Throwback Thursday: Sovereign Over This Too

Good morning my friend. I hope you're doing well. Today we're going to talk.

About one of those things that happens when something difficult happens in your life.

It can be hard to understand and accept the idea that God is sovereign over that moment.

Okay. There's a song by Chris Tomlin called Sovereign that I remember just crystal

clear like it happened yesterday.

A few weeks after Mitch died, when we had gone back to work and on the way home from work one day,

I was in my car and Lisa needed me to stop at Publix the grocery store and pick

up something And right as I was pulling into the Publix parking lot that song

Chris Tomlin song sovereign,

Came over the speakers in my car and his lyrics were like sovereign on the ocean

floor Sovereign on the mountaintop like you're sovereign everywhere and whatever

comes my way You're gonna be faithful.

I know you are I know you're faithful to us God and whatever happens you're

sovereign over it, you're king over it, you're the Lord over it.

And I just parked my car, friend, I'm not sure I've ever told you this before,

pulled my car over it because I was crying so hard I couldn't see,

and I was like, God, that's not right.

If you're sovereign over every moment, how could we have lost my son?

And what happens is your eyes get prepared over time and focusing on the attributes

of God and what you know to be true of Him, and as we talked about yesterday,

flexing those muscles of memory and movement and moving towards hope because

you know who He is. That's how you get through moments like that.

Dude, this moment hurts, and it hurts more than anything I've ever thought of,

but I know you're sovereign over it because your meditation,

the things you think about in your heart, the stuff you put in there to remind

you of truth, that's how the Holy Spirit can minister and heal you and help you in those times.

From a brain chemistry standpoint, ruminating on the one hard thing can keep

you blocked and stuck and in pain,

but if you can zoom out just a little bit and start trying to find some other

beautiful things in that moment around what's going on, the kindness people

extended to you, the way people came together,

the note you got from somebody that you haven't seen in years,

just saying, hey, I'm thinking about you, I heard about this, I'm praying for you.

All those little beautiful things start to put some little Band -Aids on the

wound and it starts getting better.

You can start seeing how God is keeping his Psalm 34, 18 promise of being close

to you when you're brokenhearted and that revelation promise of wiping away

every one of your tears And taking note of your life and all those things can

be true at the same time And so I'm gonna play you this quiet time that I did.

Yeah, I'm almost two years ago now And I thought about it last night because

Lisa said we've been going through.

Something I told you the other day something I can't talk about but something

we've been going through It's one of the bigger things we've ever dealt with,

Other than losing a child. It's just a big emotional thing.

We've had some disappointment and some people that have let us down and some

different things along in the midst of all that.

And we've just been dealing with some stuff and carrying it.

And so last night as we were going to bed, Lisa said, is it always going to feel so hard?

Why does it always feel so hard? And I said, I can't remember a time in recent

years when it didn't feel that way.

Like life is always hard, right? And so when I was thinking about that,

I remembered this quiet time that I did about sovereignty And all these things

are coalescing, this stuff we've been going through.

A friend, we just found out yesterday, a good friend of ours was diagnosed with

a really serious movement disorder, and it was a little triggering.

I use that in the sense of not the way we usually jokingly talk about it,

but triggered a set of emotional responses to what happened with Patty,

because Patty was diagnosed with this progressive form of Parkinsonism,

and it really was devastating what happened to her over the months after that diagnosis.

And so when we heard about our friend, this good, faithful servant of the Lord.

Just a person who spent their entire life just pouring out for other people,

and they've now received this diagnosis that's early.

And I did what I always do with glioblastoma, just I've forecasted all the medical stuff I know.

And for just a little while, I forgot that what our friend really needs is prayer, because,

The fact is the medical stuff God's gonna

be in control of that and he's gonna be sovereign over it and he's gonna

heal that person or not but whether or not

he heals that person that friend of ours is going to need a lot of a care and

affection from the great physician to be able to continue to tell a great story

with their life to be able to persevere through the difficult things to be able

to handle all the stuff that's coming whatever happens with the diagnosis, right?

For the marriage, for their family, for the people that are around them in their world.

God is going to need to show up and for our friend and all this stuff and all

these different ways and that's what we need to be praying about. Pray for healing.

We pray for protection. We pray for comfort in the Spirit.

We pray for the ability to handle the challenges that are coming along and we

pray for the ability to hold up and be able to step into that moment with the

Lord's Prayer on the lips of our friend and to allow the ability for the fog

to clear and for the eyes to be able to see that God is sovereign.

Over this moment even this hard moment and he is for you too friend We're gonna

play this old quiet time and you'll hear me talk about lots of stuff going on

people are stressed out It's amazing how two years ago.

