Followed By Mercy

Winning The War On Stinking Thinking

• W. Austin Gardner • Season 2 • Episode 50

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Let's get honest about that inner critic that won't let you breathe. 


We walk right into that storm with Psalm 23 as a map for your mind.
We talk about real moments like sitting with a stage four cancer diagnosis or lying awake when anxiety grips your chest, and how, in those places, the words "Thou art with me" become more than a verse. They become oxygen. The Shepherd's presence outlasts fear, shame, and late-night panic. You'll hear how His rod and staff aren't weapons to punish His sheep, but tools that defend, guide, and pull back the ones who've wandered too far.


We'll look at David's "cave season" and his tangled story, seeing how Psalm 23 quietly builds its hope. Before mentioning any danger, three verses describe God's care. A table is set right in the valley, not as an escape from it. And that anointing is the moment He lifts the head that's bowed by regret. Through it all, we come back to who God says He is: merciful, gracious, slow to anger, and overflowing with love for people who can't fix themselves.


This Shepherd doesn't just tolerate you. He leads you beside still waters. He restores what you thought was gone. He defends and stays when everyone else leaves.


If your thoughts keep dragging you back to what you're not, this conversation will help you return to who He is and what He does. He makes. He leads. He restores. He is with. He prepares. He anoints. He sends goodness and mercy to chase you down like two loyal friends who won't give up on you.


Read Psalm 23 out loud slowly and notice all the verbs that belong to Him. Practice that "presence language" the next time the inner critic shouts because peace isn't the absence of the valley. It's the Shepherd in it, and realizing your cup still runs over there.


If this reaches your heart, follow the show, share it with someone who's hurting, and leave a review so more weary souls can find their way home to grace. Then ask yourself quietly, What line from Psalm 23 is holding me up right now?

Thanks for listening. Find us on YouTube, Substack, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.

Austin Gardner:

