Body, Soul, and Spirit
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Welcome to the teaching ministry of Calvary for St. Lucie. Let's join the pastor Mike Wiggins as he speaks on body, soul, and spirit. Amen. Well, those of you who have taken our membership class have heard my testimony. I just want to give you the abbreviated version because it fits so well with our topic today. Okay.

Way back in the spring of 1984, I was a senior in high school, and I went to a plant high school there in Tampa one day, and one of my best friends had some tickets in his pocket. And so I said, hey, what's that? And he said, oh, you want one? And he handed it to me, and it wasn't a ticket to a ball event. It was a gospel track, and it had different Bible verses on it.

And so I was interested in religious things, and so I took that Bible track, and I began to read it at home. And a week passed, or two weeks passed, and I'm still reading these verses, and it kind of bothered me. And what it bothered me especially was Ephesians 2, 8, and 9. Ephesians 2, 8, and 9 says, And that's not of yourselves. It's a gift from God.

And here's what bothered me. It said, not of works, lest anybody should boast. You know why that bothered me is because I was a religious young man. I thought I was good and I was banking on my goodness to get me to heaven someday. And now God's word messed that all up. And so I kept reading the verses on this gospel track and I got down to Romans 6.23. It says that the wages of sin, help me out, is death.

Now that'll really wake you up if you're not reading the Bible. The ways of sin is death, but then the good news, the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. And so here I am, 17 years old, I'm at work, Little Caesar's Pizza, Delmabry Highway, three miles south of Tampa Stadium. And I'm there washing dishes, and I'm thinking about these Bible verses. Okay, what 17-year-old at work is thinking about Bible verses? If that's not the grace of God, I don't know what is.

So I'm going over these verses in my mind, washing dishes, and it finally clicked with me. You know, some people think I'm slow. I tend to agree with them, okay? So it finally clicked with me that I was a sinner, that I deserved death, not just physical death but spiritual death, but that Jesus Christ, God's son, was my substitute in death.

In other words, he bore my sins on the tree. He took my punishment that I should have received. He took it on the cross. So I transferred my trust from me being good to what Jesus did on the cross and also in his resurrection. And when all that clicked inside of me and I believed in my heart and I didn't even know what was going on, but the Holy Spirit of God came down inside of me.

And wave upon wave of God's love filled up my soul. Now, for the first time in my life, I experienced the presence of the Holy Spirit. But not only that, for the first time in my life, I became conscious of something deep in the central part of me, and that is my own spirit.

Now the Apostle Paul, in writing to the believers at the church of Thessalonica, says this. Look at chapter 5, verse 23. He says,

And so whether that's you going to him at death or him coming back, we don't know the day or the hour, but the prayer there is that your whole spirit, soul, and body will be preserved blameless. And so if you're a believer, you say, well, great, but what if I really mess it up between now and the time I die? Or what if I really sin bad between now and the time Jesus comes back? Well, thank God our salvation is not dependent on what we do, but what Christ did, because look at verse 24.

And let's all say it together. Go ahead. He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it. And there's the promise of God. One of hundreds of promises of God that, hey, he's going to get you home before the dark. Now, in verse 23, Paul says, he makes reference to the spirit, the soul, and the body. When God made you, he made you into a three-dimensional being.

He made you a body, he made you into a soul, and he made you into a spirit. And so when you look at the illustration here, the body, that outer circle, of course, refers to our physical human body. That temporary outer shell that our inner person is housed in. The inner person being the soul and the spirit. And so even though the Apostle Paul says the body, the outward man is perishing, the inward man, if you're a born-again believer, perishes.

is being renewed day by day because the body is temporal, but the inner you, the real you, goes on forever and ever.

Now, the body, you interact through your body with a material world. You do that through your five senses, seeing, hearing, touching, tasting, smelling. And so we all have these physical bodies, these earth suits, so to speak. They're temporary. Someday, if you know the Lord, you're going to exchange that in for a glorious body that's going to live forever and ever. And then you have the next circle. That's your soul.

The soul is made up of your mind, your will, and your emotions. Okay, so your soul is made up of your mind, the ability that you have to think, the ability you have to reason. Your soul is made up of your will. You have the ability to choose. And your choices, by the way, have great consequences.

