Soul Connection | Jake Vayda

This week, we kicked off our new series Created for This by asking an important question: what do you do after freedom? Looking at Exodus 15, we saw that God doesn’t just free us from something—He frees us for something.

We explored the first purpose God created us for: Soul Connection. You are a soul created by the Creator, designed to live connected to Him. We were reminded that freedom alone doesn’t satisfy the soul—real healing and rest come through time with God.

The invitation is simple: stop wandering and reconnect your soul to the One who created it. Because what your soul is searching for might not be found in more freedom, but in deeper connection with God.

Transcript

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We had a huge wedding. 250 people. And the next morning we woke up feeling free. Free from the seating arrangements and the centerpieces. And we were driving up the 101 to our honeymoon destination. Free at last. Free at last. Lotion to the left, mountains to the right, and at the end of the day, the sun was setting orange and yellow, and you two was playing in the background. Maybe you know the song. I have climbed highest mountains. I have run through the fields only to be with you, right? Oh beautiful moment. Me and my beautiful wife, Kaylea, and then we proceeded to get into a fight. I was driving too fast. I don't think I was personally. She thought I was. And then I realized maybe I'm not as much at a finish line as I am a starting line to a whole new life. You know, I wonder this idea of freedom, our culture, obsessed with the idea of freedom. That's what we want. We go to the grocery store and there's 17 peanut butter options. Yes, this is what I want. We sit down at the end of the day and on Netflix, there's hundreds of great-rated TV shows to watch. This is great. We graduate high school or college, and man, we have hundreds of options. We even have hobbies that are out the wall, zoo, endless freedom! Free at last. This is what we want. But have you ever realized is freedom enough? Is there more to life than just freedom? You might have seen it. Someone graduates, and then they have endless options. They don't know what to choose. They're free, but they don't know what comes next. Someone retires. You know people who've probably retired, and then all of a sudden, three weeks later, they're at Home Depot giving unsolicited advice. People move to San Diego. Sunshines, tacos, burritos. I told my friend, I was like, why do we have to choose tacos and burritos? There's both, right? Freedom. We got all the options. And then you realize there's a lot of things you have to do to stay in sunny San Diego. Sunshine taxes. Very real. Freedom. It's so good. But here's my hot take. Here's my hot take today. I think God wants more for your life than just freedom. I think God wants more for your life than just freedom. Because if freedom is the goal, get this. Wandering is the result. If freedom is the goal, wandering is going to be the result. You're going to be like me in the car, feeling freedom, but then realizing there's a lot more out there that I what comes after freedom? Freedom doesn't tell you how to live, it doesn't tell you what to do next. Freedom is so good. Freedom we should never take for granted. And I think God wants more for your life than simply freedom. In fact, here's the question that I'd be so bold to ask today, and it's this What comes after freedom? What comes after the 17 options of peanut butter in the grocery store and the endless? What comes after this? Because at the end of the day, you're going to lay your head at the pillow, maybe even tonight, with a billion options, and still wonder why do I feel like something's missing? Have you ever wondered that? You have all the freedom in the world. Freedom is not enough. In fact, what happens after freedom? We have had an amazing last couple months here at Create Church. We are a brand new church, barely a year and a half old, and we have record attendance for Easter, over three services. After Easter, yeah, we had 12 baptisms. We've had 100 people commit or recommit to God in the last 60 days, and you might be wondering, this is great. What's next? Like, what do I do with this whole Jesus thing? Or today you might be an atheist. You might be someone who is your first time and you're wondering, I don't know about this Jesus thing. What happens if I go all in? Savannah, what's next? What's don't worry, she's she's she's been here for a long time. I'm not gonna point out people who are I don't know. Okay, let's let's move on to what's next. Today, I want to introduce you to a people who asked that exact question. What happens after freedom? They were enslaved by Pharaoh in Egypt, and all of a sudden they were free, and they wondered, what do I do with my freedom? And get this, they found the answer. They found the answer. And that answer transformed them into a group of wandering people, into a group that one day would actually be the greatest movement in the history of the world. That's the answer I want to give you today. Exodus is where we'll be today. We are a Bible-believing, Bible preaching church. If you're first time, so glad you're here. As we jump in, we'll be in Exodus 15 if you'd like to follow along. The story picks up with these Israelites, uh, where God freed them from this Pharaoh. And as they were free, they