We'll take you in the Bible today. We're going to be in Psalm 23. That's where we're going to end up. The title of the message for you today is Success Over Stinking Thinking. How many of y'all have stinking thinking? You see, we are a product of our thoughts. Our thoughts shape our lives. We never stop thinking. We talk to ourselves. You know who you talk to most? Yourself. And I hate to say this, but you usually don't talk too nice to yourself. Fact is, if a friend of yours was being talked to the way you talk to you, you'd probably beat them up. But since it's you talking to you, it's okay. And so we let thoughts mess us up. We the scientists have studied it, and they say you think about 6,000 thoughts a day. That is roughly five or six thoughts a minute. And they say that 75% of your thoughts are negative. 75% of your thoughts are negative. So we need some help. Now the Bible says in 2 Corinthians chapter 10, verse 4, that our weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds, the casting down our imaginations and every high thing that brings itself into captivity, every thought, bring every thought into captivity to Christ. That's what our goal is. I'm going to tell you how to do that today, a little bit. I'm going to try to help you with that today. I really believe the Holy Spirit will help you and help you change. Now you are what you think. As a man thinks in his heart, so is he. So your negative, fleshly, fearful thinking can block God's best for you. God wants to give us success, but it begins with a renewed mind. And thinking is hard work. But just let me, before I get to the started in the message, you need to recognize the stink. So I want to talk to you about the stink you've been thinking. For example, doubt. God can't use me. Fear, what if I fail? Bitterness, they'll never change. Defeatism, I'll never be free. Those are strongholds. We think of negative things about our body. Why is my body like this? Or I'll never find love. I don't deserve happiness or success. Look at my past. Why do I keep messing everything up? I'm worthless. Everything. Why do I have why don't I have talents like other people? Tell me why all this stuff happens to me. And so what we want to learn to do is think through. Now I need to I from my heart, I won't tell you. So you know I understand about this. I have cancer. Stage four, kidney cancer, renal cell carcinoma, they call it. And uh clear cell renal carcinoma, whatever. And I've already lost like four vital organs. I've only got one kidney, one testicle, no adrenal glands. I have to take medicine every day to stay alive. And so when the doctor, when you're sitting in the office and the doctor looks at you and says, I think we can get most of it. Uh we don't know what's going to happen here, but we're working on it. And I say, well, what's the prognosis? Well, you've already passed all of those. You're past what we think. And then you're laying in bed at night, it's all, you know, it's dark, and you're alone, your wife's in the bed with you, and you reach out and you touch your abdomen, and you can feel two of the tumors. I mean, they're there. I can feel them. Right now I can feel them. And so you're sitting there thinking, and just like, what would you do this to me for? I've served you all these years. I've been a pastor for over 50 years. Why in the world is this happening to me? I was waking up in panic attacks. I was waking up at night. I'm not afraid to die. It's just all the process. I'm not excited about the process. I'm not excited about laying in a bed and all the family sitting around me, whining and crying. I've been around that a lot, you know, as a pastor. And I want to do it. And I was having terrible nights. Couldn't sleep, tired. Plus, you know, I still deal with the same things you deal with. Am I good enough? I'm not the best looking. I've been a pretty heavy boy almost all of my life until cancer helped me out. That's a good thing about cancer, amen. And you know, I don't measure up. I'm not as good as, I'm not the best preacher, I'm not the best, I just can't do it. You ever dealt with that? And so I was laying in my bed, and I don't know how the Holy Spirit did it, but he took me to Psalm 23. That's where I want you to go in your Bible. Psalm 23. Now I know what you're thinking. You're thinking that's a funeral psalm. Because that's about the only time you use it, isn't it? The Lord is my shepherd. Now it's because we're dead here. We walk through the valley of the shadow of death. They're not really dead. Yeah, they are. I mean, we just we say all that, but uh when you don't mind of it, you're like, yeah, they are. I ain't back here with my wife no more. I ain't I've been married to her for 52 years, I'm not back here. So it's real death. But that's where we go. Well, I'm I'm meditating and I begin to really think about Psalm 23. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. And I actually, on my podcast, I've done 48 or 49 sessions on one psalm. Eats my lunch. Now watch this. Let me tell you what's going on in the Psalm before you read it. How many of you know the Lord is my shepherd? Everybody knows that one, right? Come on. That's like the most common thing. There's John 3, 16 and Psalm 23. I mean, what else do you know more than that? Did you know? You need to know, see, for you to understand how powerful that psalm is, you need to understand David. King David writes this psalm when he is hiding in a cave. His son is going to kill him. And he's brought the whole army of Israel against him. So right outside where David is, David has a handful of mighty men, faithful men that are still with him. He has been humiliated in his home country. He's had cancel culture work on him big time. He's been destroyed. His son took ten of his wives up on the rooftop and took them in front of everybody to humiliate his dad. His best friend is working with his son. And he's almost certainly going to die. And he writes a psalm. Think