Psalm 23 – I Will Not Be Anxious!: Overcoming the Fear of Abandonment

What do you find yourself worrying about the most? what is it that causes you to be anxious? Second question is, how does your worry or anxiety, impact you mentally, emotionally, physically? For some people it's a really big deal. I mean, it's panic attacks, it's lack of sleep, it's big issues. And for most all of us, there's worry that we have and struggles that we have. Sometimes it's milder.

But I want to ask you, what is it that causes you to worry or be anxious? And then I'd like you to think about when you are anxious, or when I am anxious, how does that undermine being bold and courageous?

I mean, when we are so fixated on, you know, I can't do this or, what about that? And so, I made a little list of the kind of things that when they come on the screen of my mind, it causes me to be anxious, and then here's what I want you to know. We're going to have a declarative statement about worry, so that we can be bold. We're going to say, out loud, and begin to live out, "I will not worry." We're going to talk about overcoming the fear of inadequacy, because at the heart of worry is, "I can't handle this," or, "I don't have what I need." Or I'm not strong enough." Or, I couldn't go on." We all have those. And there are some symptoms.

So, I made a list. I want you to be as honest as you can and just think about which ones of these trigger your worry. And I'll just give you, you know, uh, like the psychologist word association. I'll just give a word and you kind of associate, "Ooh, yeah, that's one." Or I just want to get your arms around, where's the focus of your worry. Cancer, bankruptcy, divorce, illness, injury, family struggle, betrayal, rejection, depression, loneliness. I could go on, right?

Those are areas that pop up into your life and my life. And when I begin to worry, when I get anxious, when I begin to think, I don't have what I need, when I begin to think, "This situation is overwhelming. I can't go through this. I'm not strong enough. I'm not smart enough. I'm not emotionally whole enough," those things begin to do something in your psyche and in your life where I will just guarantee you being the bold, courageous example of Christ in the midst of that situation evaporates.

Now, don't get me wrong. We all struggle with worry and anxiety. But it is possible not to worry. And you say, "No, I don't think it is for me." Here's the deal. God commands you and me not to worry. If He commands it, it means there's grace that we don't have to worry.

Philippians 4: 6 and 7. "Be anxious for nothing." It's a command. It's an imperative. Literally, it's "Stop worrying about anything.” “But by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving,” there's this mind shift, “make your requests known to God, and the God of peace will guard your heart and your mind in Christ Jesus."

And so, if we're going to be bold, courageous Christians in the world that we're living in, and it's getting harder and more difficult, and there's going to be challenges, and that list that I just read is going to be a part of many of our lives. For some of us, we've already been through those, to some degree. I want you to declare, Psalm 1, "I will thrive." Psalm 15, "I will not be shaken." And now, Psalm 23. "I will not worry. I will overcome the fear of my inadequacy."

And we're going to learn because you have a shepherd, you have a protector. You have a provider. You have a lover of your soul whose name is Jesus. And he's made some promises that are pictured here in this Old Testament passage that David writes. And we're going walk through it.

And would you please just in your mind's eye pause and not allow your mind to go to, "Oh yeah, the 23rd Psalm. That's what they read at funerals." I was just at a memorial, yesterday and a close family member, one of my grown sons' father in laws went through a really challenging time with a debilitating illness and had really walked with God and what a legacy. And as I was there, though, the moment of sobriety… I've done a lot of memorial services, I've done a lot of funerals, everything from little babies to very old people and everybody in between. And there is something about facing death. There's something about the brevity of life that causes us to back away and begin to look at: So, what am I anxious about? In fact, it asks, "What really, really matters?"

And so, David in Psalm 23 is going to, literally say: I have a father, I have a God, I have a Savior that will give me all I need. And I know it's very familiar, I'm going to read the passage, but I want you to listen to three specific “I will” statements.¨ See, he declares, he even talks to himself. Listen to this. He says: I will not be afraid. I will not want. I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

I mean, he's not adequate, but he's going to teach us that God is adequate. So, listen carefully. "The Lord, Yahweh, is my Shepherd. I shall not be in want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside quiet waters. He restores my soul. He guides me or directs my paths in righteousness." Why? "For His namesake." And ten he shifts gears now. "Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will," choice, "fear no evil." Why? "For You are with me. Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me."

