Okay, okay. Well, good morning again, everyone. It is really a blessing to be able to worship together with you. I feel very much at home with the saints here, so thank you for your welcome.
I want to share from 1 Peter today. Let us take a look at the end of 1 Peter 2. We will read 1 Peter 2:21-25.
For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps:
Who committed no sin, nor was guile found in His mouth;
Who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously;
Who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed.
For you were like sheep going astray, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.
Let us have a word of prayer.
Dear Lord, thank You that we can come before You and praise You for Your everlasting love today. As we read this Word, we know that You are the Shepherd and Overseer of our souls. We pray that You would open our hearts now to receive the Word that You have prepared for us.
We pray that there would be good soil today, Lord, to receive even things that may be familiar to us; but that You would speak in a fresh and living way. We are so dependent on You for the speaking and for the hearing. So we look to You. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
In Manhattan, we have been sharing from the book of 1 Peter over the last few weeks, and this is the portion that I would just like to pick up—particularly the last verse in 1 Peter 2, with this phrase: “the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.”
It is remarkable to think of and consider the depth of 1 Peter when you remember the Peter of the Gospels. When you think about the Peter of the Gospels—one who was so full of energy, quick to speak, and maybe speaking a little too quickly and putting his foot in his mouth—yet one who had boldness and faith, you do not think of Peter as one who was caring and gentle, coming alongside people and encouraging them in their faith.
He was more, “I am going to lead the charge, and just come along with me,” right? That was a different Peter. So something happened in Peter’s life. Something was wrought into his life and built into his life to change Peter into the man he was by the time he wrote this letter of 1 Peter.
You remember that picture at the end of John, when the resurrected Jesus met with Peter. A wider call came into his life, and we remember how Jesus said to him, “Shepherd My sheep.” That call that Jesus gave to Peter, you see coming forth when he writes this letter of 1 Peter.
What is the responsibility of a shepherd? Peter was now living out this call that Jesus gave him to be a shepherd. What is the primary purpose of a shepherd? It is to turn us to the Lord. Peter certainly turns the saints to the Lord—and turns us to the Lord—in this letter.
Even in 1 Peter 1, think of the ways that he turns us to the Lord. He reminds the saints of their living hope, their incorruptible inheritance, the preciousness of their faith through trials, and the end of their faith: the salvation of their souls.
Then, when you get to 1 Peter 2, you see how Peter reminds these saints of who they really are: a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, and God’s special possession. Even yesterday at the planning meeting, Kenny brought up that particular verse: God’s own possession, His special people. Peter reminds them that this is their true calling and who they are.
After all that buildup, as you walk through 1 Peter, you see Peter giving encouragement concerning how we ought to live this Christian life. There are many practical ways in which he encourages us as a shepherd walking through this life. But it is not without this very important verse at the end of 1 Peter 2, where he reminds them of Who it is that we are living for: the Shepherd and Overseer of our souls.
Just to give you a very simple roadmap, we are going to talk first about Him being the Shepherd of our souls, and then about Him being the Overseer of our souls. Very simple today—just two main points.
Now, speaking of Him being the Shepherd of our souls, remember, of course, in the Gospels how Jesus traveled around cities and villages. He taught, preached the gospel of the kingdom, and healed diseases. You saw the compassion of Jesus. You remember in Matthew how He saw the multitudes as sheep without a shepherd.
God knows that we are all like sheep who need a shepherd. We really need that Shepherd.
Peter took up this role as a shepherd, but even though he was a shepherd, he knew the Shepherd. If you were reading what I am saying right now, that would not come forth, but just to underscore it: Peter was a shepherd, but there is the Shepherd. And the Shepherd is the One whom we worship today.
We look to Him. Our brother opened with Psalm 23, which I will speak about today as well. This good Shepherd we look to; this great Shepherd we look to; this chief Shepherd we look to.
We think about Jesus as the good Shepherd, and that speaks of His love for us. We look to Him as the great Shepherd, and that speaks to His preeminence. We think about Him as the chief Shepherd, and that speaks of His headship.
