Pastor Aaron Cordeiro
June 9, 2019 - W1923

Training Your Soul

For the Crossroads of Life

Matters of the Heart

Pastor Aaron Cordeiro

June 8 & 9, 2019

Welcome, everyone! It’s so good to see all your smiling faces. I bring greetings from Mom and Dad; and, also, greetings from Pastors Jon and Cyndi Burgess—they’re taking a little break and enjoying some R&R with family that they so deserve! 

Today, we’re continuing our series, Matters of the Heart. We learned last week that there are four different parts to the heart—as my dad so gracefully drew a picture of a heart and explained the different parts. We also talked about the intentions of the heart. This week, we will talk about the soul, our emotions.

Matthew 22:37-40 NIV says, “³⁷ Jesus replied: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’  ³⁸ This is the first and greatest commandment. ³⁹And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’  ⁴⁰ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

The Bible is saying that if we have difficulty loving God and loving people, it’s as though the rest of the Bible doesn’t matter to us because we can’t even do the Greatest Commandment: Love God and Love People! The Bible says that if we understand this powerful commandment, then God’s words and His truth will be so real to us; and we will always step into His best for our family, future, and everything that He has for us.  

Often, when our intentions intersect with our emotions, thoughts, and actions, there can be collisions in our faith. Did you know that nearly half of all car accidents happen at intersections, and about 20 percent are fatal? It’s usually because we’re distracted—in a hurry, fail to stop and look. This makes sense because at these moments, we're all going in different directions.

The Bible calls this The Crossroads Of Life: Places where we come across people, ideals, circumstances, different ideas, that are all heading in different directions—where a majority of our emotional collisions happen. For example, one of the toughest ones is when someone says one thing but they do something different; or they say something and they live a different way. 

In marriage, we have differing views on finances, children, or intimacy. Maybe with our children we have different views on chores, expectations, or what a clean room looks like. It all happens at the intersections of life. Maybe you feel that you’re worth more at work and your boss is sort of ignoring that you deserve a raise—but you haven’t had one in a while, and your blood starts to boil—it’s called The Crossroads Of Life! 

It's difficult to love God and people at the crossroads when you're super-irritated and frustrated and you just can't stand it anymore! 

Let’s look at the soul:  The soul, according to the Bible, includes the spirit, personality, emotions, and senses. It’s what makes you unique!  

The book of Hebrews says something very interesting about coming to the intersections of life— that we can upgrade our soul and train our senses and emotions!

Hebrews 5:12-14 NIV says, “¹² In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! ¹³ Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. ¹⁴ But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.”

I once heard that emotion is sort of like a chariot being pulled by two sets of horses: One set of horses represents emotions of love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, faith, kindness, and self?control (Fruit of the Spirit)—the good stuff!  The other set of emotions is wickedness, such as, anger, lust, resentment, and disrespect.  

When we come to a tough situation at the crossroads of life and our senses aren't trained, one set of emotions will have a tendency to run off. And if we don't know how to pull back our senses, our soul and emotions will be running off!   

In order to train our senses, we must understand how to rein our senses back—living by the Fruit of the Spirit. The only way to do that is to get into the presence of God and understand His heart for our lives, and a transfer will happen.  The more you hang out with God, the more you will look like God; and the more you worship God, the more you become like Him!  Whatever you worship you become like.  This is the reason coming to church, worshiping, and spending time in God's word is so incredibly important in training our soul.

Jeremiah 6:16 NIV says, “¹⁶ This is what the Lord says: ‘Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls. But you said, ‘We will not walk in it.’”

Jeremiah is saying that every one of us can find rest for our souls! Do you need more peace in your life? Are you wrestling with way too much anxiety and your mind is spinning out? It’s not always easy; but, the next time, if you will implement some of the qualities of faith that God has given us, it will prepare you to find rest for your souls. 

WHEN AT THE CROSSROADS: 

Often, we’re distracted at the crossroads and go right through the intersection and have a collision. We don’t stop and look both ways; we just rush right through. So the next time at an intersection:

1. STOP -observe and navigate  

2 Corinthians 10:5 NIV says, “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”

Paul is saying anything that sets itself up to demolish your knowledge of Christ or the things of God in your life—just stop, imprison it, and interrogate what it's saying! We can upgrade our soul and train our senses:

Hebrews 5:12-14 NIV says, “¹² In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! ¹³ Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. ¹⁴ But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.”

2. ASK 

Luke 11:9 NASB says, “So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.”

Our problem could be that we’re afraid to ask, or too prideful to ask, or don’t know how to ask.  

Jeremiah 31:21 NIV says,“Set uproad signs; put up guideposts.Take note of the highway, the road that you take. Return, Virgin Israel, return to your towns.”

Let me give three signposts/guideposts that I believe will be helpful: 

a. Wise counsel.  Proverbs 24:14 NASB says, “Know that wisdom is thus for your soul; If you 

    find it, then there will be a future, And your hope will not be cut off.”

b. Prayer.Talk daily to God, as a friend! It won’t happen in a day; but it happens daily. 

c. Scripture. Daily devotions. God will speak to you and tell you who He created you to be; and He will lead you every step of the way.  Scripture is like a signpost that keeps us, and when we start drifting, the Holy Spirit will remind us to stay on it. John 14:13-14 NKJV says, “¹³And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. ¹⁴If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.”

When we do life in Jesus’ name, His words will become our words; His thoughts will become our thoughts; His feelings will become our feelings. He knows what we need before we even know we need it! 

The goal in life is not the appearance of a successful faith, but the reality of successful faith. God will not bless how we pretend to be or hope to be, but who we’re becoming, which lead us to the next point: 

3. ACT

When you hit the crossroads of life, stop, look, ask the right questions: Where’s the ancient path? Jeremiah then says when you find it, walk in it! 

James 1:23-25 NLT says, “²³ For if you listen to the word and don’t obey, it is like glancing at your face in a mirror. ²⁴ You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like. ²⁵ But if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free, and if you do what it says and don’t forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it.”

Jesus teaches us to take action and shows us how to do that through serving others, especially at the crossroads of life. He did it at the cross, the greatest intersection of life and death. He took action when He came from heaven down to earth to give His life for people, that we would have life everlasting. He knew the struggles and the crossroads we would face in life, and He did something about it—He was nailed to the cross for your sins and mine! 

Let’s ask God on a daily basis that His faith, His word, and His truth be transferred into our lives, so that we could actually walk that out—The world needs to see Jesus at the crossroads of their life!

The Bible says that God has given us a future and a hope, not of calamity, but that we might have a future and hope (Jeremiah 29:11). He is looking out for our welfare. If you’re drifting in your heart, intentions, emotions, or thoughts, set up signposts along the way that will remind you to get back on the way!

STUDY QUESTIONS: 

1.     How will you apply the crossroad steps to a difficult situation in your life?
2.     How will you influence others in your life to follow these steps?
3.     What are ways you can improve upon making better decisions when at the crossroads?
4.     Reflect on the crossroads of your life, how have you reacted and what have you learned?