I'll ask you to open it up to the 23rd Psalm. The 29th Psalm. I did a series on the 23rd. And there's six verses in this Psalm. And I did the series and I titled the series, The Green Pastures of Psalm 23. And it really blessed my soul to go through these six verses. I looked at a different October in week. And I really feel less to preach a revived Psalm again. If it helped me so much, it might help somebody else. Are you hailing Hitler or are you pausing me while I'm talking? You're on probation. I'm not going to recognize your raised hand anymore. Yes. Cover these these six. All right. Revival in Georgia. So what I've decided to do is anytime I'm asked to speak on a moment's notice, I'm just going to pull this passage out and begin looking at these verses again. And so tonight we're going to be looking at verse three of where we're at three of the twenty third song. Spend our time together in a way three and then we'll take prayer requests and do that at the end. So Verse one, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside the still waters. Namesake, earth my soul. Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for thou art with me. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. They'll prepare to spoil my cup for me in the... Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. So you've all heard the 23rd Psalm. It is probably the most at funerals all of the Psalms. I remember in high school one time we had a playoff game and we weren't supposed to win it. We were fixing to go out of the locker room to play this game And one of the guys said, I really think we should just right now say the 23rd Psalm. I knew part. I didn't know the 20. Delete it. You know, church. I mean, I'm surprised that all those pagan kids that I played ball with knew the 23rd Psalm. I think it was the only Bible they had was just this one page out of Psalm 23. So when something is that common and when something loses its failure, we run the risk, loses its, its glossing over it and complexity. So what I want us to do tonight is spend all of our time just dealing with this verse. He restoreth my soul. He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. I had a few points tonight, but the second one, the long point, you look tired already, is righteousness. We're going to talk about restoration and righteousness. Now, when we talk about restoration, we're obviously dealing with that first phrase there in verse three. He restore it. So to be to undergo the restore. Now, let me just start off by saying that there are several forms of restoration among false versions of Christianity. There are a lot of people today that claim to be Christians and Christian teachers that offer a physical form of restoration. They all focus on physical restoration. So you'll find false versions of Christianity that will promise you healing if you have enough faith to be healed. The problem with that is it's not convenient. They promised you healing. You're to blame because you don't have enough faith to be healed. I would say Paul had more faith than anybody and he still had a thorn in the flesh that God said, I gave it to you. It was a messenger from Satan, but I okayed it. So, physical healing drops were healed, restoration, spiritual restoration. They'll also offer you wealth if you will serve Christ in this version, if you will follow these principles, if you'll walk this way, if you'll manage your money according to this, if you'll send me a seed of faith. I am your missionary. But there are people that say if you sow this in the money believing you will get financial restoration. And I've actually known people that were too broke to pay their bills that sent money to some quack on TV promising them a financial restoration. We'll promise you a version more subtle. We all know the health and wealth guys. They'll promise you social restoration. You get to join the cool kids club if you come to their church. You get social acceptance. You get to have a friends with certain they it just as good influence. Now there are a bunch of churches today that are nothing more than social clubs and the people that go there go there strictly for social means. Now let let me boss versions Lord. can focus on the does provide all of these things. The Lord can change your social standing. It was Joseph that went from the prison to Pharaoh's right hand. Just like that. That was all God's doing. God put it in the heart. It was God that gave Pharaoh the draw of it. God can Joseph to interpret at us. God can change your wealth. God can change your health. But God doesn't promise to do any of this in any version of Christianity that focuses on the physical at the expense of the spiritual in front of the world of Christianity and drawing them in. If you have to pay a four-wheeler to get people to listen to a gospel message, you're using the wrong form of enticement. Now, the argument to this, and I know it because I've heard it, well, Jesus fed 5,000. I'll give food, lunch, you do it too. that Jesus did. And you don't have the ability to perform. Therefore, you have no authority to be using physical means to attract worldly people to a spiritual gospel. He storeth a soul. Christ's chief interest and God's chief interest is in the interest of the soul. It is the soul of men that matter. And so it's the soul that Satan does not have power over. You know, Satan had to play the guitar, all the world's goods. He could really play the guitar, you know it? That guy, he could beat the strings. But one thing the devil cannot do, he can give you worldly