realized a couple of things that God wanted more for their life than freedom. In fact, I'm going to give you a bottom line right now of the entire message. If you want to write this down, God frees us to form us. That's why God freed us. To form us in five ways. He freed us to form us in five ways. These Israelites, it's a story of freedom from slavery, and it's also a story of freedom for a brand new life. Did you know that God wants freedom for you, but he also wants something for you in that freedom? A life and a life in abundance. That's why today we are in a brand new series called Created for This, Discovering the Life That God has designed for you to live. Today, together, we're gonna unearth these five principles that hopefully by the end of this series, you'll knew you'll know what to do with your freedom that God has given you and our culture has given you. In fact, as we jump in, I want to give you right now these five. I'm gonna give you all the spoil alerts. In fact, I'm gonna put them on the screen. Here's the fun thing in your fill-in card, you can do a little bit fill in like the spaces of the outline of what we call our logo. And if you just want to write in the one word answers to each of them, soul is the first one. That is what I love to talk about today. God wants a creator connection for you. God wants for you also self-formation. He wants you to be formed in the way of love, mentally, physically, emotionally. He also wants you to belong socially, to be known by others and to know others. Here's what God wants for you to supply good, to know how you make and how you spend your time and your talent and your treasure. And the last thing that God wants for you is sent living, to know what it looks like to be a kingdom ambassador into the world. Five purposes for our lives, the design of our lives. Today, I'd love to talk specifically about soul connection. What the heck is the soul? What would you say the the soul is? Aretha Franklin, she was called the Queen of Soul. Disney came out with a movie called Soul. There's a fitness brand called Soul Cycle. Tom Brady called one of his teammates the soul of the team. I wonder why the Padres don't ever get a soul. At the end of the night, parents teach us to say, I pray the Lord my soul to take. What is the soul? Today I'd like to give you three elements of a soul connection. So you know not only what it is, but how to develop a soul connection with your creator. Because here's where the story picks up Israelites wandering in the desert. What is the first thing they do? It says this Moses and the Israelites saying the song to God, giving voice together. I'm singing my hot art to God. What? What a hey, this is a little weird. I don't know about you, but the first thing I'm doing with my freedom, I'm booking a trip to Cancun. Like I am, I'm going to Las Vegas, right, nice buffet. Like I want to go see all the shows. Like I want to uh relax, go to the beach. I mean, like this is what I this is what I want to do with my freedom. Self-expression, self-direction. This is my life. And the first thing they do is they gather together in pews on a Saturday, Sunday, May 17th, and they worship God. This is the first thing that they do. It's almost like stranded in the middle of the desert, wandering in the desert. God knew the first thing they needed was a soul connection with their creator. Yeah, Jake, that's cute, but they needed food. They needed geographical relocation. They needed somewhere to go. They were actually refugees. I need somewhere to go. They need a constitution, right? They kind of need to know like rules, like, hey, let's not kill each other, right? Like these are kind of big things in a in a community to know like who are the police, who are the government. I mean, the first thing that God gives them is a soul connection to himself. Obviously, God thinks it's kind of important. A soul connection. Why did God give them a soul connection? You can write this first reason down. It's because you are a soul created by the Creator. We see all throughout the Bible, from the origin story called Genesis to Jesus, to right now, even in the Israelites, God gives five specific things, these five S's that we've talked about. He actually says this about the soul in Genesis. God formed man out of the dirt from the ground, blew into his nostrils, the breath of life. The man came alive, a living soul. In English, we think the soul is kind of this invisible piece of you that maybe goes up, floats up to the universe when you die. Alright, that's that's the idea of a soul. But this idea of a soul would have been completely foreign to the original writers of the Old Testament. In fact, the word for soul in the Old Testament is nefesh. Everyone's saying nefesh. Seven hundred times in the Old Testament, this word Nefesh is said. The definition of nafesh is soul, but the soul is who you are. It's not separate from you. Your soul is your body, your thoughts, what you do with your money, your relationships, your soul is everything, your values, your gifts, your soul is you. So when the Old Testament says Nefesh, it means you as a human being, all of you. I'm wondering today, how would your life change if you live like you are a soul created by God? If your soul isn't separate from you, maybe God does care about the thoughts that you have about yourself. Maybe God does care about your relationships. If