How's Your Soul? Small Group Bible Study by Judah Smith - Session One

hey i'm judah and i'm so excited to share this journey with you about the soul what we've put together in this project and in this resource is incredibly meaningful to me it's been an intimate journey that that I've been on and frankly the community that I get to lead and pastor has been on I have the privilege one of the great privileges of my life is to pass through the city church it's a community that ranges from Seattle to LA and Guadalajara it wasn't long ago the idea of a healthy soul just hit me personally from third John and verse to write that amazing verse that says brothers and sisters I want you to prosper and be in health even as your soul prospers it dawned on me that you can have everything on the outside but you can be unwell unsuccessful and small on the inside I believe true success is actually can't be determined engaged on the outside I think it's truly determined on the inside it was Jesus quoted as saying what does it profit a man to gain the whole world but lose his soul gain everything on the outside but have nothing on the inside these verses motivate me personally and I'm praying that they're gonna motivate you is we take time through these sessions asking first of all right from the outset how's your soul how is your soul like right now let's just kind of go there how's my soul how's your soul now probably about this time you're like okay how do I answer that what is the soul how do I know that okay that's why we're doing these sessions it's really why we put together this project in this resource we're going to do our best to define the soul understand it and I think find some some handles and some understanding on how I can develop and nurture a healthy inside I truly believe that much of life if not most of life is who you are on the inside God cares about that and he designed you and he made you I'm super excited to share this journey with you so let's get started but I want to start off in the beginning of time I want to start off with the beginning of the creation of man because I think there's an amazing point to be made something incredible for us to witness at the beginning of time so Genesis 2 records for us when God made Adam right the first human being the first man and it says this in Genesis 2 I think it's verse 7 it says and the Lord God formed Adam from the dust of the ground he formed him so now we've got a form right we know that we've got he's got eyes he's got lips hips and fingertips right like he's that he's the full meal deal and yet the Bible says and then God breathed into his nostrils and the Genesis account records and he became a living creature he became alive isn't it interesting until man received the breath of God he was a lifeless form that he was not alive he was not living now that will tell you something about the way that were made the way our form is not what makes us alive my outside is not what makes me a living creature my soul is what makes me alive and do you know what my soul is made of my soul is made of the breath of God the truth is this may kind of sound creepy and a little extra spiritual but we're all living on borrowed breath we're literally living on the borrowed breath of God man did not exist though you could see there was a form there was no life until God breathed into man so that for us provides a blueprint it provides a bit of framework to say this is where the soul began the soul began the moment God shared his breath with mankind now that's a radical statement and when we're going to utilize together as we as we think through this a little bit but I want to challenge you with with one thought here just on the outset and that is how is your soul okay how is your soul that's the big question but then I want to ask another question um when is the last time your soul was home okay now that may seem out of the blue right like from from left field but what is the last time your soul was home I think this is imperative to having a successful soul to having a healthy so to having a soul that God designed this for so I'm asking the question was last time your souls been home and what do I mean let me say it like this um I travel a fair bit and there is Dorothy was right there is no place like home right I could click my heels and so you start thinking about life and being home and like is it weird but does your house smell a certain way and when you walk in you're like I'm home right it's like your family musk right like your home you're finally there and you know all your spots right you know all your quirks of your home and any hair you do see in the bathroom it's your hair you know so it's not like too freaky but it's there's no place like home and your home may not be big it may not be opulent and amazing but it's hey this is this is my home and studies have been done and stories and articles written that prove that there is something profoundly healthy for a human being to have a habitation to have some some terra firma to have some ground that they can say hey this is mine and have some some space to kind of retreat have some space to have some reprieve and relaxation it's important to be home you ever traveled a lot you ever been on a long stretch of traveling and you know that you need to get back home to find the rest and reprieve that only home offers right I mean this is I'm saying this right now and you're like yeah we you know we get the point but if you ever considered that quite possibly your soul has a home and I think a lot of us I know in my own life I live nomadic oftentimes on the inside I have a restless soul a a homeless soul when