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Love God with your Soul · The Rhett Palmer Show

0:24
SPEAKER_02: And we're blessed today to have Mike Bagby, biblical historian, who's been going to Israel for many, many years and has been a missionary with his wife and four children for over 40 years.
0:34
SPEAKER_02: Good morning, or good day, I should say.
0:36
SPEAKER_02: Good day, Mike Bagby.
0:37
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
0:38
SPEAKER_00: Well, Red, nice being with you.
0:40
SPEAKER_00: And just folks, I want you to know Rhett's one of the most um, I would say has the opportunity to uh interview and know many of our contemporary American historical figures.
0:52
SPEAKER_00: Uh Rhett has a great perspective on American culture and what's going on now.
0:57
SPEAKER_00: And so we're gonna actually try to take a few moments and combine those two uh fields of uh endeavor to bring forth some maybe some real riches, some gold nuggets from some scriptures that maybe you haven't thought too much about.
1:13
SPEAKER_02: And I can talk about my friendship with Abraham Lincoln.
1:19
SPEAKER_00: And mine with uh Alexander Hamilton, Benjamin Franklin.
1:24
SPEAKER_00: We're not quite that old.
1:27
SPEAKER_00: So uh we started uh uh earlier, a few sessions ago, talking about when Jesus was asked and someone was testing him, and this is recorded in Matthew chapter 22.
1:41
SPEAKER_00: What is the greatest commandment in the law?
1:44
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus said, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, with all your mind.
1:52
SPEAKER_00: And the second, uh this is the great and foremost commandment, and the second is like it you shall love your neighbor as yourself.
2:01
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and on these two commandments, Jesus says, depends the whole law and the prophets.
2:07
SPEAKER_02: And who is our neighbor?
2:08
SPEAKER_02: Is it the guy living next door to us, or does it extend beyond that?
2:12
SPEAKER_00: Well, that's was asked as Luke records the story, um, this encounter.
2:18
SPEAKER_00: Someone wishing to justify himself says, Who is my neighbor?
2:22
SPEAKER_00: And then Jesus tells the story of the good Samaritan.
2:26
SPEAKER_00: Oh the man who was robbed uh on his way down from Jerusalem down to Jericho, and the priest went by him, their Levite went by him, left him laying there.
2:36
SPEAKER_00: But the Samaritan, which is uh a low-class uh person of that region, not polite company, uh is the one who took who cleaned his wounds, took him to an inn, gave the innkeeper some money to feed him, and said, When I come back, I'll pay you whatever uh you need for this care.
2:56
SPEAKER_00: You know, you know, I wrote I wrote a song that Jesus Jesus turned to the guy and said, Which which man was his neighbor?
3:04
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
3:05
SPEAKER_00: Okay, and the answer uh was the one who actually uh had a need and helped him.
3:10
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
3:11
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus is really defining um love your neighbor as yourself.
3:17
SPEAKER_00: Neighbor is anyone in around you that actually needs help, that's your neighbor.
3:23
SPEAKER_00: And whether it's somebody that lives next door to you or someone you find lying alongside uh a well-traveled road.
3:30
SPEAKER_02: Matter of fact, maybe later for today's broadcast, uh Noah might be able to look up that song that I recorded up at Bill Gaither's studio.
3:38
SPEAKER_02: It's a short little two-minute song called The Samaritan Man, and it tells the entire story, and the the audience might like to hear that.
3:45
SPEAKER_02: I don't know if you can find that, uh Noah, but anyway, so let's move forward with today.
3:50
SPEAKER_00: Yes, let's do.
3:52
SPEAKER_00: Uh so why was uh uh the these commandments the greatest commandments?
3:58
SPEAKER_00: And we talked about this uh I think earlier this week, Rhett.
4:03
SPEAKER_00: And we concluded that since these relationships have one thing in common, or excuse me, these commandments, they're all about relationship.
4:12
SPEAKER_00: And so God is uh uh a creator that desires relationship with us, and that's why he created us and his plan as opposed to religious activity, right?
4:24
SPEAKER_00: Right.
4:25
SPEAKER_00: So uh the what's coming up in uh our world history is going to be Jesus coming back, setting the earth back in its original uh pristine condition and reigning and living here, and we will be reigning with him.
4:42
SPEAKER_00: So basically, this relationship is the whole reason for creation of this earth.
