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[0:00] It is Well With My Soul was written by Horatio Spafford.

[0:20] Horatio? Horatio? Horatio? In 1873, but what is significant about this song is when he wrote it.

[0:36] He sent his wife and five children in a ship across the ocean. And there was a shipwreck.

[0:49] And his first news of everything was a telegram that simply had two words. Safe, alone. In other words, all five children drowned.

[1:04] His wife alone was spared. And as he traveled on another ship to be with his wife, he was inspired to write these words.

[1:19] When peace like a river attendeth my way, When sorrows like sea billows roll, Whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say, It is well, it is well with my soul.

[1:48] Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come, Let this blessed assurance control, That Christ has regarded my helpless estate, And shed his own blood for my soul.

[2:04] My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought, My sin, not in part, but the whole, Is nailed to the cross, And I bear it no more.

[2:16] Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Oh, my soul. Oh, Lord, haste the day when the faith shall be sight, The clouds be rolled back as a scroll, The trump shall resound, The Lord shall descend, Even so, It is well with my soul.

[2:38] It is well, It is well, With my soul. He says, Peace or sorrow, Whatever my lot, It is well with my soul.

[2:58] Really? Could you say that? Could I say that? Losing five children, Could you say that?

[3:11] How do you get to the point to say that? Your heart is broken.

[3:24] Dreams are shattered. He goes on, He talks about whether you're battling Satan, Or you're going through trials. This one thought controls, That Christ has regarded my helplessness state, And shed his own blood for my soul.

[3:48] And then he talks about his sin. My sin, not in part, But the whole, Is nailed to the cross, And I bear it no more. That's what brings me assurance. That's what makes my soul okay.

[4:00] Is it well with your soul?

[4:15] Is it well with your soul? Jesus talks about loving God with all our soul. What do we mean when we say soul?

[4:31] How do we love God with all our soul? That's what we're looking at today. Jesus had been asked about the great priority, The Christian's great priority, The great command.

[4:43] And the scribe had asked, What is it? The scribe had been impressed with Jesus' theology. He's impressed that Jesus is thinking well. How he answered the religious leaders.

[4:56] How he answered the Sadducees. About resurrection. How he answered the tax question. Everything Jesus answered, Was both from scripture, And wisely put.

[5:08] The scribe saw that Jesus couldn't be trapped. He wasn't just a quick answer guy. He was a man who fought through his theology.

[5:22] He didn't just know the commands. He had actually looked at the commands, And began to, What's weightier? What's more important? What's the greatest commandment?

[5:33] What is foremost? And Jesus had an answer. To love the Lord your God with all your heart. Is greater than the command, You shall have no other gods before me.

[5:48] Greater than, You shall honor your father and your mother. Greater than every other command. Because it's at the heart, And soul, And mind, Of everything.

[6:08] It's about relationship, Not just duty. And Jesus says, Well actually it's not just one command, There's actually two. Let's love the Lord your God, And love your neighbor.

[6:20] So the greatest commands aren't just one, But two. It's both vertical, And horizontal. See God's, The Christian's greatest priority, Is not just God, It's just me and Jesus, And you know, I can act with the church.

[6:38] Right? That's the attitude a lot. People have been hurt, And burned by the church, And they've been scarred, And they can't, And I plead with you, If you are in that position, Don't give up on the church.

[6:51] We're not all hypocrites. Well, Let me revise that. We are all hypocrites, But some of us know it, And we're working on it.

[7:02] Is that okay? Okay, That was better. Especially I've seen it here. Okay? So God says, I've designed you for two purposes, One is to love me, And the other is to love others.

[7:26] Particularly those close to you. So love, We looked at what love means. Love is the, Self-denying act, For the highest good.

[7:40] God so loved the world, That what? He felt something? He did something. A self-denying act. He gave his only son, For the highest good, That whoever believes in him, May have eternal life.

[8:00] That's love. Husbands, Love your wife, The same way, Jesus loves the church, By giving himself up. Self-denying love. Love is the sum of all Christian virtue.

[8:15] Love isn't just one of the virtues, It's the sum of all the virtues. Because love is patient, Love is kind, Right? Love is unconditional.