possessions. All these false prophets are wealthy. Satan's never lacked anything in the world. He knows and has control. He's the prince. But there's one thing that Satan lacks, that's what the Bible says, and it is the soul. The soul in the grips of Satan is loosed at the command of the Spirit when it's sent out by God under the gospel preaching to loose a soul from Satan's grasp and put it firmly in Christ's hands. The power that Satan cannot offer is a spiritual matter. So, once we've been saved, is our soul just great and happy from now on and we're on a yellow brick road to heaven? Does the devil say, Well, I can't control that herald, he's in God's hands now in front of me. He can't bring me where he's going. He can throw everything. And so what we're talking about here, I think David's as saved as anybody could be saved, because if you're genuinely saved, you can't ever be lost again. One thing the Bible never has is an ex-Christian. I had a bunch of you in some militias. No former Navy SEAL. I always get texts, these former CIA operatives. One thing they'll never interview is a former Christian. Now they'll find somebody that says, I was a Christian. No, you weren't. No, you weren't. My shepherd, in verse 1. The good shepherd. And then you went and got lost again. Shepherds never lost. You're more rare than a leprechaun, a big foot and a unicorn combined. Because you're the only one that's ever existed. And the Bible said you were an impossibility. So, what kind of restoration are we talking about? I think it would be we're familiar with us. Restoration. Restoration building where people have smoked and they bring in the ozonator. It makes ozone and ozone eats smoke scent molecules of some kind. I don't know the science on it, but if you run ozone in a room somebody smoked in, it will clean out the smoke smell. There's barn for restoration. You can take electrolysis tank. It's been hand current through that and the rust you separate from the iron and you can pull that old iron skillet out and it will be completely rust free. Fully restored now in the restoration process you go back by coating it back with oil basically. And that's why you never put similar to a Teflon cut in the dishwasher because there's 150 years of no stick them on the bottom of that. And if you did it would have to go undergo restoration. mold restoration. Get water in your house, get a leak in your roof. So we need that mold restoration. Why would the soul need restoration if it's saved? I'll give you some examples. He said it would only rain on Elijah's land for three and a half years and it didn't rain for three and a half years. Three and a half years, he told Obadiah, go get Ahab. Meet me on Mount Carmel. Get every prophet of Baal there is, all 450. Meet me on top of the mountain. Bring two bulls. I'll charge you by fire. We'll see who's God. He commanded Israel to take those false prophets down to the river and slay them. And they killed 450 false prophets. God showed up and answered by fire. for governor. Jezebel said, I'm going to kill him. And he said, man, I didn't sign up for this. I spent three and a half years hiding in a widow's upstairs attic. And he went out into the desert and laid down under a juniper tree and said, kill me now, I'm done. It is enough. And so he laid down there. He wasn't eating. He wasn't sleeping. I mean, he wasn't eating or drinking. He said, I'm just going to lay here. I'm just going to die. God take me to heaven. I'm a Christian. Can't ever be lost again. I'll do it my way. Angel poked him with his staff and said, get up. You got a place to go. You better eat and drink. And he ate and drank. And there was a cake. Angel come back. Wake up. Eat, drink. You got to travel. He ate and drank again. He went 40 days on that. He meets God. He goes back. He anoints Elisha. He still hasn't died. He rode to heaven. He carried a fire. Elijah needed to be restored. I would say I think about not just him, I think about Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane. I think about Him praying with those great drops of blood. I think about the agony of His soul and the disciples are sleeping. And He knows what He's facing. I think about Moses in the desert over and over and over leading a group of Baptists for 40 years. You want a picture of a Baptist church? The nation of Israel in the wilderness. Go to God. You're not dying. Not this way. Why? We need this restoration. Our shepherd has to do this work. The Lord is my shepherd, in verse 1, therefore it is the Lord that restores our soul. The question that now, our soul, how do we do that? I think it's a pretty easy answer to say the Spirit restores our soul. The Holy Spirit's job will be lost again for the souls of the believers. It is with every great work in Christianity, if we're reading the book of Acts, we find this, and Peter being filled with the Holy Ghost, and Philip being filled with restoration, and Paul for a specific cause. Well, Brother Harold, revive me, O Spirit! Is that how it works? It's the Spirit through another. And I'm going to give them to you. He revives us by the Spirit through prayer, regular prayer. But God's not here at your beck and call, the snap of your finger or the whistle of your lips. He's not up there just skipping and fetching as you tell Him how. I want the revival of the soul, but the Word and time. If you want revival of the soul, you need to open your eyes and your ears to what He's written down for you to read. You say, well, I'm not a good reader. I have good news. The Bible's been on tape since 1979. And it's been