Restore

Our theme for 2021 is “Redeeming the Time”

I thought it was time to articulate a vison for the church, not just an annual theme, but an overall vision.

What I am presenting to you today and this month is the result of listening, conversations and prayer over the last year.

I hope that is will serve to guide us for years to come.

Our vision at SCF is to “Encounter God’s Transforming Love.”

How do we do that? (Four R’s)

Respond

Restore

Release

Relate

Last week I started the series by saying that we need to respond to God.

God reveals Himself through a divine encounter and we respond, by our worship, our actions, our obedience.

Over the next 3-4 weeks we are going to talk about the four R’s in more detail, but this week is the second R- Restore.

God’s goal is restoration. We participate in this by allowing God to remove the hindrances in our lives.

This is a lifelong process of aligning our hearts with His.

Restore is represented by the stream that flows from the cross.

There is a prophetic picture in the scripture of a river of life that flows from the Presence of God.

Ezekiel 47:1–6 ESV

1 Then he brought me back to the door of the temple, and behold, water was issuing from below the threshold of the temple toward the east (for the temple faced east). The water was flowing down from below the south end of the threshold of the temple, south of the altar. 2 Then he brought me out by way of the north gate and led me around on the outside to the outer gate that faces toward the east; and behold, the water was trickling out on the south side. 3 Going on eastward with a measuring line in his hand, the man measured a thousand cubits, and then led me through the water, and it was ankle-deep. 4 Again he measured a thousand, and led me through the water, and it was knee-deep. Again he measured a thousand, and led me through the water, and it was waist-deep. 5 Again he measured a thousand, and it was a river that I could not pass through, for the water had risen. It was deep enough to swim in, a river that could not be passed through. 6 And he said to me, “Son of man, have you seen this?” Then he led me back to the bank of the river.

Did you get the picture? The river of life grows deeper as it flows!

In the physical universe we have what is called the first law of thermodynamics which states that energy/matter is neither gained nor lost in a closed system, though it can change from one form to another.

The second law suggests that systems tend to degenerate over time from order to chaos.

In other words, life and order doesn’t just happen. It is the result of some intervention.

Rivers tend to get bigger as they flow toward the sea because lots of little tributaries are flowing into them.

This river is getting much deeper very quickly!

But look at how this river is described:

Ezekiel 47:9 NLT

9 There will be swarms of living things wherever the water of this river flows. Fish will abound in the Dead Sea, for its waters will become fresh. Life will flourish wherever this water flows.

That is restoration!

When you respond to God, His life flows through you, bringing life to dead places!

What are some dead places that God wants to bring to life?

We are going to look at three categories, personal restoration, restoration of relationships and finally restoring identity - the image of God.

Personal restoration

There is so much that can be said here but we are going to cover some broad categories fro a bird’s-eye view.

Personal restoration takes time.

The important thing is to be in the process.

There are so many great tools out there to help with restoration:

Elijah House

Ancient Paths

Celebrate Recovery

Books, Sermons, Podcasts, etc.

Jesus brought you from darkness to light.

Colossians 1:13–14 TPT

13 He has rescued us completely from the tyrannical rule of darkness and has translated us into the kingdom realm of his beloved Son. 14 For in the Son all our sins are canceled and we have the release of redemption through his very blood.

Last week I said that a divine encounter changes everything.

Literally, everything shifts in the spiritual realm.

You are nolonger part of the rebellion against God.

You are reunited with God through Jesus Christ.

You are restore to your position as a child of God.

The darkness to light language is meant to show the contrast between what you were and what you are becoming.

I say ‘becoming’ because, in reality, we are not all there yet.

Positionally, we are already restored - God sees us as perfect because of Jesus.

Conditionally, none of us is perfect. We are people in process.

So what can we do to help this process?

You can choose to feed the flesh or the spirit.

