I'm Going Home — Tim Timberlake

-I love Voo Church. I love your pastors. Can we put our hands together for Pastor Rich? Pastor D.C. Can we put our hands together for the entire Voo team? [ Cheers and applause ] Every location that's leaning in right now, everyone online, what an honor and a privilege to be back with family. And I'm excited about the Word of God today. So I want you to grab your word, keep standing with me for a moment. I want you to turn to Psalms 23, Psalms 23. And this is something that the Holy Spirit has been stirring in my heart. And I want to just share it with you. And so I want you to imagine, for a moment, we're just in a really big living room. And Crazy Uncle Tim is here. And we're just going to break open the Word of God, and we're going to go through the Word of God and extract from it what I believe God wants us to see today, okay? And so I want to read this passage to you from the ESV translation. And then I'm going to pray, and then we're going to unpack it and see where Jesus takes us. Psalms 23, beginning at verse number 1. "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures.

He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake. And 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 and the presence of my enemies, and you anoint my head with all 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." I want to utilize this passage for our subject matter entitled, "I'm Going Home." Let's pray, Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your Word. We ask that You would speak to us today. We ask that You would move in us and move in the various places we find ourselves in today and life. And God, we thank You that You are the only one that can meet us where we are and change us and transform us from the inside out. Renew our minds and send us on the path of righteousness for Your name's sake, and so we give You all the glory, all the honor, and all the praise in the matchless, undefeated name of Jesus, the Christ, our King, and everyone that's glad He's still alive and well, one time real loud, can you shout amen. Amen, you can take your seats in Jesus' name. How many of you have ever read Psalms 23 before? How many of you, when you first heard me say, "We're going to be in Psalms 23," thought to yourself, "I'm very familiar with this passage of Scripture.

I'm very familiar with it." And I want to encourage you, don't look at this with familiar eyes. The danger of hearing a verse a hundred times is that oftentimes you assume you already know what God wants to say. And anytime Scripture gets too familiar with us, we lose the opportunity to pull revelation from it. I can almost guarantee you, you have no idea where we're going with this passage. And so I want to encourage you to look at it with fresh eyes today, lean in with an open heart today, process and pray through this verse with the perspective of God. I'm open to whatever you want to say, I'm open to whatever you want to do, and I am open to wherever you want to take me after hearing the Word of God. So hear me here for a second. Listening is one thing, hearing is something completely different. And you may have heard me say this before, but I think it's worth repeating. You're not blessed by what you receive. You're blessed by what you retain. And so if you receive the Word but you don't retain the Word, it is of no effect to you because you've already assumed I've already got as much as I can out of this passage when in fact you can read one passage a million times and get a million different perspectives on it. And so what I wanna do today in this big living room, this big family room, we're all here as one big family. I wanna go verse by verse and just extract and uplift and reveal some things to you

that you may not have seen before. The greatest tragedy isn't rejecting God's word. It's becoming so accustomed to it that you stop expecting it to change you. And whenever I look at scripture, whenever I look at the word of God, whenever I approach the word of God and my automatic assumption is I already know where the passage is going, I already know where the passage is leading me, then I already put up a wall and stop that verse from changing me and transforming me and renewing my mind and building my faith. Let me remind you how faith is built. Faith is built by hearing and by hearing the word of God. So if faith is built by hearing, then doubt is built by not hearing and security is built by not hearing. Lack is built by not hearing. And so we desperately need to hear the word of God so that our faith can be built and we can become image bearers of Jesus Christ. Verse one of Psalms 23. The Lord is my shepherd. David doesn't say the Lord is a shepherd. He says my shepherd. This is covenant language. This is relational language. This is intimacy, my shepherd. Before David was king, he was a shepherd and he knew firsthand that sheep survive entirely

because of the care of another. And he's saying as a shepherd, I need a shepherd. As someone that is looking out for the sheep, I need someone to look out for me. So let me talk to my shepherd. And then he says, I shall not want. This term, it means more than material provision. It means I lack nothing necessary because someone that I belong to has everything I need. Let me set it up like this. What he's communicating is, is when I am being led by the shepherds, I have no wants. He doesn't say that you won't have needs. He says that you will have no wants. And when you do inventory over your life, whenever you fall short, whenever you sin, whenever you stumble, it's because you get what you want. - Yeah. There you go. - Maybe he was six-three, tall, beard. Came to vu every now and again and even lifted his hands in worship. And it was what you wanted. And you didn't get what you needed. Well, which may be five, ten, a little pudgy. (audience laughing) But maybe, maybe she was what you wanted. And you double tapped to Instagram and you exchanged pleasantries via DM. And you think to yourself,

