Testimonies: Melinda, Tom, Rochelle, myself
Soul Care pt. 4
Opening Video Illustration: Soul Surfer – The Bethany Hamilton Story
Quotes on Power point by Bethany:
“I believe in Jesus Christ, and I believe He gave me the passion and determination to continue
surfing. You fall off the horse, and you get back on. I had to go for it.” Bethany Hamilton
Series: Acts Too – Soul Care
Thesis: You soul needs to be healthy and whole if you want a successful life. But to do this
requires soul searching on our part as well as soul care. Soul care is our responsibility so we
need to make sure that we do it regularly.
“How is your soul moving into this new year?”
Jesus said in Matthew 16:26: "What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet
forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?"
Jesus said in Matthew 22:37: Jesus replied, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and
with all your soul and with all your mind."
Jesus emphasized the importance of your soul not just in eternity but it's health in the here and
now! Your eternal and spiritual success this year depends on the condition of your soul!
John Orberg states this about our souls, "If your soul is healthy, no external circumstance can
destroy your life. If your soul is unhealthy, no external circumstance can redeem your life (Pg
40, Soul Keeping).
Definition of the soul:
My definition: The soul reflects the sum of your Spirit, Soul and Body as a whole being. It is the
link between spirit and body and is the operating system of your life. It encompasses your
mind, your will, your decision making process, your perceptions, your emotions, your spirit,
your feelings, your physical appetites, your addictions, your desires and it is the control center
in your life and it will always impact your daily life. It has been defined as "life" in the Bible in
certain passages and as that which longs after God or for a substitute for God like and idol. You
don't have a soul you are a soul!
Ortberg: The soul is what integrates separate functions into a single, organic, whole creature.
That's why the search for harmony and integration and connectedness is a "soul" function.The
soul is the deepest dimension of our existence. It captures the reality of life before God in a way
that the word self does not. Think of the difference between the words soul-ish and
selfish.
I add Spirit which refers more generally to the power or energy that comes from the Holy
Spirit the connection point with God if it is not connected with God it is connected to evil
spirits. The soul is more intertwined with the Spirit and the body and lies at the core of our
mindset and our will. But a soul connected to God and His Spirit is a soul that really has "Life"
Hebrews 4:12-13: For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged
sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts
and attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is
uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.
God knows the condition of our souls! He sees them and He knows them!
Question: What does the Bible say about our souls?
Ortberg: The Bible speaks of the soul often, although more recent translations are much more
likely to substitute words like "life" instead of using the word "soul". One of the most striking and
misunderstood statements about the soul in the Bible is Jesus' observation. What does it profit
a person if they gain the whole world but lose their soul?I always used to think this meant it
does no good to get lot of money and pleasure if you end up going to hell! But that's not what
Jesus is saying. If a soul is broken or mal-functioning, our wills and our values and actual
behavior and our desires and our facial expressions and our secret thoughts will constantly be
at war with each other. We will be incapable of soul satisfaction, let alone a meaningful or
truly good life. Jesus was not telling people to commit to the right religion in order to get their
afterlife taken care of. He was making a brilliantly diagnostic observation about the nature of
human life. The above from http://jonathanmerritt.religionnews.com/2014/05/29/johnortberg-shares-every-soul-needs/#sthash.ROIlaGnI.dpuf
Purpose of the Series:
Acts Too: The book of Acts is filled with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in Chapter 2 on the
first disciples and signifies the birth of the church. The churches early years are filled with
miracles and hardships! Its filled with salvations and rejections of Jesus! It's filled with people
embracing Jesus and others fighting against Jesus and his disciples. It's filled with hope and
death. It reveals the struggle between good and evil in this world. It highlights the good and the
bad of church. But most importantly it shows what can happen in the church if the souls in the
church are healthy and connected with the Holy Spirit! It did not matter that they were rejected
and persecuted, chased out of towns, stoned, abused and imprisoned. We read story after
story of the disciples sharing the good news to receive beatings and arrests but yet even while
imprisoned they can still sing and praise the Lord. It was because they had healthy souls which
were connected and empowered by the Holy Spirit. We want a church filled with Christians like
Acts too! A church filled with people who are being the church and have healthy souls no
matter what is happening around them or too them.
My vision or prayer for 2015 is to be a part of a church like Acts Too were souls that are fired up
for the Kingdom and hungry for a move of the Holy Spirit. A church were souls are healthy and
whole and following the direction of the Holy Spirit for their lives. But for us to get their will
require us to do some soul searching and soul care!
Question: “What does the soul need to be healthy and whole this year?”
Highlight points:
1. Our souls need a connection to its creator God or it will find another god (idol) to
connect too.
