Welcome to the Daily Blade. The Word of God is described as the sword of the spirit, the primary spiritual weapon in the Christian's armor against the forces of evil. Your hosts are Joby Martin and Kyle Thompson, and they stand ready to equip men for the fight. Let's sharpen up.

Back to the 23rd Psalm. Maybe you're memorizing it by now. The Lord is my

shepherd. I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me besides still waters.

He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness. I think part of the reason Americans

love this Psalm so much is because at this point we think man he's really into me

i mean look how awesome i am that the sovereign king of the universal would be my shepherd and look what

he's doing i mean we don't love the phrase he makes me lie down but that's what he does he makes me

lie down see this is the kind of shepherd that makes you do stuff.

And if you would look at your life in Christ and you think, well, he hasn't made me do anything

lately, then he may not be your shepherd. Because nowhere in the Bible are you going to find

this idea that the sheep go out, lead the way, and then ask the shepherd to come and bless the

direction of the sheep. No, no, no. He goes the other way.

I mean, we'll spend some time here in a few weeks, but in John chapter 10, the preeminent text on

shepherding in the New Testament, Jesus says that my sheep hear my voice and they obey my

voice and they do not listen to the voice of the stranger. And every single time we do what the shepherd tells us to do, it leads to life.

And every single time we disobey it and go our own way, it leads to death.

And so this is the kind of shepherd that's not, listen, man, you don't have to feather the hair of Jesus.

He's not just a sky fairy telling you wonderful things about you and trying

to fix all your problems. No, no, no, no, no. This is the kind of shepherd that for his own glory and for your

own good, he makes you do things. He's going to make you lie down in green pastures. He's going to lead you

besides still waters. And what we get out of obedience to the good shepherd is this, he restores my soul.

And some of you need to have your soul restored.

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