The Lord Is My Guide

Cant take my dog to the park anymore, the geese kept attacking her, guess thats what I get for having a pure bred

If you have missed one of the last few weeks, you have really missed out on some amazing truths that God has been sharing with us, for sure you need to take time to go back and listen to them on podcast or to watch them on the Facebook page or youtube.

Listen, the first week we talked about our view of God and how we truly see him in our lives, we talked about viewing him as shepherd...

Last week we talked about the environments that God places us in and how we see that, and how he CAUSES us to rest; he makes us and that doesn’t sound good for some of us, the word rest gives us chills.

This morning we are going to look at the 3rd verse of this amazing scripture and this is what it says:

Psalm 23:3 ESV

3 He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.

I love this scripture and the reason I love it is because it can speak to all of us who feel like we have no idea what we are doing and need some direction. Have you ever been there, like you really have no idea what is going on or how you got there, and you’re in the middle, lost and confused about what to do next? Listen, this isn’t always a bad thing but when we hear this kind of talk we tend to think about the times when we have took something on or made a decision and all of a sudden we are lost and don’t know how to get out of it and we find ourselves smack dab in the middle of crazy town hoping for something to come along and save us but we aren’t even exactly sure what that would be. When we think about being lost and unsure of where to go that is where our minds normally go to those moments.

However, there is a completely different side of this, there is a side where it is a positive thing that we are lost. I remember when we were Indiana and we were at a church in the middle of cornfields and I mean it, there was nothing around for at least 15 miles of any substance at that time, the nearest walmart was a thirty minute drive, but we were just a country church in the middle of nowhere trying to share the gospel and we started to grow, and I mean we grew rapidly we went from 25 people to about 150 people and I remember all of a sudden I was like, what am I doing I have no idea how we got here and what to do next, and I really had to dig in and study, and seek Godly counsel, and seek the Lord to get myself knowing I could do what the Lord had called me to and I was prepared for what was next.

If we are asking God to move in our lives personally, or in the life of this church, the only way we can be prepared for a move of God is to make sure our relationship with God is where it needs to be; and understand the environments he has placed us in - to see him as shepherd. Then, God, watch this he will give us guidance, because when we understand that the Lord is our shepherd and we lack nothing and that he makes us lie down in green pastures and leads us beside quiet waters, and we see the next promise, he restores my soul. Don’t you want that in your life, for him to restore your soul?

Have you ever had those seasons of your life where you just feel so spiritually dry you feel like you could just die? Where you feel like the dry bones that Ezekiel had to speak to to rise up. I want you to understand I know what it is like to get to rock bottom. I have had those moments in my life where I questioned continuing in ministry just because the people and the places made it so hard to do what God had called us to do. And when we read this verse we should be at the place where we say, “Yes, I want that! I want you to restore me, fill me, revive me,” but we often never get it, and you know why?

It goes all the way back to week one where the Lord was our shepherd and our understanding of him as such, and realizing that with Him we truly lack nothing. Then allowing him to place us in environments and lead us by still waters when those things happen and then the promise after is God will refresh our soul; its a beautiful thing - an amazing journey to get there; all following the lead of the Good Shepherd.

So How does God Restore YOU soul, what does he do to get me to that place? I think there are three things 1. He removes your guilt

2. He relieves your grief

3. He replaces your grudges

1. Let God remove your guilt I believe guilt can destroy you almost faster than anything else, look at what Psalm 38 says:

Psalm 38:4–5 NIV

4 My guilt has overwhelmed me like a burden too heavy to bear. 5 My wounds fester and are loathsome because of my sinful folly.

Listen, this person is having some serious guilt issues, they are dealing with a ton of guilt about something, we have no idea what that guilt is about, but they are obviously struggling, and you can see that there are some crazy negative circumstances that come from that guilt in their life.

