Dharius Daniels - You Can't Break My Soul

Nahum, chapter three, beginning at verse number eighteen. Here’s what Nahum is saying to the Assyrians: He says, «King of Assyria, your shepherds slumber, and your nobles lay down to rest. Your people are scattered on the mountains, with no one to gather them. Nothing can heal your wound; your wound is fatal. All who hear the news about you will clap their hands at your fall, for who has not felt your endless cruelty?» I want to stop the reading of Scripture here and talk from this subject during our time together, family: «You Can’t Break My Soul.» Clap your hands!

I want to start this sermon by offering a statement for your contemplation and consideration. The statement is simply as follows: In life, you can’t always control what gets broken, but you can control whether you allow what’s broken to break your soul. In other words, we won’t always, in every situation and circumstance, have preventability, but God has given us responsibility, and how we respond to what’s been broken determines whether or not what’s been broken breaks us. This is important and essential to understand because our enemy and adversary, the evil one, is in the business of breaking things. However, Satan doesn’t just break things for the sake of breaking them; he breaks things to break us. What Satan attacks is rarely what Satan is truly after. In other words, the enemy often attacks something that matters less so he can get to something that matters more.

The Bible is inundated with examples of this truth. We see it in scriptural stories, like with Adam and Eve, where the enemy influences them to eat fruit from a forbidden tree. But when we read the totality of the story, we realize and recognize he wasn’t after the fruit; he was after Adam and Eve’s faithfulness. What he went after wasn’t what he was really after. We don’t just see it with Adam and Eve; we see it with Job. The Bible says that there was a man named Job in the Old Testament; he was upright and blameless. The Bible gives us some background on what’s happening behind the scenes as Satan has a conversation with God. God asks Satan where he has been, and Satan replies, «I’ve been to theth, I’ve been to Johns Creek, I’ve been to Stone Mountain, I’ve been to Fville, I’ve been to Midtown. I’ve been going to and fro, trying to see whose life I can disrupt and detour.» God then says to Satan, «Have you considered my servant Job?» Did y’all catch that? Satan didn’t ask about Job; Job is in the middle of a situation where God is telling Satan about Job. So, Satan is being recommended Job by God. Y’all missed it! It’s like God is saying, «You’re looking for somebody to break; I’m getting ready to introduce you to somebody you can’t break.»

I like it. I’m getting ready to make—a watch this! I’m getting ready to make a recommendation that’s an indication of my trust in him because the highest level of trust is to be trusted with crisis. God says, «I trust him so much; have you considered him?» You won’t be able to break him. The text is really clear; Satan says, «I have considered him, but you have a hedge.» Don’t mess with me; it’s too early in the message right here; I feel a stirring in the Spirit right here. «You have a hedge around him, his household, and everything he possesses.» God didn’t tell Satan about the hedge; Satan told God there was a hedge. How would Satan know there was a hedge around unless he had been trying to get to him and couldn’t?

Okay, y’all missed it. We just need to take about seven seconds, because I have to move for everybody who’s catching this, to give God a hedge praise. That’s the stuff he blocked you don’t even know about—it’s the stuff he blocked this week, it’s the stuff he blocked last year; it’s the stuff that could have happened and should have happened, but God doesn’t play about me. Give him a hedge praise!

So, Satan says, «Remove the hedge. Remove the hedge, and he’ll curse you to your face.» So, Job starts dealing with financial adversity, physical adversity; he gets sick, relational adversity. But that’s not what Satan was after; he wasn’t after his health, he wasn’t after his resources, he wasn’t after his relationships; he was after his commitment to God. What he went after wasn’t what he was really after.

We even see this with Jesus in the New Testament when he’s led by the Spirit to be tempted in the wilderness by Satan. He’s fasted forty days, and at the end of the fast, Satan shows up and says, «You’ve been fasting; I know you’re hungry. So, take these stones—some of y’all at 11:30 might be too young, but just bear with me—take these stones and turn them into some Jiffy cornbread.» This is where I’m preaching right here! Okay, let him turn them into some hot water bread. Here’s the thing: Satan didn’t want Jesus to break bread; he wanted him to break the fast. Wow! What he was after wasn’t what he was really after. Come on, church! And that’s not just the case with Adam and Eve; it’s not just the case with Job and Jesus; it’s the case with you and me. What he attacks is not what he is truly after; what he breaks is not what he is really trying to break. Pastor, what is he trying to break? My soul!

«Soul» is a word that’s thrown around a lot in Christian circles, but I want to ensure we have an understanding.