Shepherd – Dayspring Presbyterian Church

Worship on the Fourth Sunday of Easter
10:00 am      April 26, 2026
Minister: The Rev. Brad Childs        Music Director: Binu Kapadia
Vocalist: Lynn Vaughan     Elder: Andrea Gartrell
Children’s Time: Brad     Reader: Don Millligan

We gather to worship God.

Music prelude

Greeting
L: The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you
P: and also with you

Lighting of the Christ candle
Welcome and announcements
Preparation for worship

Call to worship:
L: God, our Shepherd, offers us abundant life.
P: God, you are with us!
L: God, our Shepherd, leads us by still waters.
P: God, restore our souls!
L: God, our Shepherd, walks with us through every dark valley.
P: God, we will not be afraid! God, our Shepherd, we praise you for your goodness and mercy with us every day.

Opening praise: Holy is the Lord

Prayers of approach and confession

God of love,

We come together into your presence

trusting that your love has the power to defeat evil in the world.

We come together into your presence, trusting that Christ

shows us that your love defeats even the power of death.

We come together into your presence, trusting that your Holy Spirit

guides us through the darkest valleys.

We worship you with glad hearts,

praising you in the name of our Risen Lord,

praying with the breath of your Spirit in us.

Renew our strength and courage to face whatever each day holds,

so our lives will bring you honour and glory now and always. Amen.

Trusting your grace and mercy, we come together to your throne of grace to confess our sins.

God of love,

we confess that too often we let the events around us

shatter our trust in your love.

When terror strikes and innocents fall,

we wonder if love can defeat violence.

When truth gets lost among misleading claims,

we wonder if love can prevail over lies.

Forgive us, God, when we lose our trust in the power of your love

So soon after it raised Jesus from death’s grip.

Response: Glory, glory, hallelujah

Assurance of God’s pardon

The Apostle Paul asked: What will separate us from the love of Christ? Hardship? Distress? Peril or sword? No! he declared. Neither death nor life, nor things present nor things to come can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. Let us rejoice that, no matter what is happening around us, God’s gracious and forgiving love will never let us go.

Musical Offering: Warren Garbutt and Jack Brown

We listen for the voice of God.

Song: Jesus, we are gathered (514)

Children’s time: Lost and found

Prayer with the Children

The Lord’s Prayer (535 )

*Song: The Lord’s my shepherd (11)

Scripture: Ezekiel 34:7-15; Psalm 23; 1 Peter 2:19-25; John 10:1-10

Response: Jesus is risen from the grave

Message: Shepherd
We have a shepherd who wants to lead us beside still waters and wants for us a life of abundance. Do we believe it?

Let’s suppose that I bought a horse from a man, and for that horse I had to pay, in cold, hard cash, a total of six dollars.

When I get home with the horse, everyone is excited. My kids think I’m a hero, and Tracy, who’s a bit of a penny pincher, thinks I’m a great bargainer. The horse is a definite hit with the family.

But after a while, problems arise. The horse is too big for the house. I’ve told the kids, “No galloping in the living room.” It’s getting expensive to feed this animal, too. Finally, my wife declares, “This horse has got to go.” I take the horse back to the man who originally sold it to me, and he’s gracious enough to buy the horse back for eight dollars. So, I have lost two bucks. Not a huge deal, obviously.

But soon I miss that old horse. A lot of times, at night, after the kids have gone to bed, I can be found staring up at the moon and playing my harmonica while singing cowboy songs. My wife, bless her heart, can’t stand to see me mope around, and so finally she gives in and says, “Oh, all right, go back and buy the horse again.” This time, I bought the horse from the same man for ten dollars.

You can guess what happens next. No sooner did we get the horse back to the house than we began to face all the same old problems again. The kids were horsing around, and the horse was doing a major number on the carpet.

I could see the handwriting on the wall. I was going to have to get rid of old Calico. So, I took the horse back to the same guy and sold it to him for twelve dollars.

