Welcome to the Daily Disciple Podcast, where we seek daily to be with and to become like Jesus, our teacher. Welcome to the Daily Disciple Podcasts Travis, and we're going to talk about the 23rd Psalm. And the idea is when we find something that looks attractive, we want to live it out, we want to live in light of it, we want to do it. The original Nike tagline back when I was in high school was just do it, just get out there and do it, just do it.
And so think about the last idea, thought, tip, book, concept that you heard, and when you heard it, you're like, man, that's a great idea, I just want to do that. I'm just going to do it, I'm going to do it, I'm going to do it, and then you employ your willpower, and you tried, and you tried, and you tried, and probably, if you're like most people, you weren't able to pull it off. You weren't able to just do it. And that causes many of us to get a little bit disheartened, and frustrated, and confused, and wonder, well, how in the world will I be able to do anything that I want to do?
How can I live differently in this way? How can I, especially when the heat is on, in the game, in a difficult situation, right? In a political argument, right? In a season of depression or anxiety, when we feel tight financially, when we're caught up in addiction, whatever the season or the thing might be, it's like, okay, that's a great idea, I want to live that out.
I'm going to try, try, try, try, but I realize, oh man, my willpower alone is not going to be able to get me there. And so just for fun, let's think about the last time we heard an idea, or read an idea, or saw something, and somebody else's life, and our heart and mind were like, yeah, I'm going to do that, just do it. I'm going to go do it, and we tried for a couple hours or a couple weeks or a couple months, and then things just kind of fell flat, and maybe we got discouraged, maybe we begin to think, oh, that's impossible, but we saw someone else living it, so we know it's not impossible, so we don't really know where to go with this whole idea. So thinking about all of that, we are looking at the 23rd Psalm, the Lord is my shepherd.
I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures, and he leads me beside quiet waters, and he, my shepherd, refreshes my soul. So describing a fulfilled, satisfied, grateful life, great, that's attractive, wonderful, let's just do it, let's just live it, let's just get it in us so that it comes out of us, and let's just do it, let's live this reality. Well, go ahead and try, try it real hard, but most of us will find that we will fail.
And at this point, there's a bit of the teaching of Jesus that really helps us out, out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth is going to speak. So if we want our mouth to speak differently, we've got to get something different in our heart because we will always, always speak out of what is actually in our heart. And so just for a moment, I want us to think about being in a conversation with someone who disagrees with us politically and really doesn't like where we're at politically, and they've kind of got some heat on some of the stuff that they're sharing. And there we are, and we can find ourselves just getting frustrated, right?
Or I want us to think about being in a season of depression, and nothing seems hopeful, nothing seems exciting. Or maybe let's think about some of our anxiety, worried about tomorrow, the other shoe is going to drop, something bad's going to happen tomorrow. Or think about an addiction that we might be caught up in. So let's think about that for just a moment.
And what does that have to do with the 23rd song, The Lord Is My Shepherd? I lack nothing, He makes me lie down and gain pastors, He leads me beside quiet waters, He refreshes my soul. Well, how do we get that in us? How do we get that in us to such a degree that it naturally comes out of us?
And the answer to that question throughout the history of the Christian movement revolution has been meditation. So let's take this 23rd song, just the first stanza, just the first stanza of this great poem, and find a quiet place every day, and think about it, internalize it, let it roll around in our hearts and our minds, let it soak in the soil of our soul, let's memorize it, let's pray it, let's think about it. Sometimes we will pray and think and say the whole thing, sometimes just a stanza, let's just hide God's word in our heart, let's meditate on the law of the Lord day and night, and slowly but surely something's going to happen. We're going to get it in us.
It's going to be in us. And so what we'll find is it's naturally going to come out of us. And it won't be like the Nike tagline, just do it, but we will find ourselves actually doing it, but not because we decided to just do it, but because we decided to hide God's word in our heart to let the truth of the song just soak into the soil of our soul. It's in us and it's going to come out of us.
And so back to what we were thinking about when we're in that political dialogue and we can feel anger rising up inside of us toward that other person that is dissing our politician, our policy, how we think America should be run, we're going to find something different coming out of our mouth because something different is welling up in our heart because we are lying down in green pastures, we're being led by quiet waters. Our soul is refreshed and the thing about a refreshed soul is that that soul no longer needs to attack or judge or over talk because that soul is refreshed so that person can listen. And we find that we're naturally and routinely doing what this soul is talking about, not through direct effort, but through meditation. And we're becoming different people and I promise you the person you're talking to in this political dialogue is going to be shocked by your response because it's going to be different because out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks.
Nothing about depression or anxiety. See, depression is the result of unrealistic expectations for a date, for Christmas morning, for paycheck, for smooth life, and so we are expectations, our unrealistic expectations are not met. We find ourselves depressed. But what if we know deep in our bones, deep in our heart that we lack nothing, that we're content, that we're satisfied, that we're grateful.
We know that, well, that is the death blow to depression that destroys slowly but surely depression. We can still be sad, but there's a difference between sad and depressed. We can be grateful and sad, but it's very difficult to be grateful and depressed. What about anxiety?
Anxiety is about something bad's going to happen tomorrow. I just know what the other three are going to drop something bad's going to happen tomorrow, something bad's going to happen tomorrow, something bad's going to happen tomorrow. But what if we have soaked in this psalm and know that the Lord is our shepherd? We have no need and we're lying down in green pastures and we're strolling beside streams of water because our good shepherd is leading us.
Well, we know we're going to be a good today and then we know our shepherd's going to be leading us tomorrow. And so anxiety just starts to wither. That fear and anxiety about something that happening tomorrow just starts to wither because we're filled and we're satisfied. And that leads us to addiction.
If we are struggling in any way with any addiction, addiction is always the attempt to fill a perceived void in our lives. Addiction is always an attempt to fill a perceived void in our lives with action or substance or whatever it might be. Well, if the Lord is our shepherd and we lack nothing, then we don't have a void. Therefore, we don't have to fill a void because we don't have a void.
We're in green pastures lying down because we're full. We're being led by streams of still water because we're not thirsty. And so addiction just begins to evaporate to the degree that we have hidden this poem in our hearts to the degree that we have allowed this poem to soak into the soil of our soul. The Lord is indeed my shepherd.
I lack nothing. I'm good. I'm satisfied. I'm fulfilled.
And we will talk tomorrow. Thanks for listening to the Daily Disciples podcast. We truly hope that you were encouraged by it today. Now, if you would like to support or if you have any questions about the Daily Disciples podcast, feel free to contact us through our Inland Vineyard Church app.
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