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00:00 and in Psalm 23, the very first verse says, "The Lord is my shepherd, and I shall not
00:13 want."
00:14 The Lord is my shepherd, and I shall not want.
00:25 I want to talk this morning from this thought, "The Testimony of a Sheep."
00:30 You may be seated.
00:31 The testimony of a sheep.
00:35 The testimony of a sheep.
00:38 A little while ago I got into my car and I discovered that my steering wheel and my
00:45 seat were hot.
00:50 It was interesting because simultaneously as I was riding with my son, I was trying
00:56 to figure out what was going on because also the windshield wiper on the back window was
01:02 on.
01:03 So my steering wheel was hot, my seat was hot, and the back windshield wiper in the
01:11 truck was on.
01:14 And as I was driving, my son, those of you who know Kylan, know that he has a smart
01:22 mouth at times.
01:25 Because as we were driving, I couldn't seem to get anything functioning.
01:29 He said to me, "How have you been driving this car for two years without knowing how
01:36 it operates?"
01:43 He said, "All you have to do is just sit down and read the book."
01:47 I realized that the car had been manufactured to make things more comfortable in tough conditions.
02:01 Things had been installed and in case of torrential rain, it could help my vision.
02:07 Lights had been installed on the side mirrors to give me warning about if somebody was coming
02:13 close to me or not to admonish me of a possible crash.
02:20 And in fact, brothers and sisters, I had been driving this truck for two years without any
02:26 clue of how it really operated.
02:29 It was in that context that my homolytical antennas went into full gear and God sent
02:36 me a pneumatological facsimile from the fax machines of heaven.
02:42 Because I realized that often similarly, our lives are in full gear and operation.
02:50 But it's true that often we have really no idea of what's available to us.
02:58 The Holy Ghost said in that context, "How many of us have our lives in full gear, been
03:03 moving and navigating, but really have no idea about how life is supposed to operate?"
03:12 I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that our great manufacturer has installed
03:16 certain things along your journey and in your path to make your life more comfortable in
03:23 tough conditions.
03:25 He's already ordained that in the case of torrential rain and arid and cold and dry
03:31 conditions and storms, that some things have already been calibrated to help your vision
03:37 to providentially place some sovereign warning signals in your way.
03:43 That God has already given you an inner auction to let you know when something is coming close
03:50 to you or even to help you in case of an inevitable crash.
03:57 Sometimes, brothers and sisters, in the words of Kyla, you and I need to sit down and read
04:03 the book to figure out how it operates and what the manufacturer has installed to help
04:10 us to navigate our journeys.
04:13 In this text, it was Bethlehem's baby boy, David, who seemed to suggest that too often
04:21 we're busy with our lives in full gear, that we fail to recognize what's available to us.
04:30 So often we're too preoccupied with trying to live that we fail to search the details
04:37 from the manufacturer.
04:40 God sometimes has to allow us to know that so much is available to us, but we are oblivious
04:49 to us.
04:50 And one of the things that's available to us is the perseverance and the security and
04:58 the commitment of the shepherd.
05:03 Many of us learned this psalm from our parents in nursery school.
05:10 We learned it in Bible study or vacation Bible school.
05:15 Many of us have heard these words before, but do we really realize what the shepherd
05:22 does for the sheep?
05:24 Amazingly, being a shepherd has been called the lowest of all works.
05:32 Shepherds were despised, shepherds were rejected in the times of antiquity.
05:39 In so much that if a court case convened, shepherds, their testimonies weren't even
05:44 deemed to be credible.
05:47 But in spite of that, David here says, "The Lord is my shepherd."
05:54 And David says, "In effect, I have been a shepherd boy, tending to my father's flock,
06:00 but I realized that while I have been a shepherd, I'm also a sheep."
06:06 And when you understand that you are a sheep, David says that there are some things available
06:12 to you if you would just allow yourself to be a sheep.