And then you also have your emotions, and so you have the ability to feel happiness, sadness, or whatever. Now, after the fall, something else was added to our soul, and that's called conscience. Everybody, whether you know the Lord or not,

Has a conscience. That's that inward ability to discern right from wrong. Even though some people have so sinned against their conscience, they've seared their conscience and their conscience is very dysfunctional and cannot be relied upon. You have your body, you have your soul, and then that inner central part of you is your spirit. And so your spirit inside of you

After the new birth, and I want everybody to please say that phrase after the new birth. Go ahead. It's so important you understand that. Your spirit, that inner part of you, which after the new birth comes alive, and at that point, it has the ability to be conscious of the presence of God forever.

and also to be able to communicate with God. Now, I know some of you are note-takers, and I talk fast, and so let me go ahead and define it by way of review. The body, in the Greek, that's soma, and that's the physical human body. And then you have your soul. I believe in Latin, it's psyche. In the Greek, it's psuche. And so your soul is your mind, your will, your emotions, and also your conscience, soul.

And then you have the spirit, pneuma, in the Greek. And that's that central part of a believer which can be conscious of God and also communicate with God. And we'll talk more about that a little later on in the message. Now, in the Greek New Testament, you've got to understand that there's two different words for soul and spirit. Soul, psuche, and spirit is pneuma.

Now, I understand, and there's this whole debate within Christianity between the trichotomy of man and the dichotomy of man. Some people like me believe that human beings are three parts, body, soul, spirit. Other good Christians believe that, no, it's the dichotomy of man. It's two parts, and I'm not here to debate anybody about that, but I really believe in the trichotomy of man, and

And I really believe that the immaterial part of us, it is true that human beings are outward and inward. We're material and we're immaterial. But I really believe that the immaterial part of us has two parts, and that is soul and spirit. Spirit.

You say, why do you believe that? Because God's word says it. Look again at 1 Thessalonians 5, 23. May the God of peace himself sanctify you completely and may your whole spirit, that's pneuma, soul, that's psuche, and body, that's soma, be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. It's not just found here in 1 Thessalonians 5, verse 23. It's also found in other verses. For example, Hebrews 4, 12 says,

For the word of God is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword. By the way, I told you the book in front of you that you have opened on your lap, it's alive, it's powerful, it's awesome. It has the ability by the spirit of God to change your life. And so the word of God is living and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division, here it is, of soul, okay, that's psyche or psuche, right?

And different word here, spirit, that's pneuma, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Two different words for the immaterial part of us. Mary also talked about this. When she was praising the Lord one day in Luke 1, she said, my soul, psuche, magnifies the Lord, and my spirit, pneuma, different word she used,

has rejoiced in God my Savior. Okay, so we learned back in Ephesians chapter two that in our BC days, we were dead in trespasses and sins. If you're new to the Bible, when I say BC days, what I mean simply is before Christ. Before you met Jesus Christ, before he changed your life, in those BC days, you and I were dead in trespasses and sins. Okay, here's my question.

And don't answer out loud unless you're really sure of the answer, okay? What part of you was dead in your BC days? Body, soul, or spirit? Your spirit. Your spirit was dead in trespasses and sins. But then God decided because of his sovereign love for you to intervene and to make you alive. And check it out. We learned back in Ephesians 2 that God who is rich in mercy said,

Help me out here. Go ahead. Okay, so we were dead, but he made us alive together with Christ. By grace, you have been saved. All right. It says he made us alive. Okay. Once again, what part did he make alive? Our spirit, not our soul.

You say, how do you know for sure? It's really simple. The soul is made up of the mind, the will, and the emotions. Question concerning your mind. Were you able to think before you met Jesus Christ? Will, were you able to choose before you met Jesus Christ? Yeah.

Emotions, were you able to, did anybody feel happiness or sadness before you met Jesus Christ? Yes, so your soul was alive. The consciousness of you was alive, but that inner part of you was dead. And so what needed to happen? Here's the good news, and I can't help but smiling, but smile about this. What needed to happen? Here's what needed to happen. You needed to be born again, right?

And some of you here in this room or watching online or listening on your mobile device, you still need to be born again. Here's what happened. When some of us turned from our sins and we put our full faith in Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit of God came down just like he did for me in the spring of 1984. And he made that inner, inner, inner part of us, our spirit, he made it alive again.

And now we are fully functioning three-part beings, body, soul, and spirit. Now Romans 8, 16, his Holy Spirit witnesses to our spirit that we are the children of God. And I love what Chuck Smith says, the founder of Calvary Chapel. He's now with the Lord. He said, it is only those who have been born again by the spirit of God and experience the spiritual life that are trichotomists.