And then he changes the metaphor from shepherd and protection to a banquet. And a banquet where he's overcome his enemies. He says, "You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil. My cup overflows. Surely goodness and love will follow me,” literally pursue me, “all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever." One of the challenges with familiar passages, it's just sort of beautiful words. It's beautiful poetry.

We've heard it read at different places and we've received this often in kind of an emotional time. I want to break this down in a way that you can understand that Jesus is your adequacy, that he'll take care of your physical needs, your emotional needs, and your spiritual needs. That this shadow of the valley of death, this isn't just someone dying. We're going to learn it's any period of crisis when there are shadows and there's the unknown and you're afraid and there's evil - that you can be bold and you can be courageous because He's with you.

And then we're going to talk about even when there's evil and when you've come through things and you're in a spiritual battle, that there is a provision for you both now and forever, that you can say: Because of who Jesus is, because of my relationship with Him, because of the Spirit of God living in me, because [of] the Word that is true, “I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever."

And instead of the future, "Oh, I wonder what's going to happen," literally, it's a picture of God is running after you and running after me to be good, to be merciful, to do what we long for in our hearts and our lives. But we get paralyzed by anxiety. We get self-focused by anxiety. Psychologists say 90% of all the things we worry about never happen. But boy, your body, when you're worried, your blood pressure, it thinks it's real. And so, let's walk through then, the major implications of this passage.

He says, "I shall not be in want," why? because the shepherd provides all my needs. But if you don't understand the actual picture of the Lord Yahweh, all powerful, I am that I am, Word, and then this word for shepherd which is one of the lowliest jobs that you can have, coming together in this passage, you'll never really understand the hope that they're talking about.

And so, here's what I want you to get. We have this picture where God is saying, "The Lord." And to an Old Testament saint, I mean, that's His holy name. And then, right next to it is: my shepherd. And this is someone that produces an image of, well, that's the lowliest person in the family. Remember David? He was the youngest son. And that's the person that when everyone else is doing something, you got the night watch. It was a dirty job. It was a job where you're, you know, I mean, protecting the sheep from bears and lions. It was a dangerous job at times.

And he's, bringing this picture of God's power and greatness and His intimacy. Because the one thing about sheep and things about shepherds is they build this incredible bond. And when he's giving us this picture, he's saying: You're never alone.

Notice the needs that He's going to meet. His statement is: I shall not be in need, or I shall not be in want. And he says: It's because the Lord will provide all of my needs. The first one is physical. "He makes me lie down in green pastures." In other words, there's provision for my food. He's going to cause me to be where there's quiet waters." If the water was real bubbly or moving fast, sheep are so frightened. And so often a shepherd would build a little dam and back up the water and make a pool and make it real calm so the sheep could come and get what they need physically.

And then he moves to the psychological. And he says, “He leads me beside quiet waters and He restores my soul." When this is translated in the New Testament version of the Old Testament, it's called the LXX, the Greek translation of the Old Testament. It was very popular in Jesus' day. The word is psyche, soul. He says he restores the inner being. He quiets what's going on inside.

And then finally notice, "He guides me in paths of righteousness for His name's sake." So, He meets our spiritual needs. The New Testament version of this is Philippians chapter 4. It says, “I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength." Jesus promised, I'll meet your physical needs. Jesus promised, I'll meet your emotional needs. Jesus promised: I'll meet your spiritual needs.