These are verses that I am sure many of us in this room know. I fear sometimes in my own walk—I have walked with the Lord for many years now—that we can know things, but those things can become dull over time simply because we know them so well. We need the Lord to give us a refreshing way of seeing Him in a new and living way.
The good Shepherd—the good Shepherd. We see this good Shepherd here in 1 Peter 2. Remember, at the beginning of the passage that I read, in 1 Peter 2:21, it says, “For this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us.”
Christ suffered for us. I do not want to get too theological here, but this is actually a very important point. Those words, for us, speak about Christ as good Shepherd dying in our place. This is His atoning work. He suffered and died in our place.
We deserved death, but He instead went to the cross and died for us. It is like John, when Jesus says, “I am the good Shepherd. I give My life for the sheep.” That is Him as the good Shepherd, giving His life for us. This is the atoning work that Jesus did for us on the cross.
When we look at Him as the great Shepherd, He suffered as an example for us. Let us continue in 1 Peter 2:21. First it says, “Because Christ also suffered for us.” Then it says, “Leaving us an example, that you should follow in His steps.”
As the Shepherd, He is the good Shepherd dying for us, and He is this great Shepherd who gave us the preeminent—the greatest—illustration of what it means to be that Shepherd. Remember, in Hebrews, the phrase is used that He is the great Shepherd.
In the book of Hebrews, we know how it goes on chapter after chapter speaking about how Christ is better. Christ is better, over and over. He is better than the angels. He is better than Moses. He is better than the priesthood. He is the High Priest, actually. He is better than any system. He is better than all.
Here we have this perfect example in Jesus. Right after that verse—“leaving us an example, that you should follow Him”—it says, “He committed no sin, nor was guile found in His mouth.” He is that perfect example, One whom we can always look to.
Of course, we see Him as chief Shepherd. Peter uses this phrase later in 1 Peter 5:4, when he says:
When the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that does not fade away.
The chief Shepherd. Peter is proclaiming, if I could put it this way, that he is a lowercase-s shepherd, but there is One who is a capital-S Shepherd. He is the Chief Shepherd.
You might shepherd, and I think many of us have this call to shepherd, but He is the Shepherd who is over the shepherds. He is the Shepherd who is over even the shepherds.
I think about John the Baptist when he was ministering there in the wilderness. He said, “There is One who comes after me, whose sandal strap I am not even worthy to loosen.” Someone so much better. “I am serving God, but there is Someone so much greater than even who I am.”
Even with the powerful ministry that John the Baptist had, he said, “I must decrease, but He must increase.” Sometimes, when I consider Jesus as this chief Shepherd, I think we just make Jesus so small.
It is like we fit Him into a little box of what we have known of Who He is. We neatly put Him in that box: “This is what we know of Who He is.” We underestimate how awesome He really is.
Consider the wideness, greatness, and majesty of Who He is as chief Shepherd. He is the Head of all shepherds. He is the Head of all of us. He is this great Shepherd, this good Shepherd.
What I want to do now is consider a little more what it looks like for Him to be this Shepherd in all these different ways. To do that, I want to read through Psalm 23. Our brother opened this morning with Psalm 23, so I want to read through it.
I wonder, if I asked for a show of hands, how many have hidden Psalm 23 in their hearts? Who has hidden this Word in their heart at some point in their life and could recite it right now? Probably most of the room can.
Well, let us go through it slowly for a moment, just to consider Him as this Shepherd in this threefold way.
The Lord is my Shepherd;
I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures;
He leadeth me beside still waters.
He restoreth my soul;
He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s 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 runneth 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.
This psalm is full of David praising God. You see even in these first few verses how David is praising God for all these covenant names that God had revealed to His children over the years.
The Lord is my Shepherd: the Lord my Shepherd. He is the One by whom I shall not want. He provides. He gives peace. He makes me to lie down in green pastures and leads me beside still waters. He is that peace, that wholeness.
He restores my soul. He is the healer. He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake. You see in those first few verses how David is overflowing with praise unto the Lord for all the ways that He has revealed Himself to him.