06:18 Challenge is too often we try to make ourselves ballers and shot callers.
06:23 Too often we want to see ourselves as HNICs and high on the social economic chambers of
06:30 life not realizing that when you and I would humble ourselves and become as sheep, there
06:39 are some things that we can get in lowliness that we can never get in haughtiness.
06:45 There are things that we can get in humility that we can never get in pride.
06:53 David here says that when you are a sheep, there are some benefits that the manufacturer
07:01 has already pre-calibrated, ordained, and assigned for your life.
07:05 If you would humble yourself, this text is quite sobering.
07:10 It's quite conflicting because a lot of us have been taught to rise to the forefront,
07:17 not realizing some blessings don't come as you climb the ladder.
07:21 Some blessings come as you lower yourself and humble yourself under the hand of the
07:27 almighty God.
07:29 David says here that I want to tell you that the shepherd has already calibrated some things
07:35 for those of you who are willing to be a sheep.
07:37 And this morning I want to encourage us all to have the testimony of a sheep.
07:43 There are some blessings that you won't get in trying to be the apostle, the prophet,
07:48 the bishop, the reverend doctor, the CEO.
07:51 Y'all not going to help me here.
07:54 That's some blessings that you can get by not trying to be the president or the chief
07:59 executive or trying to be the general manager.
08:02 There are some blessings that will come to your life if you just say to God, "You are
08:07 my shepherd and allow me to be a sheep."
08:13 First thing that I see in this text is, the first thing he says is he prioritizes us resting.
08:21 That's what David says, he prioritizes.
08:22 Someone said he prioritizes us resting.
08:25 Philip Keller in his book, "A Shepherd Looks at the 23rd Psalm," says something that was
08:30 interesting.
08:31 When I studied sheep, Philip Keller says, "What you have to understand about a sheep
08:35 is that it's nearly impossible for sheep to lie down."
08:41 If you think about the times you've been riding in the streets or have gone to a farm or gone
08:46 to an animal farm, it's nearly impossible, he says, for a sheep to lie down.
08:53 As a matter of fact, Philip Keller in his book says, "In order for a sheep to lie down,
08:58 four conditions must be met."
09:01 The first thing in order for a sheep to lie down is they must be free of fear.
09:10 Number two, they must be free of friction with others of their own kind.
09:17 Y'all not hearing me here.
09:19 The sheep can't lie down if it's fearful.
09:24 The sheep can't lie down if it's at friction with another sheep.
09:28 I never knew sheep could have friction with other sheep.
09:33 Now, I knew Negroes could have friction with other Negroes, but I never knew that sheep
09:40 could have friction with other sheep.
09:43 Number three, the sheep must be free from flies, parasites.
09:49 Torment must end.
09:50 They must be free from pests.
09:53 Fourthly, they must be free from famine.
09:57 If a sheep is not free from fear, free from friction, free from flies, and free from famine,
10:07 that sheep can never lie down.
10:12 It's hard for sheep to lie down and rest if it's hungry.
10:19 It's hard for sheep to lie down if flies and parasites are irritating it.
10:27 Some of y'all can't rest because your coworkers are flies and parasites that have gotten on
10:35 your last afrocentric nerve.
10:37 I wish somebody would talk to me here.
10:39 Sometimes you can't rest as a sheep if you got friction with others of your own kind,
10:45 your own family.
10:46 Help me hear somebody.
10:48 Maybe you are having friction with your own spouse or your boo, your bae, your partner.
10:53 Some of y'all here this morning, let's be honest.
10:57 There's some time you came to church and you got your hand around her now, but you just
11:01 got finished cussing her out on 285.
11:04 Come on, some of us got to realize that all of us have some issues and some challenges
11:09 within relationship with others who may look like a ... You're really not concerned with
11:14 what your enemies say.
11:16 You're really not concerned with what folk who don't like you say.
11:19 They can't get to you, but people that are close to your heart, nobody can hurt you like
11:24 folk who are close to you.
