Dharius Daniels - In Search of a Soul Mate

So Boaz took Ruth, and she became his wife. When he made love to her, the Lord enabled her to conceive, and she gave birth to a son. The women said to Naomi, «Praise be to the Lord, who this day has not left you without a guardian-redeemer. May he be famous throughout Israel! He will renew your life and sustain you in your old age, for your daughter-in-law, who loves you and is better to you than seven sons, has given him birth.» Then Naomi took the child in her arms and cared for him. The women living there said, «Naomi has a son!» And they named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, and Jesse was the father of David. I want to talk from this subject: Everybody—final sermon in this series called «Baywatch.» I want to talk about being in search of a soulmate. You know the term «soulmate» frequently floats from the lips of people in both religious and non-religious circles alike, and there are a plethora of perspectives and opinions about what a soulmate is. Does a soulmate actually exist? And if they do, how in the world do I find mine? Can I hear a «yay» in the house? As Mama Gail, one of our church members, would say all the time, «What’s up, answerers?» Yeah, yeah! And I would argue— I am arguing even in this introduction—that although the term «soulmate» is not present in the pages of Scripture, the concept of a mate for your soul is. So the question for me that I believe should be asked is not whether or not one believes in soulmates; the question is about divine provision. Does God provide, and does His provision extend to the relational area of my life? I think we can agree without arguing, ladies and gentlemen, that God is a provider. Providing isn’t just what He does; providing is who He is. It is inherent in His nature as His authentic self. He is a provider; He can’t help but provide. As a matter of fact, there’s an Old Testament character named Abraham who actually gave God a name that speaks to His providing nature. He called Him Jehovah Jireh, the Lord who provides. He is God, and because He is God, He is able to make provision when provision needs to be made. Even if He has to resort to unconventional means, He will provide, like He did for His people in the Old Testament when they needed water and were nowhere near any. He made water come out of a rock. What’s the principle? The principle isn’t for you to go looking for water to come out of a rock. The principle is for you to live the kind of life with the kind of expectation that God will make provision come from unexpected places. Yeah, there’s another story in the Bible where a prophet was living in a time of famine, and God used ravens to drop food to the prophet during that famine. Now, the nature of ravens is not to give anything; it is to take everything. The principle is not for us to seek out birds to feed us; the principle is that we would have an expectation that God would make some things act contrary to their nature in order to meet our needs. He’ll make people who were blocking you in one season open the door for you in the next. He will make people who were hurting you in one season help you in the next. He will make ravens feed you! Am I making sense? Because He is a provider. Paul corroborates this claim in Philippians 4:19 when he says, «My God will supply all of my needs.» Watch what he says: not according to my need, not according to my possessions, but He will supply all my need according to His riches in glory. This means my need never exceeds His riches, and there’s never a need I have that He can’t meet. He’ll find a way to get it to you. Did you hear what I just said? I said He’ll find a way to get it to you because God is a provider. So the quintessential question for this sermon is: Does that provision extend to my relationships? Does that provision include a mate for my soul? I don’t think we can adequately answer that question without accurately understanding a couple of things. For me, I believe it’s important to be clear on what I mean when I say «soulmate.» Because when someone in culture says «soulmate,» they may mean one thing, while when I say «soulmate,» I want you to be clear on what I mean. I am arguing, family, that you cannot have an accurate understanding of «soulmate» without an accurate understanding of a «soul.» So what is my soul? The Bible speaks very specifically and frequently about it. In Genesis 2:7, the Bible says, «And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul.» In the book of James, James 1:21 says very clearly that we need to put away all filthiness and lay aside the overflow of wickedness. Watch this: «and receive with meekness the implanted word which is able to save your…» Well, wait a minute now! If James is writing to people who are already believers, what does he mean when he…