2. The soul needs God’s presence to be healthy and whole!
3. Your soul needs rest
4. Your soul needs to be free
5. Your soul needs gratitude!
6. You are responsible for your soul!
Sermon 4: Soul Care in dark times
Scripture Passages:
Acts 7:54-8:3: The Stoning of Stephen and the persecution of the church by Saul
54When they heard this, they were furious and gnashed their teeth at him.
55But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus
standing at the right hand of God. Look,he said, "I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God."
57At this they covered their ears and, yelling at the top of their voices, they all rushed at him,
58dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. Meanwhile, the witnesses laid their
clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul. While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed,
"Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!'
60Then he fell on his knees and cried out, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them." When he
had said this, he fell asleep.
1And Saul was there, giving approval to his death. On that day a great persecution broke out
against the church at Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea
and Samaria.
2Godly men buried Stephen and mourned deeply for him.
3But Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off men and
women and put them in prison.
Acts 12:1-18: Peter’s imprisonment, execution of James
1It was about this time that King Herod arrested some who belonged to the church, intending
to persecute them.
2He had James, the brother of John, put to death with the sword.
3When he saw that this pleased the Jews, he proceeded to seize Peter also. This happened
during the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
4After arresting him, he put him in prison, handing him over to be guarded by four squads of
four soldiers each. Herod intended to bring him out for public trial after the Passover.
5So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him.
6The night before Herod was to bring him to trial, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers,
bound with two chains, and sentries stood guard at the entrance.
7Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the
side and woke him up "Quick, get up!" he said, and the chains fell off Peter's wrists.
Acts 16:16-40: Paul and Silas beaten and imprisoned
19When the owners of the slave girl realized that their hope of making money was gone, they
seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to face the authorities.
They brought them before the magistrates and said, "These men are Jews, and are throwing
our city into an uproar
21by advocating customs unlawful for us Romans to accept or practice."
22The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas, and the magistrates ordered them to
be stripped and beaten.
23After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was
commanded to guard them carefully.
24Upon receiving such orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the
stocks.
25About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other
prisoners were listening to them.
26Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were
shaken! At once all the prison doors flew open, and everybody's chains came loose!
27The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was
about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped.
But Paul shouted, "Don't harm yourself! We are all here!"
29The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas.
30He then brought them out and asked, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?"
Introduction:
Today I want to talk about the Dark Night of the Soul and soul care in the midst of it. As we read
through and highlighted the above passages of Scripture we see people of God going through
dark times of the soul. In other words times that are hard and filled with death, persecution,
stress, fear, questioning of where is God? We see people struggling through grief at the loss of
friends and loved ones. Some people have called this the dark times of the soul when it is faced
with much suffering and very little answers from God.
John Ortberg states, "If you ask people who don't believe in God why they don't, the number
one reason will be suffering. If you ask people who believe in God when they grew most
spiritually, the number one answer will be suffering (Soul Keeping: Caring for the Most
Important Part of You (p. 179).
Suffering and hardship is a reality of this life on earth. Everyone at some point in their life will
face dark times of the soul. The question rises up on "How will you handle it?" How will you
respond to God? "How will you respond to others?"
John Ortberg adds, "Because the soul is the deepest expression of the person, the soul is the
place of greatest pain. We do not speak of the dark night of the mind, or the will, or even the
spirit. Only the soul. The dark night of the soul. The phrase comes from a brilliant Carmelite
monk named John who lived in Spain in the sixteenth century. (Soul Keeping: Caring for the
Most Important Part of You (p. 181).
These times will come as we see they came to the Acts New Testament Church and to the
apostles.
John Ortberg adds, "But there will come a time when God will bid them to grow deeper! He will
remove the previous consolation of the soul in order to teach it virtue... In the dark night,
my prayers feel like they reach no higher than the ceiling. (Although, Dallas often said, if we
truly understand how radically present God is in our world, reaching the ceiling is more than
high enough.) In the dark night, the Bible I read turns to ashes. In the dark night, words and
books and songs that once spoke to my soul now leave me cold;The practices that once fed my
soul feed it no more. John of the Cross, writing from his prison cell, says in the dark night the
soul is pained but not hopeless." God's love is not content to leave us in our weakness, and for
this reason he takes us into a dark night. He weans us from all of the pleasures by giving us dry
times and inward darkness . . . . No soul will ever grow deep in the spiritual life unless God
works passively in that soul by means of the dark night. We have a hard time with the dark
night. Our churches are practical places, and we generally tell people the answer to any
spiritual problem is more: more prayer, more serving, more giving, more trying (Soul Keeping:
Caring For the Most Important Part of You (pp. 182-183).