4:48
SPEAKER_00: And so the greatest two commandments that uh God gives us are about relationships relationships with him, relationships with the people around us.
4:56
SPEAKER_00: And as my wife Laura often says, there's only uh two things we can take with us into the next life relationship with God and relationship with our brothers and sisters.
5:09
SPEAKER_00: So Amen.
5:10
SPEAKER_00: So we jumped into what does it actually mean to love God with all your heart?
5:17
SPEAKER_00: And the uh Hebrew word is Lebab, which uh translates inner man, the source of life of the inner person.
5:24
SPEAKER_00: It has a focus on feelings, on thoughts, uh, it has a focus on emotions.
5:30
SPEAKER_00: So we had a discussion about how uh anytime we're in the presence of God, it evokes an i emotional response.
5:38
SPEAKER_00: And so the book of Psalms, which was the song book for the Hebrew people, there's seven words in the Hebrew language that get translated praise.
5:49
SPEAKER_00: And three of them have to do with emotional responses to God's presence.
5:55
SPEAKER_00: The first one is the word halal, which means to act clamorously foolish.
6:00
SPEAKER_00: Uh it's a uh word that we use to describe what happens when our favorite team just scores the winning touchdown or the winning basket.
6:09
SPEAKER_00: We start acting clamorously foolish.
6:13
SPEAKER_00: Um another uh word is the word Shabbok, which means uh to praise the Lord with a shout and a loud voice.
6:21
SPEAKER_00: And then there's that word tehila, which means a praise from your spirit.
6:25
SPEAKER_00: It's pouring out your heart before God, it's letting you him know how you feel.
6:31
SPEAKER_00: Hold on, taking notes.
6:32
SPEAKER_00: What's the number two?
6:33
SPEAKER_00: What's the number two word?
6:34
SPEAKER_00: Shabak, S-H A B A C H.
6:37
SPEAKER_00: The first one is halal h.
6:40
SPEAKER_00: We get the word hallelujah from that.
6:44
SPEAKER_00: And finally, Tehila, T E H I L L T E H What?
6:52
SPEAKER_00: T E H I L L A H.
6:54
SPEAKER_00: Tehila.
6:56
SPEAKER_00: Well, these are wonderful.
6:57
SPEAKER_02: Psalm 22 is Halal, Shabak, and T Tehilah.
7:01
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
7:02
SPEAKER_00: Um Psalm 22, for example, says, uh, yet you are holy, the Tehilam of Israel surround your throne.
7:10
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
7:11
SPEAKER_00: So this is uh thanks.
7:14
SPEAKER_00: This is loving God with our emotions by expressing our emotions with Him.
7:20
SPEAKER_00: We also discussed uh what happens when we don't relieve uh release emotions, that that also is something that's very harmful for us.
7:31
SPEAKER_00: Things like unforgiveness, uh things like offenses, we don't let them go.
7:36
SPEAKER_00: And there's such a big uh uh part of God's word to us that tells us we must forgive people who offend us.
7:44
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus even says in the Sermon on the Mount that if you don't forgive those people that have offended you and sinned against you, God will not forgive you.
7:54
SPEAKER_00: So uh that was our first discussion, and we uh left with some uh suggestions for loving God with our hearts of taking opportunity to praise and worship God, uh entering into praise at times when you don't feel like it, uh think of someone you're not forgiving, take that emotion to the Lord, uh let God help you release that, verbally speak out to the Lord that you're forgiving, and then if you have opportunity, find that person and uh tell them, you know.
8:25
SPEAKER_02: Let me ask you this because you're experienced in this.
8:28
SPEAKER_02: Does that mean because when I go to church on a Sunday and I'm going to take the uh for those of us who remembrance of Jesus with the body and blood of Jesus, do you think it's uh uh to uh doesn't he say to get yourself right with God before you do this in remembrance of him?
8:43
SPEAKER_02: And others, so I try to be broken and contrite.
8:46
SPEAKER_02: And that person who maybe I uh had an uh whatever it was, a uh car wreck with that week.
8:51
SPEAKER_02: I think, oh, I forgive that person so I might be forgiven too.
8:56
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, uh in fact, one of my friends, Jane McAndrews, she's uh an Uber driver that uh a Lyft driver actually that attends a number of our Bible studies, as we were discussing this, she actually referred to that, Rhett.