on this psalm now when you think in terms of that. But wait a minute. I need you to understand that here's what you and I do. I know why it's going wrong in my life because I'm not good enough. I messed up. I spent a lot of time in my life knowing this, knowing in my head God loves me, knowing in my heart he doesn't like me. He loves me because he said he did. So he must. But I don't mean he likes me. If he had to pick, he wouldn't pick me. I'm not somebody he would necessarily want. But David, that's that's stinking thinking. And David knows that. Now David is he's not a good guy. When he writes Psalm 23, he's not a good guy. I don't know, I can identify with that. I mean, I I know many. I'm not a good guy. Well, see, David has failed as a dad. His one son raped his daughter, and he didn't do anything about it. His son raped his daughter, and daddy just like pass the turkey. Nothing. His other son waited two years and dad never did anything, so he killed his brother. Now we've had a son murder a sister, and we've had another son murder a son, rape a sister, and the other one murder him. He is messed up as a husband. I don't know if you ever thought about it, but his wife Bathsheba, he killed her husband to get her. I don't think he could be a pastor of this church. Most of y'all would have been like, we don't respect him that much. I mean, he killed a man to get married to his wife. He killed her because he he killed the man because he already had her pregnant. Just saying, this is not a good guy. Not a good daddy, not a good husband, not a good friend. He killed his friend. Do you want to be his friend? He told his buddy, he said, he said, put him in the front of the battle and then pull back where they can't, he can't get away, let him die. Thank God. I have some rough friends, but they ain't quite that rough. Amen. And he's messed up raising the country. He's messed up ruling the country because he's numbered the people. He's done all kinds of stuff wrong. See, when you mess up, you kind of develop this attitude of God don't like me no more. God's bad at me. That's why my wife has cancer. That's why my husband has cancer. That's why my children are running away from home. That's why everything. I'm just a mess. Do you ever think like that? If you do say, Oh me or amen. Yeah, we think like that. But here's what David did. David didn't let the stinking thinking take over. David didn't let the stinking thinking take over. So David goes to the psalmist, writes the psalmist, says, The Lord is my shepherd. Now, can I tell you how Baptists are taught to pray? How you're praying. God, I don't deserve your love. I have failed you miserably. You probably hate me, but oh God! Oh God, please have mercy upon my soul. How many of y'all have been taught to pray like that? You messed up, and all you do is how bad you are. And you spend so much time and how bad you are, you never hardly get around to thanking God for anything He's doing. Can I get an amen? Okay, come on. That's what we do. Here's what we do: we spend all our time saying, God, I know you don't want to listen to me. I know there ain't nobody you got messed up as much as me. But God, would you please hear me? God, please come talk to me. Come on. You ever been around them altar calls? Everybody's at the altar praying, and they're like, God, hear us. And God's like, son, I'm right there in the middle of you. I hear everything going on. You ain't got to yell at me. We say, God come, and He's like, I live in you. Can't get no closer. Come on. Well, we don't think like that. God be with us. He's like, I am every day, all day, every night, all night. I never leave. I never leave you and I never say. We don't think like come on, tell the truth. Amen. We love living in our misery. We love beating ourselves up. And so inside that critic goes, that critic goes, You messed up. And we go, you ain't joking. Well, I don't think God likes you. Me neither. In fact, nobody else likes you either. I know. I'm all alone. Everybody hates me. I think I'm just gonna eat worms. That's what one of the songs my kids sang when I was when they were little. Age of your pastor now. What was it? Everybody hates me, nobody loves me. I think I'll go eat worms or something like that. So here's what David does. David goes straight to truth, not feelings, not emotions. David stops thinking about David. I don't mean to be rude, but most of us really live a man-centered Christianity. And we're the center. We think everything revolves around us. If I mess up, the world messes up. The whole world. It's like we're the center of the universe. But the God of the Bible said, No, you're not I am. No, you're not I am. And that's what Psalm 23 is. So I'm going to walk you through as much of it as I can. But what I want you to understand is when David goes to pray, David immediately goes to the Lord, not himself. I want to remind you, if I'd have been David, I'd have been, God, God, do you know where I am? I'm in a cave. All my friends hate me. They're trying to kill me. My son, my son is going to kill me. He's already humiliated me in front of the country. God! God! Is that how you'd pray? Come on, tell the truth. That's how we pray. That's what David does. David goes, hmm. The Lord is my shepherd. He doesn't say I'm his sheep. He doesn't focus on David. The fact is, if you read Psalm 120, you read Psalm 23, 1 through 3, it's all about, it's all about God. Read it with me. We're just going to read it real quickly so I can walk you through it. If you would, Psalm 120, Psalm 23, verse 1. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside the still waters. Now hold it before we go further. Three verses. No mention of David. No mention of trouble. No mention of being hurt. No mention of anything except, boy, how great God is. Look at verse 4. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me. Thy rod and thyself, they cover me. I want you to stop just a second. He said, Thou art with me. He didn't say, Please be with me. He didn't say, I apologize for killing Uriah. I apologize for taking Bathsheba. I apologize for not being a good daddy. I apologize for he didn't do that. He just said, I know a fact. I know a fact. The Lord's my shepherd. I shall not want. I shall not want. This is too much for one day, but the word in the Hebrew, shall not want, it's a constant action verb. It's not a I'm not going to want in the future. It's a I have never wanted, I don't want, and I never will want. It's like a I never want her. The Lord, stop and think a minute. You realize he's talking about himself as a sheep. You know, that's a dumb animal. That's a dumb animal. That's not an intelligent animal. And and he said, I'm just a dumb sheep. The Lord's my shepherd. Where does a sheep get something to eat? Where the shepherd takes him. Where does a sheep get something to drink? Where the shepherd takes him. He said, The Lord is my shepherd. He said, Now, yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me, thy rod and thy sap they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies. Thou anointest my head with oil, my cup runneth over. I'm gonna bring this back to you. But as mad as bad as David has been, as much as David has failed, this is what he's thinking. Look at verse 4. Yeah, I'm in danger. I am in danger, but he is with me. I may have cancer, but he is with me. I may be in financial problems, but he is with me. I may be having trouble with my children, but he is with me. I may be having trouble in my marriage, but he is with me. He's not focused on the problem, he's focused on the person. Now this is I I love his whole psalm so much. But he said, Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of my enemies. I need you to know you don't have any human enemies. Not your ex-wife, not your ex-husband, not your abuser, not your mother-in-law. No human enemies. Can I get an amen? Well, we wrestle not against. Come on, help me. We wrestle not against flesh and blood. That's what the Bible says. I mean, I'd like to just let it lay into your mother-in-law for you, you know, because that's flesh and blood. I'd like to get mad at the guy who betrayed you, but that's flesh and blood. So the enemy is a devil, and the devil wants to see you beat and whipped and discouraged, but your shepherd never wants to see that. I don't have time to go into all this, but you know, he's far more than a shepherd for us. He's far more than a shepherd. In the Old Testament, they never refer to the Father, to God as Father, only three times in the whole Old Testament. He's Lord, He's Almighty, He's creator, He's all-powerful, He's a judge, He's a ruler. But in the New Testament, Jesus said, I want to teach y'all how to pray. And when you pray, pray like this our Father. And the disciples are like, and Jesus, yeah, he's my father, but he's your father too. Our father, which are in heaven. And then you know what he sent the Holy Spirit into us, and the Spirit cries, Abba, Father, Daddy, Father. Boy God, me and you are close. We're got a close relationship. It's a totally different thing. And so, you know what the devil does? He attacks you. He wants to destroy you. You know what the Lord does? He gives you victory in front of the devil trying to hurt you. He puts you up and says, I'm putting a banquet table on. No matter how many people attack, no matter how much junk comes his way, he says, Thou prepares a table before me in the presence of mine enemies. Now, I need you to understand what's happened. David starts Psalm 23 in the basement. He starts Psalm 23 in a cave. He starts Psalm 23 in pity. But now he's not there. All of a sudden, David's body is still in the cave, but he is way above that, like floating in the clouds. He's saying, Are you believing this? God is good to me. And while you think he's in the cave whining, he's up on the top going, Wow! I'd never wanted. And he prepares me food. So he said that he said, You make me lie down in green pastures. I don't know if you ever paid attention to that, but that's that's for this week. You know, you see, makes me lie down in green pastures. It's like Thanksgiving Day. How many of you eat so much on Thanksgiving Day that you're almost ready to die? Come on, say amen. I mean, and you're like this, and you're I think I'm gonna die. I just need to lay down. Food everywhere. Come on, say amen. That's what David said, man, God, no matter what goes on in my life, you're always providing for me. And then they bring in that one piece of pecan pie. And they say, Come on, you don't need pecan pie, and you're like, I want it, but I can't. Can you give me 30 minutes? Come on. See, David said, You're my shepherd. You give me so much to eat, I can't eat anymore. I just lay down in the middle of all the food. Then he said, You give me something to drink down there where I can rest and relax. He said, I don't know how to live my life. I don't know how to go. I've messed up. I'm a mess. I know I'm a mess, but he doesn't say that. He just says, and you take me when I don't know where to go and you lead me in paths of righteousness. Because you're so good. You're so good. You lead me in paths of righteousness. And yes, they may be trying to kill me. Yea, though I walked through the valley of the shadow death, but I'm not afraid. Not because I'm not afraid to die, but you are with me. And then he says, and then you prepare a table before me in the presence of mine enemies. He said, You prepare a table before me in the presence of mine enemies. And the devil's watching, and he's like, How could you be happy? I've done everything to wreck your life. I've done everything to destroy you. And there you are, like, can I have some more turkey? Bring on the ham while we're at it. We're just feasting away. But then he says, Thou anointest my head. Whoa I never knew what that meant. Anointing their head, anointing their heads when they when you refresh them, when you pour oil