11:27 What Philip Keller says, when the sheep is not free from fear, not free from friction,
11:32 not free from flies, not free from famine, then the sheep can't rest.
11:39 He says, so what the shepherd has to do in order to make the sheep rest, he says, sheep
11:45 have to deal with two different types of grass.
11:50 The first grass is called tender grass.
11:54 The other grass is called tough grass.
11:59 The tender grass is for meat.
12:04 The tough grass is for mowing.
12:07 The tender grass is for refreshment and rest.
12:11 It's for nutrition and a nap.
12:14 It's for food and refreshing.
12:16 What Philip Keller says is interesting.
12:17 He says that in order to make a sheep lie down, Lord have mercy, in order to allow that
12:26 sheep to rest, once it frees it from fear, frees it from friction, frees it from flies,
12:35 frees it from famine.
12:37 Now he has to deal with the reality, the shepherd does of the grass.
12:43 Because if the grass is not green, then it's too tough for the sheep to lay in.
12:52 Are y'all going to help me here?
12:55 So he says, the one reason that some of us can't rest is because the stuff that you're
13:01 in is too hard for you to handle.
13:06 And if that grass is so rough, so tough and uncomfortable that the shepherd realizes that
13:16 in the roughest moments of your life, you're in some tough grass.
13:23 So what he'll have to do periodically is locate, let you stand in tough grass.
13:32 He surveys the pasture to find some tender grass because he knows the dexterity of the
13:41 skin of the sheep and the wool of the sheep.
13:44 And if the grass is too tough, Lord have mercy, the shepherd has to fix it.
13:50 Oh God, either find tender grass or make the tough grass palatable so you can stand and
13:59 back where you are.
14:02 Some of you wonder how you've been sleeping at night.
14:05 Some of you wondering how you've been surviving.
14:07 Here's what the shepherd would do for you.
14:09 If the grass is too tough for your resting, he'll strategically relocate you to tender
14:17 grass.
14:19 And if the grass, tender grass is not available, he will wet or soften the tough grass just
14:28 to make it comfortable enough for you to survive in a situation that historically would have
14:35 had you not being able to rest.
14:36 I thank God that as a sheep, I have a shepherd that will find tender grass for me to rest
14:45 when I'm about to lose my mind.
14:47 And if tender grass is not available, he'll soften the tough grass because he knows just
14:53 how much you're able to bear.
14:55 I wish I had somebody in this house can testify that tough grass will keep you up at night.
15:03 Tough grass will have you about to commit suicide.
15:07 When you heard that you had a lump or you were in stage three, that was tough grass.
15:12 Tough grass is hooking up your arm to an IV.
15:15 Tough grass is going through chemotherapy and radiation.
15:19 But what God will do, he can heal you in the tough grass or he'll soften the tough grass
15:26 by letting you hear these words, "Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him."
15:32 When you're in the tough grass, he'll speak to your ear, "I was wounded for your transgressions,
15:37 bruised for your..."
15:38 Am I talking to somebody who can give God praise?
15:41 In the toughest moments of your life, toughest moments of your life, he says, "So what I'll
15:54 do is I'll let you...
15:57 I'll free you from fear.
15:59 I'll free you from friction.
16:01 I'll free you from flies.
16:03 I'll free you from famine.
16:05 And I'll make the grass palatable because I want you to rest."
16:14 He says, "I got to get the grass palatable for your rest."
16:18 He says, "Here's why, because you won't lay down in it."
16:21 He says, "And also it's difficult because when you get up, it's going to be time to
16:25 graze.
16:26 And when it's time for you to graze, two of the signs of depression is can't sleep and
16:33 can't eat."
16:36 It's ironic that the shepherd wants to prioritize the ability of us to rest and eat.
16:45 Many of us handle depression in a variety of ways.
16:49 Some of us, when we're depressed and stressed and filled with anxiety, we can't eat.
