Join us in this heartfelt episode of Discovering the Jewish Jesus, as we delve into the profound insights of Psalm 23:4. Rabbi Schneider discusses the assurance and strength found in acknowledging God’s presence and favor, even as we walk through life’s shadows. This episode explores the balance between divine comfort and discipline, offering listeners a scripture-based path to inner peace and confidence.
00:00:01 Understanding Presence and Favor in Psalm 23
00:08:02 Shifting Emotions and Embracing God’s Word
00:13:03 The Power and Comfort of God’s Discipline
So if my heart or actions begin to drift astray to the left or to the right, backward or forward, I want Him to discipline me immediately because I want to be right where He is. Many of you know Psalm 23, but I guarantee you that you’re going to receive something different than you’ve ever received before. We’re going to continue today where I left off. I’m in the fourth verse of Psalm 23. I want to pick up with these words. David said, I will fear no evil, he said, for you are good. I want to talk about this concept today, about presence and favor. Listen to what David said. I’m going to read all of verse 4 here. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, he said, I fear no evil, for you are with me. I want to focus today, beginning with, for you are with me. I want to talk about presence and favor. David knew that God’s presence was with him, and he also knew that God’s favor was on him. David knew that God loved him. David knew that God was with him and that God’s favor was on him. And because David knew that God was with him, that God loved him, and that God’s favor was on him, David knew he didn’t have to be afraid. I want to ask you today, realistically, as we put into practice reading Scripture and then praying about it, not just reading it through, going through one verse to the next without thinking about it, because thinking about it and praying about it is just as important as reading it. So we don’t want to just read through the Bible, one verse to the next verse to the next verse, without stopping to ponder what it says, what it means, how it applies to us, praying about it. So let’s just do that for a second. Father, you said to David that you were with him. David said for you, are with me.” So I want to ask you, Father God, will you help me know in a greater way that you’re with me? Jesus, you said that you would never leave me or never forsake me. Jesus, you said, I am with you always. But I have to admit, King Jesus, that there’s times in my life that I feel alone. that there’s times that I kind of know you’re with me, but I don’t really feel it, and I don’t really sense it, and it feels to me like you’re far away, and I believe in you, but my belief in you is a God that’s somewhere out there, and I don’t really have a consciousness of the fact that you’re with me. So King Jesus, Father God, Holy Spirit, I ask you to help me be more aware that you’re with me. that I can be like David, that I can know Jesus, that you’re with me. Father, that I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, but I fear no evil, for I know that you’re with me and that your rod and your staff, Abba God, they comfort me. So, Father God, once again today, I want to thank you that you’re with me. Even as you’re with David, you’re with me. Father God, thank you for your presence on my life. Thank you for your favor on me. Beloved ones, let’s just begin to praise him now. Father, thank you that you’re with me. Thank you that your presence goes with me wherever I go. Father, thank you that I’m enveloped in your spirit. Father, thank you that you live inside me. Thank you, Jesus, that where I go, you go. Thank you, Jesus, that you said you’d never leave me or forsake me. Thank you, Jesus, that you’re with me. Thank you for the gift of the Holy Spirit. And Father, thank you for your favor on me. Thank you, Father God, that I know that I’m one of your precious beloved ones. Even as your favor was with David, Father God, thank you that in Christ Jesus, I know that your favor is on me, that you love me, that you’re causing all things to work together for good in my life. Thank you, Father, for your presence and your favor. Doesn’t that feel good to do that? You see, it’s important, beloved ones, listen to me, that we agree with truth. In other words, we might sometimes not feel like God’s with us, but as I was sharing with you on last broadcast, we’re not dictated by our feelings. Beloved, we’re dictated by the Word. And we bring our will into agreement with the Word. And so when Jesus says, I am with you always, even as David said here, you are with me. We don’t say, well, God, I don’t know if you’re with me. I don’t know if you’re with me. I don’t feel like you’re. That’s not what we do. We come into agreement with the word, and then we begin to thank him and praise him for it. And we say, thank you, Jesus, that you’re with me. You see, beloved, our faith and our experience will not rise above our confession. So we have to confess the word of God, and come into agreement with the Word of God, so that our faith can rise and our experience will be lifted up in the Spirit. So when we read the Scriptures, beloved ones, we agree with what God’s Word says. We don’t say, oh, but I don’t know if that applies to me. Oh, I see it’s there, but, but it doesn’t seem like it’s for me. No, what we do, beloved, is we agree God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. We agree that it’s true for us, whether you feel it or not. And as you begin to agree with it and begin to confess it and begin to praise God for it, Jesus said, my word is truth. As you begin to thank him and praise him for it and receive it, then all of a sudden we start to feel different. You see, the way that we change our feelings, get this now, You wake up in the morning, you start your devotional, but you don’t feel anything. You feel separated from God. You feel empty. You don’t feel like you have any faith. You’re not feeling any sense of expectancy. What do you do? You do your devotional anyways, despite what you feel. You begin to feast on God’s Word. And then you begin to confess it out loud and say it is true. This is true about me. You do love me. You are with me. You are working in my life. You’re all around me. You’ve done so many good. You begin to confess it. And when you begin to confess it, suddenly there’s a shift that goes on in the spirit world and you begin to feel different. Listen to what I’m going to say. The way to change your emotions is is through motion. The way to change your emotion is by motion. When you take action, when you put yourself in motion, it’s going to change your emotion.