How do we deal with guilt? Really, there are tons of ways that we can deal with guilt; we deny it, or try to bury it is still there because we never truly dealt with it so that doesn’t really work. We can minimize it, we can say, “its no big deal, I’ll be fine.” If its no big deal why can’t we move beyond it, why can’t we forget it like all those other things that weren’t a big deal in our lives? Minimizing it doesn’t work either. Or what we can do is, we can rationalize it, and this looks like, “everybody does it, it isn’t that big of a deal.” Listen, everyone DOESN’t do it. And I know we all remember what our momma’s said, if everyone jumped off the Brooklyn bridge, would you jump off too? I never really got that one, I mean, I get the sentiment, but its a crazy statement, I’m not even close to Brooklyn mom, can’t we use a closer point of reference? How about, if everyone stole a piece of gum would you too? Listen, rationalizing doesn’t work because for the most part rationalizing is just “rational lies" The fourth option, and the one most of us do with our guilt is beat ourselves up. I’m sure you’ve been there, and sometimes I am the worst because my ADHD doesn’t ever want my brain to be quiet, but I would lie in bed at night and beat myself up over stuff that had happened at least 5 or 6 years prior. For the most part, the stuff didn’t even matter anymore, it had no reflection of what was going on at that point in my life and really barred no reflection on anything at the time, but we are good at beating ourselves up like a professional.

Here is the problem with that, when we are beating ourselves up with our guilt what we are in essence doing is taking God’s place. I know, you can’t believe I would even say that to you, because that isn’t what you are doing at all. But it is because you are not seeing yourself as God sees you; as a child that he has restored and redeemed. You are administering your own punishment and believing that you can handle it all more than God can; maybe not consciously but for certain that is what you are doing. You are seeing yourself and setting yourself up as less than what God sees you, feeling like you are the worst of all human beings. We will even start to tell ourselves, “I deserve this life I have, I don’t deserve anything better,” and we start living a fractured life in our guilt.

Listen, none of these things work, minimizing, rationalizing, denying, beating ourselves up - none of it works. Only one thing does… and that’s giving it to God.

The Psalmist says, “He restores my soul,” look at it again, “HE restores my soul,” I want you to circle that word, HE, maybe underline it, put a box around it, do something, because HE restores my soul.

How does he do that? Through his Son Jesus Christ. Our Most basic truth is that Jesus Christ has already paid for our sins, so all that stuff that you have already done wrong, that you are beating yourself up about, if you have asked for forgiveness, its paid for. All that stuff that you are still going to do wrong, and thats right, you’re still going to make mistakes, when you confess it to Jesus and repent -paid for. Jesus went to the cross to pay for all of that. There is nothing that you can do on your own that will remove your guilt; only God can do that - its only the Good Shepherd that has that power.

So how do we get forgiveness from God? We trust him. There is no begging, there is no bribery that is needed, the only thing that we truly needed is to trust in him and believe that he has already went to the cross for you.

You may say, Pastor, I believe in Jesus, I trust in him, but I still feel guilty. That just means that you don’t truly understand forgiveness, because Gods forgiveness is complete and immediate, lets look at 1 John 1:9 1 JOHN 1:9

1 John 1:9 ESV

9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

So God cleanses you of just a little bit of sin, right? No he cleanses you of all of it. Think about it this way, when your electric bill is due and you pay it, and you know there is enough money to cover it, you know that you’ve sent it in, do you worry about that bill anymore? Of course not. Its been paid for., So it’s over. Just as God went to the cross and paid for your sins and said it is finished, it is over. So if God has forgiven your sins shouldn’t you let him? Of course you should.

Let God remove your guilt. Next,

2.Let God relieve your grief.

Sometimes we suffer not because of the things that we have done but because of the things that others have done to us. Sometimes we suffer when we see other people suffering. Sometimes people hurt us, we are living in a fallen world, this is not heaven, sometimes things get bad, BUT the psalmist says He Restores my soul.