does my soul go home furthermore where does my soul go home we're asking how's your soul and you're thinking well I don't think it's very good what should I do I think you should send your soul home I think your soul needs some home time it needs to find its place that it can call this is where I belong this is my space instead I think we become at nomadic we're here there and everywhere but our soul never seems to find its it's ground zero never seems to find its place that I this is where I belong how much do we need that physically tangibly but how much do we need that internally and invisibly it's imperative that we have a home for our soul so what's the soul's home well I'd like to present the idea that if you go back to the beginning of time in the first creation of man that the breath of God is what created the soul of a human being now that's the interesting thought for a second if God's breath is our origin if it's the origin of our soul and the breath that I now breathe is borrowed from him how then can my soul be home I think I got an idea and and honestly and I think this is worthy of discussion and maybe even some debate but I think I have an idea and I think you can see it in Scripture now it brings me to one of the most famous song ever written right right in the middle of the Bible book of Psalm right collection of all these ornate beautiful divine songs that God inspired incredible artists to write but there's a Psalm Psalm 103 one writer and author wrote Psalms 103 is a piece of literature without peer that it actually might be the single most beautiful piece of literature ever written now of course inspired and completely divine but it is its ornate Psalms 103 is famous for the verse that's repeated over and over bless the Lord O my soul and all that is within me bless His Holy Name write an awesome song grown-up singing in church bless the Lord O my soul in fact Psalms 103 is made up of 22 verses I'm just saying that's the exact number of the Hebrew alphabet that's A to Z in the Hebrew which I just just I'm just saying it is pretty amazing that one of the pristine Psalms in the whole book is the exact number of the Hebrew alphabet and it starts Psalms 103 bless the Lord O my soul and how it ends bless the Lord O my soul do you know if you look up that word soul in Hebrew do you know what it you know what's translated its actual meaning is is breath its breath do you know what the word bless there in Hebrew means it means to affectionately gratefully praise God I I think we're getting a hint from an ancient songwriter an artist inspired by God I think we're getting a hint of what could I say what life is all about it's taking your borrowed breath and using it to articulate adoration Thanksgiving and praise to the one who gave you the breath in the first place I'd like to argue right here right now that when you use your breath the breath of God is the essential characteristic of your soul we know that and when you use the essential characteristic of your soul breath and you form it into and turn it into praise I would argue there's something that resonates in the deepest core of your being and says I think I might be home I think I might be home I brought friends to church environments my whole life right and I still have friends who have yet to decide to follow Jesus but I invite him to hang with our community all the time and I have lost count how many times I've been preaching now for 20 years believe it or not I've lost count how many times I'll have a friend who doesn't really understand what's going on doesn't really know the church scene and we're singing a song that he doesn't really know the lyrics to but is standing there and sure enough here come two tears and they're rolling down his face and here's what I often hear the vibe in here is amazing like I I can't explain what's happening but like this is uh this is spiritual man this is supernatural what I think is happening is something on the inside of that human being in an environment where breath is being formed into praise something inside that human being goes I think I'm home and I don't even know why I feel this way are the emotions that I'm experiencing and even while I'm talking right now I mean I can feel the angst in so many people's soul they got no home imagine one of the most heartbreaking things in the world are people that we see in this life on earth who don't have a physical home homeless it's it's painful but how even more excruciating is to think that people have ornate homes beautiful physical structures that house their bodies and yet deep on the inside they've never been home they've never found that that place bless the Lord O my soul I think the psalmist has given us a key when you do that I think you find home I'm gonna throw this in there Psalms 150 in verse 6 the last song ever recorded given to us it's as if the psalmist is summarizing all of life he says this let everything that has breath let everything that has soul bless affectionately gratefully praise God praise the Lord let everything that has breath praise the Lord yeah it's crazy people have no idea how powerful a statement like this is god I love you god you're amazing thank you for another day you are using your borrowed breath and you are shaping it in to adoration and praise to the one who gave you the breath in the first place and I truly believe something on the inside of you goes I'm home I'm home we even used this phrase as people come to our church facilities stole it from my pastor we say welcome home because I believe in that environment of prayer and praise your your soul is gonna find it it's home that takes me to one