Week 8: Restore Your Brother or Sister

“Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently.”

Galatians 6:1a

As I sit here reflecting on my church service on October 5, 2025, my heart is filled with joy. After succumbing to a moral indiscretion and stepping down as pastor sixteen months ago before the church congregation, our church family was able to celebrate Dr. Tony Evans’ restoration to the flock. It is encouraging, yet rare, to see pastors and elders practice biblical church discipline with their members, especially when it involves a pastor. It’s even more uncommon to see a pastor humbly submit to elders, following biblical mandates for church discipline and the process of restoration. This journey of sin, confession, surrender, submission, and restoration is truly worth celebrating. I am grateful to be part of this church family for how this situation was handled. 

                  God knew that after the fall, believers in Jesus Christ would struggle with our sin nature, and that our enemy, Satan, would always try to tempt us to fall. Jesus knew this well, so he told Peter, “Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift all of you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.” (Luke 22:32). Simon Peter pridefully stated that no matter what, he would never deny Jesus. Yet, he denied Jesus three times and felt deep shame. 

                  No one is immune to moral failure, and we are all susceptible to falling hard and far. What I appreciate about our holy, loving God is that He provides a way out when we are tempted to sin (1 Corinthians 10:13). If we, however, give in to sin, He also offers a way for us to be cleansed through confessing and repenting (1 John 1:9).

                  My husband and I regularly attended church during the early years of our marriage. Not long after our two youngest children were born, we moved to a new city and joined a different church. After a few years, my husband was in leadership training, and I was teaching in the Women’s Ministry and serving in several other roles. Another move took us to yet another city and a different church. By then, we had a middle schooler, a high schooler, and a son in the Air Force. We continued to serve in the church, with my husband as a deacon and me involved in Women’s Ministry. Then, the unthinkable happened: our eighteen-year-old daughter, a college freshman on a full volleyball scholarship, became pregnant. 

                  The journey through that season was long and difficult. Still, our church family loved us and our daughter so deeply through the love of Jesus that the pain, embarrassment, and feelings of failure and disappointment became easier to bear. 

                  Galatians 6:1a reminds us that “if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently.” My daughter was gently restored by our church leadership and the loving congregation we were connected to at the time. It gave her the space and safety to keep attending church as our grandchild grew in her womb. It helped her strive toward God, reminding her of who she was in Christ, and allowed her to experience God’s grace and restoration. 

                  After Peter denied Jesus three times, I am sure he retreated in shame and condemnation. What a joy it must have been for him to hear from Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome, who were at the tomb of Jesus, deliver the message from the angel to the disciples that Jesus had risen. In Mark 16:7, the angel was specific and said, “But go, tell his disciples AND PETER…” (emphasis added). AND PETER!! Knowing what Peter had done, Jesus still wanted him to see that He was included in the plans for building His kingdom. He was not disqualified from doing the work the Lord called him to. The Lord was pursuing Jesus to initiate the process of restoration, and Peter was fully restored, becoming instrumental in spreading the gospel of Jesus.

                  I thank God for restoring Dr. Tony Evans, my daughter, and anyone else who has fallen into sin. We are all vulnerable to sin, and just as we desire to be corrected gently and with love through God’s Word, we are called to do the same for others. Thank you, Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship, for lovingly guiding Dr. Evans back to the fold, and thank you, Second Baptist Church of Santa Ana, CA, for gently guiding my daughter back into the family of fellowship. I look forward to seeing how God will use both of them and anyone else who has been restored after falling. God will restore what the locusts have eaten (Joel 2:25). The best is yet to come!