Renovating Our Souls
Renovate

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Lord , we lift up our voices to You. We lift up our hearts and our souls. Open our minds and our ears now to receive Your word. We’re so thankful, Lord. We pray for revival in our country. We pray for revival in our land, especially in eastern North Carolina, Wilson, Rocky Mount and the surrounding areas. Today, we want to lift up another one of our partner churches. Lord, we lift up this morning Impact Church and Pastor David List, one of our churches that we partner with in this city. We also pray for our Rocky Mount campus today, Lord, that’s meeting right now. Lord, we lift them up to You, but more than anything right now, we lift You up Lord Jesus. We ask You to speak to us now through Your word and through testimony in Jesus’ name. Amen. You may be seated.

Well let’s continue with our series. Today we’re in part seven. If you’re here for the first time it’s okay, you can catch up . We have all of this series online. You can go back and watch if you would like. After the first service, I had some guests that came up to me and said, ‘I hate that we came in on number seven. I wish I had been here for all of them.’ You can go online and catch up.

Today, we’re continuing our series, “Renovation of the Heart,” because we’re convinced that life really begins with the heart. It says in Proverbs 4:23 (ESV) “Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.” We are convinced that life really flows from the heart, it flows from the inside out rather than from the outside in. Our hearts are like the control center, the seat of the will, the driver’s seat, if you will.The heart is that aspect of ourselves that is making decisions. It is influenced, as we’ve been talking in previous weeks, by our thought life of the mind and also our emotions which is of the mind . Those two also influence our bodies and influence the desires of our bodies. There are social influences with the people around us. Our relationships influence our decision making.

Today, we’re talking about the soul. When we talk about the soul, what we’re really talking about is all of the unseen aspects of ourselves together.

Here’s what Dr. Dallas Willard says about the soul. He says, “The soul is that aspect of your whole being that correlates, integrates, and enlivens everything going on in the various dimensions of the self. It is the life-center of the human being. [Therefore] we must be mindful of our souls, to acknowledge them. In spiritual formation and transformation it is necessary to take the soul seriously and deal with it regularly and intelligently.” What does Willard mean when he says we need to be mindful of our souls? I think he means to acknowledge that they exist. It’s that unseen center of ourselves. It’s what we’re talking about in this message today–renovating our soul. The human soul is the center of personhood of the human being.

Author George Macdonald writes, “You don’t have a soul. You are a soul.” The soul is that eternal aspect of self that lives after the death of the body, after the passing of the body. The soul has eternal value.

As you look around this room, we are surrounded by people whose lives have eternal value and will live in eternity, either in a place with the Lord or apart from the Lord.The soul lives on; it has eternal value. The soul is made from God, created from God by God. You don’t have to read far in the bible; we read this in Genesis 2:7 (KJV) “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” God formed the physical aspect; He breathed into Adam and he became a living soul.

The soul is that description of self that comes from God and is made, created by God. Not only that, I’m convinced that the soul is not only from God, but it’s for God; the soul is for God.

Here’s what Augustine, the ancient church father said, “You have made us for Thyself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in Thee.” Why did God make you? He made you for Himself. He made you because He wants you. The soul is never really right until it is right with God.

Perhaps David, the writer of much of the book of Psalms, had the most to say about the soul than anybody else in the bible. He wrote 150 psalms; many of them are aimed at the soul. He had a real keen awareness of the condition of his inner life.

I’m not sure how much we in the Western world give consideration to the inner life, the unseen aspect of self, but David writes this, probably on a day that he was feeling particularly bad about some sin area in his life. He writes this in Psalm 31:9-10 (NLT) 9 “Have mercy on me, Lord, for I am in distress. Tears blur my eyes. My body and soul are withering away. 10 I am dying from grief; my years are shortened by sadness. Sin has drained my strength; I am wasting away from within.” Notice how he’s talking about the way he feels on the inside. He has a way that the Holy Spirit is revealing to him. He says, ‘my soul is withering away. It’s like I’m wasting away from within.’