you're a soul, maybe God does care about your body. Huh, this is an interesting perspective. You are a soul and God created you entirely. Does that change the way you view God or even yourself? So, yes, your soul created by the creator. Here's the second one. You are a soul created to need the creator. To need the creator. John 16 says, I'm the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and ever believes in me will never thirst. So where we find our sustenance, our nourishment, where our our uh where we get a quenched like from our thirst is from our soul connection with our Creator. In fact, I'd love to give you a metaphor today to talk about soul connection. We'll actually put up the first graphic on the screen here. Imagine God is the picture. Everything that God wants to give you is in this picture. What does God want to give you? Well, he talks about the fruits of the spirit love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Do you want any of those today? Maybe your spouse is uh nudging you, he's like, yeah, I need you to be those things for me, right? Fruit of the spirit. This is what I want. Everything God wants to give you is in this picture. And if you are the cup, he wants to pour into your life. This is beautiful. This is the water, the sustenance of life. And here's what the beautiful thing is spending time with God means as a cup. You kind of have to sit there sometimes and allow God to pour into your life, to walk with him, to talk with him, to learn the unforced rhythms of grace, silence, and solitude, and sitting to hear the word of God and worshiping, being the cup, to allow God to fill you with all the things that you want for your own life. But here's what's exciting if you have a thriving soul connection with God, it never ends with you. The beneficiaries of your soul connection never ends with you. In fact, here's what happens your cup gets filled so much so that God, a God of abundance, wants to give you more than you could ever ask or imagine in your wildest dreams. That's what it says in Ephesians 3.20. Do you believe it? Because if you believe it, that means that God wants to overflow your cup, give you more than what you need for today and for tomorrow and the rest of your life. And the overflow of love, of joy, of peace, it goes into guess who? Your relationships. The peter, the people that matter the most to you right now. And then the overflow doesn't just stop in your relationships, but then it goes into the work that you do in your life, the career that you have, the family that you're raising. So soul connection, it never ends with you. A thriving soul connection always goes to the people and the work that you do on a daily basis. This is why it matters. And you're like, Jake, this is great. I get it. Time with Jesus. But can I just very briefly give you a warning as a pastor? Here's what's at stake if this doesn't happen. You will go to lesser things to fill your cup. The addiction, man, it's it's satisfying in the present, and I'm hoping I'll find sustenance at the end of the bottle, at the other side of the screen. That's this is my hope. I I mean, I really love money. I love it. I love making money. I think about money, budgets are my thing. In fact, I'm not gonna work nine to five. I'm working 24-7. I'm trying to get all the money that I possibly can. You get more and more, and all of a sudden you need more and more. Maybe money, maybe addiction. No, no, no. For you, it's it's honor. You want everyone in your life to honor you, your reputation matters more than anything else. Social media is where you look for your value, uh, your friends, your family. This is where you get your sustenance. But here's what happens. Put up the next graphic. Entertainment, addiction, success, approval. It looks good. I'm telling you, Isaiah, it tastes way better than water. Way better. Way that caffeine? Come on, somebody. That's what I like. It tastes way good. And here's what happens it's good in the beginning, but ultimately it creates holes in your soul. And what'll happen is this toxic concoction ends up pouring out to the people that you love them. Oh, this is and here's what's interesting. It's never enough. It never fills your cup. You always want more money. You always want more of the addiction. You want more of the approval. You want more of the power. It's never, it's it's a false, it's a lesser God. It looks good, it tastes good, but I'm wondering if your soul needs more than caffeine today. Does your soul need more than caffeine? Has your soul been surviving on caffeine for too long? Do you need water for your soul today? Someone in the Old Testament, they got it. The Old Testament, they say this, as the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God. That's what my soul pants for. It doesn't pant for all these other things. I want them, but they never satisfy. So, my question for you is where are you going? Where are you going to fill your soul? Is it working? Where's the caffeine in your life right now? You are a soul created to need the creator, not these lesser, false gods. Money's good, power's good, all these stuff are good, but they will not fill your soul with what you need. Lastly, you are a soul created for the creator. You're a soul creator. The other ones I could get with, right? By, you know, I'm soul created by God, I'm a soul created. But this idea of like to need to buy