But the point that I would like to take out of Psalm 23, to give us encouragement this morning, is from verse 4—the section that our brother read this morning. It is this phrase in the middle of verse 4: “For You are with me.”
“For You are with me.” What is that? Those five words are one of the most wonderful promises that we can ever hold onto in our entire lives: “For You are with me.”
There is that hymn in our hymnbook which says, “For I am His, and He is mine.” “For You are with me.” You are with me. God loves to be with His children. He loves to be with His children.
Think about all through Scripture. God loved to be with Adam in the cool of the garden. In Exodus, He called Moses to make Him a sanctuary, to make Him a tabernacle, that He might dwell among them. He loves to be with His people.
In John, of course, we know how Jesus came and tabernacled among us. He dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory. Later on, in 1 John, he says, “Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God.”
The Father loves to be with us. Our Lord loves to be with us. I mean, I just think about being away from my own children for thirty-six hours and how I long to be back with them. No offense to you all here.
But I love my children, and I want to spend time with them. God, in such a more wonderful way, loves to be with His children. The Shepherd loves to be with us.
Of course, Jesus is the Head and we are His body; we are connected. He is with us as we are the church, His church. He loves to be with us as He is the Bridegroom and we are the bride. We can give example after example about how God loves to be with us.
He is not a God who is far off. He is a God who is very near. You remember in Acts 17, when Paul is talking to those Athenians. He says, “You worship this unknown God, but this God whom you do not know, I preach to you.”
He says in Acts 17:27-28:
That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us:
For in Him we live, and move, and have our being.
He is not far from each one of us. He is not like Baal. Remember the story of Elijah with the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel? The prophets were jumping up and down, hooting and hollering, and cutting themselves.
Elijah said to them, “What is Baal doing? Is Baal asleep? What is the matter with Baal? Is he on vacation? You need to wake him up.” Our God is not some aloof, distant God. He loves to be with us. He is so near to us.
I am sure you have examples of times in your life when everything seemed to be going the wrong way, but He reminded you that He was closer than ever before.
I think about a time even recently in my own life, just a couple of months ago—probably the hardest thirty days I have gone through in my whole life. Going through real physical suffering, God made Himself so near.
It was maybe one of the most precious seasons of my entire life. It was because I saw God come—even if He can be closer, He came even closer—during that period when I needed Him even more. Or perhaps I realized that I needed Him even more.
He is so close to us. In those times of difficulty—and I am sure many of you have experienced it—the Word becomes even more living. It is living, but then it becomes even more living. Prayer is wonderful, but it becomes even more wonderful. Devotionals are great, but then they become even more alive.
I remember during this season reading some Streams in the Desert devotionals. It felt like every night that I read it, God was speaking directly to me: “This is a word for you. Because I am with you, I am going to give you a word again. Tomorrow, I am going to give you another word. The next time, I am going to give you another word.”
I will quote just a couple of them. This was my first time ever reading through Streams in the Desert.
Each of us may be sure that if God sends us over rocky paths, He will provide us with sturdy shoes. He will never send us on any journey without equipping us as well.
Another one said:
Delayed answers to prayers are not refusals. Many prayers are received and recorded, yet underneath are the words, “My time has not yet come.” He who controls the limits of our lives also determines the time of our deliverance.
He is a very present help in time of trouble. We have to hold onto that promise that He is with us.
Our brother opened with his thought about going through the valley of the shadow of death. I know that we all want mountains. We love mountains. We love the mountaintop experience.
Some of us are with the young people sometimes, and we bounce from conference to conference. We get those mountaintop experiences, and we look forward to the next conference and the next conference. But the reality is that most of life is lived in the valley. Sorry to break it to you.
Most of life is in the valley. It is in the valley where the Lord is working out all these things in our lives. I think we can appreciate the mountaintop even more, actually.
Even though we want the mountains, every mountain is surrounded by valleys. When we are in the valley of the shadow of death, it always has a purpose. It always has a purpose.