I can win her to the Lord. And so did the other ten gods that was in her DM. And that's what you wanted, but it was not what you needed. Maybe what you needed isn't on social media. Y'all so quiet, it's okay. I'm gonna keep preaching though. (audience cheering) Because what you want will lead you and guide you to become someone that's contrary to who Jesus desires for you to be. So when you do inventory on your own life, it is because of what you want that is separated, you're from the good shepherd. But when you follow the good shepherd, he says, "I'll supply all your needs," according to my riches and glory through Christ Jesus. So point number one is this. When God is enough, need loses its power over your soul. When God is enough, need loses its power over your soul. When I am following the good shepherd, I understand all that I have. not because I am consistent, not because I am righteous, not because I am holy, but because he is righteous, because he is holy, because he is faithful when I am faithless. He is all that I have need of and so much more. I love the passage that says I look to the heels from which comes my help because my help comes from you need help today. You need help today. You don't need what you want. You need help today because some of you, you're leading yourself and you find yourself in situations and circumstances

that you promise yourself you would never be in again and here you are back in the same thing that you don't have the power to deliver yourself from. How many of you have ever broke a promise to yourself? Just raise your hand. I've been there. I've been there. God, if you deliver me from this, I promise to God. I will never be back here again and you find yourself back at that same place again the following week because you don't have power to transform yourself. Only a savior does. And so verse two in Psalms 23 it says, "He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside steel waters." Listen, I don't know how much sheep watching you do. I'm going to go out on a limb and guess here in Miami is not the sheep capital of America. But sheep only lie down when four conditions are met. The first condition, there is no fear. No, no fear. And the reason there is no fear is because we have an understanding of who's leading us. That the reason there is no fear because we have an understanding of how big our shepherd is. So sheep only lie down when there's no fear. Sheep only lie down when there is no friction among the flock. Sheep only lie down when there are no parasites. And the fourth condition, sheep only lie down when there is no hunger. The reason this is important for us to understand is because a sheep cannot force itself to rest. Rest is evidence of trust. And the reason you're restless is because you're not trusting the shepherd. Hear me. I've never seen a restful person that was hopeless. And I've never seen a hopeful person that was restless. Rest is not sleep. When you're physically tired, you need sleep.

When your soul is tired, you need rest. There you go, right. He makes me to lie down in green pastures. A sheep cannot force itself to rest. Rest is the evidence of trust. And some of us believe in God, but we trust in our abilities. And we're too impatient to wait for him to work it out. So we start making stuff happen in our own time. And we forget passage of the scripture because it doesn't encourage us, like, wait on the Lord and be of good courage. Again, I say, wait, surely that can't be God because what I want is right in front of me. And God knows how long I've been praying. God knows how long I've been waiting. God knows how long I've been patient. And God is saying, wait. But God, I want the promotion, wait. But God, I want the new opportunity, wait. But God, I want this house, wait. God, I want to buy a new car, wait. God, I want more, wait. And it's not that God is telling you to wait because he doesn't believe in you. He's telling you to wait because he knows that you're not mature enough to steward what he desires to give you yet. And so he says, wait and receive. heels. Thick plush grass. A good shepherd just running his sheep with his staff through grass that's as long as his knees. But when Psalm 23 speaks of green pastures it's talking about rocky terrain and every 10 or 15 yards there's patches of grass growing through the rocks and so the shepherd has to lead the sheep strategically and intentionally to where that patch of grass may be. The purpose of Psalms 23 isn't that we would see the lush green pastures is that we

