May 10, 2025 • 26 mins
Welcome to Moody Presents with Mark Jobe … senior pastor of New Life Community Church in Chicago and president of Moody Bible Institute. Today, we’re winding down our Defiance series and we'll learn that the Bible says we're made up of a body, mind, and spirit … and they all need to be working together in order for us to be set apart for God’s purposes. Part 1 of this last message is called, Reclaiming Your Whole Person and it’s a lesson from the book of First Thessalonians. So, let’s jump in.
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Episode Transcript
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S1 (00:01):
Today on Moody Presents with Mark Joe.
S2 (00:04):
There are various components to what make us an individual
or make us a person. He mentions first the spirit,
second the soul, and third the body. If we don't
understand the fact that God wants to sanctify all of us,
not just a part of us, then we'll miss the mark.
S1 (00:24):
Welcome to Moody Presents with Mark Jobe, senior pastor of
New Life Community Church in Chicago and president of Moody
Bible Institute. I'm John Gieger, and today we're winding down
our message series titled defiance. Right up front. We wanted
to connect with our teacher, Doctor Jobe, for some critical background.
Pastor Mark, the Bible says that we're all made up
(00:46):
of a body, mind, and spirit, and they all need
to be working together in order for us to be
set apart for God's purposes. So what is it we
must know here?
S3 (00:55):
Yes, you know they do. And the picture that I
always have in mind is of of a team of
climbers that they are held together by ropes.
S1 (01:05):
Yes.
S3 (01:06):
And if one falls, hopefully it'll hold them up. But
sometimes one falls and drags the rest down.
S1 (01:11):
Gotcha.
S3 (01:12):
And that's the way it is with our body, soul
and spirit. Both are victories. Can be dragged up by
those three. Or are defeat can be pulled down by
those three. And so this is a powerful passage and
with some great, great insights.
S1 (01:29):
Very very helpful. Thank you. Pastor Mark. Always appreciate the visit.
Today's message is called reclaiming your whole Person. And it's
a lesson from the book of First Thessalonians. So let's
jump right in. Here's pastor Mark Jobe on Moody Presents.
S2 (01:44):
I'm going to be reading out of verses 23 through
28 of first Thessalonians chapter five. I'm reading out of
the New International Version and it says this May God Himself,
the God of peace sanctify you through and through. May
(02:06):
your whole spirit, soul, and body be kept blameless at
the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who
calls you is faithful, and he will do it. Brothers,
pray for us. Greet all the brothers with a holy kiss.
I charge you before the Lord to have this letter
read to all the brothers. The grace of our Lord
(02:29):
Jesus Christ be with you. As Paul is wrapping up
his time in this letter speaking to the Thessalonians, he
has the most powerful exhortation yet at the end of
his letter. Sometimes when you write a letter, you save
(02:50):
the best for the end, right? The final punch Paul
is actually challenging them with a concept, And I want
you to see what he says in verse 23. He says,
May God Himself the God of peace. Now there's a
word in the Hebrew referring to peace that shalom. This
(03:15):
is not that word. That word refers to wholeness and
righteousness and justice. This word actually in the Greek is
the word for harmony or tranquility or peace. So may
the God of harmony. You know what harmony is? Harmony
is when you take distinct elements and make them mesh
into one. When voices harmonize, uh, they may have someone
(03:40):
singing the melody and someone seeing the harmony and someone
seeing more of the bass harmony. And although they're different parts,
they all work together. So it sounds right. It sounds good.
They're working together in harmony. This is important to understand
because he's about to explain to us how we can
(04:00):
harmonize our body, our soul and our spirit. And he says,
May the God of harmony, the God of peace, sanctify you.
The word sanctify comes. The word comes from the word saint.
And the word saint comes from the word holy. And
the word holy means to be set apart for a purpose.
(04:26):
So may the God of harmony set you apart for
his purposes through and through. Now, sometimes we don't quite
understand the word sanctify. And let me illustrate it this way.
You may have something special that that is set aside
(04:46):
for a certain occasion. For example, a wedding dress. You know, ladies,
you have dresses in your closet that you address, that
you wear to work or dress that you wear for
an evening on the on the town out or or
whatever it may be. You have various dresses in your closet,
(05:08):
but there's something about a wedding dress. A wedding dress
is something that you make for a special occasion, and
you set apart for a special occasion. You know that
it's special. In fact, I don't think I've ever seen
someone just kind of wear their wedding dress to church.
That wasn't their marriage. They just kind of walk in
(05:30):
with the wedding dress. Oh. That's nice. What is that?