[8:26] It's all the other virtues together. That's love. So if you love, You're all, You're virtuous. And love fulfills all, The commands.

[8:38] It fulfills the law. If you love, You're not going to steal, You're not going to, Commit adultery, You're not going to, Covet, You're not going to do all those things. Love. If you love like Jesus taught us to love, The new commandment, Not just love your neighbor as yourself, But Jesus raised the bar.

[8:56] The new commandment is, You shall love one another, As, I love you. Not just like you love, But as I love you, Which is self-denying love.

[9:07] Love. So love really, In my theology, Is the only commandment, In the new testament. It over, If you love, You fulfill the ten commandments, You fulfill the great commands, You fulfill, All that we're asked to do.

[9:28] Now scripture gives us, Lots of other instructions, But those are simply, How you do love, By bearing with one another, Forgiving one another, Serving one another, Accepting one another, Et cetera, Et cetera, Et cetera, Right?

[9:42] That's all love. So last time we looked, At the first measurement of this, Loving God with all our heart, What do we mean by heart? Now in our culture, If we take what we think heart means, And read it into scripture, We'll come up with the wrong understanding, Of heart.

[9:59] See we can't just read into scripture, Our idea. Because in our culture, Heart means, I heart you. I'm not totally sure what that means.

[10:12] Might mean I like you, Might mean I love you, Might mean, I don't know. And then you have emojis, And all, You know, The hearts, And so what's heart?

[10:24] You know, In our culture, It tends to mean emotion. It tends to mean romance. In the Bible, We found that it means, Two things.

[10:35] In general, It means, Loving God, With an internal reality, In contrast, With an external performance. So in other words, I can look like I love God, By going through the motions, By paying lip service.

[10:53] So Jesus said, To the Pharisees, You guys, You honor me with your lips, But your heart, Far from me. Your heart's not in it. You're not genuine. So heart is about that genuineness, So what's really going on inside.

[11:09] And then more specifically, Heart, Especially in the New Testament, Is about our thoughts and intentions. Not our emotions. It's primarily about our thoughts, Attitudes, And our intentions.

[11:22] So how do I love God with all my heart? Well, Do I love him genuinely? Is my heart in it? When I, When I'm serving him, Worshiping, Trusting him?

[11:39] And, Is my intention, To love him? Are my thoughts there? Okay, So now, We come to the soul.

[11:53] What about the soul? We learned today, About the soul's peculiarity. What makes the soul, Distinct from heart, From mind?

[12:06] So what do we mean, To love God with all, Our soul? I want you to, Consider two things, As we look at this. Let's break it down this way. First, I want to look at, I want us to consider, What is the soul?

[12:17] What do we mean by the soul? How does scripture, Describe the soul? To what does it refer, How is it distinguished? Okay, And then secondly, We'll look at, How do we love God with the soul?

[12:34] So this is what it is, This is how we, Do that. Okay, And scripture has lots, On the soul. So I'm just going to take out, A partial sampling.

[12:45] So first of all, What's the distinction of the soul? How is it distinct, And different from the heart? So we love God with our heart, That's our, Our genuine, Intentions, And loving God with our soul, What gets involved there?

[13:03] So, We go back first of all, To Genesis 2, 7, Where the first, Mention of the soul, Comes in. And it's at the creation of man, The origin of the soul.

[13:15] So where does the soul start? Starts when God created man. In Genesis 2, 7, It says that God, Did what? He made man.

[13:26] Right? He took the dust, Of the earth, And he forms man. So he didn't create man, Out of nothing, He created man, Out of the earth, That was already there.

[13:38] The Adam. Adam's named, After what he's made of. Dust, Ground, Dirt. So he starts out dirty.

[13:50] So God takes the dust, Of the, Adam, Of the earth, And forms man, And then what does he do? He breathes in.

[14:03] Then he breathes into man's nostrils. Light. So he's physically formed, And then God, Fills him with life.

[14:14] And then scripture says, And he became, A living soul. A soul of life. He became, An individual, Person.

[14:32] And one of the distinctions, About the soul, You'll find especially, In the old testament, Is that when it talks about, My soul, My soul, It's talking about, My identity.