And so, we can say: Yes, we feel inadequate. Yes, we have needs. Yes, we feel like I can't do that. And Jesus says: I am with you always. I am the good shepherd. My sheep hear my voice. Remember that same chapter in John chapter 10? He says that: I am not only the good shepherd, but I came that you might have life, and you might have it abundantly. He's not saying there won't be difficulty and tragedy. He's not going to just take away cancer or car wrecks. He's not going to say there aren't difficulties in the world. What He's saying is we will all go through very challenging times at one point or another. And he's saying: And you'll never go through them alone.

I didn't grow up as a follower of Christ. I never really opened the bible until I was 18. It was my first exposure. And as I begin to learn and hear these kind of things, I was like, Does God really provide? I mean, will He really take care of me? And since that time, I've seen multiple, supernatural provision.

But early on, Teresa and I got married and I thought I was going to be a major college basketball coach and after playing basketball throughout Southeast Asia and, uh, then in South America, it was like, "No, I want you to coach a different team. I want you to coach My people."

So, it was like, "Okay, Lord." I mean, I've already been to grad school and I got to start all over and it's four years of graduate theological. But I had two little kids and I believed that my wife should be home with my kids. And so, I had to figure out, "Okay, what kind of job can I have that I can make just enough money, to pay my bills, go to school full time, and so my wife can stay home?" And, I mean, it got tight.

And I need $1,000 just to pay the rent and just have enough food and take care of the basics. And so, I find a job, the only one I could do was straight commission and if I made two or three sales in a month, I had enough money to go on. And then, we're in this housing development where it's a bunch of students, and it's pretty cheap, and we all don't have very much, and we were in a co-op, and literally, back then we all put five dollars in and then you would come back with, like, two or three big bags of fruits and vegetables.

And so, my wife would do vegetables and she got some flour and she made bread and we got to where 15 days, no meat. We had peanut butter and honey sandwiches every day, and I don't have any money. "God, where are you?" And then now we don't have food. And I'm thinking, "Lord, You said You would supply all my needs."

And I'll never forget, I came home. Teresa, when I got home, she said, "Chip, did you call someone?" I said, "What do you mean?" She said, "I took the kids to school, I drove back." And she said, "There were five bags of groceries on our porch." I said, "You're kidding." She says, "No, it's even weirder than that."

I said, "Well, what do you mean?" She said there was a bag of whole wheat flour, which I've been using to make the bread.
There [were] two jars of honey. It was filled with meat and chicken, it even had some cheese. [It] had a bag of chips. We hadn't had chips or anything like that in about three or four months. And she said, "All the things that we haven't had." "Did you tell anybody?" I said, “I didn't tell anybody." I just thought, It's not wrong to tell people, but I thought we were supposed to trust God and part of seminary isn't just, you know, learning stuff, it's, Do I really believe this or not?

And so, uh, I don't know what you believe about angels, but I believe that some angels went out and did some shopping and dropped five bags of groceries that no one could have ever known what we needed and provided. And that may sound like a silly story to you, but you know what it was for me? It was driving a stake to say, "My God will meet my needs."

And I would learn as the years would go on, as we would have the normal struggles that every marriage has, as we would work with kids, as I would learn to be a pastor in small and medium and large churches, I would learn that I didn't have to worry. I'm not saying I never did, but I learned He would take care of my physical needs.

I would learn that when I was struggling, and I would write in my journal and take a long walk, and I didn't want to pray, I didn't want to praise, I didn't want to do anything, but I would just go, "God, You're my Shepherd, You care." And I would just pour out my heart, sometimes sit on a curb late at night, and little by little He would restore my soul. And He would realign my heart and then He would give me perspective.
And then finally notice, "He guides me in paths of righteousness for His name's sake." So, He meets our spiritual needs.

Yes, we feel inadequate. Yes, we have needs. Yes, we feel like I can't do that. And Jesus says: I am with you always. I am the good shepherd. My sheep hear my voice. Remember that same chapter in John chapter 10? He says that: I am not only the good shepherd, but I came that you might have life, and you might have it abundantly. He's not saying there won't be difficulty and tragedy. He's not going to just take away cancer or car wrecks. He's not going to say there aren't difficulties in the world. What He's saying is we will all go through very challenging times at one point or another. And he's saying: And you'll never go through them alone.

