Soul Care 1

Soul Survival

Part 1

“The Anatomy of a Soul”

Hebrews 4:12 "For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”

I want to take the next few weeks to talk to you about your soul.

We’re going to learn what exactly a soul is, and how to care for it.

We’re going to see that SOUL CARE is every Christian’s responsibility…

Your pastor is not responsible for your soul.

Your spouse is not responsible for your soul.

Your mom and dad are not responsible for your soul.

Your church is not responsible for you soul.

YOU ARE!!

So I’m going to be looking at not only what a soul is, but how to care for it by having a RESTED soul, a RENEWED soul, and a HEALTHY soul.

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Let’s start with a look at How We’re Made:

The Bible teaches that Man is tripartite, meaning he is made up of 3 things: A body, a soul, and a spirit.

In our opening verse the writer of Hebrews mentions a soul, a spirit, and “joints and marrow” which are parts of a body.

1 Thessalonians 5:23, "And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ."

So we are a spirit being, we live in a body, and we possess a soul.

ILLUSTRATION: Apple—consisting of skin, fruit, core of seeds.

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At the core of our being is our spirit.

Our spirit can be DEAD, as with those who don’t know Christ:

“And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh,” (Col. 2:13a).

Or our spirit can be ALIVE as it is with all born again children of God…

“He has made (you) alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses,” (Col. 2:13b)

You see, It is the spirit that is instantly transformed when we are saved…

The Bible says, “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation…” (2 Cor. 5:17).

Our souls must undergo lifelong renewal by the “renewing of our minds,” but our spirits are instantly transformed and made alive at the moment of salvation.

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But there’s more…

It is our spirit-man that responds to the things that come from the Spirit of God.

It is with my spirit that I fellowship with God.

Paul wrote, “May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all” (2 Cor. 13:14).

And the to Timothy he wrote, “The Lord be with your Spirit” (2 Tim. 4:22).

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Watch this: When I read my Bible, two things happen: My MIND (which is part of my soul) is renewed, and my SPIRIT (which fellowships with God) is edified!

Our spirit is that part of us that knows Him personally and worships Him…

Jesus said, “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth” (John 4:24).

So it is our spirit that fellowships with His Spirit who dwells within us!

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Now secondly, there is our body…

Our bodies are obviously what we live in while we are here on earth, what Peter called our “earthly tent.”

When Jesus comes again, every born-again child of God will be given a brand new resurrected, glorified body!

“But I am telling you this strange and wonderful secret: we shall not all die, but we shall all be given new bodies! 52 It will all happen in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, when the last trumpet is blown. For there will be a trumpet blast from the sky,[f] and all the Christians who have died will suddenly become alive, with new bodies that will never, never die; and then we who are still alive shall suddenly have new bodies too. 53 For our earthly bodies, the ones we have now that can die, must be transformed into heavenly bodies that cannot perish but will live forever” (1 Cor 15:51-53).

What a day that will be!

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And then thirdly we come to our SOUL…the focus of this series.

Our SOUL is the “breath of life” described in Genesis.

It says, “Then the LORD God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living soul” (Gen. 2:7).

The Greek word for “soul” is psuche, and it’s found 103 times in the NT.

The word “psychology” comes from this Greek word.

The Bible says regarding the soul that:

Your soul can be lost or found…

It will one day go to either heaven or hell,

It is either alive by salvation or dead in sins;

It can be cast down by discouragement or encouraged by hope…

The soul can be wounded and it can be restored (David said, “He restores my soul”).

The soul is that part of us that longs and thirsts for God, (“My soul thirsts for God, for the living God” says Ps 42:2).

Our soul can be comforted or vexed (David said, “My soul is sore vexed”),

The soul can be hungry or satisfied, strong or faint, troubled or at peace.

Our souls can curse God or can bless His name, “Bless the Lord, O my soul!”

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Now, the soul is primarily made up of three things…

I. Our mind, will and emotions.

First, we have a mind to think with, to consider things…

David wrote the question, “How long shall I take counsel in my soul, Having sorrow in my heart daily?” (Psa. 13:2)

His soul (the mind part) was counseling him while he waited on a word from God.

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And our soul also includes emotions to love or to hate, to like or dislike someone or something:

“Now when he had finished speaking to Saul, the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul” (1 Sam 18:1).

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And the soul also includes a will to make decisions with, to make choices…

David told his son, Solomon, “Now set your heart and your soul to seek the Lord your God” (1 Chronicles 22:19).

He’s saying, “Set your will by setting your soul, choose to seek the Lord with all your soul!”

So the soul has a MIND to think, EMOTIONS to feel, and a WILL to choose—these are the functions of the soul!

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So here’s the fact: You live in a body, but your body is not you; your soul is!

You don’t have a soul, you ARE a soul!

Your soul is the essence of who you are.

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Secondly, the Bible teaches that …

II. Nothing on earth is more valuable than your soul

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?”

According to Jesus, the soul can be FORFEITED and it can be TRADED OFF for something else…

His words suggest that we can literally squander away our soul, we can neglect it and lose it…

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We can even sell it for something else!

The concept of “selling your soul” has been talked about in operas, books, country music lyrics, and movies…

The well-known story of Faust is all about a man who sells his soul to the devil for worldly pleasures.

But according to Jesus, ANY trade off for the soul is a bad trade, because whatever you trade it for is temporary, but your soul is eternal!

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Have you sold your soul?

I heard someone say one time “My company owns me…I’ve sold my soul to them!”

Some people really do sell their soul for a career or some other idol!

How often have we seen someone sell their souls for some drug, or alcohol, or an ill-advised relationship!!

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Jesus talked about a rich man who lived for his money, but one day, just when he was entering retirement,

“God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and who will get what you set aside for yourself?” (Lk. 12:20)

He had sold his soul to chase after money, he had forfeited his soul for earthly pleasures…

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Have you sold your soul?

If you have, Jesus can get it back for you if you ask Him!

Our lost souls are THE REASON Jesus came to earth—to “seek and to save that which was lost.”

It is our souls that were lost!

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So the soul is comprised of our mind, will, and emotions, it it more valuable than everything else…

And third…

III. The soul was designed for a purpose…

God has designed our souls to hunger for Him, to love Him, and to search Him out.

Jesus said in Matthew 22:37: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.”

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Listen to David express his soul’s hunger for God:

“My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the LORD; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God” (Ps. 84:2).

Our souls crave God…They want His presence dwelling in us.

David wrote again, “You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched land where there is no water” (Ps. 63:1).

I believe our souls are desperate to be whole, therefore they are God-obsessed and God-smitten until they find rest in Him!

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I have always believed that when someone turns to a drug, or to alcohol, or to the occult looking for a spiritual experience, they are really looking for God!

Ecc. 3:11 “He (God) has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in the hearts of men…”

God Himself has placed into the soul of man a hunger for Him, the sense that something is missing that ought to be there, a longing for the eternal God!

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So our souls:

Are comprised of our mind, will, and emotions.

Are our most valuable possession

Are designed with the purpose of loving God

LET’S PRAY