The reason why we are trichotomists is because our spirits have come alive and we know that the spirit of man is separate and distinct from the consciousness of man. So does that make sense to everybody? Three part beings. Really the question you need to wrestle with is has your spirit come alive? Have you submitted to the lordship of Jesus Christ in your life? And by faith has his spirit come alive?

and made you alive where you can sense the Holy Spirit now, witnessing to your spirit, again, Romans 8, 16, that you are a child of God. Now, we're here, January 4th, we're kicking off another year. And so it's around this time that a lot of people make their New Year's resolutions, and often these resolutions have to do with the physical body, right? And specifically the health of the physical body, right?

And so right around this time every year, people say stuff like, you know, in 2015, I'm going to stop smoking. I'm going to throw away those cigarettes. Or in 2015, I'm going to start watching what I eat. No more junk food, no more drive-thrus. Or in 2015, man, I'm going to get off the couch and I'm going to stop being so inactive. In 2015, I'm going to start exercising. I'm going to start eating right. I'm going to start getting enough sleep at night. Now, if you have neglected your health,

I think it's great that you're going to focus more on your physical body in 2015. But never, ever, ever forget this. Never forget the words of the Apostle Paul to the young pastor Timothy in 1 Timothy 4.8. Paul says to Timothy, and it's pretty obvious that Timothy liked to be active. And so Paul said to Timothy, bodily exercise profits a little more.

And so physical exercise, great, but you need to know it only yields benefits for this life.

But man, godliness not only yields benefits for this life, it also yields benefits for the life to come, which goes on forever and ever and ever. How many of you guys know that the Lord is going to reward the faithful with rewards in heaven that are going to last forever? It's true. So true. And some will get more rewards than others, and some will have more rewards to cast at the feet of Jesus than others. And so the question before us today is,

is how can we experience greater health and wholeness in our inner being in 2015? And this is what we're gonna do the rest of the message today. We're gonna focus on answering that question. Okay, here's the question again. How can all of us experience greater health and wholeness in our inner being in 2015? Before I answer that question, I wanna ask you three questions. I'm gonna ask you guys not to answer out loud.

I'm gonna ask you guys to answer it in your heart. I'm gonna ask you guys to be very honest with yourself between you and the Lord. And at the risk of some people thinking I'm weird, I'm gonna ask everybody right now to close your eyes. If you're watching online, close your eyes. If you're driving down the road and listening to your mobile device, keep your eyes open right now. Question number one, answer honestly. Are you so busy that

that you rarely have any downtime to relax and enjoy life, your family, and your God. In other words, you feel like that proverbial hamster on the wheel, going, going, going, going. And after a while, you know, you really need to ask yourself the question, is what I'm doing really making any progress in God's eyes? Question number two, are you experiencing so much stress that

that the stress in your life is negatively affecting you and your family members. In other words, you're so stressed out that the slightest wrong word from your spouse or your kids just sets you off. Question number three. Are you so worried about certain things in your life that you find yourself obsessing about those things? In other words, during the day,

You're so distracted by whatever you're obsessing or worrying about that you can't really get into a conversation. You're there in body, but how many times has your spouse or friend said, hey, are you really there? It's because you're distracted. You're distracted at work. You're losing sleep at night because of worry. Busyness, stress, and worry. All right, you can open your eyes. If you answered yes to any of those questions, please understand this.

Over time, busyness, stress, and worry will cause great damage to your soul. And by the way, not just your soul, your body too. Google it. Find out the health risks of worry and stress. So once again, this is kind of like, you know, the red light is blinking here. The alarm is sounding for some of you. And you really need to be honest with yourself. You really need to be open.

And you need to come to grips with the fact that if you continue the pace that you're on, that over time, busyness and stress and worry is going to cause great damage to your soul. And I know right now, because this is a touchy subject, right now some people are thinking, but Pastor Mike, you don't understand. The reason I'm so busy is because I have all these responsibilities and people are counting on me. And I got to come through. And the reason that I'm stressed is because I'm juggling so many different things.

And I've got all these real deadlines that I've got to meet. And the reason that I'm worried is because I have all these responsibilities. And what if something falls to the cracks? What if something bad happens? What if something goes wrong? And right now, some of you are worrying about what could go wrong in your life as I'm talking. And so once again, if you answered yes to any of these questions today,

You can't, no matter how many excuses you give, you cannot run from the fact that over time, busyness, stress, and worry is going to cause great damage to your soul. And so just project your life out for another 10 years. If you continue to allow busyness, stress, and worry to go unchecked in your life, okay, what's your soul going to look like 10 years from now?