9:09
SPEAKER_00: She said, you know, I try to take communion with the olive cup that I got at the garden tomb in Jerusalem each morning, and that gives me a chance to forgive others because Paul tells us not to take communion if you're holding on to unforgiveness.
9:25
SPEAKER_00: So I I thought that was brilliant.
9:27
SPEAKER_00: I even wrote it down in my notes, and uh, but yeah, you're absolutely right.
9:33
SPEAKER_00: So let's move on to the second uh part, loving God with our soul.
9:40
SPEAKER_00: The word soul is the word nefish, it's uh it also carries the meaning of inner self, the essence of life.
9:47
SPEAKER_00: It includes thinking, feeling, and most importantly, willing and desiring.
9:54
SPEAKER_00: Uh the nefish often refers to this part of the body, your throat.
9:58
SPEAKER_00: It's where things enter and exit your body.
10:02
SPEAKER_00: And I believe that our nefish is really the center of our ethics, it's the source of our obedience to God's commands.
10:11
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus links our relationship with him to our willingness to obey the commands that he gives us.
10:20
SPEAKER_00: Uh John 14, he says, If you love me, obey my commandments.
10:26
SPEAKER_00: Uh why has obedience to God always been such a big issue, Rhett?
10:31
SPEAKER_00: Uh why do you think that is?
10:33
SPEAKER_02: I wonder, it's well, it shows loyalty.
10:36
SPEAKER_00: Okay, I think you hit the nail on the head.
10:39
SPEAKER_00: It shows where our relationship with God is.
10:42
SPEAKER_00: It shows where our heart is, it shows uh God who we think He is.
10:48
SPEAKER_00: Uh as a father, I could always tell when raising my four children what our level of relationship was if they were willing to trust me and obey the things that I told them to do.
11:02
SPEAKER_00: Uh I traveled a lot with my kids.
11:04
SPEAKER_00: We took them to uh remote corners of Central America, we took them to uh uh Israel and lived there.
11:11
SPEAKER_00: Oftentimes we would walk into a jewelry store and the owners would look in horror at four young children walking in, but we always made them hold their hands behind their backs and not touch anything.
11:25
SPEAKER_00: Because Israeli kids are very undisciplined.
11:28
SPEAKER_00: In Israel, you end up in the army, and everyone thinks, well, our kids don't get disciplined there.
11:33
SPEAKER_02: Now, wait a second.
11:35
SPEAKER_02: See, half of my family's Jewish, and you're right.
11:37
SPEAKER_02: The two boys, Eli and Jonah, are always I mean, Barbara wouldn't even want to go into a to a restaurant with them because they just would run around crazy.
11:45
SPEAKER_02: Why is that with the Jews?
11:47
SPEAKER_02: They seem to really spoil the children, but in the end, it seems like those children end up being uh more scholarly, too.
11:53
SPEAKER_02: So there's something to this of letting them have that freedom.
11:57
SPEAKER_00: Well, I just think if you're an Israeli, you're going to the army, you're going to learn discipline there.
12:03
SPEAKER_02: Oh, yeah.
12:04
SPEAKER_00: But for God, it's always been uh obedience has always been kind of the signpost of our relationship with him.
12:11
SPEAKER_02: And let me ask you one other thing.
12:12
SPEAKER_02: Uh, you as a dad.
12:13
SPEAKER_02: No, I'm not a dad.
12:14
SPEAKER_02: You are.
12:16
SPEAKER_02: I've often thought, I happen to, I thank God that I really loved my parents to the point where if they were getting off out of a carriage and there was a mud puddle there, I would have gotten on my four knees, my four legs, my hands and legs, so they could step on my back.
12:29
SPEAKER_02: Now, only me, God, only me, no, it's the truth.
12:32
SPEAKER_02: And I'm I'm blessed to have had that.
12:33
SPEAKER_02: So, what I want to know is what I always thought.
12:35
SPEAKER_02: I thought later on in life, I thought, well, God says, honor thy mother and thy father, that thy life might be belong.
12:40
SPEAKER_02: Don't you think if you're God, the father, you're going to observe how Mike Bagby's children treat you because that's how he knows they're going to treat him ultimately.
12:51
SPEAKER_00: I think it's uh this obedience thing runs deep in our character and gets manifested in so many ways.