on you ever since you've put it in your pocket. You want to be consumed a number of ways. But if you know you need the restoration of your soul, and you know it's the Lord that does it, and you know He does it through the power of the Spirit, the Spirit makes our prayers acceptable. We know that. The Spirit also illuminates for us to understand it. He's for the revival of the soul. Whether or not we should never have another revival again, Because in a revival, somebody preaches and we hope that people's souls are restored. And we find throughout history, throughout the Bible, preaching does this. Christian fellowship, common faith, restores our souls. The struggles that we have does me a lot of good. You go read all the one another passages of the Bible. There's 76 of them, I think. All of them require you to be one another's. That's the other, your soul, singing. Making a joyful noise unto the Lord, singing in your heart. All of these are things that God does through the power of the Spirit that are available to us. And if we pray, we're going to really, really need restoration. We're going to fellowship with the saints. Here's what's going to happen, like we mean it. Why? Because we need God to work and we're going to employ all of the avenues that He's chosen to do that through and hope that He honors our wishes. That's what we want to do. So how exactly does We know it this way, but we know he does it through prayer and Bible and preaching and fellowship and singing. What does it look like when I sin against God? It doesn't change my relationship with God or changes my fellowship with God. When I disobeyed my parents, they didn't cease to be my parents. But our relationship was strained. until correction had been administered. Same with God. So, when I repent of my sins, He will be transgressing back. That's restoration. Repentance brings restoration. So let's think about it a little further. When I'm sorrowful, He restores me with joy. When I doubt, He restores my confidence. When I fall, When I'm footing, He gives me courage. When I'm shaky, He gives me stability. When I'm weary, He gives me strength. When I'm complacent, He gives me hope. When I have anxiety, He gives me clarity. He gives me peace. All of that is a restoration. because the Christian has every bit of that at the moment of salvation. Over time, over time, over time, over time, the cares and influence of this world come upon us and drag us down, and it's the Lord that comes in and restores us, and restores us, and He's restoring us in all of these different areas. Don't look at me cross-eyes. I saw you walk in. You didn't look like you was skipping on the yellow brick road when you shot through them back doors. You know what I'm talking about. You've experienced this. The only reason you don't stay in that state is because you're going with your son. You're never going to be beyond restoration. Sometimes we find old stuff and we say, I'm going to fix that up. We take it apart and the gears are just mangled and we're like, nah, that's not worth fixing. God never looks at you beyond restoration. The world wants to offer you restoration as well. They want to, they want you to get restoration by worldly means and not by that. And so restoration by, say to you, they say, oh, just think positive thoughts. You know how hard it is to think positive thoughts when everything's dark and negative? And even if you think of one, honest to goodness, how powerful is your mind to control your situation? Your mind, oh brother Harold, you just don't know. Oh, you can't move an Star Wars object. You can't change an animate object around you either with your mind. Quit kidding yourself. Positive thinking is useless. It might encourage you for a moment, but there's no lasting change. The Harvard studies and possibility. Effective is good vibes. All the books. You ever had anybody send you good vibes on Facebook? When someone says they're sending me prayers and good vibes, Your prayers are as useless as your good vibes. If you knew what prayer was, you wouldn't dare watch. If you're still sending good vibes, you ain't righteous. And your prayers ain't availing much. I've never felt a good vibe. And I have a problem with good vibrations. It's just not there, friend. The world offers you meditation. I mean, how many lost people have you heard talk about meditation, transcendental meditation? We're talking about Middle Eastern meditation. We're not talking about meditating on the screaking of nuts. We're not talking about focusing on our mind, using our energy close to Him. Use something in our mind to change something in our body. This is ridiculous. The same people that are telling you positive thinking, good vibes and meditation work will also offer you medication to change the way you feel and it doesn't work either. Every self-sucking drug to make you feel every single one of them inside a fap have that as a possibility. I wouldn't let my kids play with a loaded gun. And look, you may need medication. You may be chemically imbalanced. I get it. But the amount of hobbles that we're passing around in this country, they're so feel better, it's not. They're upset with God because of physical relief, and he offered to restore their soul. And they don't see a need to have their soul restored. And since God didn't give them the degree they wanted and, you know, did them wrong, they're not interested in the things of God. Change the inner things of the world, of our life. Have the ability. But the Christian shepherd has that ability. If you are a child of God, you have