[14:43] My individual, Self. So my soul, Is my self. My identity. In the basic sense, It's a referring, To self.

[14:57] Here's an interesting thing, That I discovered this week, As I'm tracing, This word soul, In Hebrew, Through the old testament. I discovered that, There are 14 times, In the old testament, Where, The person refers to himself, As, Oh my soul.

[15:15] Right? He's talking to himself. Okay? And when he talks to himself, Oh my soul, Is how he says it. 14 different times. He never says, Oh my heart, Oh my mind, Oh my strength, Oh my spirit.

[15:32] He always, Only, Says, Oh my soul. So in other words, That's how he identifies himself. That is me, In most basic, Inner sense, Is my soul.

[15:47] So it's big. Wherever the soul is, It's big. Okay? That's the basics. Now let's get a little more specific.

[15:58] So how does the old testament, First of all, Describe the soul? We look at, First Samuel 1. Remember Hannah? Hi Hannah. Hannah's namesake.

[16:09] Remember Hannah? She became the mother of Samuel. She, Was barren. We find out. And she comes to the temple to pray. And it says, It describes her as bitter in soul.

[16:24] Her soul is bitter. She's hurting. Her whole identity, For a woman in those days, Is about having children. It's not the whole identity, But it's huge in that culture.

[16:40] And so she's bitter in soul. Job. Guess what Job was? Bitter in soul. Five times he says it in fact, In case you missed it the first.

[16:52] Four times. Bitter in soul. Bitter in soul. Bitter in soul. Bitter in soul. Remember Job? Job had a little bit of trouble. Right?

[17:06] Chapter one. Boy, It looks like he handles it great. He loses everything. And he says, Praise the Lord. You know, Blessed is the Lord. Come into life empty. Go out of life empty. Okay. Blah, blah, blah.

[17:17] Find out a few chapters later. He's not so good with it. He's quite bitter. And he curses the day of his birth. He's bitter in soul.

[17:29] Soul is where the bitterness is. Psalm 6 talks about a soul that is troubled. That is in anguish.

[17:41] Psalm 31 talks about soul that is distressed. Agitated. Jeremiah 31. Verse 25 says that God promises that he will satisfy the weary soul and replenish the languishing soul.

[18:02] What we find time after time after time is the attachment of feelings and affections to the soul.

[18:14] The soul is where we feel our deepest affections and passions. That's the distinction of the soul.

[18:27] So when we think about our self-identity, our self-image, if you will, how come our self-image and our self-identity gets so screwed up? Because it's where we feel.

[18:41] It's where I get bitter. It's where I get anguish. It's where I get disturbed. Interesting, huh? It's not just bad, though. You think, oh man, the soul's kind of a pit.

[18:52] No, the soul also rejoices. Exalts. The soul blesses the Lord.

[19:04] Right? Praises the Lord. So at the root of our soul is passion. Okay? And it is affected by things. I'm affected by God.

[19:16] I draw near to praise him. I'm affected by things in this world. Affliction and trials. I draw toward sorrow, pain. That's my soul that feels all that.

[19:29] My deep stuff. It's our passions. In the New Testament, Jesus describes the soul.

[19:41] He uses this word quite a bit. It doesn't always get translated in our versions as the word soul. It's often translated as life. But he has a fondness for this word.

[19:53] In fact, he refers to himself quite often in terms of my soul. His soul. I'm going to learn from him about that. But one of the things he says about the soul in Matthew 10, 28.

[20:03] He says that the soul is eternal. It's not eternal past. It had a beginning. But after we are born and we receive that soul, it never is.

[20:17] Our body dies. Our soul departs. Jesus talks about the soul in hell or the soul in heaven. The soul is eternal.

[20:30] It's immortal. It's the who we are part apart from the body. Jesus' great statement.

[20:42] Remember in Matthew 11, 28? He says, come to me all who are weary and heavy laden. Anybody like that?

[20:53] Yeah, okay. Jesus, come to me. Come to me. And what will he do for us? What does he promise? Come to me all who are weary and heavy laden. And I will give you rest.

[21:04] For your soul. It's not physical rest that you're weary of. It's not physical heaviness.