If you continue to allow busyness, stress, and worry to go unchecked in your life, what's your soul going to look like 20 years from now if you're even around anymore? Honestly, if you're honest, it's a bleak picture. And so now's the time to make some positive changes. Now's the time to step up and realize this truth. And I always say this before I say something really, really important. And so if you're with me right now, could you please say amen? All right, here's a principle you got to grab to.

And that is one of the greatest gifts that you can give to your loved ones is a healthy you. One of the greatest gifts that you can give to your loved ones and your friends and those that are closest to you is a healthy soul. But you've got to step up and you've got to make the decision to start making some positive changes. And so how can we experience greater health and wholeness in our inner person in 2015? I could go on and on forever, but I'm just going to give you three ways. Okay, so point number one is

Slow down and stay in your lane. Slow down and stay in your lane. The Christian life is not a sprint. It's a marathon.

And if you and I are actually going to make it all the way to the finish line, if we're going to make it all the way to the end of our lives, we got to learn to pace ourselves. We got to learn to slow down. What does that mean? That means that we've got to stop overloading our calendars and our lives with so much stuff. Some of you guys are so busy. You're on that wheel. You're running, running, running, running, running.

And you got to ask yourself, hey, is any of this going to matter 100 years from now, 200 years from now? When I'm in heaven before the Lord? You ask some people, hey, how you doing? You know what the first word out of a lot of people's mouths when you ask them, how you doing? Here's what they say. Oh, man, busy. Busy, busy, busy. Going, going, going. And I want to say to them, I don't because I'm a really nice guy, but I want to say to them, hey, don't.

Does someone have a gun against your head making you keep all of this stuff on your calendar and making you live such a hurried life? You guys remember Martha in Luke chapter 10? One of my favorite stories in the whole Bible. Jesus decides, hey, I'm gonna go have some downtime. I'm gonna go hang out with Martha and her sister Mary and their brother Lazarus and some others. And so he goes, knocks on Martha's door. He comes in, all right, there's a bunch of people.

Jesus takes his seat in the main room there of Martha's house. And Martha's sister Mary, you guys remember where she took her place? Front and center, right at Jesus' feet. Why is that? Because she really loved the Lord. And she understood that when the eternal, uncreated, holy son of God speaks, there's power in that word. And I want a front and center seat. I want to take in his word. So that's where she was. But Martha, totally different. Martha decides to go in fifth gear.

She looks at all these people and she realizes that I've got to feed all these people. And I love Kenneth Wiest. He's a Greek scholar and he has the Wiest word studies. And so he translates obviously the Greek into the English. And I love his translation of Luke 10, 40. Listen to this. But Martha was going around in circles, over occupied with preparing the meal.

Can you see Martha standing over Jesus?

Tell her, Lord, she's letting me down. She's making me do all the work by myself. Tell her to help me. Now, how did Jesus respond to that? Did he look at Mary and say, Mary, your sister's right. Stop being so lazy. You need to get up. Come on. Did he give her a little kick? No, no, no, no. Mary was not the one that he rebuked. He rebuked Martha. And what did he say to Martha? Check this out. Martha, Martha. Shake my head, right? Some of you guys need to put your name in there right now.

Martha, Martha, you are worried and upset about many things, but one thing is needed. Sure, I'm sure he's pointing at Mary. But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen it, and it will not be taken away from her. All right, so what was the one thing? Was it running around in circles like Martha, or was it sitting at the feet of Jesus like Mary? We all know the answer to that.

And so we need to learn to slow down. We need to learn to practice the presence of God. We need to get into his presence like Mary. We need to slow down and we need to stay in our lane. Okay, that's important too. Stay in your lane. In other words, God has called you to do a certain thing and that's called your lane. And so he wants you to stay in your lane and not get into somebody else's lane, okay?

Now, I know as the lead pastor of this church exactly what I'm called to do. It can be summed up in four words. I'm called to heed, feed, lead, and believe. That's what I'm called to do. That's my lane. I'm called to heed. In other words, man, I've got to be on my knees. I've got to be receiving from the Lord.

Man, he's given me this incredible opportunity, but also this incredible responsibility. And if I'm not heeding, if I'm not hearing the voice of God, and I ever come out here on a Sunday morning, and it's the Mike Wiggins show, and I just give you something from my own life, here's what's going to happen. Within four weeks, this church is going to dwindle down to about three people, like me and my wife and one of my daughters or something.

