Psalm 37:23-24
“23The steps of a good (righteous)man are ordered by the LORD, And He delights in his way. 24 Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down; For the LORD upholds him with His hand.” – NKJ
We know this passage of Scripture and we quote it time and time again. It is true that the “steps of a righteous man are ordered of the Lord”. What does this mean? Well if you read from verse 1, David gives us what we are supposed to be doing:
· Do not fret because of evildoers
· Trust in the Lord
· Delight yourself in the Lord
· Commit your way to the Lord
· Rest in the Lord
These are the steps of a righteous person. When people come against us, even though we live in a sinful world, we are not to worry, we are not to fret, and the way we don’t worry is by putting out trust in the Lord. When things seem to be going awry, trust in the Lord. When the tables have turned against you, trust in the Lord. Not only trust that He has everything under control in your life, but delight yourself in Him. This means to be glad in everything.
James 1:2-4
“2 My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. 4 But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.” – NKJ
James says to count it all joy, delight yourself in the trials. We are to be glad in it, why? Because we have committed ourselves to God no matter what happens. No matter what comes our way we are to stay committed to God. We are not to leave God high and dry just because we go through things in our lives. I don’t like to go through trials any more than anyone else, in fact I wish God could never allow us to go through trials, but if He did that then how would He be able to show us His true power? How would He be able to show us what He really can do? If we didn’t go through anything in life then we wouldn’t need God in our lives to fix it then.
When you commit yourself to the Lord you find rest in Him.
Matthew 11:28-30
“28 Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” – NKJ
When we are “yoked” together with Christ in our walk with Him there is rest. You see we are going to go through things. We can count on that. But when we get tired and can’t push on anymore, Christ is right next to you, and He will pull you the rest of the way! We are not in this alone. There is help. There is someone walking next to us. I am reminded of the poem Foot Prints In the Sand.
Foot Prints In the Sand
One night a man had a dream.He dreamed he was walking along the beach with the Lord.
Scenes from his life flashed across the sky
and he noticed two sets of footprints in the sand,
one belonging to him and the other to the Lord.
When the last scene of his life had flashed before him,
he recalled that at the lowest and saddest times of his life
there was only one set of footprints.
Dismayed, he asked, "Lord, you said that once I decided to follow you,
you'd walk with me all the way.
I don't understand why, when I needed you most,
you would leave me."
The Lord replied, "My precious child.
I love you and I would never leave you.
During your times of trial and suffering
when you saw only one set of footprints
That is when I carried you.”
It is allowing God to take the lead in our lives. It is allowing Him to take control of our lives. That is a lifestyle of worship. When you let Him lead there is freedom.
A lot of times we as Christians are not experiencing true freedom in our lives. We hinder God from giving us that freedom. Did you know we can hinder God? We can hinder the Spirit in our lives.
John 8:34-36
“34Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. 35Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. 36So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” – NIV
We are free if we allow God to lead the way. Sin hinders our freedom. It kills our freedom. Freedom to have life more abundantly, freedom to love people the way God has called us to love, freedom to have faith in God, freedom from joy, freedom from peace. Listen the enemy comes to kill, steal, and destroy you. He uses sin in your life to rob you of the freedom that Christ was put on a cross for. I know that none of us are perfect and none of us will ever measure up to what God desires us to be. But I am tired of seeing Christians who are in bondage because they are all out, purposely, without a care in the world flat out just living in sin. It bothers me to see people who can be used by God to impact this world who take more pleasure in their sin than in God. When we put our sin over God we cannot truly worship Him the way He has called us to.
Matthew 5:23-26
“23 So if you are presenting a sacrifice at the altar in the Temple and you suddenly remember that someone has something against you, 24 leave your sacrifice there at the altar. Go and be reconciled to that person. Then come and offer your sacrifice to God.
25 “When you are on the way to court with your adversary, settle your differences quickly. Otherwise, your accuser may hand you over to the judge, who will hand you over to an officer, and you will be thrown into prison. 26 And if that happens, you surely won’t be free again until you have paid the last penny.” – NLT
Jesus is stating here that if you have anger against somebody, anger to the point you hate them, then you cannot truly worship God. Basically if there is sin in your life that you are aware of, you need to repent of that sin and make it right before you can worship God. Sin separates us from God. If you are separated from God then there is no freedom. You are in bondage. You are a slave to sin.
So many times we try to worship God with our lives, and even in church, and expect Him to move in our lives and when He doesn’t, we blame Him for not listening, when in fact it just might be that we are the ones hindering Him from moving.