would see our desperate and dire need to trust the shepherd. An Israel especially around Bethlehem and the Judean wilderness shepherds often let sheep in areas where grass grew in small patches between rocks nourished by the dew and seasonal rains. These weren't lush meadows by Western standards these would be considered a desert. And you think the desert season you are in is because God has left you. When in fact the desert season you are in is actually because the good shepherd is leading you. And David isn't describing abundance. He's describing fateful provision in difficult terrain. God doesn't always remove the wilderness. Sometimes he sustains you in it. Point number two is this. God's provision doesn't always look like plenty. It often looks like enough. Look at me for a second. God's provision doesn't always look like plenty. Sometimes it just looks like enough. God's math is different. Sometimes the way God adds to your life is by subtracting from your life. Sometimes God multiplies your life by division. And you keep wondering why in the world can I get rid of this person or these people? It's because you have stopped growing. You just keep growing. Everyone that's not growing will fall off. You're too focused on them and not focused enough on the shepherd that's leading you. God's provision doesn't always look like plenty. It often looks like enough. The presence of rocks does not mean the absence of provision. According to Psalms 23 the presence of rocks does not mean the absence of provision. That's one reason Psalms 23 is so powerful. David isn't writing from a fantasy. He's writing from experience. And some of you are waiting until the day where God delivers you out of something when in fact maybe God is delivering you through something and maybe God is walking with you and leading you and guiding you and maybe the circumstance does not change. Maybe you're changing because of the circumstance and maybe the pain does not leave but you're getting stronger stewing the pain that you have and maybe things don't change around you but God is changing on the inside of you who you are and who you're becoming and you won't see different until you say different. Y'all sit down. We got a lot to cover. We got a lot to

cover. We got a lot to cover. The phrase still waters literally means waters of rest. Again not assuming that anyone is an expert in sheep. Sheep did not rest beside moving waters because moving water frightened sheep because they understood that fast moving waters would soak their wool and heavy wool would disable them from swimming. And so oftentimes shepherds lost sheep in moving water because they were drowned. And so shepherds would often dam up rivers and creeks so that the waters would become cool and calm so that the sheep could drink from those waters. you to survive, he is going to come so that you can get nourished enough to continue to move forward with him. God doesn't merely provide water, he removes what would drown you while trying to satisfy you as well. Verse number three says, "He restores my soul. He leads me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake." The Hebrew word for restore means to bring back, to return, to rescue. He restores my soul. How is your soul today? How is your soul? But where do you find yourself and the health of your soul right now? I know on the outside you look like all things are well and you're so well put together and so well groomed. But how is your soul? Is it well with your soul? If he has to restore my soul, that means he has to bring it back to a place of origin because my current condition is not going to satisfy me. Re in front of anything means to do over again. If I have to restock your fridge, your fridge was once full and you've eaten and now it's empty so we have to restock it. If I have to refuel your car, your car once had gas and now you've driven it, it needs more gas.

If I have to redo anything, it's because it was once done and now it has to be done again. He restores my soul. Why would he need to restore my soul? His life has a tendency of poking holes in my soul and I leak out. You may think that you're good but your soul isn't. He restores my soul. He leads me in the path of righteousness for his name's sake. Shepherds use the phrase cast sheep because sheep would often roll onto their backs and could not get up by themselves. With alone, this sheep would die for the lack of circulation to their heart. And so a good shepherd seeing this would go to those sheep and flip them over and stand them up again. The shepherd had to personally turn them over and massage circulation back into their legs which provided circulation to all of their vital organs. The David is saying in this text when I couldn't get myself back up. When I couldn't change my situation or my circumstance, when I couldn't provide the circulation my soul needed, he picked me up. He turned me around, he placed my feet on solid ground and I wonder is anybody listening to me right now that's so glad that when you couldn't turn your life around, the good shepherds saw you and he turned you around and he placed your feet on solid ground and he put a fresh battery in your back and he put you back on the path of righteousness not for your name's sake. And for his name's sake, which leads us to point number three, God's reputation is attached to your restoration. He restores my soul, he leads me in the path of righteousness for his name's sake. Not yours, not your family, not your friend group, not your circle, not your crew. For his name's sake, his restoration in and through your life is because of his name's sake, not because of yours. Verse four. And even though I walk through the valley