for God, I mean, I kind of like living my own life. Like, I like my independence. And this is where the whole Christianity thing gets a little off, right? Like, okay, now I'm like serving a God. And what God creates his creation just to serve him. I think it's a little egotistical. Like, it's a little bit like a narcissist in the sky. Like, that's kind of how I can get with the other soul things, but this one, I'm a soul created for God. Another word for God is love. Did you know that? This is actually one of the main words for God, a metaphor for God. In fact, the the verse I want to bring up is in 1 John, it says, Whoever does not love does not know God. Because God is love. Maybe another way you could say it is your cre you're a soul created for love. Okay, that makes a little bit more sense. In fact, love defined by the Bible is love doesn't envy, love doesn't boast. Uh, this is 1 Corinthians 13. This is what love is. I don't know about you, but the more that I know that I'm a soul created for God means that I'm going to God so I can become more like love for the people that I love and for me who I also love. So I become a better soul if I understand that I'm a soul created for God. Man, I had the best picture of a soul connection with God. My grandparents, uh uh, we actually have a picture of them. This is us uh last summer. Don't mind my huge scar on my forehead and my that's a whole nother story for another day. Um sixty two years of marriage, my grandparents. Grandparents and they planted a church in the 80s. But my grandfather, he he worked at a paper mill for 40 years. He's not this expert Christian guy. He just decided to plant a church, and they still go to that same church today, 50 years later. And they have 13 children. And seven of them, seven of them were adopted from four different countries. They're like, I want to do life on hard mode. Like, this is like, why would you do this? But this is what they felt called to do. And they, I have 40 cousins, which means they have 45 plus grandchildren. And a lot of them still live within a mile of them today. And if there's any excuse, Isaiah, to not have a soul connection with God, this might be it. There's a lot you have to do. But it's weird because my mom keeps telling me stories of grandma where she wakes up at 4 a.m. and she goes into her little office that looks over the rolling hills of Maine as the sun is rising, and she writes letters to prison inmates on death row. And she writes birthday cars. She never misses a birthday for any of her grandchildren. Any of her children. And she spends time with God. And she journals and she journals. And as the sun is rising, my grandfather wakes up, and here's where my mom tears up telling the story that every time she woke up, she'd go out to the living room. And she'd see my grandparents sitting at the edge of the table reading the Bible and praying together. Before the 45 grandchildren start calling her name. Before her 13 sons and daughters, who struggle, a lot of them different countries, start calling their name before the cows, because they have a farm, before the church, before the paper mill. I am going to God to fill my cup. And I am depending on God before anything else so that that overflow flows into my grandchildren and my children and generations after me. This is what a soul can. And I want this for you. Don't you want that? Going to the unlimited resource of power and energy, and yet we're going to caffeine? You are a soul created for this relationship with God. What if your soul today is tired because it was never meant to orbit around you? What if your soul is tired because it was never meant to orbit around you? Man, time's flying. What do we do after freedom? What do we do after freedom? The first thing they do is they gather to worship before a geographical relocation, before a constitution, before relations. They go to God for that soul connection to fill their cup. And then at the end of the chapter, there's this interesting passage, and it says this. God said, If you listen and listen obediently to how God tells you to live in his presence, obeying his commandments and keeping all his laws, then I won't strike you with all the diseases that I inflicted on the Egyptians. I am God your healer. Before they learn rules and rhythms, before God wants to teach them all of these things, we're gonna get into it in the next five weeks. I'm so excited to share these things that God has. Before any of this other stuff, God just wants you as a son and as a daughter. This is the first thing. Notice in the passage, he says, Would you listen? Would you walk with me? Would you talk with me? Would you learn the unforced rhythms of grace? Are you tired? Are you burnt out? Come to me and I will give you rest. This is the invitation, the offer that our Creator has for you today before everything else in the desert. And it seems like there's other needs. My grandparents had other needs. You have other needs, and yet look at what this could do for your life. So we are a soul. You are a soul created by God, you're a soul created to need God, and you are a soul created for God. What do I do after freedom? After freedom comes formation. God wants to form you first and foremost, above everything else, for you to know that you are the beloved of our Father. One of my greatest quotes that says, the greatest challenge in our lifetime is to receive