My wedding dress. I just thought I'd wear it to
church this Sunday. Never seen that. Well, the word sanctifies
the same way. You may have a lot of dresses,
but you have a wedding dress that's set apart for
a special occasion called your wedding. When God sanctifies us,
(05:52):
he sets us apart for a special purpose, which means
us doing his will. We're not like every other dress
in the closet. We have been set apart for the
purposes of God. We are a people that are set
apart to do the will of God. We're not like
(06:13):
the rest of the world. We're not like the rest
of the community. We're not like the rest of the population.
We have been set apart for the purpose of God
to do his will according to his design. And that's
what it means to be sanctified. So now the Apostle
Paul tells us that God has sanctified us through and through.
(06:37):
Now he goes on to describe what it means to
be sanctified through and through, because in the next verse
he says, May your whole spirit, soul, and body be
kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The thing about you as a human being and myself
(06:59):
is that we are not uni dimensional. In other words,
there are various components to what make us an individual
or make us a person. And sometimes if we're not,
if we don't understand the fact that God wants to
sanctify all of us, not just a part of us,
then we'll miss the mark. Some people understand the part
(07:22):
of sanctifying their spirit, but they don't understand the part
of sanctifying their body or sanctifying their soul. In fact,
I want to describe it a little bit better to you.
And in order to do that, I need, uh, I
need three people to help me out. I'm going to
get three men. Okay. Yeah, just just three men to
(07:44):
help me out here. All right, so let's just say
you could just stand in a row here. Let's just
say that this is. This is George. Um, now I
know it looks like three men and three people, but
(08:06):
let's just say that George has three parts to him.
George has a spirit, George has a soul, and George
has a body. George is not just a body. George
is not just a soul. And George is not just
(08:27):
a spirit. If he's going to be sanctified through and through,
it means that His spirit will have to be set
apart unto God. His soul will have to be set
apart unto God, and his body will be set apart
unto God as well. Now if you notice in Scripture,
the Apostle Paul says, May the God of peace, may
(08:50):
the God of harmony set you apart through and through,
so that your soul, your body and your spirit are
functioning in harmony. But they are sanctified. They're working together,
but they're sanctified. One is not pulling against the other.
He's the God of harmony, making it all work together.
But may God sanctify the order he gives us. Is
(09:12):
this what does he mention first in this passage? What
is it? Spirit. He mentions first the spirit, second the soul,
and third the body. Now, I believe that there's a
design for that, because I'm convinced that many of us
(09:33):
run our lives in what I would call a fleshly way. Uh,
according to the world, in the flesh. What drives your
life is your body, the cravings of your body. You
get hungry, you want to have sex. You want to
feel good. You want to sleep. And those are the
cravings of your body. Is there anything wrong with those cravings? No.
(09:55):
Nothing wrong with those cravings. If those cravings are Unrestrained.
A married man will be having affairs on his wife.
If those cravings are unrestrained. An individual will fall into
the addictions of alcoholism, drug addiction or whatever because those
cravings are unrestrained. Um, so if you are driven by
(10:18):
your body, how you make your decisions is what your
body is telling you. What are the biggest cravings of
your body and then your soul? Your body is made
up of your physical element. It's it's what you see
in the mirror. Your blood, your bones, your it's what
houses your soul and your spirit. Now your soul is
(10:42):
inside of your body. The only time that your soul
and your body separate is when you die. When you die.
We've all been to a casket, right? And we see
the body of someone that dies. The lifeless body of
someone that dies. That body that we put in the cemetery. Now,
(11:02):
some people are worried. They think, well, you know, I
don't want to spend cold winters in Chicago, in the cemetery,
in a dark place. Please bury me in Florida. It's warmer. Well, here,
you don't need to worry about that, because your soul
(11:23):
and your spirit, the moment that you die, they vacate
your body. And all that's left behind is what you
used to live in. It's like an old house you
used to live in, but you no longer live there now.
Is it important? Yeah, it's important. In fact, the Bible
says that at the resurrection, the elements of your old
body will be resurrected as well. When it talks about
(11:46):
the coming of Jesus Christ, it says the dead in
Christ shall rise first. In other words, your body. Uh,
bodies will. When Jesus Christ rose from when Jesus Christ
died on the cross, you remember that the day that
Jesus died, there were people that came out of their
graves and walked around. Do you remember that obscure passage
in Scripture? The Bible also tells us that when Jesus
(12:09):
Christ comes again, that the dead in Christ will rise first.
In other words, God wants to take whatever's left of
your body. Whatever's left of your body will not be
left on earth. God will take whatever's left of your
body and sanctify it and glorify it, because you are
an entire person. But for now, when you are buried,
(12:31):
you're buried in the grave. Uh, people say, well, pastor,
should I be buried? Should I be cremated? Is it
is it okay to be burned? Is it not okay? Because,
you know, the Bible says dust to dust. Listen, whatever
happens to your body, if you get thrown in the water,
the fishes eat you, you know, and you're in a
(12:52):
shark and a whale. In piranhas, it doesn't matter. Uh.