[21:17] You ever got to the point where you're so overwhelmed, you catch yourself doing a lot of this. When I was in depression and really afflicted by that, I caught myself doing that all day long.

[21:31] Oh, I got to get up from the chair. I haven't got that bad. If you've suffered depression, you know what I'm talking about.

[21:43] It's like the heaviness. It's like everything's overwhelming. I want to eat, but I'd have to get up and make something. Kidding about it, but I've been there, so I can make fun of myself.

[21:56] The soul is where we become weary and overwhelmed. Jesus talks about his own soul.

[22:08] Remember in the garden of Gethsemane, Matthew 26, 36. Remember he takes three disciples with him and they go over to the garden and they pray.

[22:19] And before Jesus starts to separate from the three men and pray, he says, he confesses to them, he says, my soul. My soul is extremely sorrowful to the point of death.

[22:36] Now that's a statement that says, this may kill me. I am so overwhelmed with sorrow. My sorrow is so exceeding that I think it might be to death.

[22:48] And if you've been sorrowful, if you've been wiped out because of the loss of a loved one, because of some kind of personal crisis, I don't know.

[23:03] It doesn't take much sometimes. Especially if they've been adding it. Where you're just like, I can't take it anymore. I don't know what to do.

[23:15] That's where Jesus is. And why is he sorrowful unto death? Because within a few hours, he's going to go through a trial that's all set up to condemn him.

[23:27] And then he's going to be nailed to a cross. And it's not that physical pain that bothers him. It's that he will not just be nailed to a cross, but he's going to bear the sins. For the first time, his holy nature is going to be infused with sin.

[23:42] And then the father's going to forsake him. Because he must bear that sin. And Jesus is thinking about this.

[23:54] And he's just... Dr. Luke describes those moments in the garden that Jesus is praying. His sweating drops like blood. That's an actual physical...

[24:08] Medical condition. Where you're so stressed that the... What do you call them? Corporal... Help me, Lois. Capillaries.

[24:19] Thank you. Nurse Jim. They burst. He's stressed. He's overwhelmed.

[24:31] And then what does he do? We remember this scene. This is an amazing scene. This tells us how human Jesus was. How much he had emptied himself of his divinity and trusted and walked in his humanity.

[24:48] He wanted out. Because he prayed to the father, let this cup pass. This cup. This death.

[24:59] This whole thing. Which I know, Father, is your plan, but I'm getting close to it. I don't think I want to do that. I think it's too much for me.

[25:10] I am the Son of God, but I'm in humanity. So he prays, let this cup pass.

[25:22] And then he says, yet not my will, but thine be done. Now don't get the impression that he just, boom, boom, went from there to there.

[25:33] That fast. Because he talks about an hour later coming back to the disciples and following them, finding them asleep, right? And then he goes back again. Oh, I thought he resolved it.

[25:43] No, he's got to pray it again. Let this cup pass, but not my will, but thine be done. Goes back, checks on the disciples again. Oh, sleeping again. Come on, Peter. I need some help. Back again, let this cup pass.

[25:55] Three times. What does that tell you? It's a process. It's a process. And it ain't easy.

[26:07] It's not a quick fix. Now the faith preachers will tell you he didn't have faith. You can throw those guys out the window because they don't understand what faith is.

[26:21] They think faith is about this, about having big faith. Jesus says, you don't need much faith, right? Faith of a mustard is you don't move a mountain. So it's not about how much you have. It's about how long your faith is.

[26:33] How long does it last? Peter walked on the water and then he started, what, drowning? And Jesus says, you have little faith. He wasn't talking about how big the faith is. He's talking about how long it lasted.

[26:48] Faith preachers don't think like that. They want quick fixes. Can't snap. They're not done. And that's what the soul wants.

[26:58] The soul wants quick. The soul wants the easy way. Because the soul feels all that pain and the soul wants relief.

[27:11] And so you know what we usually do for our soul? We usually find something quick for it. Yeah, we feed it. We feed it. Yeah, we do. That's natural.

[27:23] Something to escape the pain. Something to relieve that distress. But we all know, right? It doesn't do it. It's really temporary.