Romans 7:21–25 NLT

21 I have discovered this principle of life—that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. 22 I love God’s law with all my heart. 23 But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. 24 Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? 25 Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. So you see how it is: In my mind I really want to obey God’s law, but because of my sinful nature I am a slave to sin.

Paul describes the sinful nature which still lingers despite who we are in Christ.

There are those who believe we can become perfectly sanctified in this life - some of those people have suffered major public failures.

It’s a big mistake to think that you’re perfect - you’re more than likely deceived.

You might as well face the fact that the “flesh” (the sinful nature) is going to be with you until you die.

But does that mean that you are always going to struggle?

You can be victorius over sin! - It doesn’t have to be a constant struggle.

The key is to realize that you are both flesh and spirit.

Learn to recognize the difference and what each part wants.

Whichever part you feed is going to grow.

Feed the flesh and the flesh will dominate you.

Feed the spirit and the flesh will still be there, but it won’t control you.

What kind of things feed the spirit?

Bible reading and prayer of course!

But it can also be music or nature.

It could also be times of quiet reflection.

Reflection, like the meditation that we laked about last week, is processing what we see, hear and know about God.

It is holding everything up to the light to see what it looks like in light of God’s truth.

Feeding your spirit is not neccesarily religious activity, but it is doing the things that cultivate connection with God.

But don’t let yourself get lazy or the flesh may grow again.

The sinful nature is selfish. - It wants what it wants.

Knowing who you are in Christ and focusing on that means that yoou set your sights higher.

You’re not living for yourself anymore; you’re living for Him!

Break the power of self-centeredness with generousity.

An example of feeding the spirit is through giving.

Our sinful nature wants to hold on to things.

Not only that, but what we have is never enough, we tend to want more.

The BIble encourages generosity; not just because it is a good thing, but because it is a spiritual principle.

2 Corinthians 9:6–8 ESV

6 The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. 7 Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 8 And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.

By giving you are starving the flesh and feeding the spirit.

Even more than that, you are imitating God because God is a giver!

That’s why God wants you to be cheerful about it.

The Greek word used here is like the word “hilarious” - God is a hilarious giver and he loves when we give “hilariously!”

Tithing is the biblical practice of giving a tenth which represents the whole.

It is a way of acknowleging that everything we have belongs to God and so we give Him a representative portion.

Someone might say, why do we still tithe when tithing isn’t in the New Testament?

You’re right it isn’t, but regular offerings were taken and generousity is still encouraged.

If anything, the generousity of the early church probably exceeded what was required in the Old Testament!

Whatever you decide to give, let that be between you and God.

I just want to take a moment to acknowledge that some people think that the church is always asking for money and that the preaching of prosperity is a kind of manipulation.

I’m sorry. Far too often, that has been true.

However, it is still a spiritual principle and I would be amiss not to tell you about it.

I don’t want you to ever feel coerced to give because according to this passage, your attitude is also a key to receiving a blessing.

Something else is happening here. Remember the river that unexplainedly increases as it flows?

That kind of increase is the blessing of God!

When we are in God’s kingdom, blessing brings increase.

Whether is is an increase of joy or of wealth it is all for God’s glory.

Giving should never be a selfish thing either by those who are giving or those who are receiving.

I have seen giving break the power of the selfish sinful nature.

That is why I include giving and tithing as part of “restore.”

When I have given a gift out of obedience to God, even if it hurts a little, it is a form of worship and dedication to God and it changes me.

I have also been a recipient of other people’s generousity and it is humbling to know that what I am receiving is not tied to my performance or anything that I have done, once again, I am undone.

It is a demonstration of God’s grace, His goodness in tangible form.