of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. For you are with me. Let me just put a pen right there for a moment. Because I've lived through a lot of dark days in my life. I've lived through days that I did not think I would survive. I've lived through days that were so heavy and so overwhelming that I often asked the question, "God, are you still with me? "Are you still there?" And I've never doubt it that God was good, but I have often doubted that God was good to me. And ye, the walk through the valley of the shadow of death, you are with me. Shadows are only possible because light is somewhere near. (audience applauds) There is no light, there is no shadow. Doesn't matter how dark it may seem, the fact that there is a shadow is an indication that there's light somewhere. And here's the reality. You're not dwelling in darkness. You're walking through it. And as long as you can keep putting one foot in front of the other. As long as you can keep trusting that he is leading you and guiding you and directing your steps, he will continue to pull you out and pull you up

and place your feet back on the path of righteousness for his name, sake. Notice David changes from speaking about God to now speaking to God. Before the valley, he leads, he restores in the valley, you are with me. Now notice the change of narrative. He leads, he restores before the valley. In the valley, you are with me. A shadow of death can also mean deep overwhelming darkness. But the last time I checked, a shadow can't hurt you. A shadow can't put hands on you. A shadow can't kill you. A shadow can't inflict physical harm on you. A shadow will only do what you allow it to do. And that is scare you when you don't know who's leading you. So although I am walking through the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. How can I talk like this? Because what can a shadow do to me when I know who's leading me? And I ain't never afraid of a shadow. So I will fear no evil. Simply put, when I know the shepherd, I ain't never scared. I know who's leading me, I know who's covering me, I know who's guiding me, I know who's with me. And when I know who has my back, I can face tomorrow. So, yeah, do I walk through the valley of the shadow of death? I have no fear. Amen, amen, amen. For you are with me, your rod and your staff, they come for me.

Shepherds move flocks through dangerous ravines. What's the difference? Because oftentimes, we think these are the same and they are not. A rod is a short club used against predators, and a staff is a long crook used to guide wandering sheep. One is used to fight enemies, one corrects children. And he's saying, "Your rod and your staff, they both comfort me." One comforts me in knowing no enemy can do anything to me. The other comforts me in knowing the shepherd is leading and guiding me. So what is David saying to you right now? You have nothing to fear, understanding and knowing that the enemy cannot touch you, and all the plans and purposes and promises that God has for you are still, yes, and amen. So what does the Valley teach us? Point number four is this, the Valley changes your vocabulary. In the pastor, you talk about God. In the Valley, you learn to talk to him. And some of you, you're not talking to God because you're still in the pastor. You're still in your good season. You're still on your mountaintop. You still don't think that you need him. You still have everything that you want, and you have not hit the valley yet where it forces you to talk to him and not just talk about him. See, it's not until you develop intimacy with him that you can talk to him. I can say I know a lot of people, and I can say I know about even more people. I can say I know about Abraham Lincoln, and I can teach you about Abraham Lincoln. And I can go down to the history books about Abraham Lincoln. He did this, he did that, he did this. But I can't say that I know Abraham Lincoln because I never met him. I've only read about him, and some of you know about God, but you don't know him. And so you're telling people about what you know, not about who you know. Let that settle in for a second. Because you can't say you know someone until you meet them and develop a relationship with them. What he's saying is the valley changes your vocabulary. Some of you want God in the pasture, but not in the valley. In the pasture you talk about God, in the valley you learn to talk to him. Verse 5. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies, and you anoint my head with oil and my cup overflows. God doesn't remove enemies before he serves blessings. And some of you are praying that God would kill that person. Oh, I've been there before. God just killed them. I want them dead.

By the end of the week, God take them out. God made their tires be bald in a rainstorm. In Jesus' name. I know I ain't the only one. But maybe God wants them to stay alive long enough to give them a seat at the table. To see you steward the blessing he has in store for you. So maybe change your prayers from God, kill them so God keep them alive. God spared them. God saved them. God allowed them to see how you desire to move in and through my life so that they can know that you are God and you are leading me because you are the good shepherd and you do all things well. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies, you anoint my head with oil and my cup overflows. and Middle Eastern culture when hosts allow the cup. that your time with them was up. When they were hosting dinners and they would allow your cup to go empty, it was them telling you, thank you for stopping by. I hope you have a safe drive home. But when they continued to fill your cup, it was them telling you, stay a little while longer. (choir singing) And here he's saying, my cup, it overflows. (audience cheering) So look at this, look at this. David's point is that God isn't trying to get rid of you. He wants you to linger in his presence. (choir singing) He keeps pouring, and he keeps pouring, and he keeps pouring because he wants you to stay. He wants you to stay, he wants you to stay. He doesn't want you to just drop by. He doesn't just want it to be a Sunday thing.