You're dead. You're dead. Period. It's not going to confuse
God as to how it works. Okay? Whether an ant
eats you or a caterpillar or whether you're cremated, it
doesn't really matter what happens to your body. God can
keep track of it at the resurrection. Don't worry. He's
(13:14):
smart enough to do that. But your body houses your soul. Now,
what is your soul? Your soul is has to do
with your intellect, your emotions, and your will. Your soul
has to do with your personality. What makes you you.
It's how you think. It's how you process data. It's
(13:38):
what we call your heart. It's how you feel. It's
how you make decisions. That's your soul. Your soul has
to do with your thoughts and your imagination and how
you process that. That's the intangible part of you called
the soul.
S1 (13:56):
You're listening to Moody Presents with Mark Jobe. For more
tools and books designed to help you reclaim your whole person,
visit Moody presents.org. By the way, we've got a brand
new resource for you I love this. Our ministry partner
and beloved friend, Doctor Erwin Lutzer, wrote a book called
Putting Your Past Behind You. Boy, don't we all have
(14:17):
a past of some kind? Whether it's alcoholism, child abuse, divorce, gluttony, abortion,
sexual addictions, is there a place to begin again? Well,
no one can go back to the starting line in
the race of life, right? What's done is done. But
we are not tied to our past mistakes. They don't
have to define us by following God's instructions. By allowing
(14:38):
him to kind of save our wounds, we can be
freed from the weight of guilt, regret, and bitter heartache
in putting your past behind you. Doctor Lutzer explains what
the Bible says about God's role in the process of separating, hurting,
and discouraged people from their pasts. You'll come to understand
that your trial, your addiction or injustice is not uncommon
(15:02):
to man. You aren't facing your hurt alone. God is
faithfully standing, ready to help, and he almost always uses
his people to share in his work of restoration and healing. Now,
many others have struggled with the pain that you're feeling.
I promise you, and many have traveled beyond the pain
to become blessed servants of Christ. Others have put a
(15:22):
past just like yours behind them, and you can too. Well,
we'll send you your copy of Putting Your Past Behind
You for a gift of any amount in support of
this ministry. You can give online at Moody Presents Dot.
You can also phone in your gift as you call
800 407,022. That's (800)Â 400-7022. All right, back to our teacher now.
(15:48):
Mark Jobe on Moody Presents.
S2 (15:56):
And then we have the spirit. The spirit is different
than the soul, and some people confuse the soul with
the spirit, but they are two separate elements. The spirit
has to do with that part of you that communicates
and relates to God. There is a spiritual world out
there that the body is not aware of. It tells
(16:20):
us in John chapter four that God is a spirit,
and they that worship him must worship him in spirit
and in truth. You're born with a spirit. When you
are born as a baby, you're born with a body.
You're born with a soul, and you're born with a spirit.
(16:41):
When you're born with a spirit, that spirit causes you
to be able to be sensitized to the spiritual world
out there. Do you realize that there's a whole spiritual
world as we speak right now that we cannot see,
but it's as real as the physical world. You feel
it and sense it in your spirit, but you can't
see it or touch it with your senses. God is
(17:04):
a spirit, and the only way that God communicates with
us typically is through our spirit. We hear the voice
of God. We learn things we we can't quite describe
it or explain it because it's in the spiritual realm,
and it's not in one of the sense realms, but
God speaks to us through our spirit. There's also other
(17:27):
spiritual beings that are there. Angels are spirit beings that
you cannot see with the naked eye, but they're servants
of the Most High God. There's a dark world out
there in the spiritual world called evil spirits, or demons
that also affect and influence the spiritual world that you
may not see. But you can be oppressed by them.
You can be attacked by them. You cannot explain it
(17:51):
with your physical mind, but it is sensed and experienced
in the spiritual world. Now. Sometimes what happens when God
starts sanctifying us? Because here it says, May God sanctify
you through and through. What happens is some of us
(18:13):
get stuck on one of the parts of who we
are and neglect the other parts of who God has
made us. People get stuck on certain elements, and I've
seen churches get stuck on certain elements. For example, some people,
all they notice is the spirit. And if you go
(18:35):
to a church, that's all about the spirit. But it's
not about the soul and about the body. Um, they
believe that everything is only in the spiritual realm. So
if you go to a church like that, everything's about
you experiencing the spirit. Uh, so if you go to
a church, it's usually high powered, uh, church. And the
(18:57):
goal is, can you experience the The spirit in your being.
Can you feel something supernatural? Um, when they deal with something,
it's always a spiritual thing. For example, someone may come
and say, pastor, they come to that church like that
and say, pastor, I'm struggling with, with with smoking cigarettes.