16:55 There's some others of us when we're stressed and filled with anxiety, we eat everything.
17:01 Come on.
17:03 Sometimes people shop.
17:04 Sometimes people do drugs.
17:06 Sometimes people get involved in illicit activities as a coping mechanism.
17:11 Come on, help me here, somebody.
17:13 But what the shepherd does, he says, "I'm going to make sure that I prioritize your
17:18 resting by dealing with the grass.
17:20 But I realize that when you're in that grass, you might get hungry."
17:23 And here's the problem.
17:24 The tough grass, when it's time for you to graze, if you eat tough grass, it's too hard
17:31 to swallow.
17:35 Tough grass can get stuck in the larynx and choke you.
17:41 So he says, "So I will let you rest sometime, even if the grass is tough, but I'm going
17:47 to quickly move you to tender grass, to move you to something that's palatable so you're
17:55 able to deal with it."
17:57 And I'm so thankful that when life wanted to choke you as a sheep and suffocate you,
18:04 some of you have gone through some things that should have choked the life and suffocated
18:08 the life.
18:09 Let me be honest with you.
18:11 When you look around this room, you see over thousands of people in this room and thousands
18:15 are watching online in the overflow right now.
18:18 But don't get it twisted.
18:20 It's because somebody looks good and looks like they're at peace and look like things
18:29 are going well.
18:30 You could be seated right next to, in front of, behind somebody who had took everything
18:36 in their power just for them to make it to worship server this morning.
18:41 But can I tell you something?
18:43 It's a testimony that in the roughest of moments, he'll lead you to green grass.
18:49 And maybe somebody right now needs the Lord to lead you to some green grass.
18:53 Say, "Lord, would you prioritize my rest?"
18:57 Let me say something tonight.
18:58 Some of y'all have insomnia, can't sleep at night, you're taking melatonin, you're drinking
19:02 warm milk, you're counting sheep.
19:04 I got a word for you tonight.
19:06 God does not need you to be awake.
19:09 And if you are awake because of insomnia, I speak over your life that he that keepeth
19:15 Israel shall neither sleep nor slumber.
19:17 The Lord is thy keeper.
19:19 He's thy shade upon thy right hand.
19:21 The sun won't smite you by day, the mother moon by night.
19:23 I speak a word in your spirit that tonight I prophesy it's going to be the best night
19:30 of rest you've had in the last six months.
19:33 If you say, "Lord, just let me be a sheep."
19:40 So he, the shepherd prevents me.
19:47 He prioritize our resting.
19:53 But secondly, the sheep said, "The shepherd, he prevents us from stressing."
20:01 He prioritizes us resting, but he prevents us from stressing.
20:05 The Lord is my shepherd.
20:08 I shall not want.
20:11 Let me deal with it.
20:13 He maketh me to lie down.
20:25 A sheep is not typically smart.
20:33 A sheep doesn't know when to chill.
20:42 A sheep doesn't know when to say, "Enough is enough."
20:53 A sheep can be so tired that it does not know when to say, "I'm about to die."
21:08 So every now and then, the shepherd has to make you.
21:20 Some of us as sheep, you run into every relationship without any thought, any prayer, any discernment,
21:33 any oil.
21:38 He's tall, dark, and handsome.
21:42 Only prerequisite you need.
21:46 You got a 36, 24, 42.
21:51 That's all the prerequisite you need.
21:54 But God would say, "If I don't make you lie down, that could be why the second business
22:02 didn't work because you were on your way to having a nervous breakdown."
22:10 I've learned how to thank God for the disappointments in my life that I thought were disappointments,
22:17 but really they were divine.
22:20 God has to make me lie down to keep me alive.
22:24 I wish I had somebody.
22:25 I wish I had somebody.
22:26 I didn't understand it.
22:27 Some of you got put in the hospital.
22:28 Some of you, your blood pressure went up.
22:35 You had a headache and you were rebuking the enemy.
