"It was a bright Sunday morning in 18th century London, when Robert Robinson found himself in the middle of the streets in a mood that wasn't quite so sunny, you see, he heard the church bells off in the distance. That reminded him of a time, long ago when he firmly believed in God and had a strong faith. Since then he had left his faith and his family and he had lost much. And on that day he found himself searching and looking for faith that he once had. When all of a sudden a carriage pulled up beside him and a well dressed woman spoke outside of the carriage and said, excuse me, sir, are you going to church robert? Not having anything else to do, agreed, entered the carriage and after they exchanged some pleasantries, the woman had a slight smirk on her face, said robert Robinson, that that sounds kind of familiar and she pulled out a book of poetry that she was carrying with her. And she turned the page to a specific poem and she said, are you the author of this poem, Robert looked down and he began to cry. He said, yes, yes, ma'am, that that was me. I wrote that when I was 22. But that was long ago. That poem is the words to what we now seeing as come thou fount come thou fount of every blessing, tune my heart to sing thy grace streams of mercy. Never ceasing calls for songs of loudest praise. Now his eyes slipped to the bottom of the page and he read these words and continued to cry prone to wander. Lord, I feel it prone to leave the God I love. Here's my heart. O take it. Seal it, seal it for thy courts above. As robert was crying, the lady asked why such tears! These are such beautiful words. And he replied, But those words prophecies exactly what I did. I said that I was prone to wander, and that is what I did. I left the God of my first love. But that woman encouraged robert that day and she replied, Yes, But you also wrote the end of that first. Here's my heart. Lord, take it, seal it, take it and seal it for thy courts above. It's not too late to give your heart back to God. And as the story and the legend goes, that on that day, the author of such a great him renewed and restored his faith in God and gave his heart back to him. Today, we look at Psalm chapter 23 verse three, He restores my soul. He leads me down paths of righteousness. For his name's sake. Let's break down those two sentences. In verse three. First, he restores my soul. Notice who does the restoring. It's not that we pick ourselves up by our own bootstraps, but rather as sheep. The good shepherd restores or brings our soul back to life. See you have a body, but you are a soul. The fact that God restores our soul means that he brings back our innermost being and our biggest desires building off of last session, notice the first four letters of restore rest when you rest in God's pastures and you drink from his stilled waters. Guess what happens? Your soul is restored. The definition of restoration is to bring something back to its intended purpose. Maybe you think of somebody restoring a piece of furniture or an old car. The practice of restoring something is bringing back to original beauty. And that's what God does when he restores our soul. No matter how far you've gotten away from God, I want you to know today that God is not far from you. The good Shepherd leaves the 99 goes after the one and then brings them back into the fold. I am so thankful that we have a God who leaves the 99 to go after the one. And so if you're that one, Well, let's just pause. We all are that one at one point in our lives and God leads us back to him, but he doesn't just lead us back to him. He doesn't just simply restore our soul. It says that he leads us down paths of righteousness for his name's sake. It's important to note that God leads us. It's not that we lead God. Do you live your life running around doing what you want? And then asking God to bless it. I've known people who have talked to me and it just broke my heart. And they said, well I asked God if he wanted me to have this affair? And I didn't hear anything. So I took that as a yes. And besides, doesn't God want me to be happy? No. In that case, you chose your desire over the desires of the God who made you and loves you, you don't simply asked the shepherd to follow you instead, you were called to follow the shepherd. And the fact that there are paths of righteousness means that there are other paths out there. Do you find yourself down a wrong path? You will never be down a wrong path. And in step with the spirit at the same time, Paul wrote in Galatians chapter five verse 16 that if we keep in step with the spirit that we will not gratify the desires of the flesh. That is a promise or a plan for solution and a way for you to remain on the path that God has called you to. When you connect with the word of God, you remain on his path. You do so for his namesake. God cares for you and he knows you and calls you by name. But we must remember that God also leads you for his name's sake. Your story is for God's glory. I want you to picture a newspaper for a second based on how you spend your money, how you spend your time and how you spoke to others. And you know what? Let's throw in your thought life too, what would get the headline on your personal life newspaper? Would you be the headline or would God be the headline? You see, God does not lead you for your sake. God leads you for his sake. Because if you live only for your story, your story will always be limited to your resources, your successes and your failures. But if you attach your story to God's story now, your story becomes limitless, and literally, all things are possible through him who called you shepherds know that sheep are prone to wander and to find themselves in difficult circumstances. And so when they are leading them down paths of righteousness or down past the greener pastures, here's what's an amazing truth. There is no path that a sheep will be on, that a shepherd has not already walked. You see the shepherd goes ahead of the sheep to prepare the path for the sheep. That means that whatever path you're on right now, God has gone ahead of you and has been there and has prepared you to walk in it and to walk through it. If you're in a difficult circumstance right now, just the fact that it's difficult, doesn't mean it wasn't ordained by God. In fact, next session, we're going to talk about what it means to walk through the valley of the shadow of death in today's lesson? I want you to declare this truth. You don't need a map. If you stay close to the guide, you don't need a map. If