(19:17):
I've tried to quit for years and years. I haven't
been able to quit in the pastor usually say it's
the spirit of nicotine. We got to pray over and
cast out that spirit of nicotine. Uh, someone else says,
you know, I, I'm struggling at my job, and and,
you know, I lost my job because. Well, why did
you lose your job? Well, I showed up ten days
(19:39):
late in a row, and so they fired me, and
and they may say, well, it's it's it's a demonic
attack from the enemy and, and and to take away
your job. And it's the devil that took it away. Um.
And everything. Someone may be struggling with parenting and and
and not really know how to parent their child well
(20:00):
and they may bring their kid. And I've had this
happen to me sometimes, uh, a couple times, actually, where
someone brings a 13 year old and says, pastor, you
got to cast the devil out of this kid because,
you know, they're just disobedient and and just, just they
just can't. And seriously, like, cast the demon out. And
if you come from that kind of background, everything's the
(20:21):
devil or a demon or the spirit, everything. You have
an ingrown toenail and it's, you know, the demon of
ingrown toenails. And it's nothing is physical. Nothing is of
the of the mind and the soul. It's all just
spiritual people that are fixated in the spiritual realm. They
(20:43):
don't want to work on their mind and their emotions
or their body. They just want someone to pray a
magic prayer over them to change them. If they're having
marital trouble, um, they don't want to go to marriage counseling.
They just want someone to pray over them. The husband
wants someone to pray over their marriage and wants their
(21:05):
wife to magically be changed through a prayer. But. But
they don't want to go to counseling and they don't
want to work on their relationship. Why? Because they're one dimensional.
It's all about the spirit. Now. Our spirit needs to
be sanctified, but our spirit needs to be balanced by
the soul in the body. Are you tracking with me?
(21:28):
Now you may go to another person and they ignore
the spirit. To them, the spirit is just a bunch
of fairy tales. It doesn't really exist. And and and
and they neglect. And nothing is spiritual to them. Nothing
is demonic to them. Nothing has any spiritual influence. And
it's all about the soul. And so if you go
to church like that, it's all about truth. It's all
(21:51):
about principles. It's all about studying. It's all about counseling.
It's all about, um, your emotions and how they work.
It's all about the mind. But you see, there's not
a lot of emphasis on prayer because it's really about
the soul. And someone that is fixated on the soul,
(22:11):
they never really want to pray about the spiritual world.
There's no discernment. There's no nothing is ever due to
the spiritual realm. They almost act like the spiritual realm
doesn't really exist. And it's all about the mind and
the soul and the emotions. And so church feels like
one big counseling session. Then you have the body. If
(22:35):
you go to a a church, that's all about the body.
It's all about the physical. And so often those churches
will emphasize healing, health and prosperity. And it's all about
the physical body, not about the soul and the spirit.
And so there's an emphasis on how you're doing physically. Yeah.
(22:56):
Are you healed in the body? And and if you're
prospering in your job, then God must be for you.
And if your wallet is getting thicker, then it's a
sign of your holiness or prosperity. It's all about the physical.
It's all about the body. It's all about the material.
It's all about the now. It's all about just the
physical realm. Now, none of those approaches are balanced approaches
(23:22):
to Scripture. If we're going to walk in a balanced
way before God, then we must be sanctified in our spirit.
There is a spiritual world out there, and we must
be sanctified in our soul. So our mind and emotions
begin to think the right way, and we must be
sanctified in our body as well. Now it tells us
(23:48):
in the following part of this verse. May your whole
spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the
coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. If you're going to
be ready for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ,
you will have to be sanctified body, soul, and spirit.
S1 (24:16):
You're listening to Moody Presents featuring the Bible teaching of
Mark Jobe. And if Mark's message today prompted you to
come to Christ, and you'd like to know more about
what your next step is, but we'd love to invite
you to pray right now. I'm glad to pray with
you if you'd like to receive Jesus as your Savior.
It's a Bible word. It means Jesus is in charge
and not you anymore. If you want that, let's pray together.
(24:39):
Lord God, I have messed up. I've displeased you. I've
done some bad things. I'm a sinner. Would you please
forgive me? And I believe that you died on the
cross for me to pay for my wrongdoing. Thank you. Jesus.
Would you please forgive me of all this mountain of garbage?
And would you help me turn away from it, to repent,
(25:01):
to do a 180 from all that. And I want
you to be in charge of me from this day on.
I pray it in Jesus name. Amen. You know, we'd
love for you to visit our website, Moody Presents, where
you can click a link that says Next Step. It's
perfect for you if you just prayed that prayer. Moody presents.org.