This is serious. Man, I need to hear from the Lord, right? I need to heed and I need to feed. This is my primary responsibility as a pastor is to feed the sheep, feed the flock of God, the word of God. I need to heed, feed. I need to lead. I need to lead our staff. And the other pastors helped me, thank God, to lead the staff and lead the ministry partners and the ministry leaders. But also I need to believe.

I need to trust that Christ's hands on this church. And man, we're just getting started. And he's got great plans in 2015, the years ahead for this local church. Heed, heed, feed, lead, believe, right? That's my lane. And so here I am and I'm running in my lane. That's too fast because the Christian life is a marathon. And so I slow it down. And as I'm running in my lane, it's so important. Lord, I know what you called me to do. And so I'm in my lane right now.

and I'm gonna make sure I stay in my lane, I'm not gonna go over here in another guy's lane. Because if I go in his lane, I'm gonna bump him out of the way. I'm gonna rob him of a blessing. See, because now that I'm in his lane, not only am I doing what he's called to do, I'm also overloading my schedule.

So Lord, help me to stay in my lane and do what, I'm getting tired. I need to start working out more. I need to focus on more of my body. Okay, but help me stay in my lane and do what you call me to do so that he or she does what they're called to do. And I know right now, some of you are thinking, but Pastor Mike, if I don't go over here and do it, it's not gonna get done. All God holds you responsible for is your lane, your lane. Amen.

And your lane, that's it. But it's not gonna get done. Our God is way bigger than that. He's sovereign. He's gonna do his plan. He's gonna work it out. Don't worry about it. Last I checked, there's no nail scars in your hands or mine. Okay, so let God be God. You be you. Just do what God has called you to do. Now, if you're gonna stay in your lane...

If you're serious about this, some of you need to learn to say no. Let's practice, okay? On the count of three. One, two, three. No. So easy to say, right? In a church service. But here's what's going to happen. Later on this week, someone's going to ask you to do something, and you know it's not in your lane, and you're going to think, Pastor Mike told me to say no, and you're going to say yes, because you don't want to hurt anybody's feelings. So many people don't want to hurt people's feelings, and they're all over the track.

And so some of you dads need to learn to say no about working all this overtime. And the reason you need to say no is so that your kids, when you come home at night, will stop asking their mother, who is that guy anyway? Now, I'm not saying it's wrong to work overtime. What I'm saying is take some self-evaluation and ask yourself, is my life in balance? It's not a sprint. It's a marathon.

Some of you moms need to temporarily say no. And I really want to make sure I emphasize temporarily because I don't want to get any emails this week, all right? Okay? So some of you moms need to learn to temporarily say no to that job while your small children are in the home. My Lord, the formidable years of your child's life is going to dictate who they are for the rest of their life.

Moms, they need you home. But we can't make ends meet. Let God be God. And by the way, I had a conversation in between services because some lady asked me, well, what are you saying? Are the women's places in the home? Here's what I'm saying. Your children need you.

And so I would encourage you that some of the best advice that I ever received from one of my former pastors when my wife and I were just married and she was pregnant with Megan and he stopped us and he said this. He said, mom, you need to stay at home even if you have to eat peanut butter and jelly. Stay home. Your kids need you, mom, not a daycare worker.

Now, having said that, you can clap, okay? But having said that, let me say this, that mom, if you want to be the breadwinner and you got a high-paying job, and dad, it's time for you to step up and be Mr. Mom then. Let the dad stay home. I don't care, but the kid needs somebody to be home with them, especially in those formidable years, those first years of their lives.

So make the sacrifice. It's so worth it. My wife and I made that sacrifice financially. We were poorer than poor when we were first married. My wife took the bus sometimes around town. Sometimes I had to gather up change to get gas in my car, a car I had to pump 25 times to get it started.

But she was home with our kids. And you know what? All three of our daughters, by the grace of God, have turned out so wonderfully. It's not because of me. It's because of my wife and God's grace. So important you get this, guys. So important you get this. And so some of you parents, you need to say no to signing your kid up for yet another activity. Okay, it's time for piano practice. Now it's time for soccer. Don't forget ballet. Okay.

Right? Driving, driving, driving, rushing, rushing, rushing, looking, looking, looking. What did we say earlier? One of the best gifts you can give your loved ones is a healthy you, a healthy soul. And that's not going to come by you running around like a chicken with your head cut off like Martha. It's going to come by you sitting at the feet of Jesus like Mary. Some of you need to say no to that person who keeps calling you every single day and is draining the life out of you.