12:58
SPEAKER_00: And I believe that God uh looks at us and sees what our relationship with him based on the level of our obedience, you know.
13:06
SPEAKER_00: I mean, the word is used 360 times in the Bible.
13:10
SPEAKER_00: Uh that's what word is that?
13:12
SPEAKER_00: The word obey.
13:14
SPEAKER_00: Uh it's almost one uh usage for every day of the year.
13:18
SPEAKER_00: Um but see the obedience that the Lord really wants from us is comes from the essence of our being.
13:25
SPEAKER_00: It goes beyond our emotion, it's deeper than our intellect.
13:29
SPEAKER_00: It's it's a relationship of trust.
13:33
SPEAKER_00: Uh, as a young child, uh children, uh, each of my children, I took them out to 4th Street, which is at the end of our cul-de-sac.
13:40
SPEAKER_00: There's a white line there at this at the edge of the road.
13:43
SPEAKER_00: I said, do not cross this white line.
13:47
SPEAKER_00: And they would look at me and go, why, poppy?
13:49
SPEAKER_00: And I say, and usually there was a frog that was smashed on the road.
13:54
SPEAKER_00: I'd say, because you're gonna look like a smashed frog.
13:57
SPEAKER_00: One time there was a dead cat that had been run over.
14:01
SPEAKER_00: And uh my kids saw that and they went, oh, okay.
14:05
SPEAKER_02: That's a great object lesson.
14:07
SPEAKER_00: It is, but when they were teenagers, I noticed that they stopped thinking that I had all the wisdom in the world and they stopped trusting me.
14:15
SPEAKER_00: And uh so uh I think it's it is an indicator of the level of uh our relationship.
14:23
SPEAKER_00: C.S.
14:24
SPEAKER_00: Lewis uh wrote this.
14:26
SPEAKER_00: He said, There are two types of people, those who say to God, Thy will be done, and those to whom God says, All right, have it your way.
14:38
SPEAKER_00: And there have been times in my life where I know God is telling me to do one thing, but I want to have it my way, and usually not so good things result from my disobedience, okay?
14:51
SPEAKER_02: And I might add this too.
14:53
SPEAKER_02: Sometimes you say obedience, and of course, the first thing that at least a guy like me thinks of, oh, that means the structure and the absolute discipline.
15:01
SPEAKER_02: Whereas now Jesus says, if you say you love the father whom you have not seen, and don't love the brother whom you have seen, ye are a liar and no truth dwells in you.
15:14
SPEAKER_02: So Jesus takes it to the real heart of the relationship issue.
15:18
SPEAKER_00: Of course.
15:18
SPEAKER_00: And that's why it's one of the uh part of the greatest commandment, Red.
15:23
SPEAKER_00: It's all about relationships, and this comes from the heart.
15:28
SPEAKER_00: Um, there's a scene in uh 1 Samuel where uh the prophet Samuel tells King Saul to go and smite uh the uh Amalekites and kill them all, and just uh don't keep any of the goats or the sheep, just guess they're an abomination, just clean them out.
15:49
SPEAKER_00: But when he arrives at the scene of the battle, he uh sees that she sheep have goats have been kept, and he finds out that the king, Og, is his name, is still alive.
16:00
SPEAKER_00: And Samuel uh asks, Saul, uh, did you uh obey what I told you to do?
16:06
SPEAKER_00: And Saul said, Well, yes, I did, everything you told me to do.
16:10
SPEAKER_00: And and Samuel quotes the famous line, Well, what is the bleeding of the sheep that I hear?
16:17
SPEAKER_00: And he goes on to say to Saul, what's more pleasing to the Lord, your burnt offerings and sacrifices, or your obedience to his voice?
16:25
SPEAKER_00: Obedience is far better than sacrifice.
16:28
SPEAKER_00: Listening to him is much better than offering the fat of rams.
16:32
SPEAKER_00: So sacrificing uh is symboli symbolizes our religious behavior.
16:38
SPEAKER_00: What God wants is something in our heart.
16:41
SPEAKER_00: He uh He wants us to understand that our relationship with Him often is compounded or increased or dissipated by our level of obedience.
16:55
SPEAKER_02: Um that's hmm, yeah.
16:57
SPEAKER_02: So even like with Jesus now, Jesus is our sacrifice continually, right?