The dark night of the soul. This phenomenon describes a malady that the greatest of Christians
have suffered from time to time. It was the malady that provoked David to soak his pillow with
tears! It was the malady that earned for Jeremiah the title "The Weeping Prophet". It was
the malady that so afflicted Martin Luther that his melancholy threatened to destroy him. This
is no ordinary fit of depression, but it is a depression that is linked to a crisis of faith, a crisis
that comes when one senses the absence of God or gives rise to a feeling of abandonment by
Him.
Spiritual and soul depression is real and can be acute. We ask how a person of faith could
experience such spiritual lows, but whatever provokes it does not take away from its reality.
Scripture States:
"We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed, perplexed, but not driven to despair,
persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the
death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies."
This passage indicates the limits of depression that we experience. The depression may be
profound, but it is not permanent, nor is it fatal. Notice that the apostle Paul describes our
condition in a variety of ways. He says that we are afflicted, perplexed, persecuted, and struck
down! These are powerful images that describe the conflict that Christians must endure, but in
every place that he describes this phenomenon, he describes at the same time its limits.
Afflicted, but not crushed. Perplexed, but not in despair. Persecuted, but not forsaken. Struck
down, but not destroyed. So we have this pressure to bear, but the pressure, though it is
severe, does not crush us. From: Got questions.com
T.S. - So what do we do or how do we respond in these dark times? Let’s look at the example
of the apostles in Acts:
I. We do nothing. We wait on God and stay faithful.
a. It's important in these moments that we wait on God with faith.
i. Moore states, "During the dark night there is no choice but to surrender
control, give in to unknowing, and stop and listen to whatever signals of
wisdom might come along. It's a time of enforced retreat and perhaps
unwilling withdrawal. The dark night is more than a learning experience;
it's a profound initiation into a realm that nothing in the culture, so
preoccupied with external concerns and material success, prepares you
for, Thomas Moore, Dark Nights of the Soul: A Guide to Finding Your
Way Through Life's Ordeals
b. I heard a great sermon on this from Brennan during spiritual emphasis week
were he walked the students through the life of Job and how he stayed focused
on God through the whole ordeal he went through.
i. Job 1
1. His oxen and donkeys were taken by the Sabeans and workers all
killed.
2. His herds of sheep were destroyed by fire along with the
shepherds.
3. His camels were raided by the Chaldeans and carried off and all
the servants who tended them were killed.
4. His children were at a party and a tornado came and destroyed
the house and they all died when it collapsed.
ii. How did Job respond to these horrible news, to the dark night of the
soul in his life?
1. Job 1:20-22:
a. 20 At this, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his
head. Then he fell to the ground in worship 21 and said:
"Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked I will
depart. The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; may
the name of the LORD be praised. In all this, Job did
not sin by charging God with wrongdoing.
b. How would you have responded in this horrific moment?
i. Your response in dark times is a reflection of the
health and wholeness of your soul.
2. Later his friends come along and after hearing his aching soul in
Job 3-6, they decide to speak:
a. Eliphaz is the blamer and shamer of Job.
i. Job you sinned against God this is why this is
happening to you!
ii. Job, Blessed is the man whom God corrects,
so do not despise the discipline of the Almighty!
b. Bildad is the answer-man Job 8:
i. Job your children sinned that is why they died.
ii. Job suck it up and do the following program and
God will forgive you and restore you.
iii. Job 8:1-6
c. Zophar- The redneck and defender of God Job 11:1-6
i. He beats Job up more with condemnation and
judgment claiming he is defending God.
ii. John Ortberg states, "Modern churches with linear
models of spiritual growth and large-scale models
for devotional life rarely speak of or help people
with the dark night. We are uncomfortable with it
because we want to do something, because we
sell formulas and steps and programs, and the dark
night of the soul is not our program. The dark night
is for souls that learn to wait." Ortberg, John (2014-
04-22). Soul Keeping: Caring For the Most
Important Part of You (p. 185). Zondervan. Kindle
Edition.
d. Job stayed true to God even when his friends were beating
him up more and creating more suffering for his soul.
i. His own wife said "Curse God and die!"
e. But in Job it says these words, "Then the Lord answered
Job out of the storm."
i. Job remained faithful to God in the midst of
disaster and a dark night of the soul.
f. But he came through it with faith and truth:
i. Job 42: 7-12
1. He came through and it says in verse 12
"The Lord blessed the latter part of Job's life
more than the first."
2. Why because he persevered and stayed
faithful to God!
c. The dark times of the soul a lot of times are when you are dealing with loss and
the grief that accompanies it;
i. Many people are often unprepared for grief and therefore their souls
suffer more.