Click the link that says Next Step. And while you're
(25:24):
at our website, you'll find other resources and tools designed
to help you grow and mature. Like our current Moody
Presents Advanced Team Gift, it's Erwin Lutzer book Putting Your
Past Behind You. Be sure to join us again next
week when Mark continues with his discussion on reclaiming your
whole person for Moody Presents with Mark Jobe. I'm John Yeager,
(25:46):
wishing you a wonderful week ahead. Moody presents is a
production of Moody Radio, a ministry of Moody Bible Institute.
Today on Moody Presents with Mark Joe.
S2 (00:04):
There are various components to what make us an individual
or make us a person. He mentions first the spirit,
second the soul, and third the body. If we don't
understand the fact that God wants to sanctify all of us,
not just a part of us, then we'll miss the mark.
S1 (00:24):
Welcome to Moody Presents with Mark Jobe, senior pastor of
New Life Community Church in Chicago and president of Moody
Bible Institute. I'm John Gieger, and today we're winding down
our message series titled defiance. Right up front. We wanted
to connect with our teacher, Doctor Jobe, for some critical background.
Pastor Mark, the Bible says that we're all made up
(00:46):
of a body, mind, and spirit, and they all need
to be working together in order for us to be
set apart for God's purposes. So what is it we
must know here?
S3 (00:55):
Yes, you know they do. And the picture that I
always have in mind is of of a team of
climbers that they are held together by ropes.
S1 (01:05):
Yes.
S3 (01:06):
And if one falls, hopefully it'll hold them up. But
sometimes one falls and drags the rest down.
S1 (01:11):
Gotcha.
S3 (01:12):
And that's the way it is with our body, soul
and spirit. Both are victories. Can be dragged up by
those three. Or are defeat can be pulled down by
those three. And so this is a powerful passage and
with some great, great insights.
S1 (01:29):
Very very helpful. Thank you. Pastor Mark. Always appreciate the visit.
Today's message is called reclaiming your whole Person. And it's
a lesson from the book of First Thessalonians. So let's
jump right in. Here's pastor Mark Jobe on Moody Presents.
S2 (01:44):
I'm going to be reading out of verses 23 through
28 of first Thessalonians chapter five. I'm reading out of
the New International Version and it says this May God Himself,
the God of peace sanctify you through and through. May
(02:06):
your whole spirit, soul, and body be kept blameless at
the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who
calls you is faithful, and he will do it. Brothers,
pray for us. Greet all the brothers with a holy kiss.
I charge you before the Lord to have this letter
read to all the brothers. The grace of our Lord
(02:29):
Jesus Christ be with you. As Paul is wrapping up
his time in this letter speaking to the Thessalonians, he
has the most powerful exhortation yet at the end of
his letter. Sometimes when you write a letter, you save
(02:50):
the best for the end, right? The final punch Paul
is actually challenging them with a concept, And I want
you to see what he says in verse 23. He says,
May God Himself the God of peace. Now there's a
word in the Hebrew referring to peace that shalom. This
(03:15):
is not that word. That word refers to wholeness and
righteousness and justice. This word actually in the Greek is
the word for harmony or tranquility or peace. So may
the God of harmony. You know what harmony is? Harmony
is when you take distinct elements and make them mesh
into one. When voices harmonize, uh, they may have someone
(03:40):
singing the melody and someone seeing the harmony and someone
seeing more of the bass harmony. And although they're different parts,
they all work together. So it sounds right. It sounds good.
They're working together in harmony. This is important to understand
because he's about to explain to us how we can
(04:00):
harmonize our body, our soul and our spirit. And he says,
May the God of harmony, the God of peace, sanctify you.
The word sanctify comes. The word comes from the word saint.
And the word saint comes from the word holy. And
the word holy means to be set apart for a purpose.
(04:26):
So may the God of harmony set you apart for
his purposes through and through. Now, sometimes we don't quite
understand the word sanctify. And let me illustrate it this way.
You may have something special that that is set aside
(04:46):
for a certain occasion. For example, a wedding dress. You know, ladies,
you have dresses in your closet that you address, that
you wear to work or dress that you wear for
an evening on the on the town out or or
whatever it may be. You have various dresses in your closet,
(05:08):
but there's something about a wedding dress. A wedding dress
is something that you make for a special occasion, and
you set apart for a special occasion. You know that
it's special. In fact, I don't think I've ever seen
someone just kind of wear their wedding dress to church.
That wasn't their marriage. They just kind of walk in
(05:30):
with the wedding dress. Oh. That's nice. What is that?
My wedding dress. I just thought I'd wear it to
church this Sunday. Never seen that. Well, the word sanctifies
the same way. You may have a lot of dresses,
but you have a wedding dress that's set apart for
a special occasion called your wedding. When God sanctifies us,
(05:52):
he sets us apart for a special purpose, which means
us doing his will. We're not like every other dress
in the closet. We have been set apart for the
purposes of God. We are a people that are set
apart to do the will of God. We're not like
(06:13):
the rest of the world. We're not like the rest
of the community. We're not like the rest of the population.