He wants it to be Sunday. I spend time with you Monday. I spend time with you Tuesday. I spend time with you Wednesday. I spend time with you Thursday. I spend time with you Friday. I spend time with you Saturday. I spend time with you on Sunday. We get a chance to do it again. (audience cheering) So point number five is this. The overflow is not God's signal for you to leave. It's his invitation to remain. And then we end with verse number six. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. And I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. What used to chase you was fear. Now what chases you is goodness and mercy. And then he says, the house of the Lord. Let me give you context. David wrote this before the temple existed. So he wasn't talking about a building. He was talking about God's presence. What began as a narrative talking about a shepherd ended as a host talking to children calling them home. Point number six is this. The shepherd's final destination was never the valley, never the pasture, or even the table. He was always leading his sheep home.

(audience clapping) And this is the structure that many of us miss in Psalms 23. The Lord is my shepherd and it ends with, I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. The shepherd doesn't merely feet sheep. He always brings his sheep home. Verse four proves, valleys are temporary. David never says, though I camp in the valley, he says, though I walk through the valley and you may be in it right now. You may be in darkness right now. You may be over your head right now. You may be depressed right now. You may be all pressed right now. You may be dealing with stress and anxiety and fear right now, but just keep walking. (audience clapping) (audience clapping) Because this Psalms is a Psalm of divine relocation. Verse one, the field. Verse two, the pasture. Verse three, the path. Verse four, the valley. Verse five, the table. Verse six, the house. And so every season in Psalms 23 is temporary except the last one. Pastors are temporary. Valleys are temporary. Tables are temporary, but it is the house that is forever.

Hear me, food church. You are on a journey and you are headed home. (audience clapping) You're headed home. (audience clapping) Don't unpack regard only intended for you to pass through. And if you hear me say anything, I want you to hear me say this. God will interrupt your comfort just as quickly as he interrupts your crisis. And some of you are in the middle of comfort right now and God is gonna interrupt that. And on the other end of this spectrum, some of you are in the middle of crisis right now and God is going to interrupt that. Wow, because he's leading you home. Yay, do I walk through the valley of the shadow of death. I will fear no evil. Why, because I'm headed home. We're headed home. This is not your final resting place. This is not home. You just work here. You are just a pilgrim traveling through. This is not where you will spend eternity. You are headed home. So listen to me, listen, listen, listen. (congregation clapping) If you don't know the shepherds, and I urge you, you desperately need to know the shepherds.

If you're not being led by him, if you're not being guided by him, if he's not directing your path and you are leading yourself and I promise you, you're leading yourself away from his presence. You're leading yourself into deeper darkness and into deeper valleys and into deeper trenches away from the good shepherds because you don't know him. In John chapter 10, verse 11, he says, "I am the good shepherds." And in another passage, it says, "My sheep know my voice." If you don't know his voice, if you don't know him as the good shepherds, and you wanna know him today, all heads bowed, all eyes closed. I want you to throw both hands up right now. No matter if you're in this room or if you're in another one of the rooms watching online, you may be in your living room right now at home and you're like, I need to know the shepherd. I need to know who this good shepherd is. I need to be led by the shepherd right where you are. He will meet you and guide you. Lift up your hands if that's you, lift them up high. You've been leading yourself too long. You've been trying to figure it out and you will never figure it out separate from Jesus.

Without him, some things are possible, but with him, all things are possible to those that believe. Lift those hands, lift them. Repeat this prayer after me, "Lord, "I repent and I turn from my sin. "I ask that you will forgive me, "cleanse me, make me new, restore unto me "the joy of my salvation. "I confess with my mouth, I am a sinner, "I need to be saved, and I believe in my heart of hearts "that you are the only one that can save me, "lead me, guide me, so I turn my life over. "To you and only you. "In Jesus' name I praise, amen, and amen."