SPEAKER 01 :
You’re listening to Discovering the Jewish Jesus and Rabbi Schneider will be right back. But first, I want you to know you can find us on TikTok. Make sure to explore our quick and inspiring insights into scripture, Hebrew teaching, special highlights, and so much more. You’ll discover content that encourages your walk with God and dives into the Jewish roots of your faith. Search for Discovering the Jewish Jesus on TikTok and join our community today. Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. We take that command very seriously here. And through our online media platforms, TV, radio, and our overseas crusade, we’re sharing the truth of the gospel with people of all different nations and tongues everywhere. And if the Lord has put a burden on your heart to support our missions work, Please give today, discoveringthejewishjesus.com. Now back to Rabbi.
SPEAKER 03 :
So the way you change your emotions from being sad and feeling empty and feeling faithless and feeling depressed is you put yourself in motion and you start agreeing with and confessing God’s Word. And you begin to start saying, thank you, Father God, that greater is He that’s in me than he that is in the world. Thank you, God, that I am more than a conqueror through Jesus that loves me. Thank you, Father God, that neither height or depth, breadth, width, things past, things present, or things to come can separate me from the love of God. Thank you, Father God, that I am more than a conqueror. Thank you, Father God, that you’re causing all things to work together for good in my life. Thank you, Father, that even this that I’m going through right now this difficult season, this difficult time, this hard time. Thank You, Father God, that even this is causing something great to happen in my life, because Your Word says that the temporary trials that I’m going through in this present time are not worthy to be compared with the eternal glory that they’re working in me.” And you begin to speak God’s truth. You agree with God’s truth. And, beloved, as you do that, things begin to change. You begin to get a new perspective. Your feelings begin to shift. We read, beloved, God’s Word, and we do it in such a way that we prayer dialogue with God through it. And so David continues on here. in Psalm 23, and he says this, Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.” What does he mean when he says, your rod and your staff, they comfort me? Well, a rod, beloved, was the instrument that the shepherd used to discipline the sheep. Sheep need discipline. We know that they easily go astray. Most of us have learned this. And so one of the ways that the shepherd kept the sheep on the right path was through the rod, through the rod, beloved, of discipline. YOU KNOW, THE BIBLE TELLS US THAT THE FATHER DISCIPLINES EVERY CHILD THAT HE RECEIVES TO HIMSELF. PAUL TALKS A LOT ABOUT THIS. THE AUTHOR OF HEBREW TALKS A LOT ABOUT THIS. THEY SAID THIS, THEY SAID YOU HAD EARTHLY FATHERS THAT DISCIPLINED YOU FOR YOUR OWN GOOD. THEY SAID HOW MUCH MORE YOUR HEAVENLY FATHER And even though the scripture tells us that discipline is hard when we’re going through it, the end result, the scripture said, is, get it now, the peaceful fruit of righteousness. The scripture goes on to say that everyone that the Lord receives, he disciplines, and that he that’s without discipline is not a child of his. And so when David says here, your rod and your staff, they comfort me, David is saying, I’m comforted knowing that I’m kept on the right path through your discipline. I pray for the Father’s discipline. I ask Jesus for discipline, because I’d rather be disciplined and stay on the right path than to not be disciplined and end up on the wrong path. So I crave the Father’s discipline because I want His best. So if my heart or actions begin to drift astray to the left or to the right, backward or forward, I want Him to discipline me immediately because I want to be right where He is. Because where He is, beloved, there’s tremendous fruit and tremendous blessing. That’s why the scripture says that the end result of discipline is the peaceful fruit of righteousness. So let’s ask this question. David said, once again, let’s read off all of verse 4, put it in context. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil. for you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.” So David is saying, I don’t have to be afraid of anything and I can go through everything in this world with confidence because I know that you’re with me, that your love, your presence, your favor is on me, that I don’t have to be afraid of making a mistake because you’re disciplining me in my life. Now, this isn’t an excuse, beloved, when I say that we don’t have to be afraid of making a mistake. This isn’t an excuse to not be responsible to God, to not be accountable to Him. This is not an excuse to say, if we sin so what, it doesn’t matter, or God will forgive me. No, what I’m saying here is that as we’re thirsting after God, We don’t have to be afraid that we’re going to make a mistake, because if we do get off to the left or the right, as long as our heart is right with Him, He’s going to just keep gently disciplining us so that we keep going forward. You know, walking with the Lord is like bumper ball. Some of you know bumper ball. It’s when you take a little child to the bowling alley. And when you take a little child to the bowling alley, the child doesn’t have the ability to roll the ball straight down the alley. They can just kind of give it a push. So what the bowling alley does is they put bumpers in the aisleways where the ball would go for an adult. So if the ball starts heading off and it’s gonna go into the gutter, What happens is there’s like a cushion in the gutter, so it doesn’t go into the gutter, but it hits the cushion, and the cushion puts it back to the center. And then if the ball starts heading off to the other gutter, there’s a cushion over there too, the ball hits the cushion, and it again puts it back towards the center. This is what the discipline of the Lord is like. If we begin to go to the left or the right, When we’re seeking Him and we’re in love with Him and we want to do what’s right and we’re trying to do what’s right, we don’t have to be afraid of making a mistake and getting way off track. Because David said, his rod and his staff, they comfort me. So don’t be afraid of the discipline of God. Thank Him for His discipline. It’s a sign of His favor on your life. And you know what? When you pray for God’s discipline in your life, you’re going to become a lot more effective. You’re going to become a lot stronger because God is going to deal with you in areas that are for your benefit, for you to be dealt with you about. And the result of it’s going to be blessing. It’s going to be the peaceful fruit of righteousness. So let’s do what I’ve been training us to do. Let’s not just speak about the Scripture, but let’s engage with God through the Scripture by praying to Him about it. You see, the words on the page are a reflection of the person of Jesus. The Scripture says about Jesus, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God,” John 1, 1, and the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And then it continues on, and it says, and the Word became flesh. So Jesus, who is the Word, became flesh. And so the Word of God that we read in written form is actually an extension of the person of Jesus himself, who is the Word. And so what we do is we take the words on the page that are a reflection of the substance of Jesus himself, and we then begin to dialogue with him through prayer about the word. And so let’s just do that right now as it relates to discipline. Jesus, we thank you that you discipline us like David. We thank you that you keep us on the right path through your rod. We want to be disciplined. Let’s pray together. We want to be disciplined, Father God, because we know that the end result of discipline is the peaceful fruit of righteousness. So, Father God, we trust you. And we submit ourselves to your discipline. Father, please discipline me because I want to be a child that’s walking as one that’s well pleasing to you. And I know that discipline trains me to walk with you in righteousness. And that when I’m walking with you in righteousness, I’m walking in a place where I’m being fully blessed by you. So thank you for your discipline in my life. Are we in agreement with that, church? Amen and amen. Discipline, beloved, is a great thing. David continues on and he’s not only feeling safe, he’s not only feeling safe because of the fact that he knows that God’s discipline is active in his life, protecting him, but he also feels confident and secure because he knows that God is his comforter. And so he says once again in verse number four, Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. He’s comforted to know that he’s protected by the discipline of God. It’s just like children. Children feel secure when parents have boundaries that have been placed in their life, and those boundaries are consistently enforced. That’s discipline. David felt secure because he knew that God treated him like a son and that God had boundaries in his life, and that if David went outside the boundaries, the Father would discipline him. That gave David comfort. So David said, your rod and your staff, they comfort me. If you’re a parent right now and you have children, you’re not doing your children any favor if you don’t put up boundaries in their life and then discipline them and be consistent in enforcing the boundaries. So David says, your rod and your staff, they comfort me. The staff, beloved, is a symbol of comfort. The shepherd would hold up the staff to show the sheep where to go. It would give the sheep comfort. And aren’t you so thankful that Jesus said, I will not leave you alone, he said. I love what Jesus said in John 14. He said, I’m going to send you the sheep. helper. I love the fact that Jesus described the Holy Spirit as the helper, and he called him the comforter. So David was taking comfort in the comforter. David was being comforted by the Holy Spirit that was leading in his life. God was ministering to David through the Holy Spirit. David said, take not thy spirit from me. Now in the present age, just for clarification, the Spirit is available to everybody that put their faith in Jesus. In the dispensation when the Hebrew Bible was written, the Holy Spirit was only given in full measure like He is today to kings and priests and prophets. Certain selected individuals that God’s purposes on earth could be fulfilled and so He could prepare the way for the kingdom. But David was one of those select individuals that had such a unique calling that the Spirit of God was marking on his life. And I want to encourage you as we think about this concept of having a comforter in our life, having a helper in our life. Jesus said, I’m with you always. And my rod and my staff, they comfort you. I want to encourage you to thank God for his comfort. Thank the Holy Spirit for being your helper. Thank the Holy Spirit for being your comforter. Doesn’t it give you great comfort to know that God has given you a helper, that you don’t have to do it alone? Jesus said, I will not leave you alone. Jesus said, I’m going to send you another. I’m going to send you the helper, the comforter, the Holy Spirit. I’m so thankful to know that if I feel weak, I’ve got one that comforts me and helps me. If I need faith, I can reach out to the Holy Spirit to help me. I can reach out to the Holy Spirit to bring me into a deeper relationship with God. I can reach out to the Holy Spirit to increase my faith. This brings me great comfort, beloved, that I know I have a helper. You know what? You also have a helper and all you and I need to do is to reach out to God for help. I want to read you what I believe is one of the most beautiful scriptures concerning the promise of God that comes to us when we honor Him with our wealth. I’m reading Proverbs 3, verse 9 and 10. Open your heart. Listen to this word that the Lord gives us. Honor the Lord from your wealth and from the first of all your produce, so your barns will be filled with plenty and your vats will overflow with new wine. This is a direct promise. THAT WHEN WE HONOR THE LORD WITH OUR FINANCES, HE RESPONDS TO THAT BY SUPERNATURALLY BLESSING OUR LIVES AND CIRCUMSTANCES. IF YOU BELIEVE THIS, I WANT TO ASK YOU, IF YOU SENSE THE HOLY SPIRIT KNOCKING ON YOUR HEART RIGHT NOW, MAKE YOUR BEST OFFERING TO THE LORD THROUGH DISCOVERING THE JEWISH JESUS.
SPEAKER 02 :
THANK YOU FOR YOUR HELP. I LOVE YOU. GOD BLESS YOU AND SHALOM.
SPEAKER 01 :
Amen. And if God is calling you to give Discovering the Jewish Jesus a gift of any amount, would you please give us a call right now? You can reach us at 800-777-7835. Or you can give on our website. Just visit us online. It’s discoveringthejewishjesus.com. And thank you so much for your generous financial support. And also thank you for praying for us. I also want to remind you that if you want to send in a prayer request or a testimony of your own, we would love to hear from you. Our prayer team, they meet every week and they’re here to pray over every single request that we receive. We believe in the power of prayer and we want to bless you and see God work in your life. Kimberly from Florida shared her experience with us. She said, I’ve made several prayer requests through your ministry, all of which were remarkably answered. Rabbi, I’m a firm believer that your ministry is highly anointed and has a special calling from God. I can sense it every time I listen to you. You know, amen. I’m so glad to hear how the Lord has blessed you, Kimberly. And friends, again, if you want to send in a testimony or a prayer request, just go to our website, discoveringthejewishjesus.com and click on the ministry tab and then the prayer request or submit your testimony button. You can send them to us in the mail as well. Our address is discoveringthejewishjesuspobox777.com. Blissfield, Michigan 49228. Once again, that’s P.O. Box 777 Blissfield, Michigan 49228. And now here’s Rabbi. He’s going to wrap up today’s message with God’s special and sacred blessing.
SPEAKER 02 :
Blessings trump curses, and in the book of Numbers chapter six, we find the Aaronic blessing that God commanded Moses’ brother Aaron, the high priest, to speak over the children of Israel. There’s power in blessing, beloved ones, so take part in receiving Father’s blessing upon your life today.
The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift you up with His countenance. And the Lord give you, beloved one, His peace. God bless you and shalom.
SPEAKER 01 :
This program is produced and sponsored by Discovering the Jewish Jesus. Be sure to come back next week when Rabbi Schneider teaches us how we can overcome hurt and live with purpose. That’s Monday on Discovering the Jewish Jesus.