We have been set apart for the purpose of God
to do his will according to his design. And that's
what it means to be sanctified. So now the Apostle
Paul tells us that God has sanctified us through and through.
(06:37):
Now he goes on to describe what it means to
be sanctified through and through, because in the next verse
he says, May your whole spirit, soul, and body be
kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The thing about you as a human being and myself
(06:59):
is that we are not uni dimensional. In other words,
there are various components to what make us an individual
or make us a person. And sometimes if we're not,
if we don't understand the fact that God wants to
sanctify all of us, not just a part of us,
then we'll miss the mark. Some people understand the part
(07:22):
of sanctifying their spirit, but they don't understand the part
of sanctifying their body or sanctifying their soul. In fact,
I want to describe it a little bit better to you.
And in order to do that, I need, uh, I
need three people to help me out. I'm going to
get three men. Okay. Yeah, just just three men to
(07:44):
help me out here. All right, so let's just say
you could just stand in a row here. Let's just
say that this is. This is George. Um, now I
know it looks like three men and three people, but
(08:06):
let's just say that George has three parts to him.
George has a spirit, George has a soul, and George
has a body. George is not just a body. George
is not just a soul. And George is not just
(08:27):
a spirit. If he's going to be sanctified through and through,
it means that His spirit will have to be set
apart unto God. His soul will have to be set
apart unto God, and his body will be set apart
unto God as well. Now if you notice in Scripture,
the Apostle Paul says, May the God of peace, may
(08:50):
the God of harmony set you apart through and through,
so that your soul, your body and your spirit are
functioning in harmony. But they are sanctified. They're working together,
but they're sanctified. One is not pulling against the other.
He's the God of harmony, making it all work together.
But may God sanctify the order he gives us. Is
(09:12):
this what does he mention first in this passage? What
is it? Spirit. He mentions first the spirit, second the soul,
and third the body. Now, I believe that there's a
design for that, because I'm convinced that many of us
(09:33):
run our lives in what I would call a fleshly way. Uh,
according to the world, in the flesh. What drives your
life is your body, the cravings of your body. You
get hungry, you want to have sex. You want to
feel good. You want to sleep. And those are the
cravings of your body. Is there anything wrong with those cravings? No.
(09:55):
Nothing wrong with those cravings. If those cravings are Unrestrained.
A married man will be having affairs on his wife.
If those cravings are unrestrained. An individual will fall into
the addictions of alcoholism, drug addiction or whatever because those
cravings are unrestrained. Um, so if you are driven by
(10:18):
your body, how you make your decisions is what your
body is telling you. What are the biggest cravings of
your body and then your soul? Your body is made
up of your physical element. It's it's what you see
in the mirror. Your blood, your bones, your it's what
houses your soul and your spirit. Now your soul is
(10:42):
inside of your body. The only time that your soul
and your body separate is when you die. When you die.
We've all been to a casket, right? And we see
the body of someone that dies. The lifeless body of
someone that dies. That body that we put in the cemetery. Now,
(11:02):
some people are worried. They think, well, you know, I
don't want to spend cold winters in Chicago, in the cemetery,
in a dark place. Please bury me in Florida. It's warmer. Well, here,
you don't need to worry about that, because your soul
(11:23):
and your spirit, the moment that you die, they vacate
your body. And all that's left behind is what you
used to live in. It's like an old house you
used to live in, but you no longer live there now.
Is it important? Yeah, it's important. In fact, the Bible
says that at the resurrection, the elements of your old
body will be resurrected as well. When it talks about
(11:46):
the coming of Jesus Christ, it says the dead in
Christ shall rise first. In other words, your body. Uh,
bodies will. When Jesus Christ rose from when Jesus Christ
died on the cross, you remember that the day that
Jesus died, there were people that came out of their
graves and walked around. Do you remember that obscure passage
in Scripture? The Bible also tells us that when Jesus
(12:09):
Christ comes again, that the dead in Christ will rise first.
In other words, God wants to take whatever's left of
your body. Whatever's left of your body will not be
left on earth. God will take whatever's left of your
body and sanctify it and glorify it, because you are
an entire person. But for now, when you are buried,
(12:31):
you're buried in the grave. Uh, people say, well, pastor,
should I be buried? Should I be cremated? Is it
is it okay to be burned? Is it not okay? Because,
you know, the Bible says dust to dust. Listen, whatever
happens to your body, if you get thrown in the water,
the fishes eat you, you know, and you're in a
(12:52):
shark and a whale. In piranhas, it doesn't matter. Uh.