the love of the Father. Are you able to allow the water to be poured into your cup to receive the love that God wants to give you today? So as we end, I was wondering what was one practical thing we could end with. One thing you can take uh into tomorrow. Uh you could pray, that's a good start. You could read your Bible, that's a great start. But there's something interesting because God freed them from slavery, but he also was forming them individually, but also collectively. In other words, what God is doing even right now, he's forming you, but he's forming us as a community. In fact, this didn't exist a year and a half ago. God is trying to form within us these five purposes collectively. So here's the thing if you do something personally, it actually helps us collectively when it comes to your spiritual walk. How do I know this? Selah. She knelt down before God during worship, and it brought me to tears right here. It's interesting. She did a spiritual habit following Jesus into the She's doing it for herself. She's not performing, and I'm over here crying. It's interesting how someone's actions can inspire somebody else. This is what community is. God is trying to form you individually, and he's trying to form us collectively. So today I'm gonna give you one habit, one thing you can do for your soul connection with God that'll help you, but it'll help us as a unit as we're growing into the ways of the kingdom of God. And it's this to gather to worship. Gather to worship. This is the first thing the Israelites did in the desert. They gathered to worship. And would you just pat someone on the back, just right next to you? Just pat them on the back. Wow. Oh, we got a hug there. That's okay. Don't be weird about it. Make sure to only go to the shoulder. You're doing it. You're here. You woke up this morning realizing I want something from God. Or maybe you're like, I want the free coffee. I don't know why you're here. You're here, or maybe someone forced you to come. By the way, I am glad you're here, but you are here. You're gathering to worship. So I'm kind of speaking to the choir here, but for the sake of uh just being able to talk about this practice, I want to give you three hacks to gather to worship. Uh been a pastor for a little bit now, and I've seen thousands of people come in and come out of church. And what I've seen with the people who stay and have a thriving soul connection with God, they do three specific things when they gather here to worship. Only three things. And I just want to share some of these best practices with you, uh, because I see so much as a pastor. Uh so here are the three. Here's the first one. If you want to write it down, uh it's just this show up. Yeah, this one uh this one's not too hard. Just kidding. It's way easier to say and way harder to do, right? Showing up. You're here, you're doing it well. But here is the practice I would encourage you to consider a spiritual practice for soul connection. And it's this would you come to church every week you're in town? Would you consider doing that? Would you consider literally blocking it off on your calendar? One of my really good friends, Alfredo, who attends our church, uh, he's he's mentoring a guy, discipling a guy, and he inspired the dude and he's like, hey, instead of saying, Am I going to church? Ask what pants am I going to put on today to go to church? Love it. Would you consider doing it? Because I'm hoping these 16 we only have 16 minutes together. We try to keep it around this hour point in part so you can go on with your day, but I'm hoping this could be some of the most powerful hour you have all day, maybe even all week. And maybe you have been here for a little bit. Has it been something that's helped change your life? The powerful worship, really good looking pastor. I don't know if it's helped your life. What I do know is that you don't need a clap for that. That's weird. Only my wife gets a clap for that. That's kid, just kidding. Um, okay, why am I talking about this? Okay. Back on pause, pause. Uh I'm hoping this, the powerful worship, the practical teaching, uh helps you feel that you're less alone in your walk with Jesus. I'm hoping this vertical relationship, when you lift your hand, when you close your eyes, when you hear these words, it actually changes your soul even a little bit. And if it has, uh these three acts hopefully will help show up. Here's a second one. Uh come ready. Come ready. I don't know if you've experienced uh this phenomenon growing up in Maine. People would show up late and they would say, I'm running on Buckfield time. That's the town I grew up in. I was like, oh, okay, it must be a Buckfield day. Then I moved thousands of miles away, and uh um people were late and they're like, I'm running on California time. I was like, oh, this is interesting. And then I was in another plot place, and and they just said, Hey, I'm running on Jake. Like they literally just said their first name. Like, I'm running on Jake Time. I was like, Oh, that's that's great, right? It's it's easy to show up late, right? There's so many things to do. You have to get ready. My wife and I know this. We just had a newborn, and all of a sudden it takes an hour and a half to leave the house every day. No wonder we're late. We're learning, it's hard showing up. But if you show up early, here's what happens. And I know this because every