22:38 I said, "No, this ain't the enemy.
22:41 This was me."
22:42 I was simply trying to make you.
22:51 Because if I don't make you lie down, if I don't make you look at yourself, if I don't
22:56 make you examine your own dysfunctions, if I don't make you look at the stuff in your
23:00 life that's toxic and unhealthy, you're on your way to choking on tough grass.
23:09 So he prioritizes our resting.
23:12 He prevents us from stressing.
23:14 He says, "The Lord is my shepherd.
23:15 I shall not want him making me to lie down in green pastures."
23:19 Here it is.
23:20 He leadeth me.
23:26 Can I work here?
23:27 I can't decide.
23:30 Steal water.
23:33 Philip Keller says there's something about water, something about a sheep that's very
23:37 deep.
23:38 He says, "Listen, sheep can stress over sounds, over swiftness, over sights, and over scary
23:50 situations."
23:51 What a sheep hears can scare.
24:02 What a sheep sees can scare them.
24:08 What a sheep senses can share them.
24:11 So what he said is, "I have to lead them beside."
24:19 Steal water.
24:21 It can't be too noisy because too noisy waters will fright them.
24:32 It can't be stormy waters.
24:36 Stormy waters can cause dizziness and they jump in the water and drown.
24:43 Not even stagnant waters.
24:48 I had to research what's the difference between steal and stagnant.
24:55 Stagnant waters can be filled with disease.
25:03 Stagnant waters can have a toxic and a negative pH and you drink from a stagnant pool.
25:17 That can have you diseased and drown.
25:20 You can die from what you put your gut.
25:24 Some of you call him your boo, but he's really stagnant waters.
25:31 Some of you call her your babe, but she's really stagnant waters.
25:36 Let me tell you something, you can't tell sometimes what the eye.
25:42 I'm talking about a very small line of demarcation between steal waters and stagnant waters.
25:49 Just because it looks like it's steal, it could be stagnant.
25:56 Just because it looks good to you.
25:58 Y'all got the brakes on, dude, but I feel like pushing everything that look good to
26:02 you ain't good for you and everything that glitters.
26:06 I know that's right.
26:08 I say God give me discernment to help me to discover what are the steal waters and what
26:14 are the stagnant waters.
26:16 And if there's anything in my life that I'm partaking of that's about to kill me, I pray
26:26 that God would change our appetites right now.
26:36 We've been talking all week since Wednesday about God and sexuality.
26:43 And somebody sent a question in that says, pastor, what happens if I'm dating a man and
26:48 he has nothing going for him?
26:51 He ain't spiritual.
26:54 Don't love God.
26:56 Don't want to work.
27:01 Teach me any kind of way.
27:07 But in the mid hour, pastor, he know exactly how to put it down.
27:22 While I'm not diminishing in any way, the role of affection and the role of attraction,
27:45 I'm not diminishing that in any way.
27:47 However, I am suggesting in a real sense that there's more to life, there's more to relationship
27:59 than what happens in the midnight hour.
28:04 You will never be able to pay, call Georgia Power and say, oh, he laid it down last night.
28:11 You will never be able to call your card note folk and say she twerked on me.
28:16 I could do this for hours.
28:20 That ain't got nothing to do with raising kids.
28:22 They ain't got nothing to do with building a family and a life and having a legacy.
28:27 You got to say, God, help me discern between the still waters and the stagnant waters.
28:40 Because the older you get, the less that's going to matter anyway.
28:49 That's going to come a time when both of y'all are dried up and rested and ain't got much
28:54 in you, but five minutes max.
28:56 I wish I had somebody to talk to me.
28:57 You say, God, help me to discern between the still waters and the stagnant water.
29:18 Anything that you're seeing, sensing, any kind of sound that's got you stressed and
29:26 got you worried, it is not the will of God that his sheep was spending their lives stressed
29:37 out.