We were talking about the same stuff. We're talking about now And so we got

two songs coming up Cody Carnes song run to the father and Chris Tomlin song

sovereign And we're just gonna play this old quiet time.

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It's a great community, and it'll help you, and today's is a special one that'll

talk about how self -brain surgery can change the way you pray,

and I think it's important. We're going to play this episode now.

I want you to remember, friend, no matter what you're going through,

you can't change your life until you change your mind.

The good news is, Lisa's going to tell us right now. You can start today.

Hey, are you ready to change your life? If the answer is yes,

there's only one rule. You have to change your mind first.

And my friend, there's a place where the neuroscience of how your mind works

smashes together with faith, and everything starts to make sense.

That place is called self -brain surgery.

You can learn it, and it will help you become healthier, feel better, and be happier.

And the good news is, you can start today.

Thanks, Lisa. Hey, so glad to have you listening today. I'm Dr.

Lee Warren and I live in Nebraska in the United States of America with my incredible

wife, Lisa, my father -in -law, Tata, and the super pups, Harvey and Louis.

I'm a neurosurgeon and an author, and I'm here to help you harness neuroscience,

the power of your brain, faith, the power of your spirit, and good old common

sense to help you lead a healthier, better, happier life.

Listen, friend, you can't change your life until you change your mind,

and I'm here to help you learn the art of self -brain surgery to get it done.

If you like the show, please subscribe so you never miss an episode.

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I'm Dr. Lee Warren and I'm here to help you change your mind so you can change

your life. Let's get after it.

I've just been thinking a lot lately about how many of us are just really in

desperate need of some work by the Savior.

Our lives have gotten so full and stressful and there's so many people worrying

about the situation in Afghanistan and the pandemic and vaccinations and all

these things are just so much stress and I think when you're stressed you need

to let the Father, you need to let the Holy Spirit,

you need to let the great physician come and minister to you.

And so today we're going to look at a couple of, three scriptures actually from

the same person all written by David at different times and we're going to see

a stress response that he had, and two that are difficult for him,

and one that kind of gets some resolution.

And we're going to just quickly do a little heart surgery on ourselves,

and before we do that, we're going to listen to a song by Cody Carnes called

Run to the Father, and then we'll do a quick look at these three scriptures

and some prayer, and then we'll be going out with one more song.

And we'll be done in just a quick, quiet time. When you still yourself in the

presence of the great physician, let him do some work on you today.

And as always, start that today. Here's Cody Garns.

Music.

That's a beautiful song, you know, we do find ourselves in the situation where we keep,

finding ourselves stressed and anxious and just desperate and we don't know

what to do and we forget that we have a heart surgeon we have,

The great physician right there with us and it's so easy to forget,

Or to think that we've gotten ourselves finally into some situation that he

can't or won't help us with right That's one of the tricks of the devil,

is to say, yeah, God might have helped you last time with that, but not this time.

This one's too hard. This one's too big. This one's too much.

Let me share with you three scriptures. They're all from the Psalms,

and they're all from David.

There's three different times that David encountered this notion that he was

done for. He was hosed, he was cooked.

And David had a favorite thing that he liked to say. He would say,

I'm gonna go down to the pit, or in the Hebrew, I will go down to Sheol,

I will go down to the grave.

Like he kept in his mind he would see himself basically being

so sorrowful or so stressed out or so worried that he might as

well be dead he was just gonna go down there and be like those who

are in the grave you saw him 28 -1 he starts off

by saying God don't turn your ear from me if you are silent to me I will lose

all hope like those who are silenced by death's grave another translation he

says I will if you're quiet to me I will be like those who go down to the grave

I will be like those who go down to the pit so he's saying I I just can't hear God.

This situation, God doesn't seem to be with me, and so I'm just gonna die.

I'm just gonna be down there and wallow in the grave and be like everybody else

down in the pit, all the dead people down in the pit.

There's another place, Psalm 143 .7. Answer me quickly, Lord, my spirit fills.

Do not hide your face from me, or I'll be like those who go down to the pit. Here he is again.

It's so dark, or whatever David's going through right then, that he can't see

God, even though God is still there.

It's so dark, it's like God, but he thinks God has turned his face from him.

So now here in 28 .1, he thinks God's not listening, not speaking anymore.

Here in Psalm 143, he thinks it's so dark that God's not even willing to look

at him, not willing to turn his face to him, and he's just gonna die.

And so sometimes we just get in that situation. When we are in that situation,

we need to let him minister to us there because the truth is,

was understood by David again.