service, you we usually have about, I don't know, six to twelve people that show up 15 minutes before the service starts. And they just sit in a pew and they pray. And they're just praying that God would just reveal what he wants to say to them in that hour. I know a lot of other people who come and they're driving in their car and they decide to listen to Jesus' music to get their soul ready. I listen to like an hour plus of Jesus music before I preach. Uh I'm just trying to hype myself up. I'm trying to get myself ready for what God wants to do. Uh, would you, yes, show up, but would you maybe come a little bit early? Imagine what it would look like if you came in a little less stressed and frazzled and open to what God wants to have for you in this service and to get the full 60 minutes of it. Here's the third and last one. Would you linger longer? Would you linger longer? It's so easy to Usain bolt out of here. I'm getting to brunch, I'm getting to lunch four minutes before the next guy. I'm feeling pretty good about myself. Uh, and I don't have to go through a lot of anxiety of meeting new people. Like that is very difficult. But can I give you one question that will transform your life? One question. It's this. Hi, I'm Jake. What's your name? It's hard. I understand. It's very hard to ask this question, but I guarantee you if you ask this one question to someone you don't know just once after a service, it could lead to a best friendship, it could lead to a marriage one day. Come on, somebody. You never know, baby. You never know. Yes, we got some people praying in the back right now, intercessing for that moment. Let it happen in Jesus' name. Hey, my name is Jake. But say your own name. Don't say my name. That's a little weird. Say your name. What's your name? If you ask that one question, here's what's cool. The next week you'll actually know somebody. You actually might know a name. And if you do that 50 times in a year, you are gonna be Mr. or Miss Popular. Everyone's gonna know your name. You're gonna come to church, and you're gonna feel like, man, these are my people. This is my family. I go here to feel safe. I go here to belong. Yeah, the preaching's alright, the worship's good. I'm here for the people. Hey, my name is Jake. What's your name? One question that could transform your entire church experience today. Linger just a little bit longer. I'm gonna invite the worship team to come up. So here is my invitation, and it's this uh man, we have been prepping this series for months and months. I've been looking forward to this series because this is the practicality of what God wants for your life. Uh, what do I do after freedom? My hope is over the next five weeks, you will know exactly what God desires for you and what it looks like to live a thriving spiritual life. A life-giving relationship with Jesus, not just a relationship with Jesus, a life-giving. Or if you're an atheist or a curious, at least you'll know what it looks like on the other side. So my invitation is this would you show up every week of this series? If you're in time, would you show up every week of this series so you can get the whole values of our church and so you can be blessed by what it looks like to know what to do after freedom? Would you stand with me? Yeah, and I just want to be very clear. Very, very clear before anything else. God desires a relationship with you. Do you believe that today? That there's no barrier between your relationship with Jesus? There's nothing you could do or ever do to separate yourself from God. The first thing God wants is a relationship for you to feel like you're known by God. He knows everything about you, but if you don't reveal yourself, he can't help and transform you. So would you just reveal yourself maybe even a little bit during this next song? Would you be that cup that maybe stays a little bit still for a moment so God can pour all of the things he wants to pour into you? Is there a word he wants to give you right now? Is there clarity to a decision you're struggling with? Is there a relationship he wants to put on your mind? Is there encouragement he wants to give you today? I don't know. It's not my job to know. My job is to help you encounter the living God, and he does the rest. So, my question over the next four minutes as we worship today is would you be open to what God has for you right now? You came to church, you're here for a reason for yourself. You want something out of this, and God wants something for you. There is something that comes after freedom, and the first thing is a soul connection, and it's available right now. So, Lord, we thank you. God, you are a lot of things that you are very powerful, and I don't know why you've decided the first thing you want is a relationship with me. Me, of all people, Lord. Thank you, thank you. And I I know you want to give me something today. Uh, you want to give me your wisdom, your perspective, your help, your guidance, your conviction on something. And I just want to be very clear, God, with you, I'm open. I am open. I'm ready to receive what you have for me today, God. I want you. I want this relationship. God, boldly in front of everyone, God, I just want to say this has to come first for me. Before my relationship with my wife, before my career, for all the things that you have for me, God, I'm saying yes to you. Yes to you, and I'm open. I'm open right now.