17:02
SPEAKER_02: But he would rather instead of us totally, some Christians get married and born again to Jesus, like myself and you, but then they go off and they do things that are not of godly nature.
17:14
SPEAKER_02: Right.
17:14
SPEAKER_02: And he said, you know, you you have Jesus, but no, pull it in.
17:18
SPEAKER_02: You're supposed to be holy as I am holy, correct?
17:21
SPEAKER_00: Well, and this is the thing that uh I think in a discussion that Jesus had with his disciples the night before his crucifixion, I think he really brings it home as to uh our level of obedience and the benefits in the relationship.
17:38
SPEAKER_00: For example, yeah, I'm gonna read a few verses here from John chapter 14 and 15.
17:45
SPEAKER_00: And we're gonna read uh a passage and then we're gonna notice there's a principle in there that is refers directly to what we're talking about.
17:55
SPEAKER_00: If you love me, obey my commandments, and I will ask the Father, and he will give you another counselor who will never leave you.
18:02
SPEAKER_00: I think Jesus is linking our obedience to our level of the presence of the Holy Spirit in our life.
18:09
SPEAKER_00: If you love me, obey my commandments, and I will ask the Father, and he'll give you another counselor, the Holy Spirit.
18:15
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
18:15
SPEAKER_00: Then he goes on to say, Those who obey my commandments are the ones who love me, and because they love me, my father will love them, and I will love them, and I will reveal myself to each one of them.
18:30
SPEAKER_00: So here I th I see this my obedience is going to result in a greater revelation to the person of who Jesus is to me.
18:40
SPEAKER_00: I I'm I'm gonna understand him more.
18:42
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna I'm gonna get a better picture of how I interact with him and and who he is in my life.
18:49
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus.
18:50
SPEAKER_02: Let me ask you this.
18:51
SPEAKER_02: It says in the scriptures, Jesus said, when you pray and fast.
18:55
SPEAKER_02: He didn't say if you pray and fast, but when.
18:59
SPEAKER_02: Now it's been a few years since I fasted.
19:01
SPEAKER_02: And so I'm concerned about this that maybe it's it's not a pleasant thing to do, but he says, not if you pray and fast, but when you pray and fast.
19:09
SPEAKER_02: What do you think about that, Mike Bagby?
19:11
SPEAKER_00: Well, I think he's probably telling you right now, Rhett, that maybe there's a time of fasting that's coming up for you.
19:20
SPEAKER_00: I taught I taught on the Sermon on the Mount when I was in Maui a few months ago, and I got to that particular verse that you are speaking about.
19:30
SPEAKER_00: And the next day I realized, just like you, I had not fasted in years.
19:35
SPEAKER_00: And guess what happened, Rhett?
19:37
SPEAKER_00: What?
19:38
SPEAKER_00: I very naturally over the next month began a discipline where I didn't eat anything until dinner time.
19:47
SPEAKER_00: I was fasting all day.
19:48
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
19:49
SPEAKER_00: And it came very naturally.
19:51
SPEAKER_00: I because I I asked the Lord about it, and he told me, yes, this is something that I want you to do.
20:00
SPEAKER_00: And I also had some issues going on in my own personal life that I needed some divine intervention on, but I decided, okay, I'm gonna fast today.
20:11
SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna eat anything.
20:13
SPEAKER_00: And then Laura said, You ready to have dinner?
20:15
SPEAKER_00: And I went, Okay.
20:16
SPEAKER_00: And that became my habit literally for the next month.
20:20
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
20:21
SPEAKER_00: So I would say that God is probably calling Did you get the breakthrough you wanted?
20:26
SPEAKER_00: Not yet, but I realized uh that uh food was not going to control me anymore, and uh now there are other areas of life that aren't going to control me either.
20:37
SPEAKER_00: So I think he's probably telling you to uh uh consider a uh period of uh fasting in some fashion, okay?
20:49
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so uh Jesus continues this conversation in John 14, and he says in verse 23, All who love me will do what I say.
21:00
SPEAKER_00: My father will love them, and we will come to them and live with them.
21:04
SPEAKER_00: Anyone who doesn't love me will not do what I say.
21:07
SPEAKER_00: And remember, my words are not my own.
21:10
SPEAKER_00: This message is from the Father who sent me.
21:13
SPEAKER_00: So what I see here, Rhett, is our obedience leads to God's presence in our daily life.
21:21
SPEAKER_00: And I think you and I are both are in agreement that this is the the vital thing that we need to get through the day with all the stuff that's gets thrown at us financial things, health things, uh business things, uh traffic things.
21:37
SPEAKER_00: Uh we need wisdom, we need God's presence.
21:40
SPEAKER_00: And so uh I just can't really survive the day without experiencing his presence.
21:47
SPEAKER_00: And he does that when uh he answers prayers, when suddenly situations change, when our desires change.
21:55
SPEAKER_00: It's uh the presence of God is uh something that I Treasure, a really treasure.
22:02
SPEAKER_00: And so when I'm disobedient, when I say no to God, I sense I don't sense his presence as much or even at all.
22:13
SPEAKER_00: So when I'm walking with him, you know, this Jesus is uh is uh uh using the word abide in me and as I abide in you uh in this passage here, uh abiding is being one with one in heart, soul, mind, and will.
22:31
SPEAKER_00: And so this abiding is the thing that I'm striving to do, is abiding in him.
22:37
SPEAKER_00: Uh he goes on in uh John 15, he says, Yes, I'm the vine, you are the branches.
22:42
SPEAKER_00: Those who abide in me and I in them will produce much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.
22:49
SPEAKER_00: Anyone who parts from me is thrown away like a useless branch, and whither such branches are gathered in a pile to be burned.
22:57
SPEAKER_00: But if you abide in me and my words abide in you, you may ask any requests you like, and it will be granted.
23:06
SPEAKER_00: My true disciples produce much fruit, this brings great glory to my Father.
23:12
SPEAKER_00: So I think our abiding in Christ and our obedience to the leading of the Holy Spirit is going to result in the bearing of much fruit in our life.
23:22
SPEAKER_00: I'm talking about disciples who are brought into the kingdom, who are uh helped and encouraged uh along the path, that we help them in their understanding of God's purposes and will for their life, that we actually are seeing people come to know the Lord, that we see uh prosperity in our own personal life as uh we see uh less and less habitual behavior, more and more godly behavior, uh love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, and self-control, these fruits of the Spirit that are mentioned in Galatians chapter five.
24:02
SPEAKER_00: So I think our obedience to God uh really uh causes these things to happen.
24:09
SPEAKER_02: And check this, and this is a new revelation over the past few years, and that is you I've been thinking a lot about suffering, and I got great consolation by reading the scriptures where uh Jesus was a man acquainted with many sorrows, but it is also written in the scriptures Jesus learned obedience by the things which he suffered.
24:31
SPEAKER_02: Now, most people aren't gonna like this message, but I'm I'm sorry with the pride of man.
24:36
SPEAKER_02: Uh of course, first and foremost, I'm talking about Go ahead and say it.
24:39
SPEAKER_02: Just say it.
24:42
SPEAKER_02: We're gonna suffer.
24:43
SPEAKER_00: Well, suffering is definitely what will happen to us in the kingdom of God.
24:48
SPEAKER_00: Uh uh Paul writes, uh, there's in uh there's many tri through many tribulations, people will come into the kingdom.
24:57
SPEAKER_02: Including you and I, as we progress.
24:59
SPEAKER_02: We're in school forever while we're on earth under in Jesus' school, right?
25:03
SPEAKER_02: Rabbi Jesus.
25:04
SPEAKER_00: Well, James says, count in all joy when you encounter various trials, because the uh this will produce uh fruit in your life and you will be complete and lacking in nothing.
25:15
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
25:16
SPEAKER_00: Yeah so this is character building comes usually under fire.
25:21
SPEAKER_02: And you know, it's I because I really felt the move of the spirit here, and I wanted that I should say that to somebody who's going to be listening to this or viewing this, because uh for years no one was everybody was saying, you know, jump up and down and praise the Lord, and if you're close to Jesus, everything's gonna be hunky-dory and you're gonna prosper and no problems.
25:39
SPEAKER_02: And later on in life, I actually believe, as crazy as this sounds, and I think Michael, you might agree with me, is the suffering actually has been a gift to make me a better man of God.
25:51
SPEAKER_00: Of course it is, and that's why wilderness experiences.
25:55
SPEAKER_00: Um, that word uh wilderness in the Hebrew has the understanding of hearing God speak.
26:03
SPEAKER_00: The word wilderness is connected to God speaking.
26:07
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus went off to the wilderness to hear his heavenly father speak.
26:12
SPEAKER_00: When we're in the wilderness, and that would be financials, relational, when we're just feel uh like we're all alone, that's when God usually shows up.
26:24
SPEAKER_00: And that it's interesting how those words are connected.
26:27
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
26:29
SPEAKER_00: So uh he goes on to say uh verse nine, I've loved you even as the Father has loved you.
26:36
SPEAKER_00: Abide in my love.
26:38
SPEAKER_00: When you obey me, you abide in my love, just as I obey my father and abide in his love.
26:46
SPEAKER_00: I've told you this so that you will be filled with my joy.
26:50
SPEAKER_00: Yes, your joy will overflow.
26:53
SPEAKER_00: So, Rhett, what I see here is a connection between my obedience and having joy in my daily life.
27:02
SPEAKER_00: And this is something that I really strive for is I don't want to be burdened by my worries.
27:07
SPEAKER_00: I got a lot of worries right now, a lot of things that can uh relationally, financially, business, ministry things.
27:14
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna have problems in this world.
27:16
SPEAKER_00: In this world, Jesus says, you will have problems, but don't worry, I've overcome the world.
27:21
SPEAKER_00: And so if I just do the things that the Lord has told me to do, Jesus says, I'm gonna have greater joy in this life.
27:33
SPEAKER_00: Finally, he says this, you're my friends if you obey me.
27:37
SPEAKER_00: No longer I call you servants because the master doesn't confide in his servants.
27:42
SPEAKER_00: Now you're my friends, since I've told you everything the Father has told me.
27:47
SPEAKER_00: So here is finally another benefit of obedience is our friendship with Jesus, that we can actually call him friend.
27:57
SPEAKER_02: So you know what's good about Jesus, too, is that he lived.
28:00
SPEAKER_02: We don't understand this, how he could be at once with the Father and yet be 100% man, too.
28:06
SPEAKER_02: Is that you know you feel alone.
28:08
SPEAKER_02: I go, like, uh, for instance, like it bothers me that I didn't have children.
28:11
SPEAKER_02: And then the Lord can say, Well, Rhett, I didn't have any earthly children, yet maybe you're going to have spiritual children that you know not of.
28:19
SPEAKER_02: Uh, I mean, but he's been here.
28:21
SPEAKER_02: Whatever road, if you've been betrayed, Jesus has been there.
28:25
SPEAKER_02: Have you been hurt?
28:26
SPEAKER_02: Jesus has been there.
28:28
SPEAKER_00: Well, this is right.
28:28
SPEAKER_00: And this is kind of the next little area of uh loving God with our soul, because a lot of times we have been hurt by people.
28:37
SPEAKER_00: We've had uh teachers tell us you're really stupid, or maybe uncles or aunts, or maybe uh our parents said you're never gonna amount to anything.
28:47
SPEAKER_00: And words of frustration.
28:50
SPEAKER_00: But some we don't forget those words, and those are wounds that sometimes that just have not healed.
28:57
SPEAKER_00: And I think that uh Paul uh excuse me, that David writes in Psalm 41, he says, Be gracious to me, O Lord, heal my soul, for I have sinned against you.
29:11
SPEAKER_00: And this word that David uses, the word Rafa, that uh is uh literally means to restore of health, to make fresh, uh to no longer be salty or poisonous.
29:24
SPEAKER_00: And I love this last part of the the word to repair or bring back to a prior preferable condition.
29:31
SPEAKER_02: You see, how do you how do you use this word Rafa though?
29:33
SPEAKER_02: What do you mean?
29:34
SPEAKER_00: But he is we're asking God to heal me.
29:36
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I I had a coach in uh in high school that said some things to me that were simply not true that I remembered for a long time.
29:45
SPEAKER_00: And it was a hurt in my soul, and it was like every time uh uh something similar to that happened, I felt this scab on a wound kind of got knocked off, and we had uh I you have uh reactions that are not normal.
30:01
SPEAKER_00: A lot of us have been hurt through th words spoken to us through experiences, and we still respond in an irrational manner when these things come up again, and that's a clue to me that maybe I have an unhealed uh wound.
30:17
SPEAKER_00: And I so I'm asking God, heal my wounds.
30:19
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I've been in relationships uh where things have been spoken against me that weren't true, uh, where I've been emotionally hurt, and God is the one that can heal these things.
30:32
SPEAKER_00: Now, David, who suffered a lot of rejection and a lot of persecution, right?
30:38
SPEAKER_00: I mean, Saul was after him to kill him.
30:41
SPEAKER_00: He says, The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
30:45
SPEAKER_00: He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he restores my soul.
30:53
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
30:54
SPEAKER_02: So for his namesake.
30:56
SPEAKER_00: Right.
30:56
SPEAKER_00: So this is this is part of, I think, loving God with our soul is we allow him to heal our soul, that we bring to him hurts.
31:06
SPEAKER_00: And whenever we find ourselves being triggered by something, by a person saying something to us or a situation, understand that that's probably an indication that there's something that needs to be healed in your soul, and uh God is the ultimate healer.
31:24
SPEAKER_02: Well, you know, God spoke the world into existence, and we are made in his image.
31:28
SPEAKER_02: So, you know, we can curse or bless.
31:30
SPEAKER_02: When I was younger, I actually had a stepfather from the age of six to twelve that always told me my mouth would get me in trouble one day.
31:38
SPEAKER_02: My mouth would get me in trouble.
31:40
SPEAKER_02: For 50 years, I heard that every day of my life until a counselor said, Oh, is that the same mouth that got you interviews with presidents and kings and queens and superstars and all those other sudden authors?
31:54
SPEAKER_02: I went, he said, it was like he popped that balloon, and I've never heard that curse in my ear since.
31:59
SPEAKER_00: Okay, you and you had an you had a wound that just was not healed, and finally in that moment it got healed.
32:06
SPEAKER_00: So let's finish up here with some suggestions for loving God with our soul.
32:12
SPEAKER_00: Number one, start obeying God in the small choices of life, in the small decisions.
32:19
SPEAKER_00: Uh, when I'm telling that story of how big that fish was that I caught, do I say it was just, you know, it was just an eight-inch little fish, or do I say it was a 14-inch uh snapper, okay?
32:33
SPEAKER_00: The small choices, start obeying him in the small choices of life.
32:37
SPEAKER_00: When he says, you can eat this, but don't eat this, okay?
32:41
SPEAKER_00: Some of us that have uh dietary issues, you know, he's constantly speaking to us about what we should eat and what we shouldn't.
32:50
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
32:51
SPEAKER_00: So if we start obeying God in the small choices of life, it's much easier to uh obey him in the big decisions.
32:59
SPEAKER_00: So let's take time to discover what God's opinion is on these all these matters of life, okay?
33:05
SPEAKER_00: That's number one.
33:06
SPEAKER_00: Second is when I find myself in areas of disobedience, of behavior that goes against the will of God, I start asking, Lord, help me, please help me.
33:17
SPEAKER_00: I start actually praying for myself.
33:20
SPEAKER_00: And then sometimes it's helpful to make uh a person, a brother, sister, or a wife or a husband, uh, let them in on what God's dealing with you in your life, what the current issues are.
33:31
SPEAKER_00: Remember, Christianity is a program of divine change.
33:35
SPEAKER_00: He's changing us from the old person we were into this new supernatural person, a member of his family.
33:42
SPEAKER_00: Number four, ask the Lord to show you any specific wounds in your life that have not healed.
33:48
SPEAKER_00: And I just will take a moment right now.
33:50
SPEAKER_00: Lord, to any of the listeners, would you please show them are there any wounds of things spoken to them, offenses that have not been healed?
33:59
SPEAKER_00: Show them those things.
34:02
SPEAKER_00: Lord, I pray that you would just touch them and heal those wounds and let them know that you are for them and all things are possible.
34:10
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
34:12
SPEAKER_00: So the last one is notice when you react to a situation strangely.
34:18
SPEAKER_00: Ask God to show you any possible wounds to your soul that need his divine healing.
34:24
SPEAKER_00: Now, loving God with our heart, emotional, releasing them healthily and releasing offenses, loving God with our souls, being obedient to him and the small and big choices of life, and letting him come in and take those offenses and those wounds and heal them.
34:43
SPEAKER_00: And in our next session, we're gonna ask, how do we love God with our minds?
34:48
SPEAKER_02: Okay, we're gonna take a break.
34:50
SPEAKER_02: You want to play the song?