Lets talk about another category of restoration;

Restoration of relationships

2 Corinthians 5:16–20 The Message

16 Because of this decision we don’t evaluate people by what they have or how they look. We looked at the Messiah that way once and got it all wrong, as you know. We certainly don’t look at him that way anymore. 17 Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life burgeons! Look at it! 18 All this comes from the God who settled the relationship between us and him, and then called us to settle our relationships with each other. 19 God put the world square with himself through the Messiah, giving the world a fresh start by offering forgiveness of sins. God has given us the task of telling everyone what he is doing. 20 We’re Christ’s representatives. God uses us to persuade men and women to drop their differences and enter into God’s work of making things right between them. We’re speaking for Christ himself now: Become friends with God; he’s already a friend with you.

The work that God is doing in our lives is meant to extend beyond us.

Virtually everyone has experience relational emotional damage.

Granted some people have more wounding than others.

But it is impossible to go through lfe without getting hurt by people.

And then “hurt people” hurt people - the wounding that we experience gets passed on to others.

Parental damage.

Sibling rivalry.

Bullying.

Failed relationships.

Marital issues.

How can these wouds be restored?

Healing is a choice.

It’s not your fault that things happened the way that they did.

Nobody deserves to be abused.

You didn’t choose your parents, your family or much of your enviroment which shaped you.

You didn’t choose the ahnd you were dealt, but you can choose what you willl do with it.

What did Jesus do with injustice?

He didn’t deserve to die.

Sure He confronted hypocracy, but not in retaliation.

He took on the sin of the world and bore it to the cross.

And He forgave those who hurt him because they didn’t know what they were doing.

People who wound us are acting out of their own hurt.

That means that we are likely to do the same thing.

How do we stop passing the hurt around.

It has to go to the cross. - Forgive as Jesus forgave you.

Forgiveness is a choice.

It may take a while for the feelings to catch up.

And forgiveness is not the same as trust.

Forgiveness is granted, but trust has to be earned.

So what do you do when you realized that you have messed up and broken people’s trust?

Clean up your messes.

Danny Silk in his book “Culture of Honor: Sustaining a Supernatural Enviroment” talks about how we are so geared toward punishment; making people pay for their mistakes. But Jesus bore the penalty of sin so tha we could forgive. The real work that needs to be done is restoring trust and confidence in relationship.

He uses the illustration of a couple who got pregnant while attending their ministry school. Instead of kicking them out of the school, he led them through a process of recognizing and repairing the relationships that were harmed by their actions.

More important than punishement is cleaning up your mess. Like a can of paint that was knocked ovver and now everyone around them has paint on them. Who has paint on them? Your job is to see it and to help them get rid of it.

Punishment treats people as the problem.

What Danny Silk is recommending is restitution, work constructively at solving the problem.

Elijah House talks about restitution also; doing whatever is nessecary to rebuild and restore trust.

Not all messes can be cleaned up.

Sometimes the paint is permanent.

But that is where we can get creative with the help of the Holy Spirit.

God may have you “pay it forward” to someone else who is in need of healing.

I strongly recommend that you don’t try to clean up messes by yourself.

We are wounded in the context of relationship, but we are also healed in the context of relationship.

Other people can help you see what you can’t see.

And we often learn more by helping others than we would on our own.

I recommend that everyone relate to a small group of believers, whether it is a Bible study, a fellowship group or a task group, but a group where you can share something of your life and grow together.

We are all interconnected.

When Paul talks about the ministry of reconciliation, he is working form the idea that we are already interconnected.

You are not just connected to God, but you are connected to God and, by extension, to every other person who is conneccted to God.

When we forgive, we are making it easier for other people to connect to God.

Every severed connection restricts the flow of God’s life through us and every restored connection increases the flow of God’s life through us.

Just as sin perpetuates damage in relationships resulting in hurt being passed around and increasing as it is passed from one to another; when we forgive and are healed, that healing also results in other people being healed and the life and power of God increases among us.

One more thing about reconciliation - if you have broken relationships which you have tried to reconcile and failed, just be sure that you have done the forgiveness part.

It takes two people to reconcile, but you can forgive with or without that persons permission.

You don’t need their cooperation to pray for them.