Well, Pastor Mike, we're called to be ministers. Yes, but there are these things called boundaries. There's these things called priorities. And you got to get that in balance. Some of you need to say no here at the church, especially those of you who are involved in several ministries and several life groups.

Now, I'm not talking about those of you who are retired, okay? Those of you who are retired and you're in several ministries and several life groups, we thank God for you. And by the way, I personally believe, I really do, and I personally believe we have the best core group in all America, okay?

It's crazy how our core group, listen, our core group that connects, serves, grows, and gives at this church, it's just mind-boggling to me that we have all these people bought into the vision, and man, they're serving the Lord with everything they got. But I am talking to those of you who have jobs

full-time jobs, and yet you're still involved in several ministries and several life groups. You need to learn to say no. When you became a member of this church, if you are a member, you committed to one life group and one ministry. And so, man, focus the rest of your time on your Lord and on your spouse and on your kids and on other things. Point number two, the question before us.

How can we in 2015 have greater health and wholeness in our inner person? Number two, live in a rhythm of stress and release. Now, please don't misunderstand me. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with hard work. I believe in hard work. My mom and dad taught us an incredible, me and my big brothers, an incredible work ethic, okay? But if you keep going and going and going and going, at some point you're gonna burn out.

And so you need to learn this principle of living life in rhythm, living a life of stress and release. In other words, you work really hard, whatever God's called you to do in your lane, you give your all to that for the glory of the Lord. That's stress. And then you make sure that you release. You have some regular downtime. Jesus modeled this for us.

Man, Jesus was a hard worker. He would get involved in this intense ministry. There was all these people and all these needs. But you know what? Every once in a while, he'd look at his disciples and he'd say something like this. Mark 6 31. He says, That's what Jesus says.

That's what our captain, the son of God, the Lord of our lives, he models this. Work hard, stress, yeah, that's great, but make sure you have a time of release in your life. Now, there's two primary ways that I find rest for my soul, and I'm going to share them with you guys. The two ways, primary ways that I find rest for my soul, number one, most important, is my daily quiet time.

So, so, so vital and so important that every single day, not because we have to, but because we get to, we sit like Mary at the feet of the Lord Jesus. Psalm 46.10 says, Do you know why some of you do not experience the presence of God regularly in your life?

The reason some of you do not experience the presence, the awesome peace and presence of God in your life is because you're so busy, you don't sit down and get quiet long enough. You're not prayerful long enough to experience his presence. Ladies and gentlemen, if you're a believer in Christ, the Holy Spirit lives inside of you. And he's always there whether you feel his presence or not.

The Holy Spirit in this New Covenant, New Testament age doesn't come and go like he did in the Old Testament. He's here. He's in our hearts. He's here to stay. But if you're going to experience his presence, then you've got to stop long enough to be still and know that he is God. And so what do I do? What I do is I get up in the morning, and the first thing I do is,

and i mess up on this sometimes i'll check email or facebook and i'm just being honest with you guys it should what i need to do is put god first the first thing that i do most of the time is i'll sit down on my couch and i'll worship the lord and what i like to do because i like contemporary christian music is i go to a great website called worship together

And so, you know, you got Chris Tomlin, you've got Kerry Jobe, Matt Mayer, you've got, who's the guy with the real long beard? I love that guy.

David Crowder, I mean all these people, their songs are right there. There's hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of songs. And so what I'll do is I'll sit on my couch because I understand that we're supposed to enter his gates, we're supposed to enter his gates with praise and thanksgiving, right? So I don't rush right into God's presence with a to-do list asking God would you do this, this, this, and this. I think that's disrespectful. So I begin to worship the Lord. I listen to a worship song. How many of you guys know the Lord inhabits the praises of his people?

Right? You want to experience God's presence in 2015, be worshipful. Spend time worshiping him through that song. And then what I do is I have a two-year reading plan. I get that from Blue Letter Bible. If you go to the Blue Letter Bible website and you click on devotionals, then you'll see there's lots of reading plans that are offered. And I just don't have time for a one, read your Bible through in one year. I don't have time for five or six chapters, but I can get two in.

And so I do a two-year, that's for me, a Bible reading plan. And so I'll go through that scripture. This is not my sermon preparation. I need to be fed from the Lord personally. And so I'll read through the scriptures. And as I'm reading through the scriptures, I'll begin to pray the word of God. Now, this is so important. There's no better prayer than if you and I pray God's word. And so I'll pray God's word. And often you guys come to mind.