last story that I want to share with you that that actually happens in a home and I don't think that's an accident it actually happens in a living room and it's the home of Mary and Martha two of the closest friends Jesus they have a little brother named Lazarus if you're familiar with the scripture and the Bible tells us in Luke's Gospel that Jesus was at their home essentially for for dinner just hanging out with Mary and Martha and the Bible tells us that we can kind of tell the personalities of the two ladies the two sisters right Martha is the older kind of type a driven probably pays the bills and keeps everything in line Mary seems to be like the frustrated artist you know like the creative and you can kind of see their personalities in the passage and as the story unfolds Jesus is there essentially in the living room of their home and the Bible says Martha was in the kitchen of course she was right that's her personality and she's getting stuff done and it's the savior of the world it's the Messiah I'm gonna fix him a meal I'm gonna I'm gonna take care of him right meanwhile in the living room probably by a couch Mary is sitting on the floor Jesus is seated and he's he's teaching he's probably telling stories and the Bible says Mary's just sitting there and she's just mesmerized right can you imagine Jesus comes over for dinner in your home and he just starts talking right she's hanging on his every word and the Bible says that Martha classic sister sibling rivalry walks in and says really Jesus really like I'm in here right I'm doing the right thing I'm serving you meanwhile my little sister right the helpless creative is on the floor doing nothing just listening like please tell her please tell her classic dysfunction like she's right there Martha could tell Mary but have you ever done this like mom could you please tell us like your siblings right there she's like this is classic she's like Jesus please tell her right she could have told her please tell her to get up and help me and you won't believe what happens next this this literally happened Jesus goes no I won't and you're like I'm sorry Jesus aren't you about serving aren't you about doing stuff like Martha is the noble one here right and he Jesus looks at looks at Martha right in in her apron probably and says Martha you really worried aren't you you're really troubled and anxious in other words your soul is restless you're Restless on the ends he wasn't observing her outfit he wasn't saying your your Iraq that wasn't that wasn't a statement a relationship to how she looked it was a statement of the state of her insight you're anxious troubled and worried about many things aren't you Martha doesn't seem to argue apparently she is and he says I'm not gonna not gonna tell Mary to get up and go help you in the kitchen and one translation says that Jesus is quoted saying the one essential thing in life mary has chosen and it will not be taken away from her and then the scene closes and it's kind of like wait a second right and it's Jesus saying Martha you you should do this one thing okay hold on for a second right scene cut let's stop wait a second what what was Mary doing again Mary's not doing anything right like what do you mean the one thing think about it she wasn't talking she wasn't taking notes there's no record of that she wasn't interjecting she was just sitting and listening in her home Jesus makes this outlandish statement I mean think about the ramifications and implications of what Jesus just said in a living room in a home he bottom lines all of existence think about it poor Martha in an apron gets the full meal deal right here he says there's one essential thing in all of the human existence and your little sister has just discovered it or this like I'm sorry what that's so challenging for me what is Mary doing right if you're like me I kind of picture the scene and I walk around the room in my mind like observing right like a studio scene you're like okay Martha what okay Jesus what's the point here think about it what does Jesus trying to say well we know he's saying do what Mary did what did Mary do ah she listened she sat there she was with Jesus wasn't she it wasn't complicated wasn't difficult it wasn't layered she wasn't earning it she wasn't quoting all her Bible knowledge she was listening to the love of Jesus and that Jesus said is the one thing that's essential come on is there maybe a connection that there in a home in a living room and this young lady is sitting there and Jesus says and this is the one essential thing in life as if to say and this is when your home home sweet home right here when you are near to your Creator and you are leaning into his love not earning doing going here and there not working but listening being with Jesus sitting in his presence I think that's home I think that is where the soul begins to find true health and meaning and buoyancy you know God's not far Jesus is not funny like well Jesus came to my living room I listen he's near to you he's not far we know this God came near in Jesus and he will never leave us nor forsake us I want to challenge you well it's how would you do what Mary did what's that nothing essentially to sit to listen to maybe read read the Bible narrative and let it soak in to your soul I think it's in that space you're truly home and health begins to be discovered on the inside

Channel: Thomas Nelson Publishers

Views: 174,756

Rating: 4.8820434 out of 5

Keywords: How's Your Soul?, Judah Smith, Hows your soul, Thomas Nelson, Small Group, BIble Study

Id: QaM-QRgBpLM

Length: 19min 36sec (1176 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 20 2016