[27:35] And the longer you keep doing it, it gets shorter and temporary. Okay? So when we talk about soul, my soul is about my self-identity.

[27:49] It's about my affections, how I'm affected by things, my feelings, my deep emotions. So look with me at Psalm 42. We see an interplay of the soul in a more complex way.

[28:05] It's not so black and white. Psalm 42 is where, now it says it's written for the sons of Asaph, but most scholars believe David has written this.

[28:17] Even though his name is not attached to the title, most believe he wrote it for the sons of Asaph to put to music. Okay? Because David was a big time music orchestrator.

[28:31] Okay? He organized music in a big time way when he was king. All right. So he says, As the deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul.

[28:45] For thee, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? My tears have been my food day and night, while others say to me all day long, where's your God?

[29:01] These things I remember as I pour out my soul, how I would go with the throng and lead them in procession to the house of God with glad shouts and songs of praise and multitude of keeping festival.

[29:13] In other words, he's remembering that. He's not experiencing that now. He's remembering when it was good and when he could go and praise God. He's remembering when public worship was thrilling, was a fulfilling thing.

[29:28] And right now, I'm convinced in Psalm 42, he is experiencing a time where he is withheld from worship. And not just physically, but emotionally, because he's depressed.

[29:40] He's not able to praise God. Listen to the next words. Why are you cast down, O my soul? Cast down.

[29:53] In Hebrew, it means to sink down. We call that depression. Why are you depressed, O my soul?

[30:07] Now he's speaking to himself. He's questioning himself. O my soul, why? Why are you sinking down?

[30:18] Why are you depressed? Why, he goes on, why are you in turmoil within me? That word turmoil comes from a word that means to groan, to sigh, to, wow.

[30:37] He's depressed. He's going around doing that all day long. Why? And so he's asking, why are you doing that? And then he preaches to himself, hope in God, for I shall again praise Him.

[30:53] I will at some point be able to praise Him again. Hope in God. Wait for God. It will come to a point where you can once again praise Him. I know right now in your depression you're not real.

[31:04] Yeah, praise God! In your soul. Right? Anybody been depressed? You had any struggle with worship when you're depressed? That's hard.

[31:20] That's hard. Because we're supposed to worship God with our soul, our feelings. And what if my feelings are all bad feelings? How do I worship Him in genuineness? I don't want to just go through motions.

[31:34] So how do I sing those songs that are uplifting and I don't feel that? That's what this psalmist is feeling. So he's asking those questions.

[31:51] But look how he describes his soul. My soul pants for God. My soul thirsts for God. My soul is something that I pour out. And then my soul is also cast down, depressed.

[32:04] My soul is in turmoil. That's more complicated. Because the first part sounds really positive. I pant for God.

[32:15] I thirst for God. I long for God. That sounds like good things. And then at the same time he's also experiencing depression and turmoil.

[32:26] how can that be? How can that be? You know what I think the answer is? You need to read the book.

[32:39] I wrote a book on this. This is about it. It's a vertical. What? Let me give you a little insight that I think dawned on me.

[32:53] I think this psalmist knows something that we don't know. That when I'm depressed and in turmoil and my soul is stirred up and in turmoil and sad and overwhelmed I'm also panting for God.

[33:08] When my soul's like that it means I'm longing and thirsting for God. That's what it means. We just have to see it. Because the only hope for my soul to be restored is going to be God.

[33:23] That's why he tells himself why are you cast down? Hope wait for God and I I will again praise him.

[33:35] It will happen. It will come. It will come. What we learn about the soul in scripture we're saying what is the distinction of the soul?

[33:50] It's it's the it's the part of us that we self-identify with. It's the part of us that that has all our affections our feelings our emotions our passions even when you're depressed you still have passion.

[34:08] I mean you're way down but your passions are wanting out. Huh? It's wanting out. What we learn about the soul in scripture is that in all these references they're going to the Lord with their soul.

[34:29] They're going to the Lord with their soul. They're taking their feelings and they're not dismissing them they're not ignoring them. What do you do with your feelings?

[34:41] Especially men. Women deal with their feelings easier right? Because it seems like but I don't assume that's always true. I know men we tend to push you down hold it back and we're not supposed to feel that's not biblical.