Are you mindful of your soul? What’s the condition of your soul as you come in today? Are you disturbed? Is your soul in chaos? Are you having this sense of how am I going to handle this, I’m worried about this, I’m concerned about that? Is your soul in turmoil? Are you feeling heavy in your soul today? These are things that we know; they’re hard to describe.

The Greek word for “soul” is “ “psychē.”That’s where we get the word, “psyche,” from. Psychology and psychiatry all come from that Greek word, “psychē,” which means “soul.” Psychology literally means “the study of the soul,” however, they really don’t study the soul. They study human behavior, human attitudes and those kinds of things. Really, the specialist for the soul is the Lord. He’s the physician of the soul and He’s the one that we want to bring our souls to and bare their souls to.

How’s your soul today? How’s it doing today? Are you weak and heavy laden? Are you troubled in the soul? Do you need rest? Do you need peace in your soul? That’s what Jesus offers in the gospel of Matthew, chapter 11. He gives a three-part invitation to those who would seek rest for their soul, renovation of the soul.

I believe today that we can hear this three-part invitation and we can say ”yes” to Jesus and find rest for our souls that we can find nowhere else.

Matthew 11:28-30 (ESV) 28 “Come to me, all 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.” This is God’s word. Amen.

HOW TO FIND REST AND RENOVATION FOR OUR SOULS:

1. Come to Jesus.

What a great invitation from Jesus this morning. “Come.” Who does He say to come to? He says, “Come to me.” He doesn’t say to come to a philosophy or a place. He says, ‘come to a person.’ He doesn’t say, ‘come to a religion.’ He says, ‘come into a relationship.’ “Come to me.”

This is the first invitation. This is the entry point for understanding how He wants to be the physician for our souls; He’s the only one that can really give us rest for our souls. He says, “Come to me.” This is either one of the most egotistical claims made by anyone or it’s the truth. Jesus doesn’t invite us to some psychology or philosophy. He says, “Come to me.” ‘Come to me all who are laboring and who are being heavy laden.’ Both of those are in participle form, which means they have an “ing” on them. It’s hard to put it in English. It feels funny, but “Come to me all who are laboring and are being heavy laden…” is not like you used to be this way. It’s like you’re continuously this way. Jesus is looking; He looks at the people that He’s talking to and He sees, not just the outward but He sees the inward. They may be dressed up, looking nice and have smiles on their faces, but He can see their souls. He can see the inside. In fact, He can see it better than they can see themselves. He looks at them and he sees that they are so beat down. They’re so heavy. They are carrying stuff too big for them to carry. His heart of compassion goes out to them. If they would only come to Jesus. Come to Jesus; you just keep laboring, carrying that heavy burden and being heavy laden. Jesus says, “Come to me all who are laboring and heavy laden.”

In the Greek, He says, “I will rest you.” The word, “give,” is implied in English, but there’s no word, “give,” in the original. He says, “I will rest you.” I really like that.

This “rest” is not something over here that He gives. “Come to me,” He says, and you’ll find your rest in Me. “Come to me;” rest in me. It’s really more like that. It’s not like rest is over here. Okay, I’ll give you some rest. Here’s a prescription for rest. No, it’s not like that. It’s like, “Come to me;” you’ll find your rest in me. This is the invitation of Jesus. Come to Jesus.

Reflect on your soul for a second. Here’s what He sees–He sees us laboring and being heavy with burdens that don’t even belong to us. Perhaps, as he’s talking to this audience in the first century, these were primarily Jews and He talks in other places, how the Pharisees which were the law, the people that were really caught up in the law and they were actually adding to the law, laws on laws. He is saying, ‘You’ve made the yoke of Moses’ law heavy for the people and they can’t keep it. The truth is about the Mosaic law, God’s law is perfect. It’s beautiful. It’s wonderful. It’s so high and holy that no man can keep it because it’s showing God’s standard of holiness.’ I think it’s really there, maybe first of all, just to show us that we need a Savior. We can’t keep it, but if we try to keep it, then we labor at it. Then, when we don’t keep it in order, to make ourselves feel better about ourselves, we make up excuses for ourselves and our souls become withered in this excuse making and the lying to self.