To this day, I still do something every single morning and I'm always disappointed when it's not there.

But my little routine is, I get up early because I like to get up early. It's my special time with the Lord. And so, I put on the coffee, I feed the dog, but when the dog has to go outside, right, and he's my buddy. And so, I go outside and every day I stop and I look up. You know, it's usually around 5:00 or so and the sky is filled with stars. I mean, brilliant, brilliant stars. And I just pause and I think, "The God that made every one of those. The God that spoke those stars into existence, He's my Shepherd. He cares about me. His Spirit lives inside of me. I don't know what His plans are for today, but He knows what's going to happen. He knows who I'm going to meet.

He knows what the challenges are going to be." And, you know, I talked about how important God's Word is? The reason after I feed my dog and get my cup of coffee, that I go find a little special corner for me, and I open this book, not because I need to read four chapters to keep the devil away, but I open this book to say, "Shepherd of my soul, You know all my needs. You know what's coming up today. I am inadequate, I'm sure of that, in and of myself. And so, would You help me?"

And so, this is where I'm reading right now, and I'm reading over here as well. Is there a promise? Is there something to obey? Is there some encouragement? Or is it just enjoying Your presence and being reminded that I matter?" The Lord is not the shepherd. Notice my, my, my, my, my. The Lord is my shepherd. He makes me lie down. He leads me beside quiet waters. He restores my soul. He guides me. You know, if you want to maybe have a moment that would be helpful, change that first paragraph and just put your name in it. Especially if you're struggling, especially if you're saying, “Oh, brother, you’re telling me you can actually say, ‘I will not worry?’"

I'm not saying that, God is. But you'll worry if you're your shepherd. You'll worry if your job is your shepherd. You'll worry if your circumstances are your shepherd. You'll worry if you're leaning or depending on some person or some group or some account to be your shepherd because none of them can come through 100% of the time. But Jesus would say, how about this, "The Lord is," and put your name in. The Lord Yahweh is Chip's shepherd. Chip shall not be in need. He makes Chip lie down in green pastures. He leads Chip beside quiet waters. He restores Chip's soul. He guides Chip in paths of righteousness. Why? For His name's sake, for His honor.

God is way more committed to you living a life and blessing you and causing your life to go in a way that would honor Him than you are. If you're open, He's just looking for ordinary people with all the fears and inadequacies and anxieties that say, "I just want to do life Your way." And He says, "You don't have to worry, because I will meet, I will provide for all your needs."

The second area where we get inadequate is when evil comes at us, right? There's bad stuff out there. You know, you watch the news. And I, I told Teresa once, you know, we were watching the news and watching the news and, and I said, "You know, we can change stations, but it's the same story every night with just different names. There's lots of evil everywhere. And it can just overwhelm you. And by the way, it's not just outward and physical. There are times where the evil is relational.

There are times, because of where we've ministered and especially some things around the world, the evil has been, actual demonic activity. And some of you have experienced that as well. So, how can you not worry when there are invisible forces trying to take you down, when there's physical forces, when there's whole systems that literally are corrupt? Here's what he says: I will fear no evil because the shepherd protects me from all evil. This phrase, first he says in the shadow of death, literally it's in dark times of crisis, he promises, "I'll be with you" - God's presence. And that's why, yes, there's a Holy Spirit manifestation of His presence, but a big part of God's presence is being in His Word.

When His Word begins to saturate your soul, He says: I'll be with you. He'll bring passages to your mind. He'll bring promises to your mind. There are times where we all get very, very afraid. And he says: I won't worry. I won't be afraid and I won't fear because God will protect me. “Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me."

The rod was for predators. It was sort of a pole and had a little ball on the end. And they got really good at it. So, I mean, David talked about a lion and a bear. They could throw this thing and, I mean, take out big stuff. When he says God's rod, he says, when evil comes at you and it can be a person, it can be demonic activity, he says, your shepherd, Jesus Christ has power and He'll protect you. And then the staff was a, it's long and has a crook at the end. He would tap the sheep or if they fell in a little gully, he would take that and lift them out.

