did you wrong. You be who God created you to be.
You be nice. You forgive. Because guess what? Forgiveness is not for the person that hurt you.
Forgiveness is for you. So that you can let it go. And so that you can move on.
And so that you can go on with your life. So that you’re not walking around bound and heavy with a trunk full of junk. Because you won’t let go of somebody who said something ugly to you in the fifth grade.
Or when you were 25, auntie Sarah said something about you and you just can’t let it go. Forgive and let it go. He prepares a table before me in the presence of my enemies.
He anoints our head with oil. God loves us so much. Oh my God.
He loves us so much. We will never ever truly be able to encompass just how much God loves us. But just know this.
He loved us so much that he sent his only begotten son to die on an old rugged cross. For you and for me. And he didn’t die a pretty death.
They beat him until he was unrecognizable. They pierced him in the side until his insides were hanging out. They put a cross of thorns on his head.
They made him carry this old heavy cross. And they nailed nails in his hands and in his feet. Just for you and just for me.
He loved us just that much. If you can’t believe, if you can’t encompass how much God loves you, just think about that. Think about you having to send your only son to die for a whole bunch of people who don’t even believe in him.
A whole bunch of people who won’t even take time to get to know who he is. A whole bunch of people who mistreat each other, who talk about each other, who hate each other. But he still sent his son for those people.
Think about giving up your child for that and thinking about how much you would have to love God to be obedient to do something like that. He loved us so much that he sent his only son for us. He anointed our head with oil.
Our cup runs over. Surely, now let’s go back to that cup running over because when we finally decide to allow God to come into our hearts and when we finally decide to abide in him, to stay connected to him, to allow him to lead us and allow him to guide us, and whenever somebody comes in your face and they make you want to say something out of the way, you say, Holy Spirit, help me. Holy Spirit, help me.
That’s a simple prayer that we can learn to pray. Holy Spirit, help me. Tell me what to say because right now what I want to say ain’t the right thing.
You know, we can invite him in. We can abide in him. And as we abide in him, as we stay connected to him, as we stay in his presence, the natural result of staying connected to God is that we bear fruit.
And when we bear fruit, that means our cup runs over. We have enough for us. Now what’s in the cup is for us.
Whatever runs over, share it. Share your experience with God. Share what God has done for you.
Share your testimony. We are overcome by the blood of the lamb and the word of our testimony. When Jesus met the woman at the well and told her that you have five husbands and the one you’re now ain’t your husband.
And she went running back into the town to tell all the people that she knew hated her. All the people that she knew was talking behind her back. All the people that she knew didn’t like her.
She ran and she was so excited that she had met the Messiah that she told everybody. And because of her testimony, because of her cup running over, she shared her testimony. And because of that, she caused other people to believe just because of her sharing her testimony.
Our cup runs over. Share what’s running over out of your cup with others. Surely his goodness and his mercy, his goodness, everything good and his mercy shall follow us all the days of our lives.
Surely it didn’t say maybe didn’t say could be, but it says surely his goodness and his mercy, his mercy, things that we don’t deserve, we don’t deserve it, but he has mercy on us. Surely his goodness and his mercy shall follow us all the days of our lives. And we will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
Amen. Surely his goodness and mercy will follow us all the days of our lives. And we will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
Father God, in the name of Jesus, we thank you so much for your word. We thank you so much for your love. We thank you so much for your grace that we don’t deserve.
We thank you so much for your mercy that we don’t deserve. God, we thank you for Psalm 23. We invite you into our hearts right now, Lord Jesus.
We invite you into our minds. We invite you into our spirits. And we say, have your way.
Teach us. Teach us, Lord, your way. Help us, Lord, to practice being in your presence.
Help us to practice learning your word and studying your word. Help us to practice abiding in you. Help us to practice staying connected to you.
Whether we learn one scripture, whether we read one scripture a day, help us to practice abiding in you. We love you, Lord, so much. We thank you, God, for giving us an opportunity to share your word.
We thank you for giving us the opportunity to be in your presence. God, we love you. And we thank you.
And we bless your holy name. We will be so careful to give you all the glory, to give you all the honor, and to give you all the praise in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Amen. You have been listening to Spiritual Lessons with Joanne on the Urban City Podcast Network. Thank you so much for joining.