Over in Psalm 139 when he was feeling a little bit more

hopeful when he decided not to give up when he decided to remember

that all those previous times when he thought he was hosed he

wasn't actually hosed and look what he says here in 139 where can I go apart

from your spirit is there anywhere I can go to escape your watchful present

if I go up into heaven you were there and if I make my bed in the realm of the

dead you were there another translation says if I go down to the pit you were there so get this.

Here, he's recognizing that even if he does go down to the pit,

Jesus will be there with him.

Even if he goes to the top of the mountain, Jesus will be there.

Even if he's in the storm, the Lord will be there with him.

There's no situation and no time and no place when the Spirit of the Lord won't be with you.

Paul brought this home in the New Testament when he was like,

there's no height or breadth or depth or gap or anything that can separate you from the love of Christ.

There is no place, friend, that you can go where you will be alone.

And the interesting thing about these three passages is Psalm 28 1 happens before

David remembered that in Psalm 139 and Psalm 143 happens after David remember

it So don't beat yourself up if you get this right some days and other days

you forget and you're desperate again You feel like you've lost him again.

It's even David did it right this condition that we have of Struggling for hope

is terminal We won't ever get it right until he redeems us and we get our frailties

and our humanness stripped away from us, and we get our redemption bodies.

That's the only time this is gonna be right. So we are going to struggle with this.

And in the meantime, while we're struggling, let him be the heart surgeon for

you. Let him help you through that self -brain surgery thing.

The only part of self -brain surgery, by the way, that you do yourself, is submit to it.

He does the rest, but you've got to lay down and say, hey, open me up and fix this thing in my mind.

Help me get this right. That's the only part, you have to consent to it.

You have to decide for it.

You don't have to do the work, so don't beat yourself up.

Just remember, there is no place you can go, friend, where he's not with you.

There is no pandemic, there is no global war on terror, there is no economy

problem, there is no disease, there is no relationship issue,

there is no occupational situation or financial strain that you can get yourself

into, that he won't be there with you.

There's people on the prayer wall right now. They're dealing with homelessness

and infidelity Marriages that are struggling and children.

They're separated from their parents and grandparents and there's drug addiction

and abuse and spiritual situations happening there's pastoral abuse and there's

verbal and physical and Relational abuse happening in marriages and in all of those situations.

I just remind you Jesus can get there if you let him Your heart needs a surgeon friend father god,

Don't let us forget who you are and that nowhere we can find ourselves is without

you if we'll just take our hands off our ears, take our hands off our eyes,

and listen and look and you will be there.

We need you, Father. We desperately need you, and we need to remember that you

are sovereign over all our situations.

As we said before, you're sovereign over dead armies.

You're sovereign over float, axe heads that have fallen into the river.

You're sovereign over how much oil is going to come out of that jar.

You're sovereign over the walls of the cities, the hearts of the kings,

the behavior of the bees and the flies and the animals.

You can send a fish to swallow up a prophet. You can send a fish to bring a coin to pay taxes.

There is nothing that's impossible for you. You are sovereign over all of it.

Help us to have that heart surgery today that we need to remember that you are

there with us no matter what we're going through.

We're going to listen to Chris Tomlin sing about sovereignty,

Father, about the fact that you are sovereign over all of it.

Help us to remember it today and help us to start today But the truth is tonight,

That God knows where you are right now. He knows where you're sitting.

He knows your name. He knows everything about you He loves you.

He has an amazing purpose for your life He whether you even know it or not,

whether you even believe that or not He loves you and he knows where you are.

He knows where you are in life He knows what you're bringing in this place and

you can cast your cares on him tonight.

He is sovereign He is near you tonight.

Music.

Amen. Friend, don't forget, w1md .com slash prayer if you need prayer.

Friend, no matter how hard it gets, no matter where you go, God is sovereign

over that moment of your life. He had it planned. He's not surprised by it.

Take your hands off your eyes and your hands off your ears because he's right

there with you. You just have to remember.

You have to turn to him. Let him do that heart surgery on you. It's gonna be okay.

We're gonna get through this, and we're always with you. But you have to start today. God bless.

Hey, thanks for listening. Please subscribe to the show so you automatically

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Check out my writing at drleewarren .substack .com, drleewarren .substack .com.

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feeling better, and being happier through the power of faith and neuroscience

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The theme music for the show is Make Us One by Tommy Walker,

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Check it out and consider supporting them.

TommyWalkerMinistries .org. Remember, you can't change your life until you change

your mind, and the good news is you can start today.

I'm Dr. Lee Warren. I'll talk to you soon. God bless you, friend. Have a great day.