What he's saying is, "God's presence and God's protection and God's direction is going to take me through the evil that's in the world." And as you think about that, I'd like you to ponder what's the evil that you experience in your world? What's going on in your family or what, what are some challenges or issues that cause you to worry and get uptight and be anxious because there is a lot of evil.

And could I just, take a quick aside? You need to guard what you allow in your mind. I stay up on the news in general. I don't watch it anymore. I'm aware of what's happening in the world. I take some time, especially if it's a big news story or big things are happening. I'm going to tell you the way God has made our minds, if you watch lots of news, and you hear how terrible that political party is, or how that other political party is, or all the people that are getting abducted, or all the people that are getting cancer, or what, I mean, you will unconsciously, the research is in, you will start to believe those things will happen to you. And you will begin to act and behave accordingly.

And those actions and those behaviors, will not be strong or courageous. They will be inward, they'll be anxious, and there'll be you being the kind of person that people can't find Jesus because you're just worried and uptight like everybody else. I'm not saying that, you know, we don't stay connected to the world. What I'm saying is a steady diet of the news, a steady diet of how difficult and painful everything is. Here's the deal. Go around the world, millions, hundreds of millions of acts of kindness, love, encouragement, ministries doing things, people being kind to neighbors, none of that makes the news.

And when we live in a world where this one thing that happened this morning is on my news tonight, and now I hear all the evil of all the places of all the world, no one was ever designed to absorb all that.

And so, he says: I will guard you, I will protect you, I will direct you with My presence, with the power of My Spirit, and with My promises. I'll never leave you. I'll never forsake you. Here's what I want you to remember. God does not promise that we're not going to go through things. He promises you'll never go through them alone. He says, "I will fear no evil." Why? Because, “You are with me." Again, application point. Do you experience the presence of God with you?

Now, maybe you read the Bible at some point in the day, but are you practicing the presence of God? Do you find yourself in the car sharing some prayers? Are you, during the day, kind of looking around and, "God, what are you up to?" Are you kind of asking those questions, "Lord, where are You directing me? In other words, the signals can come, but you have to have an antenna up. And if your antenna isn't up, if you're not focusing on God's Word, if you're not kind of asking some questions…

See, God wants you to practice and experience His presence. But can I tell you something what I observe, and I'm fighting it myself? I'll walk into a bank, I'll walk into a restaurant. Or one time, this was crazy, I was in China doing some ministry and it's the largest train station I've ever seen. I bet there are 8 or 10,000 people. And I'm telling you, 98.7% of them were like this on their phone. Where's your focus? Are you present where you're present?

By the way, I look at my phone as well, but can you stick it in your pocket? But to have some time where I don't want a device, I don't want a notification, I want to be able to focus on the person I'm talking to. I want to focus on what happened in my day. I want to process, "God, what are you up to in my life?" Here's the thing, He'll speak; I don't have to worry… that He's with me and I'll be okay.

And then finally he gives us this last picture. And it's the picture of a big battle has occurred and the enemy has been subdued and there's a big banquet of celebration. And he says in the presence of your enemies, in the midst of the battles. He says what? "I am going to prepare a table - a table in the presence of your enemies. You have the victory."

And then he says in this passage, "He anoints his head with oil. If you were in a very fancy dinner in the Old Testament, ancient near Eastern time, [of] course they would wash your feet and then they would have a cup of oil and they would anoint you. And basically, it would be like getting ready for the really big party. And it would have a fragrance and an aroma and it would probably be pretty expensive. Remember when the lady did that for Jesus? And [they] were like, "Don't do that, that costs so much." And he said, "No, you don't understand what she's doing."