The other thing is, the soul is trying to control outcomes because it can’t keep the law, so it feels apart from God. It feels separate from God and it tries to control outcomes. The more you try to control outcomes, the more you fail and the more you worry and strive. Then, the soul looks like this– it’s shrinking. It’s withered, it’s beaten up and it’s heavy.

As I get older, I just feel like I’m going through the motions– I go to school, I go to sleep, I get up, I eat, I go to school… I’m just looking for escape. When you go to escape somewhere, you try to get away, the only problem with escape is everywhere you go, there you are. You always take yourself and your soul with you. It might feel good for a season; it’s a change of scenery and it feels better, but the whole time, you know that you will need to go back. Anybody who has a Monday through Friday job, do you get the Sunday night blues? We have that TGIF on Friday like and then Sunday night we start to think, I have to go back to work in the morning. It’s because we’re living so outwardly. Come to Jesus. Stop laboring in yourself.

There’s a three-part invitation over in Luke that sounds similar. Let me run it by you and you’ll see how they parallel. This is Jesus speaking: Luke 9:23 (ESV) And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. Jesus says, “Come to me,” and then He explains it over in book of Luke. In Matthew, He says, “Come to me,” and then over in Luke, He says, “deny yourself.” You are on your own, you’re laboring and you’re heavy. You’re trying to control outcomes and you just worry yourself to death. Your soul is withering, fractured and in turmoil.

In order to come to Jesus, you have to leave; you have to deny yourself. In order to come to Jesus, you have to leave something. You have to leave what you’ve been doing in your own labor. You have to leave your burdens; you have to leave your struggles. You deny self and you come to Jesus. If you put Matthew 11:28-30 with Luke 9:23, they help each other. They inform each other. In order to come to Jesus, you must deny that you’re in charge. You must surrender the throne of your life, the driver’s seat, and come and say, ‘Jesus, take control.’ You leave and then you come to Jesus. He recognizes what you need.

I love this invitation in Mark, chapter 6 to His disciples. I love Jesus. I love boats and I love water.I wish I could have been there. I wonder if we’ll have these possibilities in Heaven. I don’t know, I would love to have Jesus say this to me. This is what He said in Mark 6:31-32 (ESV) And he said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.” For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. And they went away in the boat to a desolate place by themselves.” Let’s push away and go into deep water together on a boat. Get away from the crowd. Get away from social media, the news and all the distractions. Let’s just focus on each other. Can you put that in the rhythm of your life?

Now some of you young moms with those little kids, you might be able to get with Jesus for 15 minutes in your bathroom with the door locked. Then that little one’s going to be beating on the door anyway, but you can get in there and say, ‘Jesus, I’m in the bathroom for You. I’ve got the door locked.’ Gary, you don’t know the rhythm of my life. I can’t just “get in the boat and go off with Jesus.” I understand. Jesus does too. He’s not trying to make things heavier for you. He’s trying to lighten your load. What I am saying to you is, recognize the need of your soul for Jesus. You can’t just keep going on your own strength. You must leave your own self-empowered, self-directed life and move to a place where you’ve come to Jesus and now He’s the Lord and He’s empowering you. He’s leading you. He’s the one helping you.

Sometimes we just need to come away with Jesus . There are seasons where you need to get a sitter if you’ve got kids or you need to take time off work. You need to come away and not just go on a vacation. You need to go on a spiritual retreat and spend a couple of days with the Lord, just reading His word and praying. Talking to Him. There are times in life where this is so critical.

We don’t care for ourselves in the Western world. We have diminished the value of our souls. The souls of the Western world are disappearing; they are withering away. We, as believers, know the “doctor” of our souls. We know the Lord Jesus.