not only the person that can fix who you are individually, But you have the person promise to solve the situation around you. Our health problems. And I say maybe your emotion and your mood is a health problem. Maybe you can't fix it with reading your Bible, prayer. Maybe you have a chemical imbalance. They're real. It happens. I believe medication might be your best option. Selecting prayer, Bible study, preaching, fellowship in a Christian church. If you're neglecting all that and trying to get it through thinking happy thoughts and good vibes, you're on the wrong meditation and medication, you're on the wrong road. Because God here says, I'm in the soul restoration business. I can clean up smoke, mildew, and rust in your soul. Alright, let's look at righteousness. In Acts, verse 3 says this for his namesake. He leadeth me. Before we go any further, we ought to just look at the word he. In verse 2, who made that sheep lie down in green pastures? He did. Who led that sheep beside steel walls in the path of righteousness? So, you just start looking at this passage and you see that He's doing it all. And when you get a grip on the fact that He's doing it all, then when things ain't going right, you'll go to Him that's responsible for it all. The shepherd says here, you're not a driver. You cannot drive sheep. You can drive cattle, but you cannot drive sheep. You cannot drive sheep. They won't be pushed. They'll scatter. If you get behind sheep, and you start hitting them with a hot shot, and you start shaking them around in little boxes, they run to them. They'll go out, and he knows their call. But if you, he knows their CB handle, whatever his little hoop, holler, horn honking expertise is, they know that, hey, that guy right there, that guy's been feeding me, that guy's been watering me, that guy's been giving me green pasture, and I'm following that guy. And when the chef's talking, And there's people that aren't listening, and they're not following. That means one of two things. They are an unruly sheep that God will have to deal with, or they're not a sheep at all. It's only two options. So, then you know what? We'll willfully follow. I always get tickled when someone comes into church. How you doing? Well, I'm here. Wow. Did you get driven in in the answer? Did they drive you here to Jesus? Yes. Well, I promised I'd go to church tonight. Oh, okay. You're not going to enjoy it because all we got is sheep food. Got nothing else. They answer his call and they willfully leave him. The world knows nothing of the paths of righteousness. As a matter of fact, Jesus made it very clear. that there was a narrow way that led to everlasting life, and there was a broad way that led to destruction. Many go into that view, and when the world is a little narrow, a broad way that leads to destruction, and we're over here on the narrow way, the world doesn't understand what we're doing. They don't understand why we're here. They don't understand the paths of righteousness. But the narrow way is the way of faith, or preaching faith and repentance anymore. Some of them are just preaching faith and you can repent later if you feel like it. That's not what Jesus preached. ...believe for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Paul on Mars Hill said, you men of Athens, the times of your ignorance God winked at, but now commanded all men everywhere, that's Van Buren, Arkansas, to repent. Rip away? Is this a lie? Faith and repentance. And it's drastically different from the path that everyone else is on. Salvation isn't in a prayer, it's in a path. I'll say that again. Salvation isn't in a prayer, it's in a path. I've asked people, I'll say that again. Salvation isn't in a path, it's in a path. I've asked people, I'll say that again. Salvation isn't in a path, it's in a path. I've asked people, I'll say that again. Salvation isn't in a path, it's in a path. I've asked people, I'll say that again. Salvation isn't in a path, it's in a path. I've asked people, I'll say that again. Salvation isn't in a path, it's in a path. I've asked people, I'll say that again. Salvation isn't in a path, it's in a path. I've asked people, I'll say that again. Salvation isn't in a path, it's in a path. I If you're following the shep that you repeat and he's leading you on the path of your high-pressure cell, you're staking your turn. I pity you on the day of Judge Daft. Your salvation can begin with a prayer, but if it doesn't put you on a path, friend, you're not saved. Jesus Christ didn't say, repeat after me. He said, follow me. A lot of people repeating after the preacher, but not following the Grand Shepherd, Jesus Christ. paths. Did you anyway, now you're plural? No, there's not a whole bunch of way one way. I would say paths here would be best understood as legs of a journey. I can simply say this, when you get saved, you're on the baby path. Some strong meat and I be path longer than they food. Still on the baby path. Then there's the growth path. Where you get over, He died for me and Jesus loves me and I'm a Christian. And you start growing and learning about the path that you're called to walk. Talking about your soul here is being restored. Talking about your righteousness. These are your teen years. Then you get into your working years. I call these your service years. The path and service. over here and teach a Bible study, start out helping, you may help kids, you may start this ministry, you may give here, you may do that, you're in this active serving ministry, you've learned, you're still growing, you're still learning, but