This is a picture of your heavenly Father knowing all about you. Knowing the challenges, knowing the struggles. Saying, "I've got the victory. Not only do I have the victory, but I want you to have a life of abundance." And after you're anointed with oil, it says, "My cup overflows."

It's just, in other words, you know some of those places where you go, like the buffets, and you can keep refilling your plate or, you know, you get something to drink, and you look, and the waiter, they keep, they keep refilling it? He says, "It's abundance. I got you covered. I'm for you. I love you. You don't have to worry. And probably the greatest fear most of us have at some stage in your life is, "What happens when I die?" Or if you're a parent, the fears you have for worrying about your child at school or a terrorist attack.

And as he closes out this, he says: There will be tragedies in a fallen world. But I want you to know that I've got you covered now. And I've got you covered forever and ever. Instead of, "When's the other shoe going to drop?” mentality, I wonder if this is going to happen to me? I'm really afraid. I need to be overprotective. I need to be a helicopter parent. I've got to watch this. I got to watch that. We can't do that. We can't do that. Last year we found that if you drink too much coffee you're going to get cancer. Then we found that if you drink more coffee you don't get cancer and …. blah blah blah. Right? You can drive yourself nuts.

Here's what he says, "Goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life." God is pursuing you. If you would just stop long enough and not get so distracted, become aware of His presence. Understand His Word will bring new life. Get in relationship with other believers so you do this together and say: God has a great and wonderful plan. I don't have to worry because 90% of it's not going to happen and the other is, I'll never go through it alone.

And if the absolute worst thing that could ever happen happens as a follower of Jesus, “precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his godly ones.” We don't really think about this, are you ready? This is not all there is. There is a life after this that goes on forever and ever and ever and ever and it is good and it is wonderful for those who've trusted Christ and it is good and it is wonderful for those who walk with Him.

And he says, "In my every day, God wants to bring about good in my life." And we learn from Psalm 15, I need to be positioned and living the kind of life so his blessings can pour in. And then he says, "Even If I die, “I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever." At some point in time, you have to ask, and I have to ask, at a practical level, where's my hope? Is it that my career will be great? Is it that I'm single and I'll finally get married? Well then after I'm married, do we finally have kids? Is it that, all my kids turn out right? It goes on and on and on and on. And those are good desires.

But at some point, you have to say, "My hope is in God. His power, His presence, His promises. And I'm going to be bold and courageous even in the midst of all the chaos that we all see around us, because I don't have to worry. I really don't." The fact of the matter is that we are all sheep. But all of us, like sheep, have gone astray. We have turned, everyone, to our own way, but the Lord has laid upon Him, Jesus, the iniquities of us all.

If by chance that you've never received Jesus to be your Shepherd, can I encourage you, turn from your sin, confess to God who is perfect that you don't measure up, that you are inadequate, and that you believe and put your trust on Christ's death and resurrection to pay for your sin and invite Him to come into your life. And I would say to those of us that are followers of Jesus, every sheep needs a shepherd. Are you letting Him shepherd your life? You know, shepherds don't drive the sheep, they lead the sheep. Jesus is saying to you and to me, "Look, here's the way. Here's the way, walk in it. Let Me give you direction. Here's how relationships work. Follow Me. I want to give you what's good. I want relationships to be deep and genuine. I want you to have peace. I don't want you to worry." In the words of what we say to one another, right? Someone's struggling with something and they try, what do we say to them? "You got this."

Can I tell you something? Here's what Jesus is saying to you. He's saying: I got this. You don't have to worry. I got this. You don't have to project because whatever comes into your life, whoever comes into your life, whatever comes into your life, no matter how difficult, how hard, how painful, how evil, I am with you. I will protect you and I'm pursuing you. And in worst case scenario, you will be with Me forever and ever and ever. Jesus wants to be your shepherd, today. I'd like to ask you what would that look like and what's your first baby step to say, "I will not worry. I'm declaring that. Jesus, here's where I'm not letting You be my shepherd. And so, I'm going to take this baby step of submission to believe that what You said is true." And you watch how God will work.