When I was young and growing up, I would spend summers on the farm with my grandfather. Even before that, after church on Sundays, we would try to head out to my maternal grandparent’s farmhouse. My mom would say, “We’re going to Granny and Papa’s house after church, so make sure you put some ”play clothes” in the trunk of the car.” So, I would get my “play clothes” together, you know, some old blue jeans, a t-shirt and some tennis shoes, because you have your “Sunday clothes” on going to church. That way, we could go straight from church to Granny and Papa’s house. We would get on Interstate 81. We would be in that big Buick. Then, we would take the exit and we’d be on a two- lane highway and then the lines would disappear. We would be on this old curvy paved road. Then, we would take another turn and the pavement would disappear and we would be on a dirt road. How many of you have ever been on a dirt road with the big gravels? I was a little boy, but I can still remember feeling the excitement rise and any sense of trouble diminish. It was something about getting out on that dirt road and seeing the farmhouse, with the old barn in the back. I’d see my Papa on the front porch waving at us, waiting for us to come in and eat a good meal. There was just something about going to my grandparent’s house on Sunday. You see, my daddy died when I was eight years old and Papa was like my second father and the farmhouse was like a second home. It felt like a little piece of heaven on that dirt road. That road in front of that old farmhouse is still dirt to this day. There’s not many dirt roads left in the world. I’d say the people that live there probably wish it would get paved, but every time I go down there I’m really happy that it’s not. There was just something about the rest I would feel. Your cell phone just doesn’t work down there.

Will you come to Jesus, denying yourself, turning your life over to Him, giving Him the throne of your heart? It means leaving your self-directed, striving life behind and giving all to Him. Acknowledge the need of your busy and burdened soul to come to Jesus.

HOW TO FIND REST AND RENOVATION FOR OUR SOULS:

2. Submit to Jesus.

Here’s the second part of His three-part invitation. He, first of all, says, “Come,” and then He says, “Take my yoke,” which I’m going to say like this: submit to Jesus, because that’s really what the “yolk” represents. It represents submission to come under the authority of Jesus; to submit your life to Jesus. “Take my yoke upon you,” This is His invitation to Lordship.

The word, “take,” is in the imperative. It has the idea of “to take on” or “to put on.” The word, “yoke,” is imagery from a culture that was primarily agricultural. They would have been very familiar with this, but because we’re not, let me show you a couple of images of what a yoke is. Here’s what a yolk looks like:



You might put a yoke around two oxen to pull a cart of some sort and the head would go through and you can see how you could you could fit it to their necks and then at rest so that they could pull a load together. You can see the oxen with the yoke upon them and they’ve got a little thing right here that you tighten it up so that it fits them perfectly. That guy right there is looking right at us, isn’t he? That’s what a yoke is.

Jesus is using that word, “yoke,” as a symbol of what it’s like to come under His authority. One of the things I was thinking about, He might be suggesting, is that He would be right beside us. He would be helping pull. In fact, He’d be doing more than helping.

It made me think about this: When my son, Stephen, was young, he used to love to help me mow the grass. He soon got over it. But, when he was young, he loved to help me. I had one of those mowers that the handle would fold in the middle. You could unscrew these things and fold it over so you could transport it. It had a bar that was lower, so Stephen would hear the mower start and come running out. He would want to push on the lower bar, which slowed me down greatly, but hopefully I was trying to be a good daddy, so I’d let him help. He would grunt and act like he was working so hard, but he didn’t know he wasn’t doing anything. I was pushing. I was empowering it. I was directing it. If I would have let him go, first of all, he couldn’t push it. He wasn’t strong enough. Secondly, he couldn’t drive straight. Oh man, though, he thought he was doing everything.

Sometimes, that’s how we are . Sometimes, we just think, ‘I got this, Lord.’ No, you don’t. “You don’t got this.” If he lets go, you can’t even push it and even if you could, you’d go off track.

What we really need to do is look over our shoulder and say, ‘Okay, I’m doing my part. It ain’t much. You’re really doing the heavy lifting. I’m glad I’ve got You, Lord.’ He says, “take my yoke.” It’s not just any yolk. Take my yoke. See, the yolk of the mosaic law was heavy. If you tried to come under the yoke of the law, you couldn’t keep it. Jesus was talking about how the Pharisees burdened the people, instead of releasing the burden. Also, they would use the word, “yoke.” If you were coming under a rabbi, they would they would call it “coming under the yoke” of a rabbi, under the teaching and training of a rabbi. This was a well-known phrase. To “take a yoke on” meant to take on the submission, to come under Jesus. Come to Jesus, submit to Jesus and take His yoke.