Think about this, King David was very familiar with grief think of the story in II Samuel 12 where after committing adultery he carried that guilt until he confessed it in Psalm 51, and that is a good place to turn if you are having a guilt ridden day. We have to remember that isn’t the whole story, he did just commit adultery and repent. No, Bathsheba became pregnant with David’s child, and when he was born he was very sick, the Bible tells us David fasted and prayed, he begged God to spare the child since the child had done nothing wrong, and asked God to take his life instead, but it didn’t work and the baby died. DO you know what David did in his grief? Three things:

A. He accepted what he could not change

2 Samuel 12:22–23 ESV

22 He said, “While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept, for I said, ‘Who knows whether the Lord will be gracious to me, that the child may live?’ 23 But now he is dead. Why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he will not return to me.”

This may be some of the hardest things for us to practice in our own lives; to accept the things we cannot change.

B. He focused on what was left, not what was lost.

2 Samuel 12:24 ESV

24 Then David comforted his wife, Bathsheba, and went in to her and lay with her, and she bore a son, and he called his name Solomon. And the Lord loved him

Sometimes we spend so much time focusing on the past and the things we lost we cannot see what God has for us right now.

C. He turned to God

Psalm 51:11–12 ESV

11 Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. 12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.

When we grieve we can remain a prisoner to our pain, or we can turn that pain over to God. Listen, grief takes time and comes in waves, I don’t want to short change that, we may give it to God and it hit us again, weeks, months, years later, and each time our choice must be the same, instead of picking it up for our selves to bear, we give it to God.

So he removes our guilt, he relieves our grief, and

3. Let God Replace your Grudges.

Do you know where grudges come from? They come from holding onto hurt that other people have caused us. Even if people didn’t intentionally hurt us, once they do we hold onto the pain and develop a grudge. We often feel guilt when we hurt people, grief when we have suffered some type of lose, but we hold grudges when someone has hurt us. Guess what, in this world, this fallen world that we live in, you are going to get hurt. Life isn’t fair, you will be hurt, you are going to be beaten up, life is going to take swings at you, sometimes it is going to hit you right on the temple and it is going to knock you out, and as soon as you get up, its going to hit you again. How you handle these situations will determine if you become better, or bitter.

So what do we do when all the hurt has started to pile up, when we have tons of emotional pain and its running deep? You can get angry and hold a grudge with those that hurt you or you can look at what Job 5:2 says:

Job 5:2 NASB95

2 “For anger slays the foolish man, And jealousy kills the simple.

Why do you think that is? Mostly because wrath and revenge are self destructive ;they don’t hurt anyone but yourself. Wrath and revenge break down relationships - they make you biter they hurt you right now. Which is crazy because your grudge is something of the past. Listen, your past is your past, don’t let it ruin you today. The truth is your past can’t hurt you today unless you keep going over and over it again and again. The person you are holding a grudge against may not even be alive but you’re still holding a grudge against them still, you;re trying to bury them with your anger and they have been buried for far too long. You for some reason can’t seem to let go of your resentment, but you need to because it is only hurting you. look at what the message says in Romans 12:19

Romans 12:19 ESV

19 Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”

Worship Team

In other words don’t hold a grudge, don’t try to get even on your own, thats God’s job, not yours, he will eventually make everything right in this world, because that is his job, and not yours. He is the judge of this world, and not you.

Get rid of all your bitterness, stop holding grudges. The Bible tells us to forgive as we have been forgiven and how have you been forgiven? Completely, and totally and immediately. Even the Lords prayer says, Forgive us our debts as we have forgiven our debtors.

We don’t need a self help book to help us deal with our guilt, grief, and grudges, we need only a Shepherd; a savior who is ready to deal with your damaged emotions if we just ask him.

Psalm 23:1-3 1The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. 2He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. 3He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Let him restore your soul today. Let’s pray.

Have you ever made a bad decision when you are tired? Of course you have, because when we are tired we often choose to do what is easy instead of what is right. The bible promises that he refreshes my soul and we get to this place and we are crazy overwhelmed and the truth is, we are there because we have lost sight of our relationship with him. We haven’t allowed him to put us in the right environments and we are lost.

REFRESHMENT = REFOCUS

He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake. See he wants us to get it right more than we want to get it right, because at the end of the day it is him that is trying to get the glory for what we are doing.