September 2, 2012
He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. - Psalm 23: 3
Continuing with uncovering the truths within Psalm 23, we find God's recipe for restoration. God is always a God of restoration.
The modern church has an almost unhealthy fascination with the word revival. I say unhealthy only to the extent that if we ever did things the way God intended us to, we would not need to be revived so often! God however understands what we face on a daily basis. We need refreshing for our souls in this walk we have with our God. Without restoration, we run the risk of being ineffectual for Him. If we are ineffective then we run the risk of being fruitless in doing God's work.
The third verse of Psalm 23 starts with a simple fact -- God restores our soul. Yes we can seek our refreshment within the world but we will never be satisfied as we can be from the living waters of Jesus Christ. What is interesting in the King James here is that the rest of the verse is preceded by the grammatical usage of a colon. In grammar a colon is used "To inform the reader that what follows the colon proves, explains, or lists elements of what preceded it. " While some of the more modern translations have changed this to a semi-colon, I prefer to look at this verse as a statement followed by an explanation of that statement. So we accept the fact that God restores our soul and then God explains how. Thus there are two points for us to consider today when we consider restoration.
The first consideration is that if we seek restoration from God today -- either individually or collectively -- it must always start with our allowing Him to lead us in the paths of righteousness. Well what does that mean? There are several paths we can take in our lives on a daily, if not a minute by minute basis. As indicated above we have three things working against us every day. We have the enemy to our souls who seeks to devour us as the Bible states. He does not rest and he does not sleep. There is some dangerously poor theology out there today that seeks to minimize the devil. Do so at your own risk. I am not suggesting we need to fear the enemy, just that we need to be cognizant of his schemes, so that when he comes against us, we can more easily spot them, resist, and watch him flee. We also have the world system working against us every day. This is a fallen world that is eroding morally every day. Just turn on the news and see the level of depravity in society and what passes for good and evil. I have seen so many well-intended Christians dance with the world like it is not a big deal. It is always compromise beloved and what the tiniest of compromises does is allow our minds to accept another compromise. Sin begets sin. Leaven begets leaven. Compromise begets compromise. King David allowed the compromise of lust into his life once when he saw Bathsheba bathing. It could have ended there and there would have been minimal damage. But then that compromise led to adultery and that compromise led to murder. That is because sin shows you the moment and not the consequence. Sin is like those fancier restaurants that have no prices on the menu. The logic being if you need to ask then you cannot afford to be dining there. Allow me to assure you -- you cannot afford the price tag for sin, so do not dine there. There is some equally dangerous theology out there that seeks to minimize sin as well. They just point to the cross and talk about the grace of God. Yes, God's grace is amazing but sin still has a cost. It may not be an eternal cost -- David did not lose his salvation. It does however have a real temporal cost -- David did lose two children and his kingdom. Yes God restored David because He is a God of restoration but David still paid a price. David was not restored until he repented and got back on the paths of righteousness.
The other factor
working against us is our own flesh. Our flesh desires sin. It desires the
things that are not of God. The truth is that a lot of the time we blame the
enemy it is really our own flesh to blame. The enemy cannot make us do
anything. If he could, he would kill us as that is his true motive. All the
enemy can do is lie to us about one or more of the promises God has already
made to us in His Word. Our flesh often wants to believe those lies. Eve's
flesh saw that the fruit was desirable so she ate it despite what God had said.
These things combine to show us the paths that are not of God. These paths do
not lead us towards God but further away from Him. If we are seeking
restoration however, it must always start on a different path:
Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take. -- Proverbs 3: 5-6 (NLT)
God wants to show us what path to take. He wants to lead us in the paths of righteousness. Of being able to resist the devil. Of being able to avoid the compromises of this world in our lives and in our churches. Of being able to make our flesh obedient to Christ. That is the first element in our restoration. It is not about revival songs and big tent meetings. It is always rooted in getting back on the right path. The path of God and His paths are always rooted in righteousness.
The second consideration in the key verse is speaks to our motivation beloved. It is simply not spoken about enough because it is always assumed as given. What is our motivation for seeking restoration? What is our motivation for serving God? It may seem like a silly question until you look out upon the landscape of modern Christendom. We see a whole swath of people who are motivated by money, fame, or politics. Entire mega-congregations follow self-help gurus disguised as pastors. Motivational speakers disguised as pastors. Churches that have compromised with the world so much you cannot tell them apart from the world. Churches that seek to be relevant to an evil culture. Saying you are doing it for Jesus does not make it so. God is infinitely more concerned with how we get somewhere than if we actually do get there.
For His namesake only beloved. For His namesake only. There can be no other motivation for wanting to serve God. There can be no other motivation for seeking restoration from God. It has to all be about Jesus. When Jesus first started His ministry here on earth the disciples of John the Baptist were upset because people started going to Jesus for baptism instead of John. Can you imagine? Yet how often do we also lose sight of who truly matters in this great undertaking we call Christianity? How often do we get offended for OUR ministry or even OUR church? The hard truth is there is too much church worship these days. There is too much pastor worship these days. There can even be too much ministry worship these days. There needs to be a collective realization of why it is that we do what we do. As John the Baptist said to his disciples that day:
John replied, "No one can receive anything unless God gives it from heaven. You yourselves know how plainly I told you, "I am not the Messiah. I am only here to prepare the way for him.' It is the bridegroom who marries the bride, and the best man is simply glad to stand with him and hear his vows. Therefore, I am filled with joy at his success. He must become greater and greater, and I must become less and less. -- John 3: 27-30 (NLT)
In everything we do -- He must become greater. God understands that we will need times of restoration in our lives. But we must recognize the path He wants to lead us to is forged in His Righteousness and that we will not find it without the pure motive of heart that seeks only to glorify the name of Jesus Christ. Come and be restored today.
Rev. Anthony.
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