No matter how dark it is, if I can put it this way, He overshadows it. If we are in the shadow—in the valley of the shadow of death—He overshadows that shadow with His presence. He overshadows it.
What a good Shepherd: a good Shepherd to walk with us through the valley of the shadow of death, because He is with us.
At the end of Psalm 78, a psalm of Asaph, there is this testimony of David. The last verse of Psalm 78 says:
So he shepherded them according to the integrity of his heart,
And guided them by the skillfulness of his hands.
Now, just zoom out for a second and consider this not as speaking merely about David, but as speaking about our good Shepherd Himself. He has the purity and integrity of heart. He knows exactly what is best for us.
By the skillfulness of His hands, He weaves into our lives different trials, tribulations, and difficulties—whether in relationships or circumstances—to bring us out on the other side more conformed to His image.
He is a good Shepherd. He knows what He is doing. Sometimes we just do not get it, and sometimes we never get it. We may never have the answer of why, but we know Who. That is the most important thing.
When you are going through that time, when you are walking through that valley of the shadow of death, even Job asked those questions over and over again. His friends tried to give him all the reasons why it happened.
But at the end of Job, what is the answer? It is not, “Why did it happen?” It is, “Who is God?” That is the revelation Job sees at the end: “I had heard of You by the hearing of the ear; but now my eye sees You.” Now I know You.
That is the end point for us: to see Him as Shepherd. He wants us to see Him as the good, the great, and the chief Shepherd.
This matter of Him being the chief Shepherd is very connected to Jesus as Overseer of our souls. This word overseer—I am certainly not a Greek scholar—is episkopos, something like that. It literally means an overlook.
I live in a city, so perhaps for me this would be like going to the top of the Empire State Building and overlooking the city. Perhaps for you who live in a more bucolic place like Richmond, you might picture the top of a hill, a mountain, or a ridge—somewhere with trees.
Picture an overlook, perhaps someone like a commander looking out for enemies, or a leader scoping out the best land—something like that.
If, as Shepherd, He cares for us microscopically—in all the little details—as Overseer, He cares for us telescopically. He has the big picture. He oversees. He has this wide view.
We are very myopic. So often we are shortsighted in the way that we see things. We are very much in the moment: “How can this be?” Even though God knows the end from the beginning, He knows where He is taking us.
It may not make sense for us in the moment, but as Shepherd, He walks us through those little, microscopic steps while He has a long view in mind. As Overseer, He cares for us telescopically.
I think about it in a worldly way. Many of us have bosses, and then our bosses have bosses. I have a boss, and my boss has a boss. The reality is that my boss’s boss has no idea what I do on a day-in and day-out basis. They just care that the big picture is done.
They do not get into the details. They just want to make sure that overall—well, in my case—they just do not want to be in the newspaper for messing something up.
But Jesus is not just the Overseer, the big Boss. He is both the Shepherd, right in the detail. I am not going to say He is a micromanager, but He is with us in all those micro things. Yet He is also the big Boss as well. He is both Shepherd and Overseer.
As Overseer, what is His role? Jesus, as Overseer of our souls, keeps us. You remember at the beginning of 1 Peter. In 1 Peter 1:3-5, it says:
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy begot us again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
Unto an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you,
Who by the power of God are guarded through faith unto a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
As Overseer, He keeps us. We are kept by the power of God. Have you ever wondered about all the ways that God has kept you? Really, all the ways that God has kept you?
I will give an example. Kenny picked me up from the airport—no offense to you, Kenny—and we made a wrong turn. We ended up having to spin around to go another way. We would call it a wrong turn.
But I believe God knew why Kenny made a wrong turn, and He was saving us from something. Sometimes we can just say, “Oh, we made a wrong turn. No big deal. I was just being careless.” But God, as Keeper, knows how to route and reroute us.
He is better than Waze or Google Maps or any of these things. He has His way in these things. Maybe it was a right turn, even though it was a wrong turn.
I rarely share with the saints in New York—and certainly not with my wife—all of the crime that happens in New York City. If you do not know this, I am a prosecutor in New York City. The reason is because it is just too much for people to handle. I think if people knew all the things that happened, nobody would go outside.
