Well, good morning, my friends, and welcome to the Heritage Hour. I’m Mark Gonzales, your pastoral encourager here in Southwest Florida, and I’m so delighted to be with you on air, online, and in media ministry for, oh, 35 years now.

So thank you for sitting with me at the feet of the Lord to listen for his heart to touch our hearts. Well, if you’ve been with us, you know I love to do series. And we’re getting ready to launch a brand new series. And I always get really excited about this.

And when we finished up our last 10-part series, which I called Passion Week, Portraits of God, I began about the second or third to the end of that series, that second or third week to the end. Yeah, just asking the Lord about the next one and looking ahead. And what is put in my heart is to follow up this Passion Week Portraits of Christ with Soul Care Portraits of Christ. That’s going to be the next series, eight, nine, maybe ten.

I don’t know. We’ll see how it unfolds because I have been on a journey for a long time. really doing a deep dive into soul care and talking to lots of different people in soul care and really focusing on matters of the heart as we do ministry. Whether you’re in the local church, whether you’re on a mission team, whether you’re in a mission agency, whether you’re on a lay leadership team or whatever you’re doing at work, your marketplace minister, which I call them. Oh man, frontline folks there.

You know what? It’s about the heart. It’s about the heart. And that’s what soul care is about.

And there are different definitions you’ll find floating around. Kind of what’s coming up in my heart as I’ve been taking this journey and talking a lot with the Lord about it is this.

Soul care is simply about two things. by the way i’m basing this on things that i’ve read things that i’ve preached over the years broadcasted written about you know i’m gonna be 70 later this year i’ve been in ministry a long time seeing a lot of things and at the end of the day it’s always coming down to the heart so to me soul care is simply about two things are dramatically different heart wiring and heart wounds My friend everything that we interpret everything that we think we see our perspectives what we perceive to be as true what we perceive to be as right it’s revolving around our heart wiring and our heart wounds. And I’ll go on with this definition.

Soul care is simply about two things are dramatically different heart wiring and heart wounds which the Lord lovingly desires to gradually reveal and heal to the degree we abide in him to bear much fruit. Of course, these are based on all kinds of scripture. The last part, John 15, 5. Scripture talks about how above all else guard your heart from it fro the springs of life.

That’s Proverbs 4.23. That right there tells us this is not a secondary or tertiary issue in the Christian life or in ministry. It’s above all else. It’s the primary focal point.

It’s the starting place. And of course, John 15.5, as we just mentioned, says the key to all of this is to abide in him, the Lord Jesus himself, to bear much fruit. Above all else, guard your heart. How?

By abiding in Jesus, for from it flow the springs of life. Heart wiring? Well, scripture says very clearly in Romans 12, 3 and 6, do not think more highly of yourself than you ought to think, for we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us.

So if we’re talking about how we have different heart wiring, what about those heart wounds? Well, Jeremiah 17, 9 puts it this way. The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick. Who can understand it?

I, the Lord, search the heart. Again, Jeremiah 17, 5. And to wrap up a scriptural foundation, Let’s go to 1 Samuel 16, verse 7. You know this one.

For God does not see as man sees, since man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.

Soul care is simply about two things are dramatically different, heart wiring and heart wounds.

So I’m going to be going all over the place. within those two categories is we talk about portraits of God that highlight how he is our soul care shepherd and that actually the one we going to cover today He is our soul care shepherd and if you have your Bibles we going to go to Psalm 23 and then Matthew 11 And we going to begin our journey And just a reminder that all of these broadcasts, which are 27 minutes long, are archived on my website at markpg.org. And when you go there, just very easily, first page, click on broadcast. There’s all kinds of tools you can choose from. Just click on broadcast box.

And then the second one, scroll down and pick portraits of God for the series that we’re doing. And there you’ll have the listing of so many of these broadcasts. And again, today, we’re starting off with how he is our soul care shepherd to kick off our Soul Care Portraits of God series. And as we get started, my friend, let’s just go before the Lord as is our custom and ask Him to speak, shall we?

Lord, I just, I love coming together with my brothers and sisters to sit at your feet. Lord, we get to gaze in your eyes. We get to hear your heart. And Lord, this Soul Care series, I am so excited about and to launch it with this idea of how you are our soul care shepherd and how Psalm 23 is so specific about it.