you're working. This is your working life, spiritually speaking. But spiritually speaking, you're also going to have to slow down. Let's call it the retirement phase. I have dying phase in my notes, I think. This is the last leg. You have to learn a whole different set of stuff in those last days that you didn't need during your busy past days. The tabernacle. He remember I'm interviewing Mark Westminster Chapel. He pastored it for years. He retired. He had cancer. And they said, Well, do you do you wish you were still ministering? Are you glad you're retired? He said, No, I need time to die. And he wasn't saying it's the Lord's time to meet his death. I'm actually glad that God gave me this. So this stage here is the retirement stage. All of these are paths that the Lord will lead us in. Was he not born? The Bible says he grew in knowledge and public ministry. Then he went to the cross and prepared to die. Jesus Christ has walked every leg of this path that we're on, God. In a legalistic way, but in a lovelessness. So this, we're not enforcing that we all grow the ringlets of our hair out down beside our head. We're not enforcing that we all wear some kind of, we can't have mixed thread coloring in our clothes. We're not enforcing the legalistic going of the Old Testament. Why? Expecting Christ led this journey. The word paths here literally means a well-worn trail. Some of y'all's country folk, you may understand this. Have you ever, like, saw where the cows cross the creek? But when you, and when, you may have crossed the creek yet. The trails get fewer and closer together, and they get deeper. And then when you get up there, and then it's like this little narrow thing. If you're out in the deer woods, send me a back. That's a little pointer there's just across that creek. It's a well-worn trail. Why is it such a well-worn trail? Because every true Christian in front of us has walked it. Every Christian has walked it. No Christian path will lead into heaven any other way. Pilgrims are from the sixth head while we walk. Same path we're walking, spiritually speaking. Walking the pilgrim pathway. Well, I wonder who walked it first. Looking unto Him who is the author and finisher of our faith, the pioneer. Walk and you and I are walking on the same path. I got good news and I got bad news. You want the bad news? Perfectly without news first. My message is the good news. The bad news, we walked it imperfectly and we get off of it from time to time. Happens, don't it? Look at the text again. He leadeth me in the name of righteousness. Now here's where his namesake is. Every time you walk off that path, his namesake is at stake. Think about this with me for just a minute, friend. His namesake comes in because the good shepherd keeps his sheep, Jesus. And the hirelings, the shepherd I lay down my sheep, they flee when they see me. He says, I am the father of one. Nobody can pull Him out of my hand. The Father is greater than all. Nobody can pull Him out of His hand. Think about this, friend. If you get off the path, Jesus has never lost possession of you. If you wander off the path, you become the subject of a manhunt by the Holy Spirit to bring you back to the path of righteousness for Christ's namesake. Stick that in your Free Will Baptist pipe and smoke it. You didn't save yourself. You're not keeping the path of righteousness. Every time you've parked it in some deserted ditch, Holy Ghost Record Service pulled up, jacked you out, fixed your tires, and put you back on the well-worn trail. The only reason you're not following Joel Osteen and expecting your best days to be now is because God, has steered you by ages to come, He might show the exceeding riches of His grace toward us." That means we're the trophies of grace. We're not going to get to heaven and say, I did it my way. We're going to get to heaven and say, we're the people that was slain. Christ's flock, He did it all as to Christ's character. You can judge a pastor by his church. It may take a few years for the church to look like the pastor, but a healthy church is a testimony to a healthy pastor. Just drink and how to dodge wolves. A healthy flock of sheep is a testimony to a healthy shepherd. Christ's sheep are well-fed, well-restoration, well-kept. How's your soul tonight before we close and start taking prayer requests? You need restoration? You've been a little down in the dumps? You want me to go through that list of stuff I made? Are you shaky? Are you weary? Are you fearful? Do you despair? Have you false? Are you thoughtful? Are you sorrowful? Hey brother, how long? About three out of ten there. Okay, good. It didn't say he restored my soul. It says he restores. You're still able to be restored. If you've sinned, repent. That's a recognition off the road of righteousness. You don't want to do it. Have you wandered off into something you shouldn't be into? Has your life started to slack spiritually? You may be making more money than you've ever made. You may be more popular than you've ever been. Any of those things. You may be in the greatest shape of your life. You may have lost churches off your soul business. How's your soul? You say, Brother Harold, that's not what it should be. Good. I've got good news. The fact that you're willing to admit that means you're a candidate for restoration. You can be fixed, which is not abnormal. It's whatever true Christian before you is walking. Regardless of where you are in life, you can get back on that trail. You can lose in front of you on that trail. You can follow parole. Like Paul said, follow my