So, in wisdom and discretion, I preserve some of those things. But we underestimate how many times God keeps us when we do not even realize it. Sometimes He shows us and reveals to us what He kept us from as Overseer.
I will never forget some situations from which the Lord, when I was wandering from Him, extracted me and kept me. I am eternally grateful for them.
As Overseer, somehow, even though I was not on the right path, He kept me by extracting me from situations to prevent something much worse. What an Overseer, to know how to redirect even when we go off the path.
The reality is that perhaps we will not know until we meet our Lord someday all the ways that He kept us over the course of our lives—all the ways that He kept our children, and all the ways that, even though things did not seem to be going the right way, He was a keeping Overseer who kept us all the way through.
As Overseer, He covers. An overseer covers. We know that passage in Psalm 91:
He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High
Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
There is an aspect of covering by the Overseer here. The only safe place, if I can put it that way, is under the covering of the Overseer.
Remember later in 1 Peter, where Peter exhorts these saints who have been scattered to resist the devil. But the reality is that the only way to resist the devil is by and through the Overseer.
We do not have enough willpower or strength in ourselves to resist the devil. We need to stay under the covering of the Overseer to be protected and safe. So we stay under His covering.
This is as the hymn says:
Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in Thee.
As we are hidden in the Overseer, He keeps us, protects us, and gives us the power to resist the devil. He is a Coverer as Overseer.
As Overseer, He is Lord. If I can put it very simply, as Overseer, He is Lord. When we put our faith in Jesus, we put our faith in Him as Savior and Lord.
If you look at these two words, Savior and Lord, what are they but Shepherd and Overseer? The good Shepherd is our Savior. He gave His life for the sheep. As Overseer, He is the One who keeps, covers, and directs. He is Lord.
You see this twofold truth in our simple proclamation of faith. As Lord, this entire section in 1 Peter concerns the ways that, even though we are free, we submit.
If you go back to 1 Peter 2:16, Peter tells these saints that they are free:
As free, and not using your freedom for a cloak of wickedness, but as bondservants of God.
He is saying, “You are free.” But the call is to submit: submission to government, submission to masters, wives submitting to husbands—this entire section concerns submission. Squarely in the middle of it, you see that Jesus is the Overseer of our souls.
We submit for the Lord’s sake. At the beginning, in 1 Peter 2:13, it says:
Be subject to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake.
We submit because we are under the rulership, headship, authority, and lordship of Jesus Christ, the Overseer of our souls. That is where submission comes from.
It is a reminder, right in the middle of this section on submission, that we need to submit to the Shepherd and Overseer of our souls.
Right before 1 Peter 2:25, where it says that He is the Shepherd and Overseer of our souls, verse 24 says:
Who Himself bore our sins in His own body upon the tree, that we, having died unto sins, might live unto righteousness.
Since He is the Shepherd and Overseer of our souls, the question then is: How ought we to live? The answer is found there in verse 24: righteously. We are to live righteously.
Now, it is not just following rules. I tell you, I love following rules. I am a rule follower. Certainly, I guess that is my job day in and day out: to make sure everyone follows the rules. When you do not follow the rules, you go to jail, right? That is what happens in my job.
But the reality is that our life in Christ is so much more than following rules. If you are a young person in this room and you are thinking about that, certainly God has given us boundaries for the way He wants us to live. Peter calls us to holy living here, certainly, as well as living righteously.
But it is more than following rules for the sake of following rules. We follow because He first loved us. We respond out of love for Him. We do things that are holy and righteous because of Who our Shepherd and Overseer is.
Remember, at the end of 1 Peter 1:9, it says, “Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.” The Shepherd and Overseer is making a way for us to be more conformed to His image, and we do that as we submit to Him and live in the way He has called us to live.
If you try to live righteously, what is going to be your success rate? If you try? Zero. You have no shot. It is not going to happen.
I have been there. I have tried it because, like I said, I love to follow rules. My wife gives me a task list, and I love it. I will follow every rule. I check off every box. I love rules. I love lists.