on their head. It was like they were dusty and dirty, and they came in and they ran some vitalis. Young people don't understand that, but they ran some, they ran some hair cream in their hair and they they purdied themselves up and he anointed his head. Yeah, I got that. And anointing, that's what they did when they healed the sick, you know. And anointing, that's what you do when you make a king. And that made David remember who he was. But the best part of all in Psalm 3, the word anointeth my head is the same Hebrew word that means the lifter of my head. Listen to me. When you messed up a bunch, you tend to walk around like this. You kind of dragging your feet. I can't look at nobody. I mean, I I wasn't a good daddy, and uh I wasn't a good husband, and I wasn't a good friend, and I wasn't a good leader. I'm a mess. And the Holy Spirit comes and says, Let me lift that head. You know what he does? He says, because I took care of all you misses. Did you know that right now you can look face to face to Jesus, cheek to cheek to Jesus? There's no shame, no embarrassment, no nothing. You know why? Because Jesus paid it all. Amen. And he says, look at me. I'm a granddaddy. My wife and I, we only have 20 grandkids. We have what is it, uh, three, two grandbabies, great-grandbabies, and two more coming. And the last thing I would want is one of my grandchildren to walk in the room, brother. I want I'm not worthy to be your grandchild. I'd be like lifting the head and saying, get over here and give me a kiss. What are you talking about? You're my granddaughter, you're my grandson. Can I get an amen? That's how the father feels about you. That's how the father feels about you. Now, I will take you in just a minute to another passage of that scripture, but he he anoints your head, he lifts your face and looks at you and says, Everything's okay between us. Now, because we're talking about beating, stinking, thinking, I need you to go back up a minute. What's David doing? What's David doing that's helping him beat the stinking thinking? He's meditating, he's Bible thinking, he's thinking about truth. See, that's not what you do. What I do. I mean, y'all, y'all are probably better than me about this. But when I mess up, it's like I say to me, Boy, you mess up, I go, you ain't joking. And and I don't know. I don't I don't even know if God can like me. You He can't like you. I'm like, I know it. I don't know. That's why I got cancer. Yeah. Come on. Nobody in this room's ever thought like that. We love beating ourselves up. That's not what David did. David said, I want to think about God. Now there's so much more to tell you about Psalm 23, but can I just go back to the Lord is my shepherd? That word Lord is the word Yahweh. It's the word Jehovah. It's the word, you ready? His name is I am. His name is I am. And he says, I am. That means that you know, God's not the God of yesterday. You may live in yesterday, but God lives in now. You may live in tomorrow, but God lives in now. You may be concerned about what you did, but God lives in now, I am. And in Psalm 36 or 34, I'm not sure which. I'd have to look at the notes. But in in that area of the Bible, God and Moses are talking. I think it's 34-6 or 36-4. Anyway, they're talking, they're having this discussion. And Moses is wanting to know who God is. And God says, I'll tell you who I am. You know what he's saying? Do you know what the first name that God tells you about who he is? Now stop a minute. How many negative thoughts about our father are in this room? Come on, be honest. He's a rule keeper, he's a referee, he's a judge. The eyes of the Lord are in every place. Hold on the good and the bad. I'm gonna get you. Come on. Fact is, he's a little bit angry. At any moment, he's gonna strike. Mess up one more time. And I'm coming after you. Come on. Come on. Have you been allowed to believe that about our father? Y'all like I ain't saying nothing. But when he introduced himself, wouldn't it be better to let him tell you who he is? I mean, why you listen to what the devil says about him? Why are you listening to what a preacher says about him? Why don't you let him talk? So he introduced himself, and this is what he said. I am merciful. First thing he says about himself is, I'm full of mercy. I am merciful. Now I'd be like, I know you're merciful, but that ain't first. Judge is first. Spank me is first. Be mad at me first. You'll show mercy after you whoop me a while, I know. He said, No, that's not how I work. I am mercy. I am mercy. Second word he uses in the King James is gracious. He said, I'm gracious. So I did a study. I was like, what does gracious mean? You know what gracious is? In the Hebrew, it's a synonym for mercy. So basically he said, I'd like to introduce myself to you. I am mercy, mercy. Come on. That's the first two things God says about himself. That's not what we think. That's not what preachers have led us to think. We think it, but you know, all through the Bible, he's always been mercy. Did you know you never looked for God? God looked for you. Did you know Adam and Eve sinned and they made a mask and they covered themselves and they were ashamed and they were embarrassed, and they never asked God to help them, but God came looking. Because that's who God is. He's mercy. He came looking. It's always God. Always God. I don't have time for this, but here you go. Come on. Ready? He said he's slow to wrath, slow to anger. Hebrew word behind that. Are you ready? Hang on. Long nosed. The Bible says that God has a long nose. That's an idiom. That's a saying. But they understood that. You know, like we could say we have a short fuse. That'd be a short nose. God's like, I got a long fuse. I'm not short nosed, I'm long nose. You know, when you get angry and you start, how many of you ever, or your mother-in-law? She's a breathing buddy. She's about ready to kill somebody. She's gonna explode in whatever minute now. It's about to happen. She got a short