29:38 And you don't have to discover 80% of what stresses us never happens.
29:43 I wish I had a witness here.
29:45 80% of the stuff we worry about never comes to fruition.
29:55 Many of us worry about tomorrow, not knowing philosophically tomorrow never comes.
30:03 Because if tomorrow did come, we call it today.
30:12 So Lord, here's the prayer of a sheep.
30:15 Help me to take one day at a time.
30:22 One day at a time, sweet Jesus, that's all I'm asking of you.
30:28 Give me the strength to do everything that I have to do.
30:32 Yesterday's gone, sweet Jesus, and tomorrow may never be mine.
30:37 But Lord, for my sake, help me as a sheep to take.
30:46 You get your name and say, take it.
30:57 So just born of a sheep, the shepherd prioritizes our resting.
31:06 The shepherd prevents us from stressing.
31:10 But third and finally, the shepherd provides us with a blessing.
31:19 The Lord is my shepherd.
31:23 I shall not want.
31:27 He makes me to lie down in green, not tough, but tender green grass.
31:36 Can I push it forward?
31:38 Then he said this, he leadeth me beside still waters, not stormy waters, not stagnant waters,
31:52 still waters.
31:53 But then third thing he says with this, he restoreth.
32:02 Y'all not helping me this morning.
32:04 He restoreth my soul.
32:07 Give me five minutes.
32:08 I wanted to dissect that and I recognize there's a bit of inconclusivity, mystery, and ambiguity
32:17 regarding soul.
32:21 Now the challenge is often we use the word soul and spirit synonymously.
32:33 You say my spirit bears witness.
32:37 My soul loves Jesus.
32:40 My soul been anchored in the Lord.
32:45 My spirit tells me something ain't right.
32:49 Sometimes we use those words interchangeably like they mean the same thing.
32:55 They are not parallels.
32:56 They are not synonyms.
33:00 It really invokes and denotes and connotes the triune nature of humanity.
33:12 What the Psalmist is talking about here is a difference between, we are Trinitarian in
33:18 essence.
33:20 We are body, we are spirit, and we're soul.
33:28 Can I dig a little deeper?
33:29 The spirit is the creator in us.
33:34 The body is the container he gave us.
33:38 The soul is the connection inside of us.
33:43 The spirit, that's who you are.
33:47 The body, that's where you live.
33:50 The soul, that's what you feel.
33:54 The spirit, that's divine inspiration.
33:57 The body, that's the spirit's transportation.
34:00 The soul, that's human appropriation.
34:04 Those are three different things.
34:06 The soul, what is that?
34:07 That's my feelings.
34:10 That's my passion.
34:11 That's my desire.
34:13 That's my appetite.
34:15 That's my will.
34:16 That's the seed of my emotions.
34:18 That's my mind.
34:23 So when the Bible here speaks of soul, the Greek word I like to use is the word psuche,
34:31 psyche rather.
34:32 Psyche, where we get the word psychology from.
34:36 Psyche.
34:38 It's referring to my emotions, my mind, my feelings, my passions, my desires, my appetite,
34:51 my will.
34:55 So inside of us all, we've got the spirit part of us, that's the God consciousness,
35:00 but we also have the soul, that's my emotions.
35:04 And sometimes it's hard to discern which one we're being led by.
35:13 The pneuma is the spirit part of us.
35:17 The psyche deals with the soul.
35:19 So what happens in our lives is sometimes I think I'm being spirit led, but I'm being
35:24 emotionally led.
35:26 And if you're not careful, they can be so close that you can't demarcate.
35:35 You can think you've been led by the spirit, but it's really your emotions.
35:43 If you're not careful, your emotions can get the best of you.
35:51 And when the soul errors or wonders, look what he says.
35:56 He says, he restores my soul, which means that sometimes our feelings, passions, desires,
36:09 appetite, will, emotions, thoughts can be depleted.
36:20 You can emotionally be on empty.