But when the Lord shows you that you cannot live righteously except through the Shepherd and Overseer of our souls—who has made the way for us to live righteously—then you are no longer living under the burden and weight of the law for the rest of your life.
He is the righteous One. Remember when we read through Psalm 23: “He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.” He is the righteous One, and He is the One who leads us down those paths of righteousness.
He is the only One who is righteous. When we say He is righteous, what do we mean? It means, as Shepherd and Overseer, He is right. He does right. He is always right. He makes right. He is the righteous One.
The fullness of His righteousness is so great. Now we come, and we are in Him. He is our righteousness. We live that out by submitting to Him, and we are able to live out this righteous life through the righteous One.
I will end with this thought. In 1 Peter 2:25, it says:
For you were going astray like sheep; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls.
I want to take that point where it says, “have now returned.” On one hand, in a past-tense way, we have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of our souls.
In the next chapter, 1 Peter 3:18 says:
Because Christ also suffered for sins once, the righteous for the unrighteous, that He might bring us to God.
He has already made a way for us to be brought back to God. When we put our faith in Him, we have returned to Him. That which was lost and separated through sin—He has made a way for us to be restored into fellowship with God. He has brought us to God.
We have returned, in a past-tense way, to the Shepherd and Overseer. But I think there is a little more to it than that.
We have returned, but we also need to return. There is something of a call to return in this verse, to the Shepherd and Overseer of our souls.
At the beginning, it says, “You were like sheep going astray.” Even though we were like sheep going astray, does that mean sheep never again go astray? Of course not.
You can imagine a shepherd with a sheep that goes astray. It is not as though that sheep has learned the lesson and will never go astray again. That sheep is just as prone to wander as any other sheep for the rest of its life—just like we are.
We are saved, but we still have that proclivity, that inclination, to stray away again. When we stray, when we rebel like sheep again, there is a call here to return to the Shepherd and Overseer of our souls.
This idea of returning is a very wide call throughout Scripture. In the Old Testament, there are so many examples where it speaks about returning. We cannot even go through them all. God calls through the prophets so many times: “Return.”
Israel has turned away, and God says, “Return unto Me. Return unto Me.” The call comes over and over and over again.
There are examples in Jeremiah, Hosea, and many examples in Isaiah. One passage is Isaiah 30:15:
In returning and rest shall ye be saved.
There is a neat thing about this word returning in Isaiah because it is connected very much to the New Testament understanding of returning, which is repentance. There is this twofold layer to the word: returning and repentance.
In the New Testament, you see many calls for repentance. I think there is a call for us to return to Him.
Maybe for some of us, the straying away is very short. It is not very far; we are still within arm’s length. For some of us, perhaps we stray a little farther and need to be brought back. But He is a good Shepherd and a good Overseer who brings us back with loving arms, with everlasting love.
What happens when we return to Him? I will close with this verse from Acts 3, where this word is used again.
In Acts 3:19, Peter is preaching again, and he says:
Repent ye therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, that so there may come seasons of refreshing from the presence of the Lord.
Every time we return to the Lord, what follows from that is refreshment. The Lord refreshes us again.
That is such an encouragement: we can come to Him yet again, no matter where we are, no matter where we have been. We return to the Shepherd and Overseer, and He refreshes us with His presence yet again.
What a good God. Let us close with a word of prayer.
Lord, thank You so much that You love us in this way: to be our good Shepherd, our example as great Shepherd, and our Overseer as chief Shepherd.
Lord, we are amazed at Your goodness, love, and care for us as we walk through the valley of the shadow of death. We can hold onto this promise: You are with us.
Thank You so much that we can hold onto this. Lord, even as we consider these words, there is a call for us to return to You again. We are thankful that what flows from that returning is refreshment.
Thank You so much for that refreshment that can only come in the presence of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Lord, we are so thankful that You are our Shepherd and that You are our Overseer.
There is no place we would rather be than in Your presence, Lord. We cling to You now. Thank You, Lord, so much for this Word. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.