And I'll take the story of what's going on and I'll begin to pray for you in that story. And then after that, I always like to make sure that I thank the Lord for the previous day. I mentioned this a few weeks ago. And then commit the next day to him. And so I go back in my mind. I think about yesterday and what happened. And I'll go through event by event and I thank the Lord that he showed up. Because, man, if God answers a prayer, how many times do we pray for something and he answers it and we forget to thank him? Amen.

So I thank the Lord for that, and then I commit the next day. I just talk to the Lord like he's my best friend because he is my best friend. I'll talk to him about what's going on now in this day. And sometimes I'll say the Lord's Prayer, the Our Father, and I'll use it as an outline, as subjects to talk to the Lord about. I'll cast my cares on him. So that daily quiet time, come apart and rest a while, right? But the second way that I find rest for my soul is

is by observing a weekly Sabbath. 24 hours a week, you shut it all off. Now, for the A-type personalities right now, you're starting to get a little twitch. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, Pastor. I can't. I'm too busy. I got too much responsibility, too much going on. Did you know that what I'm talking about made the Ten Commandments?

Now, I'm not saying that we're under the commandment of the Sabbath in the New Testament age. What I'm saying is that it's a really good idea. And so somehow, someway, figure it out one day a week to totally unplug from emails, phone calls, unless it's an emergency, and focus on the Lord and focus on those people who really mean the most to you in your life.

Once again, we did this all through our marriage or most of our marriage. And it was, you know who it was great for? It was great for our kids because they had a very busy dad one day a week spending time with just them. And we would go to all the cheap places around South Florida and have fun together. And so spend that time with the Lord and spend that time with the people who are important in your life. Take that day off. Now,

I want to recommend this book again. It's called Replenish by Lance Witt. Lance is actually coming to speak to our staff. He used to be on the staff of Saddleback, and now he's a church consultant. And so someday I would love for him to speak. I'm going to try to get him to speak here in 2015. We'll see how that goes. But when he first started observing a Sabbath, here's what he said, because he's one of those high-driven people. He said, when I first started trying to practice Sabbath, I hated it.

It was not enjoyable or spiritual. It felt like detox. I kept wanting to check email or work on a ministry project or whittle down my to-do list. I was so driven and overloaded that slowing down actually felt uncomfortable. And even when my body was still internally, I was still amped. Over time, I've learned that Sabbath is not a have to, it's a get to. This incredible gift from God allows us to reflect, restore, and replenish ourselves.

During the Sabbath, God whispers. This is so good. This is classic, right? During the Sabbath, God whispers, I'm in control. The world can get along without you for 24 hours. We are not as indispensable as we think. Stress and release. Work hard, amen, but then make sure that you rest.

And find that release for your soul. And here's your third point. If you want to have greater health and wellness in your inner being in 2015, you've got to trust God's promises in the storm. Now, here's what you need to know also. It's not if a storm's coming in 2015. It's when it comes. It's not if a trial or tribulation or trouble comes to you in your house in 2015. It's when it comes. And I'm really trying to warn you right now.

I'm really trying to prepare you because none of us know what 2015 is going to bring. And for some of you, or maybe even me, we're going to go through some really difficult times and we've got to be ready. Let's be proactive and not reactive, right? That's important because here's what I know. Trials and storms, they have a way of shaking your inner man and they can cause really big time damage to your soul if you let it.

If you've lived in Florida for very long, you know that 2004 has come to be known as the year of four hurricanes. How many of you guys were here in 2004? Let me just see your hands. Okay, so most of you know exactly what I'm talking about. In 2004, our beautiful state was hit by Charlie, Francis, Ivan, and Gene.

That was a terrible year for storms, right? And our treasure coast, our beautiful treasure coast, got two direct hits from Francis and Jean. Now, for Francis, I have never experienced a hurricane, even though I grew up in Tampa. And so I thought, man, I got to get out of town. So my wife and I and our kids, we got in the car. We started going over to my parents' house in Tampa. What normally takes three hours and 15 minutes took eight hours, right?

Some of you guys remember the traffic jams on the Turnpike, inching your way across the state, trying to get out of the way of Francis. And so when Gene came later on in the year, we thought, you know what, we're not going to deal with that traffic. We're just going to stay home. So we stayed home during Gene. And I learned a very important lesson, that storms can shake you, literally, forever.