And then you personally mention it again in Matthew 11. I just can’t wait to start off our slow journey through the scriptures to discover how you are indeed our soul care shepherd and how we tend to neglect guarding our hearts but you tell us above all else to guard our hearts for from it flow the springs of life so thank you for the opportunity to take this journey together with my brothers and sisters to give us a glimpse of your heart your ways your love for us beyond all we can imagine and lord i pray you just help me do the topic justice to paint the portrait clearly that we can see the scriptures as a tool to see you, not just in and of itself as some academic exercise or factual database or anything. It’s far more than that. It’s a reflection of your heart.

So help us, Lord, to above all else guard our hearts. Help us, Lord, to see like you see. Look at the heart of things, not just the outward things. Thank you, Lord. for loving us that much, to take us on that deeper journey Can wait to hear what you have to say We pray this in the powerful name of the Lord Jesus Christ by his precious cleansing and healing transforming empowering and forgiving blood Amen.

Amen and amen. All right, my friends. Well, we opened up by trying to clearly define what soul care is and how it is about heart wiring and heart wounds and that the Lord loves to continually converse with us heart to heart about our heart wiring, how he created us uniquely, the gift set that he’s given us, the experiences that he’s allowed to form and shape us. all of these things we have an internal heart wiring that explains what makes us tick and also what ticks us off if you want to get to write down to it that’s the heart wiring uh wiring part to get to know how he’s gifted you and to serve within your gift set and stay in those lanes and really focus on it that’s our way of saying thank you lord for the special heart wiring and gifting you’ve given me to serve you and the body of Christ and those who need the Lord Jesus Christ.

But in addition to that, we accumulate numerous heart wounds over the years, huge disappointments, grief, betrayals, things done to us, things we’ve done wrong. And our heart just takes a beating. It’s a brutal world. And we are always having to deal with things that happen to us.

And we give them a narrative and we kind of file them away in our minds, but it also gets filed away deep in our hearts and we can get triggered by things so easily. Why?

Because we have these heart wounds that are there that haven’t been dealt with. And the Lord loves to gradually reveal and heal us from these heart wounds and also help us see ourselves from his point of view regarding our heart wirings. And that is where power in the Christian life impact, in the Christian life ministry, in the Christian life begins at the heart level.

But we ignore it so often. We get so and so busy. We get so filled up with all the strategies we want to come up with and all. Of course, we have classic quotes like typically this is attributed to Peter Drucker.

He really didn’t say it. It’s attributed to several others, but it’s how culture eats strategy for breakfast. And that there’s a great truth there about what’s most important, but of course there’s more sub points to that. That’s not the entirety of the whole subject because we do need strategy and all, but believe it.

Beloved, if we are not interacting with each other, with the Lord and with ourselves at the heart level, letting Him unfold for us as we grow in His likeness about our own unique heart wiring and His calling to our lives, all unique, and also to deal with the heart wounds, which we’ve been stuffing away for so many years, but it comes to a head. well the scripture puts it this way in psalm 23 verses 1 through 3 you know this the 23rd psalm is a classic we see it spoken or read at memorial services when a believer has departed this earth to go home to be with the lord but it’s far more than just a beautiful way of reminding us how the lord is our shepherd there’s some really practical stuff in here and here’s what it says the lord is my shepherd, I shall not want, or I shall not lack in anything. I shall not have a need. You see it different ways in different translations, right? All right.

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want, I shall not lack.

Now verse two, he makes me lie down in green pastures. That used to bother me for years, but I’ll get to that in a minute. I actually love it now. He leads me beside quiet waters, and here it is he restores my soul hence he is our soul care shepherd the lord is my shepherd who wants to restore my soul how by helping us see and let him heal our heart wounds and operate within our heart wiring now as i mentioned earlier we get way too busy, way too distracted with all of the responsibilities we have in this life, in marriage, and raising a family, and careers, and church life, and neighborhood life, and all the other things that happen in this world.

We can get so frenetically busy. In fact, we can get so distorted in this that when you ask people, how’s it going, and we answer, oh man, it’s busy, man, you know what I’m saying?

But you know, that’s the way it is. we almost wear busyness as a badge of honor. Well, it’s not. When we do that, we’re letting the tail of busyness wag the dog of our life and heart. And busyness rips relationships.

It rips hearts because we ignore them. We neglect them. We not kind to our hearts And we might be proud of our intellect and our strategies and our hermeneutical constructs and our programs and our activities and all that stuff But it was many years ago that I was at a global mission conference. Happened to be in Beirut, Lebanon.