36:28 You can be in a relationship and lose all emotions that you used to have toward it.
36:34 Fellas, let me tell you what you want.
36:42 You don't want a woman to stop.
36:47 What's most important is not when a woman, your wife, stop giving you her body.
36:59 A woman, your wife, can give you her body.
37:06 And that's important to you because Willard Hart has booked his knees, her knees, said
37:09 that's all we want.
37:15 But your wife is a strange creature because she has the ability to feel sorry for you.
37:28 Or feel a sense of obligation to allow you to have her body and have no emotional...
37:42 Okay, y'all, I wish I had some.
37:43 I wish I had...
37:44 I wish I...
37:45 And you think you're doing something.
37:53 And she thinking about what she going to cook.
37:56 Oh, okay, I wish I...
38:00 What you don't want is when she loses her emotions, her passion, you want her to still
38:06 get mad.
38:09 You want her to still be concerned about where you're going.
38:13 You want her to be concerned when she feel like you're flirting and she going off.
38:17 You want that.
38:20 Cause the moment she don't care where you go, who you go with.
38:32 Y'all got to break.
38:33 I wish I had some.
38:34 I wish I...
38:35 I don't need the five women to help me preach around here.
38:45 A prophet once said when a woman's fed up.
39:02 I'm trying to show you the difference between the body and the emotions.
39:10 When she starts to protect her emotions from you, you might whip.
39:35 You can lose all sense of emotional connection.
39:44 Some of you work on a job, you used to be excited about it, but not a job that used
39:49 to excite you, now you feel.
39:52 It's just...
39:55 You would go anywhere else tomorrow if you had something to replace it.
40:01 And so we leave people, we manage people and we expect them just to show up.
40:06 I'm paying.
40:07 That's I get that.
40:09 But the moment you stop caring for people's emotions and see people as just bodies and
40:17 some of you in supervisor position, you treat people just like they are a body.
40:29 You care nothing about the families, nothing about what they're going through, just show
40:32 up.
40:33 Everything ain't numbers.
40:34 Everything ain't filling a quota.
40:36 Something's about people.
40:38 Y'all got the brakes on me right now.
40:42 I know I'm telling...
40:43 And the moment people disconnect and no longer care, ask God if you're leading people, show
40:50 me where my people are emotionally.
40:55 It's just because they're physically present.
40:59 And stress and pressure and disconnect can cause people to emotionally disconnect.
41:04 Some great prophets once put it this way, "Your body's here with me, but your mind is
41:11 on...
41:12 You're missing me."
41:17 I got somebody who heard that prophet too.
41:19 You got to have some connection.
41:22 I want to make sure y'all paying attention this morning, all right?
41:27 You got the body, you got the soul, you got the spirit.
41:34 And what David said, I like this about the shepherd, he says, "The sheep every now and
41:38 then, your soul can wander.
41:45 Your soul can be depleted.
41:48 Your soul can be dry.
41:52 Your soul can be disconnected.
41:55 Your mind ain't right.
41:57 Your emotions ain't right.
41:59 You feel off."
42:00 Anybody ever got this morning, sometimes you just feel off?
42:05 You ever got up and you don't know what's quite...
42:07 You don't know what's...
42:08 There's something just don't feel.
42:11 Sometimes that's stuff in your body, but sometimes that's stuff in your soul.
42:14 Here's what...
42:15 You feel nothing can be wrong in your body, but your soul, your mind is off.
42:26 Some of y'all know my story a few years ago.
42:28 My godmama died one week.
42:30 My mama died the next.
42:32 My best friend died three days after my mama.
42:34 My sister died three weeks after my mom.
42:38 Had to bury four people in 28 days.
42:40 And here's what got me.
42:41 I had never heard this before.
42:43 My oldest sister, Charlita, two months after my mom died, got very ill, went to the doctor.
42:50 And the doctor said she was in cardiac arrest.
42:52 And it wasn't blood pressure.