And I remember, of course, the electricity is gone, and I remember hunkering down in our home. And by the way, with Francis and Gene, we were without power in our house for, I think, over 20 days. Thank God for generators. But I remember as Gene hit the Treasure Coast, you could hear the elephants running back and forth on your roof. That's what it sounded like. High winds, torrential rain, surging tides at the beach. And so I remember hunkering down, right? And I also remember gathering around the radio.

And I remember listening to the soothing voice of News Channel 5's Steve Weigel. By the way, how many of you guys think Pastor Bob looks exactly like Steve Weigel? You know? If Steve Weigel comes and shows up for staff meeting on Tuesday, I'm going to say, hey, Pastor Bob, how you doing? Okay.

And so there we are. We're hunkering around the radio. We're listening to Steve Weigel. Of course, he's got everything at his disposal. So he's like, Port St. Lucie, in 22 minutes, you're going to have the eye of the storm. Sure enough, 22 minutes, we all walked outside. We look around. It was a beautiful day, and then we got hit again. And so we experienced the soothing voice of another person in the middle of a storm. The disciples experienced a soothing voice of someone else in the middle of their storm.

You guys remember the story in Mark chapter 4. Jesus looks at his men. They're standing on the beach of the Sea of Galilee. And he says, hey guys, let's go over to the other side. Did you hear that? The word of the uncreated eternal God. Let's cross over to the other side. They get in the boat. They begin to make their way across the Sea of Galilee. Jesus falls fast asleep. I guess he needed some downtime and some release.

He's sleeping. A storm hits. Really bad storm. The rain's coming down. The waves are coming up over the bow of the boat. The wind is blowing really hard, and the disciples freaked out. You guys remember what the disciples did? They literally violently shook Jesus. Don't you care that we're perishing? Now, how did Jesus respond to the violent storm? Did Jesus stand up and say, oh no, we're gonna... Is that what he did? No, I think he's kind of annoyed with these guys.

He stands up in the boat, even as it's rocking, and he rebukes the wind. He rebukes the sea. He says, quiet, be still. And just like that, the Sea of Galilee became a sea of glass. That's our God. That's what our God can do. Total calm. And a drenched Jesus looks over at his drenched disciples, and he says to them, how is it that you can be so fearful and have no faith?

Now stay with me here. When Jesus says something, he wants us to have faith in what he says. He wants us to trust him. He wants us to believe. Listen, his character, his integrity is with his word. What did he say? He said, let's cross over. Okay, very important principle for some of you who just became Christians. If Jesus tells you we're going to cross over, you don't have to worry about going under. Okay?

So whatever that is that you're worrying about right now or obsessing about right now, here's what you need to do. You need to get into the word of God. You need to allow the soothing voice of Jesus to speak to you in the storm. You need to take God's word to the bank. You need to believe his word. See, it's all, if you're going to experience peace in 2015, it all has to do with where's your focus.

If you put your focus on that trial or that tribulation, you're going to freak out just like the disciples. But if you'll put your focus on Jesus Christ, the one who has power over all things, he will give you peace. He may take the storm away from you, or he may keep the storm around you. Either way, it doesn't matter. He's going to give you his peace. Here's your last verse as the worship team comes out. Jesus himself says,

I have told you these things. Church family, look at this. I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. In the world, you have trouble and suffering, but take courage. I have conquered the world. I conquered the world. So how can we experience greater health and wholeness in our inner person in 2015? Number one, slow down, stay in your lane. Number two, live in a rhythm of stress and release.

Number three, trust God's promises in the storm. I'm gonna ask you guys to please bow your heads and close your eyes. I wanna give you a chance to pray and to go to your heavenly father. Some of you are so busy. Your schedule is so overloaded with so much stuff. I'll say it one last time. If you allow your busyness, your stress, and your worry to go unchecked, it's gonna cause damage to your soul.

Learn to live life in a rhythm. Work hard, sit at Jesus' feet. Work hard, take a Sabbath day. Be home as much as possible with your wife, your husband, your kids. The time you have with your kids is so short. Develop your priorities in 2015. Your relationship with Jesus, your relationship with your spouse, your relationship with your kids, your work, your church family, everything else.

Stick to those priorities. Make decisions, all your decisions by those priorities in that order. Don't allow your soul to be damaged any longer. One of the greatest gifts God can give His children is the assurance of their salvation. If you're not sure where you stand with God, we want to help. Visit our website at www.calvarypsl.com and click on Knowing Christ.