nose. God looks at you and says, I got a long nose, real long. Real long. Take me forever to get upset. I just don't get upset. I don't get upset. I got a long nose. I am slow to that's all through the Bible, by the way. You've just been missing it because you've been looking at all the judging stuff. I'm slow to anger, he said. And I'd like to just stop a second and say this to you the Lord is my shepherd. He's your shepherd. Do you know no shepherd hurts his sheep? I'm a country boy. Well, when I was a kid, when the pigs wouldn't get in the pen, I'd hit them with sticks and throw rocks at them. I would. And my daddy. He said, You do that again, boy, and I'm gonna throw the rocks and I'm gonna use a stick. Now it's a dumb pig. The Lord's your shepherd. He even told Jesus told stories so you'd know his father. You know how to know God, don't you? You really want to know what God, your father, looks like? It's like Jesus. Because Jesus is God in human flesh. But you know what happened? He told a story. He said a man's sheep, he had a hundred sheep, 99 stayed home, one wandered away. You know what the shepherd does? The shepherd said, I'm gonna go get him. Now we were, Betty and I were in the Atlanta airport. I'll quit on time, don't worry. But Betty and I were in the Atlanta airport. And our daughter, who's now a 45-year-old woman, but anyway, she's about to be a grandmother, but she got lost. We still had we had three kids, one got lost. We didn't go. Well, we still got two. It'll be all right, let's go home. Come on. I mean, we went looking hysterically, trying to find the little girl that wandered away. She was like that tall. And we finally found her, and she's with a policeman, said, That's my mama, my daddy robbed her. You know, that sheep goes like, and you know what the Bible says, Jesus said, and he searches for that sheep till he finds it. Then he picks it up, puts it on his shoulders. He doesn't break his leg like some preacher told you. He doesn't hit it with a stick. I hear people say, Thy rod thy staff, that's where God beats us up. No, it isn't. That's where he protects us. When the bullies come, he says, I got a stick, I got two sticks. Mess with my people, mess with my sheep. I'll whoop you. I beat up lions, I beat up bears. I ain't putting up with no junk above people. Say amen. That's our shepherd. That's our shepherd. He puts that sheep on his shoulders. He whispers sweet nothings in his ear all the way home. Probably feed him a little sheep sweets on the way home. Here, eat a little of this. Eat some of this. Here, enjoy this. And that sheep's like, I was lost. He found me. And when he gets home, the guy does start yelling. But he says, Call everybody in town, I found my sheep. We're gonna have a party. That's how God feels about you. That's how God feels about you. God loves you. God loves you. By the way, I need you to know this. When God described himself, he said, God is love. Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. He is good. He is Jesus in the flesh. He is God in the flesh. My cup runs over. And that would lead me to how you're going to change the way you think. This is how you're going to think. Verse 6. Surely, goodness and mercy. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. I need you to know something. I am being pursued relentlessly by God's love and mercy. And since we're New Testament Christians and understand stuff that David did not yet know, the shepherd was leading David, and he said there were two behind him chasing him. The word in the Hebrew for it follows me or chasing. They're chasing you like the police looking for a criminal. Like the cops catching you on 75 when you're breaking the speed limit. And that's how God's coming after us. So surely goodness and mercy are coming after us. But he still lives in us now. We're one up on David, amen. So here's what you gotta learn to think. Change from thinking about you. Stop thinking about your problem, start thinking about your shepherd. Stop thinking about your circumstances and start thinking about Christ. Get your eyes off of you and get your eyes on him. Stop this thinking, thinking. How do you do it? You tear down those thoughts. David doesn't pass one second going, God, I've messed up. He didn't have to say, God knew he messed up. God knew he messed up. Did you know in Luke 15 he tells the story of the lost sheep, the lost coin, the lost son? And even the son who stayed at home is still lost. But he's always looking for us. I need you to know this. God loves you. Last say I'll tell you. And that word merciful, Hebrew, one of the meanings is indulgent. Indulgent is what grandparents do to grandkids. It's spoiling. My kids say stuff like, What happened to you, Dad? Because the guy that raised us is not their granddaddy. My grandkids walk in my office. There's a jar, my wife keeps a jar of MMs, peanut MMs in my office. I don't touch them. I don't eat that stuff. But my kids come in and they just grab that thing, sit on the couch, and talk to them. How are you doing, granddaddy? They just eat like they own the thing. Betty comes in and says, Did your mama say you could have that? And I say, I don't really care what she said. In my house, in my office, they can have what they want. When they go downstairs, mama can work on it. Say amen. I'm indulgent. You know what God said? He said, Y'all think I'm mean, but I'm indulgent. I'm sweet. So stop thinking badly about our father. Know that the only one who wants you to think so badly about our dad is the separator, the deceiver, the slanderer, the liar, who, since the garden has been saying, you know, if he really loved you, he'd let you eat that fruit. Father in heaven, I love you and I thank you for the chance to serve you. And I pray your blessings on your people. I give you praise for all you do in Jesus' name. Amen.

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Austin Gardner

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