[35:01] Biblical is to pour out your soul to the Lord to vent it to get it out to take it to the Lord. So that's the soul in simple description.

[35:18] So how do we love God with our soul then? If our soul is our self-identity if our soul is our affections and our passions and our feelings our emotions how do we love God with all our soul?

[35:31] How do we love God when our soul is troubled? How do we love God when our soul is depressed? So I think we start by acknowledging we have a problem with our soul.

[35:50] Just like we saw that with the heart. There was a we have a heart problem don't we? We have a heart that can be hardened we have a heart that can be far from God we have a heart that can walk our own way instead of walking God's way so we have a heart problem we also have a soul problem so if we're going to love God with all our heart we have to start by acknowledging that our soul has a problem it tends to feel disturbed and troubled it can become bitter it can become depressed it can be overwhelmed with sorrow it can be weary in doing good so how then do we revive our soul?

[36:39] How do we restore our soul? How do we pull it out of the miry clay? How do we get out of the dark night of the soul?

[36:50] Right? Psalm 19 talks about the word of God his law his precepts his testimonies his ways it says the law of the Lord is perfect reviving the soul now it says the law of the Lord there's not talking about the law in terms of the ten commands not talking about the law in terms of just the commands he's talking about the word of God because in the same section he uses other synonyms for the word of God he talks about the testimonies the precepts remember guys Psalm 119 same kind of thing going on there and then in Psalm 23 the Lord is my shepherd I shall not want he makes me lie down in green pastures where I've been fed he takes me to quiet waters where sheep can drink because they won't drink from agitated waters and he restores my soul how do I revive my soul how do I restore my soul well the word and Jesus as my shepherd that's not so hard right that's pretty simple simple does not mean easy

[38:28] Psalm 103 says bless the Lord oh my soul Psalm 57 says my soul takes refuge in the Lord Psalm 33 Psalm 42 talks about waiting for the Lord how do how does the Lord restore us he says the Lord will restore us and he will revive us but how does he do it our part is waiting for the Lord taking refuge in the shadow of his wings we sang that actually Psalm 57 we take refuge in the shadow of his wings during the storm by the way that's loving God with our soul you know what loving God is obeying God right Jesus says whoever obeys my commandments he it is who loves me so I know you love me by your action by your and obeying

[39:33] God is a matter of faith trust and so when my soul is disturbed and I go to him what does that show trust faith even though my soul has all this stuff and I'm venting it to him that's faith that's faith when Jesus says with his soul exceedingly sorrowful when he says let this cup pass from me that's faith because he's going to the Lord he's not saying I'm going to I'm out he goes to the Lord I want out okay let's let me work with you buddy but Jesus son bless the Lord oh my soul how do I worship God when my soul is disturbed and depressed well I may not feel like you know rejoicing but I can still acknowledge that he is good that he is right that he is just

[40:54] I can still sing as we sang this morning even in depression I can still sing all creatures of our God and King praise him because that's true doesn't matter how I feel that's still true I can acknowledge that I can confess I can sing oh this is a goody for depressed people be still my soul this is written by a depressed person okay it's written by Katarina von Schlegel bless her heart be still my soul why the Lord is on your side bear patiently the cross of grief or pain leave to your

[42:10] God to order and provide in every change he faithful will remain yes yes my soul needs to hear that we're singing to our soul in this song be still my soul leave to thy God he faithful will remain be still my soul your best your heavenly friend through thorny ways leads to a joyful end be still my soul your God will undertake to guide the future as he has the past your hope your confidence let nothing shake all now mysterious shall be bright at last be still my soul this is the cool part the winds and waves still know his voice who ruled them when he was below remember that he ruled the wind and the waves be still the wind and the waves still know the wind and the waves that cause you turmoil he can still speak to those wind and waves and calm it be still my soul my when dearest friends depart and all is darkened in the veil of tears then shall you better know his love his heart who comes to soothe your sorrow and your fears be still my soul your