They don’t even need to know you are doing it.

the best way to restore that connection is to strengthen your connection with God and pray that God conveys truth to them.

Speaking of truth.... what is the truth that sets us free?

John 8:31–32 ESV

31 So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

Restored identity

So what is the truth?

Most people look at this scripture as Jesus saying, “If you only knew the truth about me...”

But he said it to people who already belived Him.

I thnk he was saying, “If you only knew the truth about who you are...”

God wants to make you whole.

Psalm 86:11 ESV

11 Teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth; unite my heart to fear your name.

We are broken people who live in a fallen and broken world.

It’s not just our relationships that are shattered; it’s our personalities as well.

We don’t know who we are; and we can’t make up our own minds about what we want.

The flesh and the spirit is one major way that we are divided in our own minds, but it goes deeper that that.

We believe lies about ourselves, about others and about God.

And what’s worse is that we are in denial about most of what is wrong with us.

It will take a lifetime to find all of the broken places and the broken pieces and countless hours of therapy to put them all together again.

But there is a better, probably shorter way:

You were created in God’s image.

First and foremost, that is a status, you represent God regardless of who you are.

But representing God well involves attributes- becomnig more like God.

We find out who we are when we learn to know who God is.

The best way to know God is to follow Jesus; who is the exact representation of God.

When God looks at you, He sees Jesus.

So while you are getting your life back together, just know that God already has you covered.

Don’t look at all the pieces, keep your eyes on Jesus and let Him help you.

Back to the passage in John - some people object to the idea that they need any help.

John 8:33–36 ESV

33 They answered him, “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?” 34 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. 35 The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

You are nolonger a slave, but a child of God!

When God created the world, mankind walked with God in the garden of Eden.

God wanted the relationship with Humans to be genuine, so he gave us a free will.

But people were decived into thinking that God was holding out on them.

In rebelling against God, we became slaves to the selfish sinful nature and victims of forces that are beyond our understanding.

Jesus was proclaiming that this condition need not be permanent.

Jesus then defeated the powers of darkness at the cross and atoned for sin.

We are restored to our original status as children of God.

So much of the restoration process is getting rid of our slave mentality.

We wollow in self-pity every time we sin.

Is it any wonder we fall back into the same old habits and patterns?

Anyone who has been through recovery knows that you can’t focus on “not doing something” or you will do it.

You need to form a new identity - in this case, your true identity!

You are a child of God!

Those old sinful habits are not consistent with who you are and who you are becoming.

Even if you slip up, it doesn’t change who you are.

You can get back on track if you keep your focus on the truth of what you are becoming and not on where you have been.

Made in God’s image means that you represent God.

Wow! Is there anything more powerful than knowing that God created you to reflect Him.

That was you, before you ever did anything right or wrong.

The language of “image bearer” is like the image on a coin that tells you who made it and gives it value.

It’s like a gold coin that is found at the bottom of the ocean. It’s all crusty with dirt, tarnish and even barnacles that have attached themselves over the years.

But it’s still treasure and people serch for it because its gold. Once found, they will meticulously remove the debris to reveal the coins image. It is worth the work because of the value of the treasure inside.

Not just because it is made of gold, but because its gold that has been restored, it has historical value and now has a story of recovery which makes it even more desirable.

God is all about restoration of His creation.

One day, God is going to resore everything including the earth and Eden, where God and man dwell together.

Remember the river of life from Ezekiel? It makes another appearance in the book of Revelation:

Revelation 22:1–5 ESV

1 Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2 through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. 3 No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. 4 They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. 5 And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.

Measures for Meditation:

I commit myself to grow spiritually by developing habits of reading the Bible, prayer, and reflection.

I commit my resources to God by practicing generosity, good stewardship, and tithing.

I seek to walk in victory over sin by pursuing recovery, reconciliation, and restitution.

I will participate in regular fellowship and a small group where I can be accountable.