People from all over the Arab world and from Africa and Europe and all were there. Got to meet a lot of wonderful, fascinating people. and on one particular day some a couple of buddies of mine and i were eating uh having lunch with uh two or three of the african um participants and one of them was an overseer of a large region of africa and we’re talking along about you know what we’re doing in the united states and what they’re doing over there and i’ll never forget this this is a gracious wise an older man who’s been around a long time. And he was very gracious in the responses to what we were doing.

But then he said this, and I’ll never forget it. He said, you know, you Americans, you’re great with your programs. You’re great with your strategies. You’re great with your, you know, all of your performances or your practices.

But you guys got to deal with your hearts, man. Wow. And he’s so right. When we let all the programs, all the activities, all the projects, even our preaching, he was saying, hey, y’all are good at that.

You really are. Kudos to you. He would be complimentary in that sense, but he was also giving us this gracious caution.

But you guys got to deal with your hearts, man. Well, we don’t. We end up stuffing them down or just ignoring them thinking we’re pressing on we’re walking by faith not by feeling we’ll explain in a lot of different ways but the fact of the matter is no we’re hurting we’re grieving we are insecure from these wounds and then life gets so busy we end up doing things and getting distracted to focus on things that’s not part of our heart wiring not part of the thing that the Lord really intended us to focus on. And that’s why things become a jumbled mess.

And that’s why we need soul care. And that’s why the Lord has to make us lie down in green pastures. I love that.

Now, as a young man, I hated it because what would come to my mind as a young father, for example, trying to get the kids to bed, you know how that can stretch out. And of course, my sons, Lindy and I raised three wonderful sons. I have three lovely wives now We have eight grandchildren now Now they doing what we doing struggling at nap time when the kids don want to go to bed or they get distracted this and that and the other And you can you want to just make them lie down you know and you can get irritated and say, lie down now. If you don’t go down and go to bed, you know, I’m going to sell all your toys, you know, and we get frustrated.

And that’s kind of what popped into my mind when I would read this lovely 23rd Psalm where the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want.

But he makes me lie down in green pasture. Don’t make me. I don’t want to make him.

Okay. It’s a different make me than I was thinking. It’s more the idea of a drowning victim and a lifeguard that’s been taught.

Now, when you reach them, they’re going to be panicky. They’re going to be flailing about. You have to make them lie down in the water. You need to reassure them and calm them down.

Okay.

Okay. Wait, wait. Settle down. I’m here for you.

I’m here. You’re going to be okay. You’re going to be okay. Just relax.

Just relax. Just relax. All right. Just relax.

Lay back. I got you. Just lay back. Just lie down.

Lie down. All right. All right. Just be still.

Shh. It’s okay. It’s okay.

Now that’s hard to do because sometimes people are so panicky. The lifeguards are taught, listen, you’ll probably get hit. You might even get a black eye because they’re flailing about and they’re frightened. They’re not mad.

But you have to work with them to make them lie down so that you can save them. Isn’t that a great metaphor? Great illustration. Oh, when I get so busy and I’m just flailing about and all this is going on, that’s going on.

I’m feeling this about that, that about this. I got triggered here. I got triggered.

Okay. Settle down, son. Settle down, honey. I got you.

I got this. Just lie down. lie down whether it’s green pastures or blue waters in the lifeguard metaphor oh the Lord loves us enough to make us lie down green pastures take a deep breath relax then you can hear my voice then we can get somewhere when I was in high school I went into writing down the rapids of a Texas river with some friends and there was a little water far probably about four or five feet we get you know the water energy to go over and we’re riding them and it’s a lot of fun but i flipped over and i fell underneath that waterfall and that water was coming right down full of force you don’t think four or five feet is a lot of water or strength it is and i was in that spillway i was at the bottom of the river it was just coming down coming down i was trying desperately to get up to get a breath of water I mean I drowning here I thinking in my mind and all And I just hear this sense in my spirit all right, stop. Let go. Stop fighting it.

Stop fighting. Just relax. I’m going to drown. I can’t get it.

Just relax. And when I was finally able to relax, the water undertow just took me quickly away from that spillway and I was easily able to pop up again.

Somehow the Lord was able to reach my panicky heart, help me to lie down, be still, relax. I got you. I got this. and the undertow took me where I needed to go to pop up very easily and get that first breath and stay alive. He is our soul care shepherd that sometimes makes us lie down in green pastures in the midst of our frenetic pace, way too busy a life, way too distracted, way too weighted down with heart wounds so that he can start the gradual revealing and healing that he wants to do.