1. The Psalms did not shy away from grief and the darkness of the
soul.
a. Psalm 6:2- "My bones are in agony. My soul is in anguish.
How long, O Lord, how long?"
ii. Grief is a normal cycle of life (The following from Grief Share session1):
1. Grief is not a sign of weakness.
a. Jesus grieved he wept for Lazarus and the grief he saw in
his sisters.
b. John 11:35
c. Zig Ziglar stated, "If there were no love there'd be no
grief."
2. Pretending your okay is not helpful for getting through this dark night of
the soul.
a. Zig Ziglar stated, "When youڇre grieving that's not the time
to be brave or strong, you need to let it show!"
3. Give yourself permission to grieve.
4. Expect you pain to come and go.
5. Remember the ABC's of Grief!
a. Always be true to yourself
b. Believe you will make it and believe in God's Word.
c. Remember people care and communicate your needs.
i. You are not alone!
d. John states, "We have this hope as an anchor of the soul, firm and secure.
HEBREWS 6: 19: The soul is a ship that needs an anchor." Ortberg, John (2014-
04-22). Soul Keeping: Caring For the Most Important Part of You (p. 189).
Zondervan. Kindle Edition.
i. He adds, "We all have two worlds, an outer world that is visible and
public and obvious, and an inner world that may be chaotic and dark or
may be gloriously beautiful. In the end, the outer world fades. We are left
with the inner world. It is what we will take with us. I am an unceasing
spiritual being with an eternal destiny in God's glorious universe. "Do you
regret anything? someone asked him, "I regret the time I have wasted,
he answered. Huh? If there is any human being on the planet who has
not wasted time, it is Dallas. (Soul Keeping: Caring For the Most
Important Part of You (p. 190).
T.S. – When we find ourselves in a dark time of the soul we need to wait on God. But we must
also remember that we are not God and therefore we need to press into His arms.
II. We remember that we are not God.
a. We hold on in faith and trust in God.
i. We understand that in dark times we need God's Spirit and help. We
cannot change the situation so we accept and don't fight against it!
b. We ask for help.
i. We ask others to pray for us.
ii. We seek counsel from others, but not like what Job received!
iii. Bethany Hamilton, "God will give us the strength to be able to handle
things. I mean, you can try to do it on your own, and sometimes you can
pull off some stuff, but in the long run, it's much easier with Him by our
side."
iv. Bethany Hamilton: "We all need that extra friend outside of our
immediate family to talk about that extra stuff you wouldn't normally talk
to your parents about."
c. We do less.
i. We accept the fact that nothing I can do can change this dark time! It
has to be lifted by the Holy Spirit.
d. We let go of our need to hurry through it.
i. John Ortberg states, "The truth is when you are going through dark times
- You can't run in the dark! But I think, maybe, this time I know what he
means, Redeem the time, the apostle Paul said, "because the days are
evil." The language is exactly right, I heard Dallas say once. The reason
our souls hunger so is that the life we could be living so far exceeds our
strangest dreams, I remember a phrase I had heard from him years
ago, about how all of us lost souls allow ourselves to live in worry and
anger and self-importance and pettiness when life with God is all around
us: Your time is already in the pawn shop of lost souls. I think Dallas
wanted his time back."
ii. He makes this observation about a soul going through the dark and being
redeemed. I watched him and thought of what a redeemed soul can be:
1. To be able to say yes or no without anxiety or duplicity
2. To speak with confidence and honesty
3. To be willing to disappoint anybody, yet ready to bless everybody
4. To have a mind filled with more noble thoughts than could ever
be spoken
5. To share without thinking
6. To see without judging
7. To be so genuinely humble that each person I see would be an
object of wonder
8. To love God
a. The above from Ortberg, John (2014-04-22). Soul Keeping:
Caring For the Most Important Part of You (p. 191).
Zondervan. Kindle Edition.
e. We come to the understanding that God does not owe us! We owe Him!
i. Matt Slick stated, "One of the best things I learned in Seminary was when
a professor wrote on the board "There is a God. You are not Him." Boy,
has that proven true! Over the years I've discovered how unwise,
inexperienced, and ignorant I really am. Also, I've noticed that God
doesn't consult me with making decisions about running the universe.
And, if that isn't humiliating enough, He doesn't take any of my
suggestions about how things ought to be in my own life. I don't
understand why God doesn't take my suggestions. But, it comes down to
one thing: There is a God. I am not Him!"