You're dead. You're dead. Period. It's not going to confuse
God as to how it works. Okay? Whether an ant
eats you or a caterpillar or whether you're cremated, it
doesn't really matter what happens to your body. God can
keep track of it at the resurrection. Don't worry. He's
(13:14):
smart enough to do that. But your body houses your soul. Now,
what is your soul? Your soul is has to do
with your intellect, your emotions, and your will. Your soul
has to do with your personality. What makes you you.
It's how you think. It's how you process data. It's
(13:38):
what we call your heart. It's how you feel. It's
how you make decisions. That's your soul. Your soul has
to do with your thoughts and your imagination and how
you process that. That's the intangible part of you called
the soul.
S1 (13:56):
You're listening to Moody Presents with Mark Jobe. For more
tools and books designed to help you reclaim your whole person,
visit Moody presents.org. By the way, we've got a brand
new resource for you I love this. Our ministry partner
and beloved friend, Doctor Erwin Lutzer, wrote a book called
Putting Your Past Behind You. Boy, don't we all have
(14:17):
a past of some kind? Whether it's alcoholism, child abuse, divorce, gluttony, abortion,
sexual addictions, is there a place to begin again? Well,
no one can go back to the starting line in
the race of life, right? What's done is done. But
we are not tied to our past mistakes. They don't
have to define us by following God's instructions. By allowing
(14:38):
him to kind of save our wounds, we can be
freed from the weight of guilt, regret, and bitter heartache
in putting your past behind you. Doctor Lutzer explains what
the Bible says about God's role in the process of separating, hurting,
and discouraged people from their pasts. You'll come to understand
that your trial, your addiction or injustice is not uncommon
(15:02):
to man. You aren't facing your hurt alone. God is
faithfully standing, ready to help, and he almost always uses
his people to share in his work of restoration and healing. Now,
many others have struggled with the pain that you're feeling.
I promise you, and many have traveled beyond the pain
to become blessed servants of Christ. Others have put a
(15:22):
past just like yours behind them, and you can too. Well,
we'll send you your copy of Putting Your Past Behind
You for a gift of any amount in support of
this ministry. You can give online at Moody Presents Dot.
You can also phone in your gift as you call
800 407,022. That's (800)Â 400-7022. All right, back to our teacher now.
(15:48):
Mark Jobe on Moody Presents.
S2 (15:56):
And then we have the spirit. The spirit is different
than the soul, and some people confuse the soul with
the spirit, but they are two separate elements. The spirit
has to do with that part of you that communicates
and relates to God. There is a spiritual world out
there that the body is not aware of. It tells
(16:20):
us in John chapter four that God is a spirit,
and they that worship him must worship him in spirit
and in truth. You're born with a spirit. When you
are born as a baby, you're born with a body.
You're born with a soul, and you're born with a spirit.
(16:41):
When you're born with a spirit, that spirit causes you
to be able to be sensitized to the spiritual world
out there. Do you realize that there's a whole spiritual
world as we speak right now that we cannot see,
but it's as real as the physical world. You feel
it and sense it in your spirit, but you can't
see it or touch it with your senses. God is
(17:04):
a spirit, and the only way that God communicates with
us typically is through our spirit. We hear the voice
of God. We learn things we we can't quite describe
it or explain it because it's in the spiritual realm,
and it's not in one of the sense realms, but
God speaks to us through our spirit. There's also other
(17:27):
spiritual beings that are there. Angels are spirit beings that
you cannot see with the naked eye, but they're servants
of the Most High God. There's a dark world out
there in the spiritual world called evil spirits, or demons
that also affect and influence the spiritual world that you
may not see. But you can be oppressed by them.
You can be attacked by them. You cannot explain it
(17:51):
with your physical mind, but it is sensed and experienced
in the spiritual world. Now. Sometimes what happens when God
starts sanctifying us? Because here it says, May God sanctify
you through and through. What happens is some of us
(18:13):
get stuck on one of the parts of who we
are and neglect the other parts of who God has
made us. People get stuck on certain elements, and I've
seen churches get stuck on certain elements. For example, some people,
all they notice is the spirit. And if you go
(18:35):
to a church, that's all about the spirit. But it's
not about the soul and about the body. Um, they
believe that everything is only in the spiritual realm. So
if you go to a church like that, everything's about
you experiencing the spirit. Uh, so if you go to
a church, it's usually high powered, uh, church. And the
(18:57):
goal is, can you experience the The spirit in your being.
Can you feel something supernatural? Um, when they deal with something,
it's always a spiritual thing. For example, someone may come
and say, pastor, they come to that church like that
and say, pastor, I'm struggling with, with with smoking cigarettes.
(19:17):
I've tried to quit for years and years. I haven't
been able to quit in the pastor usually say it's
the spirit of nicotine. We got to pray over and
cast out that spirit of nicotine. Uh, someone else says,
you know, I, I'm struggling at my job, and and,
you know, I lost my job because. Well, why did
you lose your job? Well, I showed up ten days
(19:39):
late in a row, and so they fired me, and
and they may say, well, it's it's it's a demonic
attack from the enemy and, and and to take away
your job. And it's the devil that took it away. Um.