In Verse 30, he tells us a two-part description of His yoke. It’s His yoke; that’s the first part we’ve already made sure of. Then, he says in verse 30, “my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” In other words, His yoke is easy on you. It doesn’t rub blisters on the shoulders of your soul, it’s fitted for you. It’s made for you and it’s not too heavy.

I was telling you about spending summers on the farm with my PaPaw. He, also, was a bus driver during the day. If you’re a bus driver, you’ve got time in the middle of the day to work. He would have three loads in the morning, then he would come home and had three more loads in the afternoon. He farmed and drove the bus. In the summers, he didn’t have bus driving, so he was free. I would spend summers with him. He did everything old fashioned, which to me today is a great gift. It’s like I got to see stuff from over 100 years ago because I spent time with him. There were no tractors, there was no mechanized farming. There were mules, cows,pigs and that kind of thing. He had these two mules, their names were Kate and Beck. Beck was blind in her left eye. There were two stalls in the barn for the mules and their halters. Beck’s halter hung on her stall and Kate’s halter hung on her stall. Now, you couldn’t switch them because Beck was shorter and older and blind in one eye. Kate was younger; she was really the leader. She was stronger; she really pulled the strongest load. You couldn’t switch them. If you tried to switch them up with Beck’s blind side out, she would kick and fight. Their halters were perfectly fitted. I learned, over time, how to hitch up the plow wagon to Kate and Beck. I learned how to “G” and “Haw” and do all of that with the reins when I was 11, 12 years old. I was already learning this stuff, but I learned something about making sure the yolk was easy on them, so it didn’t rub blisters on them because a good farmer that works with animals understands the best way to get the best workout.

This is what jesus is saying to us –what you’re doing is is injuring your soul. What you’re carrying is not even fit for, it’s not even made for your soul and it’s too heavy for you. I (Jesus) am for you. You’re always trying to work it out on your own. “Man makes his plans,” the bible says, “but God determines his steps.” You can plan, but you can’t control the outcome. We go out in the power of the Holy Spirit and we plan in the power of the Holy Spirit, but then, we leave the results up to God. If we try to control the results, try to control the outcomes, it just is destructive to our souls, because we’re carrying something that’s not fit for us. It’s too heavy for us and so, we submit to Him. We submit everything because His yoke is easy and His burden is light.

What do we submit to Him? Everything. It says in Proverbs 3:5-6 (NIV) 5 “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; 6 in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.” We submit all things to Him.

Sometimes you might think, Well, I don’t know how to come to Jesus and get along with Jesus. I’m so busy sometimes. Can I talk to those moms with young kids again? If you coil just get alone for five minutes and make Psalm 23, “The Lord is my shepherd” your prayer. Except personalize it. Can I give you an example of how you could use some Psalm 23? It would help if you memorized it that way. You can carry it everywhere you go. Just hide it in your heart. Here’s a way you might just use the Lord is my shepherd. David wrote this. He knows about soul work. Psalm 23:1-6 (NKJV) 1 “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. 2 He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters. 3 He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness For His name’s sake. 4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. 5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; My cup runs over. 6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want, he makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside the still waters. Lord, You restore my soul. Lord, You lead me in the paths of righteousness for Your name’s sake. Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, even though I’ve got a tough day in front of me, I won’t be afraid, because I know You’re with me, Your rod and Your staff, they give me comfort. Some days I have to face enemies, but You prepare a table before me in the presence of the enemies.

Have you ever have an appointment coming and you’rebiting your nails all day. You feel like you’re facing an enemy. Then, you get there and you find out that the Lord put a banquet table out in front of you. Give it to the Lord. You’re still doing it in your own power. What’s wrong with you? He will even prepare a banquet table for you in the midst of someone you think is your enemy. Anoint my head, Lord, with oil and not just a little sprinkle. Do it like you told Moses to do. Aaron, dump a whole picture on my head because the oil represents the Holy Spirit, poured out. Lord, surely goodness, this is what You can do. If the Lord is your shepherd, you can say this. Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. That’s where I’m headed. You can’t stop me, no one can stop me. The Lord is my shepherd.