[44:24] Jesus can repay from his own fullness all he takes away that's honest truth what he takes away and causes your pain be still my soul the hour is hastening on when we shall be forever with the Lord when disappointment grief and fear are gone sorrow forgot love's purest joys restored be still my soul when change and tears are past safe and blessed we shall meet at last we can still sing in depression in disturbance all these psalms that talk about my soul my soul my soul do you know that each psalm of the scripture is also a song for public worship they sang psalm 42 how come we're not singing psalm 42 who's the musical person that can put that to music for us now somebody's put half of one verse to the music but let's put the whole thing to music because the whole thing talks about the uh and the uh

[46:14] I don't have words because that's worship even in my depression I can worship I can express that it's not whoop dee do my soul exulting because psalm 42 says that'll come later god will bring that back I know you want that back it'll come back but now it's oh and that's worship too and that's loving god too so our soul problem right needs reviving needs restoring needs purifying how do we purify our soul first peter 1 22 says we purify our soul by obedience to the truth well

[47:15] I purify my soul by obedience to the truth my soul doesn't want to do that but I purify it by pushing it through that by coming and worshiping him even when I don't feel it that's not lip service because I'm coming with my heart intentionally to worship him even though I don't feel joy that's still obedience and that's faith I had to learn that because worship before always meant it's what I feel and that's genuine you can be genuine to worship God even when your heart and your soul are messed I don't wait to worship him once I get it all together that'll be forever but I can purify that soul by coming even when I don't want to come I found that with the men's group in dealing with my depression

[48:17] I forced myself to go to the men's group I forced it I was leading it so I had to go but I forced myself into that position because I knew in my depression I wouldn't want to go so I made myself have to go and it helped to heal how do you protect the soul 1 Peter 2 talks about abstaining from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul that's interesting fleshly lusts they don't wage war against your heart they wage war against your soul it will destroy your soul your affections your feelings your identity how do you protect the soul from weariness Hebrews 12 1 to 3 having laid aside every encumbrance every sin that entangles us run the race with endurance if you're a depressed person that's the last thing you want to do run the race with endurance just go do it just keep reading he says run the race with endurance how by looking to

[49:45] Jesus the author and perfecter of our faith and consider him who endured such hostility against himself so that you may not grow weary or lose soul see the way you overcome a weary soul is looking to Jesus and considering what he did that will bring you back that will help you take another step that will keep you on the road finally let's just look at one example I want to look at the example of Jesus in John chapter 12 how did Jesus turn his troubled soul to love the Lord with his soul listen to this text John 12 24 Jesus said truly truly I say to you unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies it remains alone but if it dies it bears much fruit he's talking about his own impending death

[50:53] I must die so I can bear fruit then he says whoever loves his life loses it now that's bad translation what Jesus actually said is whoever loves his soul will lose it don't follow your soul don't love your soul in fact he goes on he says but whoever hates his soul in this world will save it will rescue it for eternal life which means to hate my soul in this world means I cannot trust my soul my soul will want the easy way my soul will want quick fix my soul will want escape I cannot follow my feelings I don't dismiss my feelings but I can't follow them you know you've already learned that you know that that's what

[51:59] Jesus is saying if anyone serves me he must follow me where I am there my servant will be also if anyone serves me the father will honor him and then Jesus makes this amazing statement he says now is my soul troubled now is my soul stirred up now is my soul agitated he says and what shall I say father save me from this hour but for this purpose I came for this hour father glorify your name then a voice then a voice came from heaven I have glorified it and I will glorify it again which tells us that what Jesus just said was so significant that

[53:03] God spoke from heaven it only happened three times it happened at his baptism it happened at the transfiguration and it happens here when Jesus confesses that his soul is troubled and he takes he goes from his soul troubled to father glorify your name how do you do that how can you do that how can I do that how can I go from my soul is troubled to thy will be done I'm okay with it how do you do that look more closely first Jesus confesses to his disciples who are listening to him and in the context of prayer now is my soul troubled he confesses it he says what shall I say what does he say he prays father save me from this hour the same thing he's going to pray a couple of days later in