God says I want to bless you, I want to move in your life, I want to set you free, but you need to remove this out of your life. You have to take a step towards Me before I take a step towards you. It is an action on our part.
I am reminded of the Scripture that relates to us doing something in order to see God move in our lives He wants to.
John 11:1-6
“1 Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha. 2 It was that Mary who anointed the Lord with fragrant oil and wiped His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick. 3 Therefore the sisters sent to Him, saying, “Lord, behold, he whom You love is sick.”
4 When Jesus heard that, He said, “This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” 5 Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. 6 So, when He heard that he was sick, He stayed two more days in the place where He was.” - NKJ
We see here that Jesus was told that Lazarus, his friend, was sick. Now Jesus loved Lazarus and his sisters, in fact He loved them so much that He stayed two more days while Lazarus was sick.
This probably doesn’t make sense. Why would Jesus, who hears of His friend coming down with sickness, a disease, and wasn’t feeling very well, who was bed ridden, why would Jesus hearing of the news of his friend going through a tough time in his life, a tough time in his family (we know this because it was such a great concern to Mary & Martha they sought Jesus who could heal him), who is in the midst of the storm, who is knocking on deaths door, why would Jesus who loves all wait two days before going to see him? Why? Jesus was waiting for Lazarus to do something. Lazarus had to die in order for Jesus to move.
John 11:14
“14 Then Jesus said to them plainly, “Lazarus is dead.” - NKJ
You see God is waiting for us to do something.
Revelation 3:20
“20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock.” - NKJ
In order for God to move in our lives we have to do something, we have to die. Die just like Lazarus did. He left everything behind. Family, friends, his job, this world. Die to self. Die to our way of doing things. Die to our attitudes. Die to flesh. Die to this world. Die to sin. We have to come to a point in our lives where we are going to say…“Alright God, you can have all of me. No more playing games. I am yours. Lead me in this dance. I will follow no matter where we go, how fast we get there or how slow, if I stumble I will get right back up and follow your lead.” It is about picking up our cross and following Christ. If you want to live, you have to die!
Mark 8:35
“35 For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it.” – NKJ
Romans 12:1-2
“1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” - NKJ
You want to live, then die. You want to be free, then die. Jesus states this again in the story of Lazarus.
John 11:25
“25I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. 26 And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?” – NKJ
Not only are we to die for us to live, we are to die so others might know and live.
John 11:15
“15 And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, that you may believe.” – NKJ
You see God does not move in our lives just for us. Lazarus didn’t die just so Christ can raise him again and then that is it. It isn’t about just us. God wants to use us so people can see His glory! This was done for the glory of God! This goes back to what James said:
James 1:2-4
“2 My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials,…” – NKJ
Here is another one for you.
John 11:43-44
“43 Now when He had said these things, He cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come forth!” 44 And he who had died came out bound hand and foot with graveclothes, and his face was wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Loose him, and let him go.” – NKJ
Who is the one who raised Lazarus from the dead? Jesus. Whom did Jesus tell to “loose him”? The Disciples. That is our job. People will come in with their stanky grave clothes of addiction, depression, perversion, bitterness, disease, the ways of the world, their sin...Jesus will raise them from the death of sin, but it is our job to loose them in the name of Jesus and let them go, so they can go and make disciples!!!
John 11:45
“45 Then many of the Jews who had come to Mary, and had seen the things Jesus did, believed in Him.” – NKJ
The people seen the works of Jesus and they believed!
Mark 16:17-18
“17 And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.” - NKJ
God doesn’t save you for you. He saved you to use you to reach a lost and dying world. Something happens when this was said and done with Lazarus. The very next chapter we read of this account.
John 12:1-3
“1 Then, six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus was who had been dead, whom He had raised from the dead. 2 There they made Him a supper; and Martha served, but Lazarus was one of those who sat at the table with Him. 3 Then Mary took a pound of very costly oil of spikenard, anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped His feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil.” – NKJ
We see here the same three people who were still in the presence of Jesus. Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. But there is a problem. Martha was working for the Lord, Mary was worshipping the Lord, what was Lazarus doing? Sitting. He just sat there. He was just raised from the dead, set free from being bound, and he sat. Listen there are three types of people in the church today, workers, worshippers, and sitters. God has called us to do the work of the ministry and worship Him with our lives…He does not call us to just sit. He doesn’t free us to just sit. He was called us to a work and to worship Him with our lives.
John 14:12
“12 Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father.” - NKJ
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