Dr Willard calls this “abandoning outcomes.” Give them to the Lord; You’re the shepherd. You determine my steps. You take care of my enemies. You take care if I need rest. Take me to a green pasture. Put me beside living waters. If I need power, anoint me with the Holy Spirit. You’re my shepherd, I know where I’m going. All things are well. All things will be well.

HOW TO FIND REST AND RENOVATION FOR OUR SOULS:

3. Learn from Jesus.

This is the third part of His invitation. He says to come to Him,submit to him and then He says learn from Him. Verse 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. Literally, the word, “learn,” could mean, “become a disciple of,” “be a student of,” “a pupil.” It’s the same root word that the word, “disciple,” comes from in the Greek. To be a learner, a disciple. He invites you to be His disciple.

Have you taken that invitation seriously? If you’re a believer today, you understand what it means to come to Him and submit to Him, but have you been a learner? How do you learn from Jesus?

We have a “love letter” from Him, that we should be students of, by the power of the Holy Spirit. We read and we apply it, especially the gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, where we can see how Jesus speaks, how He acts and how He treats others. We can learn from Him. We can say, ‘Okay, I read that section, Holy Spirit. Help me apply it to my life.’ Now you talk to Jesus. You’ve come to Him and He’s living in you by His Spirit and so, you learn from Him by listening to that inner voice of the Spirit within you. Take seriously the idea that you are His disciple and you become a learner.

Christianity might be kind of unique in that regard, that we’re called to be lifelong learners. Our topic of learning is Jesus. He says, “learn of me.” “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me.”

Then, He gives us a self description, “for I am gentle and lowly in heart.” Now, if we would have read earlier in the chapter, we would have heard Jesus say just prior to this, Matthew 11:27, “All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.” He is over all things; everything. This is the Creator of the universe. The King of all things. The authority over all things and all power. This is Jesus and He says to learn from Him because He is gentle. He can say that because He’s not disturbed about anything. Do you know why? It’s because all things are His and all things are given to Him.

Now, I want to “stretch” you for a second. This is what He wants you to learn –you can be gentle and lowly in heart, too, because all things are yours. Did you know that? Because we are co-inheritors with Christ. We’re co-inheritors with Christ. He says that we are the body of Christ. He is the head and we are the body.

Jesus is never tempted to destroy someone. Do you know why? Because, with just a thought, He could blink them out of existence. All things are under Him. Whenever someone persecuted Him, He was meek and lowly.

What can we get here? If all things are mine, all things are well, all things will be well, I will walk in His mercy and grace for the rest of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever, then there’s nothing here that can harm my soul now. You can kill my body, but you can’t touch my soul. This body is just a “temporary tent” that’s going to get folded up one day. We get a new body, for the soul is meant for the body, the body for the soul and the soul groans for its resurrection body. The soul will groan until Jesus’ returns. I’m not disturbed and if I am, I have to ask myself, ‘God, would you look at my soul? Jesus, would you look at my soul?’ because I should be at rest. If I’m not at rest, then my soul is not at rest in the one and only jesus.

If I am not at rest it is because I did a “take back.” I said, ‘Okay, Jesus, I came to You but could I have that piece back? I’m gonna work on that piece over here myself’ Now, I’m not at rest. I’m not at rest, trying to control outcomes again. Oh, I’m learning, I’m growing. When my soul gets disturbed like that, I come running back to Jesus, ‘Lord, I’m sorry. I don’t know what I was thinking. Take this back for me. It’s too heavy. I can’t carry this. Take this back now. I want to walk according to Your yoke. According to You.’ You see, it’s made for me. It doesn’t rub blisters on my soul’s shoulders; it’s fit for me. He gives us rest for our souls. He gives us salvation for our souls. His yoke is easy and His burden is light.

What can we learn from Jesus? If He’s like this, I can be like this. It says in Philippians 2:3-5 (ESV) 3 “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus.” We can be gentle and lowly of heart.