He leads us beside quiet waters, it says. And he restores my soul.

Now that’s not a one and done thing. It’s ongoing. It’s his tender care. It’s something he wants to do daily.

Let’s focus on the heart. Let’s focus on the heart. Above all else, guard your heart. I want to speak to your heart.

I want to heal your heart. I want you to be more aware of who you are, what I’ve called you to do. Shh. Slow down.

Daily. Quiet times. Daily. Prayer times.

Daily. Listening for my whispers. And that’s what restores our soul. My friends, if we don’t do that and we stay at the frenetic pace with do lists that are way too long, schedules that are way too tight, responsibilities that are way too heavy because we don’t abide in him.

As we said earlier, we’re to abide in him. That means to hang around with him, lie down with him, walk beside quiet waters with him, listen for his whispers in the quiet, be still and know that he is God. That is where genuine spiritual power and impact comes from in your own life and those around you. They’re able to be still.

They’re able to be at peace and at rest in the midst of this tumultuous world in which we live at the break neck speed that it operates in but we can fight the currents in the flesh and we’ll drown or we can relax let him do it through us get aligned with him his heart and his ways and we can flow with it rather than fight the waves and the current. Which brings me to Matthew 11. This is the second of the two passages I wanted to cover today. Matthew 11, 28 through 29, classic, because the Lord is our restoring shepherd.

We’re talking about how he’s our soul care shepherd, and under that two sub points, which are also portraits, he’s our restoring shepherd. We just talked about that in Psalm 23. He restores my soul. He’s my shepherd, makes me lie down in green pastures, leaves me beside quiet waters, restores my soul.

He’s our restoring shepherd, but he’s also our rest shepherd We just saw it in Psalm 23 but listen to this as Jesus talked about it in Matthew 11 28 and following He says come to me all who are weary and heavy laden All right let me stop there How weary, how heavy laden are you feeling these days, my friends? Emotional weariness is one of the greatest challenges and plagues of our lives because we’re being bombarded by so much chaos in our culture in real time because of social media accessibility and technology and algorithms that flutters with things that make us angry. They find out what makes you angry, what makes you fearful. We’re going to flood you with that because that’s what you’ll click on the most.

I mean, we are just emotionally weary, spiritually weary, feeling heavy laden, right? When Jesus says, come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden, I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am, here it is, I am gentle and humble in heart. And you shall find rest for your souls.

Is that cool or what? The yoke is not a big heavy ox yoke made of wood that crunches us. We turn life into that when we don abide in him we don walk closely with him His yoke is not burdensome it is light Take my yoke upon you Learn from me I gentle and humble and part and you shall find rest for your souls It more like a scarf or a muffler rolling around your neck. And on one side it says gentle, and the other side it says humble.

He wants you to take on his heart, the heart of Jesus himself. You know why?

Because you are one with him. There’s a union there. The deepest walk with Jesus is the one that realizes your union with him and to walk in that union, that unity, that oneness. His peace becomes your peace.

His rest, his gentleness becomes yours. His wisdom becomes yours to the degree you stay integrated in oneness with him by abiding in him. And when you do, you will bear much fruit. You will have rest for your souls.

You shall have restoration of your soul or heart. That’s how it works. That’s why he is.

First and foremost, above all else, our soul care shepherd and tells us that above all else guard your heart guard your soul Abide in me Let me heal you Let me guide you for from it flow the springs of life Is that just marvelous or what And this is why I have a passion for soul care This is why I all about that And when I get to meet people, I’m learning to look at their heart, hear their heart, things that they may not even be seen because the heart is more deceitful than all else. Desperately sick, who can understand it? We think we know our own hearts. We really don’t.

We need the Lord to speak to us. And He uses others to help deliver His message to our hearts. Shh. It’s okay.

Lie down. Lie down. I got you. I got this.

There’s some healing we need to do here. It’s okay. It’s alright. Everybody’s in that boat.

It’s about the heart, my friends. It’s about soul care. And above all else, guard your heart. and above all else, see the heart, not the outward things. Well, Lord, we thank you for this encouragement today.

We receive it. In Jesus’ name, amen. Well, I’m Mark Gonzalez, and I hope you’ll check out my website at markpg.org for more. Until next time, fall in love with Jesus, our soul care shepherd.