I no longer have the horse, but I do have a question. After all my wheeling and dealing on the horse, did I make money or lose money? Not counting fees or gas back and forth to the farm, did I come out ahead? Did I go in the hole? Or did I break even? And if I did gain or lose, how much did I gain or lose?

The answer is I made four dollars. I spent six and ten, that’s sixteen; I received eight and twelve, so that’s twenty. Subtract sixteen from twenty, and you get four dollars profit. Wait, is that correct?

That story problem came from a second-grade math book. It should have been really easy, right? Second-grade math! But it wasn’t so easy, was it? In fact, it was downright confusing.

That’s the way life can be sometimes. Things that seem simple sometimes aren’t so simple. The world can be a very confusing place. But we have someone we can trust.

Psalm 33 says, “God’s word is true, and everything he does is right. He loves what is right and fair; the Lord’s love fills the earth.”

You gotta go to the One who designed you.

A few years ago, I bought this wonderful program: The Word Biblical Commentary series on CD-ROM. It was a steal: the whole set for only $800, instead of nearly $3,000 for the books, plus a bunch of extra resources thrown in. But I was newly married, working part-time as a youth director and a librarian’s assistant, and I was broke. Nine hundred dollars felt like a fortune.

I took that CD out of its package, followed the “three easy steps” that somehow took over an hour, typed in my 23-digit personalized code… and nothing. It didn’t work. So, like any intelligent young man, I repeated the same steps, got angry when I got the same result, and did it again. After about five hours of pure stupidity, I finally broke down and called the good people at Logos Software. I ended up speaking to one of the guys who actually helped write the program. In a few minutes, he gave me a couple of simple steps even I could follow, and voilà…

the program was up and running.

How many times in life do we try to work out our own problems our own way? We keep repeating the same mistakes, getting angrier and more frustrated, until finally we break down and go to the One who designed the program, the One who designed us, to begin with.

The world can be a very confusing mess, but Hebrews 13 tells us that our Lord is stable, trustworthy, and constant. He “is the same yesterday, today, and forever.”

But more than that, our trustworthy God has created us for a purpose. Psalm 139 says: “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made… Your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.”

Our God has created us for a purpose, and part of that purpose is to live a wonderful life, to be joyful and passionate, to really be alive. When the world thinks “Christian,” they picture some boring, dull, stoic existence. That’s nonsense.

You’ve got to do something. Take a little responsibility.

A few years ago, a 33-year-old truck driver named Larry Walters made national news. Larry had a habit of spending his weekends in his Los Angeles backyard, drinking Pepsi and eating peanut butter sandwiches, staring at the houses around him. Not a really exciting life.

One day, sheer boredom prompted him to buy some balloons and a tank of helium. He figured he’d tie the balloons to his lawn chair, float up a few feet, and get an aerial view of the neighbourhood. Just in case, he brought his old BB gun to shoot out balloons and control his altitude.

He bought 45 big weather balloons, filled them, tied them to his lawn chair, grabbed another six-pack of Pepsi, some sandwiches, and his BB gun. With a small crowd of curious neighbours watching, he yelled, “Let’s go!” and they cut the ropes.

He didn’t go five or six feet. He shot straight up… 10,000 feet! Right into the landing pattern at L.A. International Airport. The BB gun was useless because he was hanging on for dear life with both hands. They had to close the airport and send a helicopter to rescue him.

When they finally got him down, the reporters asked, “Were you scared?” “No, not really,” he said. “Are you going to do it again?” “No.” “What in the world made you do that in the first place?”

Larry thought for a moment and said, “Well… you just can’t sit there, can ya?”

Abundant life isn’t about launching yourself into the sky on a lawn chair fueled by Pepsi and boredom. But Larry was right about one thing… you can’t just sit there.

Denis Prager, in his book “Happiness Is a Serious Problem”, writes that unhappy religious people provide more persuasive arguments for atheism and secularism than all the other arguments combined. Perpetual unhappiness reflects poorly on our God, our faith, and all creation. God didn’t create us to mope around. He didn’t open the door to grace and love and expect a bunch of stoic faces.

