I want you to get your Bibles while you say don’t sit back down cuz you know how your knees are you got them oneway knees I thought I would start with a Bible class rather than a Sunday morning and just ease into teaching and sharing something with you the Lord has said something to me that I think is very important and you’re going to have to be focused and really committed to getting this word because God gave me this word and it’s that in my soul and I can’t get it out come on come on somebody come on

somebody I’m going to talk a little bit about Shadow People shadow people go to Psalms 23:4 Shadow People it is a very familiar scripture but the fact that it has often been quoted doesn’t mean it has often been understood in fact the more familiar we become the less attention we pay to a text because we assume so much about the text that we do not realize the power of the frequency of the text itself it is written by the psalmist David at a particular time in his life that he comes to know God through the experience

of his own life he begins the chapter saying the Lord is my shepherd He says that because he can relate to the job of a Shepherd because he is a Shepherd boy and so metaphorically he Compares his experience with god with his experience with the sheep and he says because the Lord is my shepherd I shall not want he maketh me to lie down in Green Pastures he leadth me beside Still Waters he restoreth my soul my cup runneth over surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and he goes all through this

scenario of wonderfulness I shall not want Green Pastures Steel Waters it’s just wonderful just wonderful it’s just wonderful until he gets to this one verse in the fourth verse where we get to see the the other side the the ying and yang of it all in spite of the Lord being my shepherd and I shall not want in spite of the favor that’s on my life in spite of the gift that’s on my life he just almost Whispers and says ye though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fearing no evil for thou art with me thy rod and

thy staff they comfort me what what is what is he doing what he just got through saying the Lord was his Shepherd and he shall not want but then he whispers and lets us know the dichotomous relationship with God does not prude us from having Shadows you would think that if God was your Shepherd there would be no Shadows but we are looking at the dichotomous relationship between the Shadow and the Shepherd that the reality of the matter that it doesn’t matter how gifted you are how talented you are are how blessed

you are how many people like you or don’t like you or what they think about you that the presence of the shepherd does not negate the reality of the Shadow and for every person in this room who has the shepherd you also have a shadow so I preach tonight I teach tonight I teach preach tonight I preach teach preach teach reach reach teach preach each tonight uhhuh about shadow people people who are anointed and gifted and appointed and they and they have God as their Shepherd and we admire them and we esteem them and we exalt them and

they’re always ready to pray for us and already ready to lift us up and we we see the Shepherd in them but we do not see the shadow so tonight if only for tonight if only for tonight we’re going to move away from just being engrossed with the power and the presence and the preeminence and the preexistent glory of the shepherd himself who ha exalted himself above every living creature who stepped out on nothing and let there be something and it became whatever he said the omnipotent omnipresent omniscent God he