you stay close to the guide, the guide who restores your soul and leads you down paths of righteousness, not for you, but for his namesake. Every situation that you find yourself in God has gone ahead of you and prepared you to walk in and to walk through. I like a plan. I'm a planner. I like bullet points. I like notes, I like directions. I like instructions when I put something together. So one of the things that was tough for me as a youth pastor is that when we would go on mission trips, we would go and we would be picked up by our guide or the pastors or the ministries that we were serving in that particular country. And it bothered me, I had a sense of unsettled nous and anxiety when I didn't know the exact lay of the land where I was going. But after a few trips, I realized that if I got in the same vehicle as the pastor or the guide, I didn't have to worry about the map or where we would go because he knew where we were going and he prepared for us in advance the ministry for us to perform. But see this illustration goes much deeper. You see in April of 2011, I took a spring break trip with students to perform gospel dramas down in San Salvador in the country of El Salvador. Now, while we were down there, the american president actually made a visit to the country at the same time. Now that was kind of a cool coincidence until I learned that when the US president visits a foreign nation oftentimes that country shuts down its streets. So all the plans that we had for that day were washed and put to the side. And I was frustrated because here we had flown thousands of miles to present the Gospel and our plans, everything that we had prepared for were completely wiped out by something outside of our control. And so our guide on the other hand, I took that as an opportunity to take us to a school that had never had an outside group perform a drama or an assembly. And so we gathered our students together and let me tell you, we were not drama experts. Okay. We messed up. We missed our cues but we tried our best and at the end of it we would share the Gospel presentation and the pastor would invite those watching the assembly to come forward to receive him. And so before we started these assemblies, I gathered our team together and I said, guys, let's pray for a mighty move of God, let's pray for 20 people to get saved today. And in my head I was like, Whoa, that's crazy. And because in American culture a lot of times when you're going day in and day out sharing the gospel or loving on people, you don't necessarily see people respond right away. And so I thought 20 was big. Well through the first assembly there in an un air conditioned assembly hall in a school that we weren't planned to be in, we present the gospel and the pastor invites people to come down, 30 people come down, they're crying, their weeping, were praying with them, their translators, they're filling out connection cards so that the local pastors can follow up with them and one assembly goes out and the next assembly comes in. I'm like wow God, that was amazing. So we go through the assembly again and at the end the pastor calls out an invitation and 30 more people respond and I'm like wow God, this is crazy God you're just moving in mighty ways. The third assembly, 60 people come down, that was over half the people that was in the room, people are crying, I'm crying, I'm not even a crier. There are intense military guards with m 16 guns outside who peer their heads in and our students are sharing gospel bracelets with them and the guards are getting saved. And over the course of the next five hours 241 people pray to receive Christ More than 12 times what I had asked God to do, wow, we were in a school that we were not supposed to be in, but when we went up to the principal and we just thank her so much for letting us be there and we asked, is there anything that we can do to pray for you? She responded, you don't understand at the leadership of the school, we have been praying for over a year for a group to come and share the gospel. You see, I didn't feel good because I didn't know the plan. I prayed and asked God to go with our mission team. But here's the reality. God was already there. God was already in that school, in that city, in that community, ready for us to walk in. The thing that he has called us to and the same is true for you, we have a good shepherd who restores our souls who leads us down paths of righteousness, not for our sake, but for his sake. Because when we live in our own story, it is limited, but we live in God's story, it becomes limitless. And so the truth to declare is that you do not need a map when you stay close to the guide. And so the action for you to apply today is this listen to the shepherd, listen to his voice, be close enough to him to understand his directions as he has prepared the path ahead of you and each and every step and if you do that, you might not like every turn. In fact we're gonna see that next week as we walk through the Valley of the Shadow of Death. But I promise you this, there is no place that you will set your foot that God has not gone ahead of you and prepared you for if you're walking in a difficult circumstance or situation, I want you to know that God believes that not that you are strong enough to handle it, but that he is strong enough to handle it. So if you will listen to his voice, if you will lean in stay close to the guide, he will lead you down paths of righteousness and ultimately he will restore your soul. Let's pray, Dear God, we need our souls to be restored. God, may you bring us this abundant life that you have called us to. And while we don't have the plans, God, I don't have the plans for Mission Grove. I don't have the plans for my family. I don't even have the plan fully for my life. But I don't need the map. If I stay close to you the guide. So let me listen to your voice. Let those listening to this message. Listen to your voice and know that whatever path they're on that they can listen to your voice and take that step and righteousness. If they are on the wrong path, may they take that step back, draw close to you, Listen to you the guide and walk and paths of Righteousness, not for their namesake but for your namesake. Thank you for guiding us. Thank you for loving us. Thank you for saving us. Help us to listen to you Right now, it's in your son's name. We pray Amen. God bless. Walk in his ways, walking his path. If you stay close to the guide, he will lead you down paths of Righteousness. We'll see you next week."