Jesus said in John 10:10, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”

That word “abundantly” is the Greek word “perissos” (περισσός). It means:

– Over and above, more than is necessary, superadded

– Exceeding abundantly, supremely

– Something further, far more than, much more than all

– Superior, extraordinary, surpassing, uncommon

– Pre-eminence, superiority, advantage, more excellent

That’s the life God has prepared for us… abundant life, superadded life, life with extra poured on top.

But how do we actually live that kind of life? Jesus doesn’t just drop the promise and walk away. Right in the same chapter, He tells us exactly who He is and how He leads us into it.

In John 10, Jesus says: “Very truly I tell you, anyone who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep… I am the gate for the sheep… I am the good shepherd.”

What is your faith to you?

What is it when someone else attacks your faith?

What does it mean when the beliefs you hold most dear are attacked?

By the way, I am not telling you what to believe. What I am saying is that sometimes a fake shepherd comes into your life and messes things up. Do I, or do you, always see it for what it is? I don’t think I do.

Jesus says to be careful about those who want to mess up your life, change your ideas, or break in.

The thief climbs over the wall to steal, kill, and destroy. But the Good Shepherd comes through the gate. He calls His own sheep by name. He leads them out. The sheep know His voice and follow Him. They won’t follow a stranger.

Jesus is not a distant ruler barking orders. He is the Shepherd who knows you by name. He goes ahead of you. He walks with you.

That’s exactly what King David celebrated in Psalm 23:

“The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.

He makes me lie down in green pastures,

He leads me beside quiet waters,

He refreshes my soul.

He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake.

Even though I walk through the darkest valley,

I will fear no evil, for you are with me;

Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.”

Notice what the Shepherd does: He provides. He leads. He restores. He guides. He protects. Even in the valley of the shadow of death, the darkest, scariest places life can take us, we don’t have to be afraid, because the Shepherd is right there with us. His rod drives off the wolves. His staff gently corrects and keeps us on the path.

The abundant life isn’t a life without valleys. It’s a life where, even in the valley, you have a Shepherd who makes sure you lack nothing that really matters. He superadds peace in the storm, joy in the sorrow, strength in the weakness, and hope when everything else is falling apart.

The thief wants to rob you of that. The world wants to convince you that following Jesus means a boring, restricted, colourless existence. But Jesus says the opposite: “I came that they may have life, real life, vibrant life, and have it ‘perissos’, overflowing, extraordinary, surpassing, superadded.”

You were fearfully and wonderfully made for this. The Designer who knit you together in your mother’s womb is the same Good Shepherd who stands at the gate and says, “Come on in. Follow my voice. I’ve got green pastures and quiet waters waiting. And even when the path gets dark, I’m walking right beside you.”

So here’s the question for all of us this week: Are you going to keep trying to fix things your own way, repeating the same frustrating loops, or will you go to the One who designed you? Will you listen for the voice of the Good Shepherd and follow Him into the abundant life He promised?

You don’t have to launch yourself 10,000 feet in a lawn chair. But you do have to move. You do have to take responsibility. You do have to reach out and grab hold of the life that’s already been purchased for you.

Go and find some way this week, maybe today, to grab that abundant life that God has promised you.

After all… You just can’t sit there, can ya?

Song: Saviour, like a shepherd lead us (485)

We respond to serve God.

Our time of giving

Prayers of the people

God with a tender heart, we thank you for the care you offer to us as our Shepherd. Bless the gifts we offer so they will spread your abundant love to those in need of caring. Bless our lives so that we may care for the world as we follow Jesus day by day.

Wise and generous God, shepherd of our lives, we are thankful this day for all you provide to sustain us.

You call our weary souls to rest when the world seems busy. You bless us with the promise of new life as pastures around us turn green, announcing another spring.

You gather us around tables of friendship to draw strength from one another. Thank you for the signs of your goodness and mercy, which we can treasure each day.

Loving and listening God, shepherd of the world,

We bring you our prayers for others, friends and enemies, neighbours and strangers alike.

We pray for people who are struggling with illness, loneliness, grief or sadness: