Genesis 2:7 (NIV84) 7 The Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and the man became a living being (nephesh, soul).
We are not a body with a soul; we are a soul with a body.
Jeremiah 1:5 (NIV84)5“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart"
Psalm 139:13–14 (NIV84) 13 "For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb."
What is the state of your soul?
Psalm 51:10 (NIV84)10 "Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me."
#alivewesleyanchurch
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Genesis 2:7 (NIV84) 7 The Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and the man became a living being (nephesh, soul).
We are not a body with a soul; we are a soul with a body.
Jeremiah 1:5 (NIV84)5“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart"
Psalm 139:13–14 (NIV84) 13 "For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb."
What is the state of your soul?
Psalm 51:10 (NIV84)10 "Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me."
#alivewesleyanchurch
For the latest sermons, stories, & training: https://alivewesleyan.com/sermons/
STAY CONNECTED:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ALIVEWesleyan
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ALIVEwesleyan
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alivewesleyan/
Website: https://alivewesleyan.com
Newsletter: https://alivewesleyan.info/weeklyupdate
Uh, just kind of want to jump into one thing, man, if you, um, are looking for something to do in 2019 and you're kind of excited about the year. We have just completed a full cycle of a bit of a ministry called reengage in our church and we just launched this past year. It's a ministry that's focused on strengthening marriages and um, it's been a burden of mine has been growing for years and God has provided leadership. In fact, I issued out personal invitations of people asking if they'd be willing to be involved in this ministry. And so we've just completed a full cycle. So if you're headed into this year and you say, man, honey, it'd be a good thing to focus on our marriage. Maybe strengthen some things maybe, or maybe your marriage is in kind of on a kind of white water rapid kind of big rock sort of situation right now. This should be a great thing for you to plug into. And also to get to know some people in our church. You do have to be married. It's not like a place for you to meet somebody. I mean, this is kind of like you should, should go in there with a partner or some kind, you know, and, and, and be part of that. But if you would like to be part of that, I understand you can sign up@alivewestern.info and I think you go to the grow tab and then there's a place to sign for reengage. You should consider that. That'd be an awesome thing. So I'm here. Here's what I want to encourage your heart with right out of the gate. Apparently I'm only about eight percent of people will actually keep their new year's resolutions. So why try, right? I mean, those of you that are going to bust the curve, go ahead. We don't care. We're not even going to try, right? How about this one? By February, 80 percent of our resolutions will fail. Yay. I'm so glad I came to church today. This is exciting. So if in fact the sociologist actually have a name for this, um, this idea that we all focus on physical things, especially at the beginning of the year. And so we all say, well, we're going to go to the jam. We're gonna exercise windows kind of things. And if you've ever been part of a gym year round, you've noticed that like January you can't get on a machine or you can't find the weights or whatever. But then February it's all back to normal, right? I mean, sociologists call this the fitness cliff is actually a term for this where people start the year strong and by February near off the wagon so to speak. So we start the year with kind of like, we want to lose weight, start exercising, eat healthier, grow hair. I don't know how to get organized, drink last, quit smoking, whatever it is you want to, you want to do. And all these things are really good. Certainly caring for our bodies is a valuable area that we should all sort of focus on. And that's a good thing, but to treat only the body is to sort of set up for ourselves to kind of set up only physical goals is really just to try to treat symptoms in my, in, in my opinion. And in other words, if we detox the body, do some kind of juice cleanse or whatever people do. I've never done one. I just read about it, you know, it just Kinda just cleanse for the body. But we failed to detox the soul. There were only actually addressing part of the issues that we're carrying around or that we're wrestling with. And this, this, this detoxing
Speaker 2:soul, is what this whole series is going to try to focus on. Let me see if I can explain my position on this from scripture. So if we go back to the very beginning of scripture, these are like the first two chapters in the Bible, and this is what this is what the scripture say, Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. And the man became a living being that words in a fashion which is actually means soul,
Speaker 1:not just part of your long enough for this, because I think this verse contains one of the most neglected identity markers of the modern church and maybe of humanity, and I know it's a strong statement, so you guys need to form your opinion to see whether or not you agree with me on this. I think this may contain with the most neglected parts respectfully of our lives. Even as a live community. You didn't even if you're just visiting, maybe this is something that you say, you know that's probably true for me, and here's, here's the. Here's what I'm trying to say. We aren't actually a body with a soul. We are first a soul that happens to have a body. Now that is completely upside down thinking than what the majority of us probably brought into this place because we are constantly under pressured to make our bodies better, want them to look better, smell better, perform better, whatever we're going to do to make them better, and consequently our bodies can become the focus too. So much of what we do and do not do, not only that, but when it comes to what makes us most happy in this life, the bodies is the first place we visit. Our bodies will make us happy. If it feels good to our bodies, we should do it. If we don't like our bodies, we should change it, starve it, cleanse it, whatever, and we focus on the physical parts of our lives and then we're surprised when our relationships are going to pot or our inner worlds are getting thrown into chaos or were struggling with all these emotional battles or people don't like us or our hearts are becoming callista and we're like, man, I don't get it. I'm in the best shape of my life. Let scripture goes to these great lengths, I think to explain that our bodies are actually connected to our souls, and it's not your body. That's the eternal part of you. It's actually the soul that's the eternal part of you. Check this out, Jeremiah. God speaking to Jeremiah, and he says this before I formed you, so what that means is before Tom got all up in terrible shape, condition, whatever happened here before this was formed in the womb, I knew you. How about how about them apples? So before you were sitting there in your physical area, temple, whatever it is we got going on, God knew you before there was a body before you were born. I set you apart and then look at with a song you created my inmost being. Cut Your inmost being. Yeah, that's your soul people, for you created my soul. You Knit me together in my mother's womb. Now these verses that are all through scripture, you can find them yourself, but when we die, our body dies, but our soul lives somewhere forever. That's why in our culture, even though your body might not be amazing or even your body might actually have a challenge to it, you still have incredible value because we have souls. You follow, we have a soul, and so if you. You're by what I've said so far, I think it leads to a very important question that everybody ought to have an answer to, and the way I would ask the question is this, what is the state of your soul? What is the state condition of your soul? Now, of course, part of the answer that you might think has to do with salvation. Oh, Tom's going to do salvation. Mercy, justice. I am to come to the altar. I know. I know that and that's important. I mean, have you accepted Jesus as your savior? Have you asked God to forgive you for your sin? All that kind of stuff is important to get King David, who had like a major flare up in his life of negativity and actually send he, he summarized what God could do to a soul this way. He said, create in me a pure heart. Renew a steadfast spirit within me. This is an important step when caring for the soul does God, has god saved you. That's an important thing, but it's not what I want to go after in this series. What I'd like for us to talk about in this series is so much salvation. I want to try to dig a little deeper or something a little more nuance because if we just did salvation, it sounds horrible and I'm probably not going to have a good attorney because I just said that, but if we just focus on salvation, we're gonna, miss what might have with the message might be for us in scripture, so I want to chase down questions like these two believers. Is your soul healthy? Is your soul healthier? Let's say this is your soul heavy or anxious. Is that part of your soul? And today the one I want to go after because I'm such an expert at is, is your soul restless? So how is your soul doing? What is the state of your soul? The condition of your soul? Yeah, Tom. Jesus has me, but man, I got a heavy heart today, man, my man, I. I'm anxious. How's it doing now? I'm. I have to tell you, I. I know what it is to have a restless soul and maybe you do too. I know what it is to be searching all the time and it never really finding I know what it is to be interested in everything, but then satisfied by nothing and then we try to find rest for our bodies, but we never really find rest for our souls. We're anxious over cancer. We're driven or we're worried or concerned or in our minds just don't seem to know how to shut down and so our souls don't. Don't shut down and when we try to rest at night internally, our soul doesn't rest. If that's you, then you know what it is to have a restless soul. If it's you, let me encourage you with these words if you're kind of. I'm not the only one here, sort of idea. The wisest dude that's ever lived. Put these words on paper and ecclesiastes. He says, what does it profit a person to kind of get for all the toil and anxious striving with which the person labors under the sun all of their days, his work, his pain, his grief, even at night, the mind does not rest. Smartest dude that ever lived. Do you ever find your mind keeps going at night? I had one of these last night. It was so funny. I was laying in bed laughing when my mind wasn't, wasn't sleeping in my soul, wasn't arrest because I knew I was going to talk to you people about soul rest. I mean I was up at 2:00. I said, well, I'll go get some cough medicine Cuchina we can't drink. So you gotta to go get some cough medicine. You know, I tried that for awhile. You do what you gotta do you know, just kidding man. I did a little cough medicine and put it on ice. You know what man, I didn't want to kind of stuff, you know, I just kidding about that. And so I tossed and turned and you know, I'd get one problem solved and kind of go to sleep and not think, oh another problem. And then I would wake up for that problem. I mean all night long, just flipped over and over and have different problems in my life. So let me ask you something. Have you ever found yourself wound up so much inside of you that it's difficult to calm down your soul? Have you ever found yourself to be with people you love and you can't shut your mind or your soul down in? It rarely finds deep breaths. How about this mass confession? By raising your hands? If you have ever had a restless soul as best as I had described, would you just be wanting to raise your hand with me across the room? Thank you. Thank you people. If you've ever tried cough medicine, would you be willing to just kind of have you tried something else that cough medicine has in it, but you know that's. Yeah, so where in the world we're supposed to find rest for our souls? No. David said in Psalm, he said this way, check this out. My soul finds rest in God alone. My salvation comes from him. I almost. This wasn't
Speaker 2:in there because you probably expected me as a pastor to tell you that, but that's exactly what scripture teaches right there. So I'm not trying to get all preacher on you. I'm trying to show brothers and sister. How we do life, but apparently my soul and your soul respectfully, the eternal part of who we are, who I am in essence, get this only from that word
Speaker 1:finds rest in God alone. All the things that I have tried to find rest for my soul. Scripture says, only finds rest in God and this is massive. If you believe, if you're a believer, if you have a relationship, you consider your relationship with God to be good or maybe not the best. I suggest this first might hold key to a better quality of life because whatever this versus saying, what is saying is this ready? There is no person. There is no thing. There is no experience. There is no vacation, there is no dream home. There is no paycheck or no amount of money. There is no partner. There is no sexual conquest. There is no job. There is no level of achievement. There is no certificate on your wall. There is no nothing according to scripture, no thing outside of God that can bring rest to the essence of who I am. My soul finds rest in God alone, and if you don't believe this part, you'll never understand what Jesus said because Jesus with them wouldn't say this. In the context of this verse, Jesus would say, all y'all come to me, you who are weary and burdened, and I Jesus, take my yoke upon you and learn from me, Ryan, gentle and humble in heart, and you check this out. This is Jesus speaking. So like if he said it, it's true. You got to be real. You. Maybe you just might. It's possible. What Jesus said is you absolutely will find rest for your soul and save a lot of money on cough syrup. So where did we find true west? Well, scripture says it's only found in God and God alone.
Speaker 3:So as someone who knows what it is to have a restless night, the next question I would ask scripture is this
Speaker 2:how?
Speaker 3:Okay. I believe God what you're saying. I don't have any trouble there. What I want to know is how. How do I find that rest? I mean, I'm in a room full of people who I did a mass confession. We all said, you know, I've had a restless night or two in my life. I mean, the scripture has my attention at this point, but how do I find that's that stinking rest? And so what I would like to do is kind of just share a bit of Tom Journey and this year journey. And so, um, and, and, and try to share some practical things if you want to take this journey with me as I start 2019. Um, and now this is please. This isn't some recipe. Anybody tries to put a relationship with Jesus in a recipe, turn and run. This isn't a recipe. You don't take two of these things this afternoon and called me in the morning. Say It's a miracle I've been rested on of forever. It is not going to happen, but these are practices. There are disciplines, if you will. They're a little bit like sleep. They're necessary patterns in one's life that we should consider to find rest for our soul.
Speaker 2:Are you with me?
Speaker 3:So let me give you the first one. See if I can clear these things up. Be still before God. If you're having a restless soul, start by being still before God. The psalmist said, be still and know that I am God. For some of you, why you're here today is you need to know it's not your name that's in scripture. It's not be still and know Tom, that you are God. It's actually be still and know Tom, that you're actually not God. That's my position. That's what I do not. You notice what the psalmist doesn't say. The psalmist doesn't say, be busy and know that I am God. The psalmist does it. Say, be productive and know that I am God. Be worried and know that I am God. Be a professional, anxious person and know that I am God. Hey, be all revved up on the insight and help me carry the travails of the world. Know that I am God. He doesn't even say, be active and know that I am God. I'm reading this book by Fatties Barnum by called real courage and he's got several dollars. Real identity, real love, real mercy, real courage. If you're interested in any of these, I know they're at the end of the sermon notes. I also understand it was released on facebook sometime this morning. You can go click on it, see what, see what it is, but basically that is barnum writes in these 50 day devotions,
Speaker 1:takes you like three minutes to read one of them and um, and he'll have a scripture piece in there and then he'll tell some story of some pastoral care thing has been working with fascinating, amazing writer. And so anyway, I'm reading fattiest Barnum's book, real courage, and started reading it in December. So he tells about this time when he's counseling a pastor who is broken, burned out, he's got a health issue going on and actually had their home got broken in. I mean, just a whole bunch of stuff. And in this moment the pastor reaches out to daddy's Barnum and says, I'm losing it. I'm losing it. He's emotional, he's discouraged, he's desperate, he's depressed. And so, so barnum helps in caring for this guy and he gets them connected to a health person, gets them connected to a counselor. And then Barnum, his pastor and Kinda guides him through all these different battles he's going through and and so he tells all these stories about these times of interacting with this pastor and many of the conversations the two of them had were laced with tiers and prayers and kind of a compilation of both of those. One day barnum calls this pastor up and it was like someone had flipped a switch. Barnum writes this pastor don from being desperate and broken and discouraged to saying I'm fine. Everything's fine. Overnight,
Speaker 3:overnight, you know what happened?
Speaker 1:You know what happened to create that switch? Such a strong change. The pastor went back to work, the past went back to work. He shoved everything down that was broken in his soul and he went back to the environment where he felt he was in control and he can be most productive. He went from being still
Speaker 3:to being active. He left the school of being in reenrolled in school and doing if you will. And as a result, his soul remained empty. In fact, his soul remained neglected and something happened. But I'm not going to tell you what in case you decide to read the book, it's not just that passage story, isn't it? Kind of this pastor story. Maybe your story too, when the soul is kind of just get back to work. Sometimes I read verses like this and I think, man, that's impossible. I can't do that. How in the world he switched to quiet yourself. King David said this, King David, by the way, who had some things on his plate probably. He said, I have stilled and quieted my soul. Sweat, sweat. Nobody likes you,
Speaker 1:King David. I mean what wasn't the world? And then he gives you a picture like a weaned child with his mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me.
Speaker 3:So I share that to simply say this, I don't know that I've attained this, but I do believe it's possible to quiet our souls. So I have a challenge for your consideration because I'm challenging myself with it. Here's the challenge. You ready for 2019? Practice being still before God for five minutes. Just be still before God for only five minutes. Let me give you a little thing that I've learned so far this year. Don't use the counter on your phone to try to be still before God
Speaker 1:because you're sitting there trying to be still before God and all of a sudden, oh, so and so got a puppy. That's awesome.
Speaker 3:Don't use the phone.
Speaker 1:Use The sun. That's what I do. No, I'm just kidding. Just five minutes. So, so get out there. These were these things around our risks before they got all big and obnoxious. They were called just a simple watch and so like you could do it and now you have to try something else, but five minutes and just focus on. Now this is hard for me as you all might imagine. I mean, I'm a doer and being is sometimes tough for me. I like to fix, be productive. My experience with this isn't always great. I, I hit the stopwatch, I'm going for like, seems like forever.
Speaker 4:God. Hello? Oh, how long has it been?
Speaker 1:Twenty seconds or you got to be kidding me. You know, like a God, this is so boring. You know what I mean? Kind of have those kinds of conversations, why do I have to do this? And then you think, ah, one of the score of the game was, you know, here's, you're going to have those moments. I wonder if the weather is going to be maybe for you, it'd be like, oh, baby's diaper needs changing and Alondra needs to be done, or a car needs to be washed or you got to go grocery store shopping. Oh, someone probably did something amazing on facebook that will change my life forever. You know, all those things.
Speaker 3:But I'm trying. So if you can identify with being restless in your soul, one of the disciplines I'd encourage you with is this daily spend five minutes being still before God. Just five minutes. Not when you're driving in your car. That's not it. Not when you're sitting somewhere at your house. That's not it either.
Speaker 1:There it goes. It's Kinda like a wave because all these usually ladies will come and tell me, well, my husband gets 5 million. Oh, I get it. I get it and I don't too much information. I really don't want to know no more cough medicine on Saturday night because I run down rabbit trails. I shouldn't do right here in this moment right now,
Speaker 3:but just five minutes. It's just God's just still just God's not God and driving garden cooking. Just God. Five minutes, just five minutes. Be still for the sole purpose of knowing him and nothing else. Don't ask him for anything. Just five minutes to know God. That's the first practice. The second one I would recommend for us to consider this year if we're looking to kind of help arrest the soul. Is this. Wait for God. Are you pulling these out of your hat, Tom? No, actually it's tied together and scripture rather conveniently look at this one. Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him. My accountability partner used to challenge me years ago, but how he'd get into a waiting position and he'd wait. He'd picture like a body of water in front of him and he would try to wait to the point where the lake was calm. We used to joke because I get a body of water in front of me and it's Whitewater rapids and it's never calm. You know, psalmist says, be still and wait patiently. I am really good at being patient. As long as it happens in a hurry. Have you, have you noticed that? Nothing that we truly value in our lives happens in a hurry. Relationships with our friends, spouse, children. You know what I've learned about lease since she's not in the service. She is terrible at communication, especially when I'm very busy. Too busy to pay attention. What's what is learning to relate to our creator? What if that involves waiting? Andy Stanley, he's the pastor of North Point Church in Atlanta to a megachurch. I mean, it's a. it's an influencer. This guy man, he speaks dozens of times a week. He was asked one time, he said, how? How do you stay really close to God and I. I brought what he said. Listen to this. He said, I'll wake up early every day so I don't have to worry about the time and I just open up God's word and I start to read his word and I waited for something to speak to me and then when it speaks to me, I just stop and I meditate on what God said. He said, sometimes it might be just one verse. I read it one verse and I'm done. That's it. Sometimes it's a chapter. Sometimes it might be five chapters, but I'll just keep reading and I wait until God speaks to me and then I just let his word be planted deep within my soul. Come on, isn't there part of you that says, when that be awesome, if that was happening in my life, isn't there another part of you that says, where does he find the time for that? You just wait scriptures. One Psalm, 1:30 says this, I wait for the Lord King David. I wait for the Lord. My soul waits and in his word, I put my hope. My soul waits for the Lord more than watchman. Wait for the morning. Had to look that image up just so we're clear on what's happening here and in the Old Testament, the watchman will be in the walls of the city waiting and make sure the city was safe throughout the night, so will be watching the walls and then it would wait for their son to come up when their shift would be over and they know every day that the sun will come up because since the beginning of time the sun has actually come up and so they know what's going to come up and so they say that God is going to show up. I just wait just like the sun's going to come up. God is going to show up if we wait, so be still five minutes. Be Still, Oh my soul before the Lord, and then wait patiently on him. If you have a restless soul, like I struggle with one, one more practice and I'll, I'll, I'll stop, reflect on the goodness of God. You would think that would be a no brainer, but what I found is that oftentimes when I go to God, I'd go to God with things I need things I'd like for him to fix as if like God may not be aware that the packers missed the playoffs, and so say, Lord, do you not know that this is happening? You know, or do you not know what's going on at work, the situation, here's what I would do to fix it, and God's like, Oh, I never thought of that. Thanks Tom. I'm gonna. Write that one down. Just in case I forget later reflecting on God's goodness for me means learning to think about all that God has already done, not what I long for God to do. Psalm 1:16, be at rest once more. O my soul. It's all through the pages of scripture. For the Lord has been good to you, even you. Whatever circumstances in your life, my life, he's been good to you. I'm gonna. Tell you how in a minute for you, oh Lord, look at this. Have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears and my feet from stumbling. Remember what the Lord has done, and if you struggle with it, just allow me to kind of share
Speaker 1:with you where my mind's been going is such started the year. If you are a follower of Jesus is primarily who we're talking to this morning. If you're a follower of Jesus, can I just remind you that he's forgiven you? You're a new creation in Christ. The old has gone and the new has come and that should bring rest to your soul. Can I remind you that God doesn't actually hold your sins against you, but they're actually cast forever into the sea of forgetfulness. That should calm your soul. So when you go to God, you don't need to remind him of your sin. He's already cashed in the sea of forgetfulness. Well, we need to do is receive the fact that he's forgot your sin. Maybe you should do. If Satan can't make us bad, Satan's going to make us busy. That's what I'm convinced of, that what's going to happen, and so he knows that will. That will result in Seoul neglect because he's seen it in all of our lives and some of our souls are just to Dadgum busy. This is a season of business in my personal life, all kinds of the demands and the expectations and the added responsibilities, and I've discovered I have to still my soul. I have to wait for the Lord and I'm working to purposefully and intentionally stop and quiet my soul. I'm trying to learn this, to sit down and be still and I waited for the Lord and are just reflect on what he has done, not what I want him to do, and I think about the names of God or I think about his provisions in his goodness are all quote scripture. Any that comes to mind or I'll read scripture or remember all the prayers that God has answered throughout my life and I'll think about his faithfulness and I'll remember that he's delivered my soul from death to reflect on who he is. He's he's the Alpha and Omega. He's the beginning and the end is the first and the last. What that means is he's completion. He's everything. He's got it. Nothing's going to surprise them in your life or in my life. He's never going to be taken back. Oh, I didn't see that coming. That never happens. When your God, he's the one who was in his to come. He's been here. He, he's here, and one day he comes again. We follow Jesus who is the lamb of God and he's the lion of Judah. He is the soon returning, conquering king of kings and Lord of Lords. We serve a god who is so big that is working in all things to bring about good, even those crappy things in our lives that we wish had never happened or wished weren't part of our lives and we have been called pizza. Do do that in all of our lives were called according to his purpose and he says, you will be blessed coming in and blessed going out by God. He's the one that declares, I've got a plan for you. You personally, I've got this plan for you, dude, do that. I've got a plan and the plan that I have for you is to prosper you and bless you not to harm you, but to give you a hope and a future. Think on those things and when you meditate on him and you're worried about tomorrow, suddenly you
Speaker 3:realize he's already in tomorrow. He had you. Yesterday's got you today, so let's stop fretting over tomorrow. It's probably going to happen whether we're worried about it or not. Let's let God take over and have control and because he was faithful yesterday, you know he's going to be faithful tomorrow. Just like the watchman on the wall and your soul can be at rest. As we learn to reflect on God and to be still and to wait.
Speaker 2:Listen,
Speaker 3:God doesn't desire for the apple of his eye to be all riled up inside all the time and by the help and the power and the presence of God, we all can live productive, fruitful, and yes, even busy life because you are very gifted, competent people and yet become and your soul healthy and your soul healed in your soul hole, in your soul. You know what might tell is when I know my soul's getting a fever, it's my reactions to the people I love the most. That's what I know. Reactions to people I love the most. I had some of that going on this morning, just being honest with you. Now, it wasn't a total jerk, but I was paid a little jerk. It depends who you ask. Just short answers. Do you know what I'm saying? Just kind of like how you feeling? Good.
Speaker 2:What shirt you want to wear. I don't care,
Speaker 3:Tom. You're trip. I know I'm working through. It's what I'm telling you people, but I've learned that in the people I love the most, my beautiful spouse and the beautiful children or our staff that I live out of, part of my soul that's not at rest, but when I am at rest, my soul produces fruit of the spirit. Love and joy and peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, self control. You do what you want with it, but you are not a body with a soul. You're actually a soul
Speaker 2:that happens to have a body. That's who you are,
Speaker 3:so are you caring for who you are? Jesus, thank you for your goodness to us. Thank you for giving this old boy some help. As I think about finding rest for my soul. Thank you that I'm in a room full of folks that had enough trust that we could all say, yeah, I kind of get the rest of the sole idea so it makes me aware that I'm not alone. The things that keep me awake at night, maybe keeping my friends in this room, awake at night, friends watching along online and Lord, I guess the thing that
Speaker 2:hmm
Speaker 3:overwhelms me in this moment is you want my soul to have a rest. Those pastoral eyes of you are looking at across this congregation and you're landing on heart saying, hey, hey, I got this. You can have rest. Be Still. Wait, reflect how good I have been to you. You can have rest.
Speaker 2:Okay,
Speaker 3:so it's not like in your heart for any of us to live all riled up and anxious and well, what's in your heart is for us to have deep rest. So Laura is. I started this year, these people in this room that I'll be doing life with. May this be the year that we find rest for our souls and your name. Amen.