And everything. Someone may be struggling with parenting and and
and not really know how to parent their child well
(20:00):
and they may bring their kid. And I've had this
happen to me sometimes, uh, a couple times, actually, where
someone brings a 13 year old and says, pastor, you
got to cast the devil out of this kid because,
you know, they're just disobedient and and just, just they
just can't. And seriously, like, cast the demon out. And
if you come from that kind of background, everything's the
(20:21):
devil or a demon or the spirit, everything. You have
an ingrown toenail and it's, you know, the demon of
ingrown toenails. And it's nothing is physical. Nothing is of
the of the mind and the soul. It's all just
spiritual people that are fixated in the spiritual realm. They
(20:43):
don't want to work on their mind and their emotions
or their body. They just want someone to pray a
magic prayer over them to change them. If they're having
marital trouble, um, they don't want to go to marriage counseling.
They just want someone to pray over them. The husband
wants someone to pray over their marriage and wants their
(21:05):
wife to magically be changed through a prayer. But. But
they don't want to go to counseling and they don't
want to work on their relationship. Why? Because they're one dimensional.
It's all about the spirit. Now. Our spirit needs to
be sanctified, but our spirit needs to be balanced by
the soul in the body. Are you tracking with me?
(21:28):
Now you may go to another person and they ignore
the spirit. To them, the spirit is just a bunch
of fairy tales. It doesn't really exist. And and and
and they neglect. And nothing is spiritual to them. Nothing
is demonic to them. Nothing has any spiritual influence. And
it's all about the soul. And so if you go
to church like that, it's all about truth. It's all
(21:51):
about principles. It's all about studying. It's all about counseling.
It's all about, um, your emotions and how they work.
It's all about the mind. But you see, there's not
a lot of emphasis on prayer because it's really about
the soul. And someone that is fixated on the soul,
(22:11):
they never really want to pray about the spiritual world.
There's no discernment. There's no nothing is ever due to
the spiritual realm. They almost act like the spiritual realm
doesn't really exist. And it's all about the mind and
the soul and the emotions. And so church feels like
one big counseling session. Then you have the body. If
(22:35):
you go to a a church, that's all about the body.
It's all about the physical. And so often those churches
will emphasize healing, health and prosperity. And it's all about
the physical body, not about the soul and the spirit.
And so there's an emphasis on how you're doing physically. Yeah.
(22:56):
Are you healed in the body? And and if you're
prospering in your job, then God must be for you.
And if your wallet is getting thicker, then it's a
sign of your holiness or prosperity. It's all about the physical.
It's all about the body. It's all about the material.
It's all about the now. It's all about just the
physical realm. Now, none of those approaches are balanced approaches
(23:22):
to Scripture. If we're going to walk in a balanced
way before God, then we must be sanctified in our spirit.
There is a spiritual world out there, and we must
be sanctified in our soul. So our mind and emotions
begin to think the right way, and we must be
sanctified in our body as well. Now it tells us
(23:48):
in the following part of this verse. May your whole
spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the
coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. If you're going to
be ready for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ,
you will have to be sanctified body, soul, and spirit.
S1 (24:16):
You're listening to Moody Presents featuring the Bible teaching of
Mark Jobe. And if Mark's message today prompted you to
come to Christ, and you'd like to know more about
what your next step is, but we'd love to invite
you to pray right now. I'm glad to pray with
you if you'd like to receive Jesus as your Savior.
It's a Bible word. It means Jesus is in charge
and not you anymore. If you want that, let's pray together.
(24:39):
Lord God, I have messed up. I've displeased you. I've
done some bad things. I'm a sinner. Would you please
forgive me? And I believe that you died on the
cross for me to pay for my wrongdoing. Thank you. Jesus.
Would you please forgive me of all this mountain of garbage?
And would you help me turn away from it, to repent,
(25:01):
to do a 180 from all that. And I want
you to be in charge of me from this day on.
I pray it in Jesus name. Amen. You know, we'd
love for you to visit our website, Moody Presents, where
you can click a link that says Next Step. It's
perfect for you if you just prayed that prayer. Moody presents.org.
Click the link that says Next Step. And while you're
(25:24):
at our website, you'll find other resources and tools designed
to help you grow and mature. Like our current Moody
Presents Advanced Team Gift, it's Erwin Lutzer book Putting Your
Past Behind You. Be sure to join us again next
week when Mark continues with his discussion on reclaiming your
whole person for Moody Presents with Mark Jobe. I'm John Yeager,
(25:46):
wishing you a wonderful week ahead. Moody presents is a
production of Moody Radio, a ministry of Moody Bible Institute.
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