42:55 Wasn't a blockage.
42:57 The doctor said she was suffering from broken heart syndrome.
43:06 What happens when nothing's wrong with your arteries, but your emotions are so depleted
43:16 that it's almost back to...
43:18 My sister almost died.
43:20 They call it psychosomatic illnesses.
43:25 Psycho psyche.
43:27 Your mind, your emotions can make your body.
43:39 And what David says is this.
43:42 When your soul, when your feelings, your passions, your desires, your appetites, your emotions,
43:49 your thoughts are torn, tattered, and empty, we have a shepherd.
43:57 Who can restore.
44:07 He can breathe life back into when life has made you weary, exhausted, and sad.
44:16 When your soul is in error, when it wanders, it literally became really like this in Hebrew.
44:21 He causes your life to return.
44:28 He quickens and he will cause you to live again.
44:36 I feel the Holy Ghost right here.
44:38 I don't know who I'm talking to, but I felt that in my toes.
44:44 And I don't care who you are.
44:46 If you're 80, if you're 18, your emotions, your feelings, your mind, your disappointments
44:56 can affect you so much where you can't even function.
45:08 I know some guys that are athletes.
45:11 I work with them every day.
45:13 Division one athletes, future pros.
45:15 Who are tip top, tip top shape physically.
45:22 They studied film, they know their assignment, but they get word that mama got put out back
45:29 home or dad got on dope in Miami.
45:37 And all the preparation they did to get ready to play on Saturday, nothing wrong physically.
45:45 But because the soul, so I came in there to tell you, learn scripture.
45:58 That's fine to help your spirit eat right.
46:02 Exercise.
46:03 We should do that.
46:04 We should do take better care of our temples.
46:08 But the question I want to ask you today is how is your soul?
46:18 Jay I'm going to stop right there.
46:19 I got some more, but I need to stop right there.
46:25 I want you, I love you too.
46:27 I want you to think today.
46:31 I want you to close your eyes for a second.
46:36 And I want you to ask yourself the question, how, how, how am I in my thought life?
46:45 Have I changed recently in my feelings?
46:47 Do I have, have I, have I seemingly lost my joy, my passion, my mojo?
46:56 What is in your life that's draining your soul?
47:05 I heard her go say some of us got people in our lives and they are analogous to lights
47:12 being left on to a battery.
47:18 You got some folk in your life perhaps who are just like what lights left on can do to
47:24 the battery of a car.
47:30 Is it possible that you feel defeated not because it's the devil, but because you got
47:37 too much attached to your soul today in the name of Jesus.
47:44 For those of you in this room, I came today with a word.
47:51 Don't just love God with your mind, but loving with your soul.
48:00 Love enough with your soul to say, restore, restore, restore.
48:05 Oh God, God, restore, restore, restore.
48:14 For those who feel like life is difficult right now, their emotions, their mind, their
48:21 passions, disappointments have stripped them.
48:23 Would you restore, restore, restore?
48:28 Give us our life back.
48:31 Give us our energy back.
48:32 Give us our passion back.
48:37 Whether it be cancer, whether it be cancer, whether it be cancer, whether it be domestic
48:42 violence, whether it's lupus, whether it's even suicidal thoughts that have crept into
48:50 our souls, crept into our thoughts.
48:54 Oh, in the name of Jesus, help us to not conform to this world, but be transformed by the renewal
49:00 of our minds.
49:02 I speak in the words of Gaius, beloved, I wish above all that you prosper, be in good
49:06 health even as your soul prospers.
49:11 Have you in this place.
49:13 And for those, and for those who feel like, oh God, those who feel like, Lord, everything
49:20 is broken in pieces, help us to give you our, give it all to you.
49:25 Would you put us back together, put our souls back together, put our souls back together,
49:30 restore our souls in Jesus name.
49:34 Amen.
49:35 Would you look at neighbor and say, he is the God who can restore your soul.