What does it mean to be lowly of heart? It means to be humble. It doesn’t mean to have low self esteem. That would be damaging to your soul . That would mean you don’t know who you are in Christ, because if you know who you are in Christ, then you have good, healthy self esteem because you know He loves you. You know that He died for you and He was right. You’re going to live forever, so you’ve got a healthy self esteem. What does it mean to be humble and lowly in heart? Does it mean to think less of yourself? No. It means to stop thinking of yourself at all and to think of Him and others and He takes care of you. He takes care of your soul; it doesn’t mean low or no self esteem. It means not thinking about one’s self anymore because “God’s got this.” I’ve surrendered my soul to Him and so I put others before myself. I have the mind of Christ for all things.

David understood this soul thirst, this fact that our souls are made for God and they won’t find rest until they find it in God. David writes, Psalm 42:1-2, 5 (NIV) 1 “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God. 2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God? …5 Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.” See how David is keen to be aware of his soul when he feels this “warning light” in his soul. Why am I downcast? Wait a minute. I’m not supposed to be like this. Why am I not joyful? What’s wrong? Why am I worrying, soul? He’s talking to himself. This is the one time that it’s healthy to talk to yourself, by the way. Go to Jesus; go to your Savior. Then, David says that he is going to praise the Lord. He’s learned to encourage himself in the Lord and to run back to his Savior.

This is the Savior who talked to the woman at the well, the Samaritan woman. This is Jesus in John, chapter four. The woman had come to draw water and He says to her, “Woman, would you give Me a drink?” and she says that He is a Jewish man. Why is He talking to a Samaritan woman? He doesn’t even answer that. He says to her, “If you had asked me, I would have given you living water.” She says, ‘You don’t even have a bucket. How are you going to draw water?’ Then we can read this verse in John 4:13-14 (NLT) 13 Jesus replied, “Anyone who drinks this water will soon become thirsty again. 14 But those who drink the water I give will never be thirsty again. It becomes a fresh, bubbling spring within them, giving them eternal life.” The woman says, ‘I’d like to get some of that water.’ He tells her that God is looking for worshipers that would worship Him in spirit and truth. She says, ‘Well I heard that when Messiah comes, He will explain all these things.’ He says, , “I who speak to you am He.” He reveals Himself to her. She takes off running into the city of Sukar and she says, “Come see the man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?” and the whole city turns out. The majority of the people in that city place their faith in Jesus and believe in Him.

Do you have this “living water” in your soul that bubbles up like a living spring? This is what He promises. This is what He wants to bring to our souls. He wants us to learn from Him so that we have this spring flowing up from within. Notice His gentleness and His lowliness with the woman at the well. He’s so gentle with her the way He reveals himself. He will be that way with you, too. You can trust Jesus with everything you have. He will be and will always be the most trustworthy friend that you’ll ever have.

I’m going to close in prayer; I’m going to close with two kinds of prayers. The first kind is for those of you that are here today and you came in apart from God, you came in checking God out. You need something; your soul is troubled. You need help. I’m going to pray for you, first, that you would come to Jesus for salvation, for eternal rest for your souls, that you’ll have a future with Jesus. We’ll pray for you first. Then, I’m going to pray for those of you that have already given your lives to Jesus, but you’ve been doing some “take backs.” You know who you are. When I pray for you, I want you to go back to Jesus and give Him whatever that is that you’re worried about. That’s how I’m going to pray.

Let’s pray. Lord, first of all, I pray for that one that came in today and would say I’m a sinner. I’ve been living my life by my own strength. I’ve never surrendered my life to to Jesus, but today I’m ready. I believe in You, Jesus. I believe You died on the cross for my sins. I believe You were raised from the grave on the third day and that You live today. Would You come and forgive me of my sins and live in me and save me? Forgive me. I want to be a child of God. I want to follow you. I answer your invitation. I am coming to You right now, Lord Jesus. If you’re praying that prayer right now, believing, He will save you and He will make you His own. You can trust Him. Others are here today and you’ve received the Lord, but you’ve been doing life on your own. You’ve been doing “take backs.” Holy Spirit, would you show us right now? Just put the image in our minds. What are you worried about right now? Just focus on that thing. What’s causing your soul to be heavy right now to be burdened? What’s worrying you? Why are you carrying that right now? Just give it to the Lord, say, ‘Lord, I’m sorry I took this back. It’s too heavy for me. I give it to you afresh. Give me rest in Jesus’ name. Amen.