1. He adds, "There is a God. You are not Him," is a delightful piece
of truth. Think about it. Who created the universe? Was it the
infinite and wise God, or was it me... or you? I have not heard
whether if God consulted any of you about how universe should
be run. If He has, please let me know. But as it stands now, He
doesn't need our help."
2. Above from https://carm.org/christianity/devotions/there-godyou-are-not-him
ii. Matt adds, "If you truly understand that there is a God and that you are
not Him, then you can begin to relinquish your own rights, hopes, desires,
and wants and submit them to His will."
iii. Quote: "The apostle Paul in writing to the Philippians gives them the
admonition to be "anxious for nothing" telling them that the cure for
anxiety and dark times of the soul is found on one's knees, that it is the
peace of God that calms our spirit and dissipates anxiety. Again, we can
be anxious and nervous and worried without finally submitting to
ultimate despair."
1. From http://www.gotquestions.org/dark-nightsoul.html#ixzz3PUBdfVUc
T.S. – We need to realize we are not God and that we need help in the midst of this dark
time but in the midst of the dark time of your soul look for and expect God’s comfort.
III. Look for God’s Comfort
a. Psalm 62:5-6: Find rest, O my soul, in God alone, my hope comes from him, He
alone is my rock and my salvation, he is my fortress, I will not be shaken.
i. Grief and going through a dark time can cloud your vision and keep you
from seeing God's way of comforting."
ii. Dr. Paul Tripp says in order to receive God's comfort, you have to place
yourself where His comfort is. Find it in prayer and the Bible, in time
spent with Christians, in His creation, under the mentoring of a mature
Christian, in God, pleasing music, in quiet time spent with God. In a
Christian support group with others.
1. From Grief Share page 9
b. In these moments we need to talk to God like the psalmist did.
i. Psalm 34:18: The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those
who are crushed in spirit.
ii. Psalm 31:9: Be merciful to me, for I am in distress, my eyes grow weak
with sorrow, my soul and my body with grief.
iii. Psalm 34:19: A righteous man may have many troubles, but the Lord
delivers him from them all.
iv. Psalm 139:12: Even the darkness will not be dark to you (God); the night
will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.
v. Psalm 42:8: By day the Lord directs his love, at night his song is with me a prayer to the God of my life.
c. Write a letter to God about your dark time or your grief like the Psalmist did.
d. Bethany Hamilton : Strive to find things to be thankful for, and just look for the
good in who you are!.
e.
Conclusion:
Question: "What is a 'dark night of the soul'?"
Answer: The phrase dark night of the soul comes from a poem by St. John of the Cross
(1542-1591), a Spanish Carmelite monk and mystic, whose Noche obscura del alma is translated
"The Dark Night of the Soul." This eight-stanza poem outlines the soul's journey from the
distractions and entanglements of the world to the perfect peace and harmony of union with
God. According to the poet, the dark night of the soul is synonymous with traveling the
narrow way that Jesus spoke of in Matthew 7:13 Read more:
http://www.gotquestions.org/dark-night-soul.html#ixzz3PUBdfVUc
Trials and Suffering and dark times are natural and we in the West need to learn to deal with
them Gods way.
Quote: “Trials and suffering can lead to real spiritual melancholy. Maybe we have lost a job, a
friend, our home, a spouse, or even a child. Persecution or betrayal has descended upon us and
we are suffering the effects. At times we suffer spiritual melancholy because we do not have a
healthy expectation of trials and suffering coming into our lives (Philip. 1:27-30). If that is the
case, we need to remind ourselves to expect them (Matt. 10:38) and to persevere through
them. This trial will end and we are not alone. Though we may feel abandoned, nothing could
be farther from the truthڄHe is with us. The Dark Night of the Soul is about being
stripped and becoming empty so that you can have a direct encounter with the sacred, and
grief does a very similar thing. It has this very potent stripping quality. From:
http://theaquilareport.com/spiritual-depression-the-dark-night-of-the-soul/
What did we need to know from this message?
Dark times of the soul and in life will come but it's all about how you handle them that matters.
Why do we need to know this?
We need to know that even if I go through dark times I can with the help of the Lord come out
the other side with a healthy soul and a blessed life.
What do we need to do from this message?
We need to expect dark times in our life and be prepared to deal with Biblically and prayerfully.
In those dark times of the soul we need to wait on God, we need understand we are not God
and we need to receive and find His comfort in those dark times. We need to know that we are
not alone!
Why do we need to do this?
Because if our soul is healthy then we can handle anything that comes our way in life. When
our soul is whole and connected to Jesus all things are possible and in the end we will be
blessed.
Closing Scripture Verse:
2 Thessalonians 3:16: “Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times and in
every way. The Lord be with all of you.”