[54:05] Gethsemane let this cut pass this is pre Gethsemane Jesus is already feeling the weight of sin he's already feeling the weight of this awesome responsibility and his soul is stirring up by the way it's not sinful to feel stirred up by the way it's not sinful to feel depressed it's not sinful to feel feelings are natural they are spontaneous what you do with them that's different but please do not let anyone tell you especially the devil or your own conscience that feeling something is sinful Jesus felt sorrow Jesus felt agitation he felt disturbance that's not sinful okay he didn't repress his feelings he didn't bury his feelings he didn't dismiss his feelings he confessed his feelings and then he took hold of them he did something with them he took them to the father and as soon as he takes them to the father he says father save me from this hour what's the very next thing that he says wait a minute it's not like that but there is a moment because he's praying where he's led to be reminded it's for this hour that I came it's for this very reason that

[55:45] I came and then he's able to say because he's prayed through that and don't think that by the way it was a really quick prayer okay my soul is troubled there may be some emotion well there's some emotion going on there what do I say right fire it's more like that okay and he's showing his disciples how to deal with his soul showing us how to deal with our souls how do we take our soul from trouble to thy will be done confesses prays renews his mind for this purpose I came for this hour and I think he's only able to do that because he's come in prayer and confessed it and then he can say father glorify your name and because

[56:48] Jesus is able to do that go from trouble to glorify your name the father says I have done it and I'm going to do it again boy okay that's a little too wrong translation I don't think God talked like that but that's the emotion of it I think okay it's the emotion of it I think so how does he do it he confesses he renews his mind and then he surrenders all in the context of prayer so how do we love God with all our soul well it's not easy because our soul is often troubled we need revival and restoration but I would say hang on to John 12 here what Jesus does follow Jesus' example how do you love God with all your soul confess your soul pour out your soul cast it on the Lord my soul is overwhelmed

[57:51] Lord here it is you take that first step you will be empowered to take the next step to pray for help then you will be empowered if you can walk through one step at a time and you'll be empowered to renew your mind wait a minute what has Jesus called me here to do because my soul and depression I'm going to go like this right I'm going to go I'm going to I'm going to spiral down and pull into myself okay so how do I get back out while I go to God and like Jesus sometimes I need to confess to another believer or two don't I I need somebody else I can vent with talk with then I renew my mind then I'm going to be empowered to surrender but it's not an easy process it took Jesus three times in Gethsemane that means okay here's

[58:57] Jesus here's me it took him three times and that was severe okay I don't need as severe as he's going through to feel overwhelmed like he felt overwhelmed okay so it could be you know bad day took him three times it's going to take me 12 years that's how long my depression went from trouble to release that's me that's probably because I needed a lot more humbling than you I'm just I'm not saying 12 years is the thing 12 years is what God determined I needed to be humble to wake up to shatter my dreams bring me into his Jesus can deal with it in an evening but he's

[60:07] Jesus okay I'm not not even close I want to be close I want to get closer so I learn from him so we learn how to love God with all our soul even if my soul is troubled I can love God by turning to him to trust him to call out to him to cry to him to confess to sing to him even in my despair that's faith so the question is do you love God with all your affections and with all your passions it's okay yeah I do all the time no I don't but I do and I want to and that's the question do you want to love God with all your soul yeah if you're a follower of Jesus I'm sure you do but in order to do so we cannot follow our soul we have to guard against our soul we have to protect our soul we need to save our soul from this world we need to take our soul to the

[61:18]  Lord for restoration and revival and if you're not a follower of Jesus but you've heard something that has struck you and you struggle with your soul ask him ask Jesus to save your soul you recognize and acknowledge that your soul is in despair and your soul is empty your soul is struggling because you are flawed and weak and sinful and you confess that to him and you turn to him and show faith toward him and then believe upon him and ask him until he answers ask him to save you and change you take it to Jesus trust his promise when he says come to me all who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest for your souls let us pray father we thank you that you teach us about each aspect of our own lives so that we can begin to seek to love you more than we already do you deserve everything that we have and father we confess we fall so far short and and one of the reasons we often fall short oh father is because of our soul and we tie up our identity with how we feel and how we're affected because father we are dust and we so often are overwhelmed by the storms and the troubles and so father we take it to you give us courage give us faith to cast it to you and just take the first step and entrust you to empower us to take the next step we pray in christ's name amen well in response to the preaching of god's word and more importantly interpretation