## Is It Well With Our Soul?

## Psalm 112:1-8

Imagine yourself on a 747 jetliner, 35,000 feet in the air, and the word came from the Captain, "We are in trouble, and the aircraft is going down. Prepare yourself for a crash landing." You are sitting there with one and a half minutes to live. Could you sing the song that the choir sang a moment ago with the assurance that they sang it?

You are off by yourself somewhere and there is a severe pain in your chest and your breath leaves you. Death will be upon you in 90 seconds. What would you do?

Maybe a different proposition - Some one slips up behind you in the service this morning and whispers in your ear, "You have an emergency telephone call." You leave the service and go to the phone. The voice on the other end tells you that your home is burning down at this very moment.

Maybe when you get to work tomorrow morning the boss calls you in and says, "We are making some changes in the company and our plans no longer include your services. Here is your final paycheck."

The doctor calls you and tells you that the tests he ran last week have the worst possible news. You have cancer.

We could give many more hypothetical situations that each of us could find ourselves in, but you get the picture without me saying any more. Let me ask you "Is it well with your soul" this morning? Are you confident that everything is all right between you and the Creator of the universe?

(Psa 112:7) "He shall not be afraid of evil tidings: his heart is fixed, trusting in the LORD."

The psalmist is talking about a person whose faith is such that even when bad news comes, he could say, 'It is well with my soul'.

Each of us may experience any one of these evil tidings at any moment of the day. What is it that will cause us to have a fixed heart about the matter? To be able to say 'It is well?"

I. We Must Be Certain Of Salvation

(Eph 2:8-9) "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: {9} Not of works, lest any man should boast."

(Rom 10:9-10) "That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. {10} For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation."

(John 5:24) "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life."

A. I'm not talking about religious rhetoric.

B. I'm talking about an experience with the Lord Jesus Christ.

1. A time of cleansing of our heart and life.

2. A time when Christ came into your life and changed you.

C. Not Just Walking An Aisle or Signing a Card.

1. Have You Been To Jesus For That Cleansing Power?

2. Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?

3. Are you fully trusting in His grace this hour?

4. Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?

II. We Must Be Confident In Our Service

A. Unfortunately many believers concept of service is one-sided.

1. They only know what it means to be served.

2. We are by nature very selfish, but God desires that we think less of self and more of others.

3. Some have the mistaken idea that serving God means attending church now and again.

4. God has saved us that we might serve Him.

(1 Tim 1:12) "And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry;"

5. Ministry or service is not just for the few, but God intends it for each believer.

B. God has called us to serve Him.

1. It is the reason He left us here.

2. There are many ways in which we can serve Him…

3. And they all involve ministering to others!

a. Teach or help in a class.

b. Sing in the choir.

c. Visit or call on folks.

d. Nursing Home ministry.

e. Children's ministries.

f. Help out in the nursery.

C. When "evil tidings" come our way, we will be asking ourselves as the songwriter:

1. I wonder, have I done my best for Jesus, Who died upon the cruel tree? To think of His great sacrifice at Calvary! I know my Lord expects the best from me.

2. How many are the lost that I have lifted? How many are the chained I've helped to free? I wonder, have I done my best for Jesus, When He has done so much for me?

III. We Must Be Considering the Second Coming

A. Jesus is coming back, are we thinking about that truth?

And, Lord haste the day when the faith shall be sight, The clouds be rolled back as a scroll, The trump shall resound and the Lord shall descend, "Even so" it is well with my soul.

B. What comes to mind when we think of the Lord's return?

1. Is it fear?

a. When I was a boy and would misbehave, I heard those fateful words.

b. "Wait until your father gets home!"

c. As much as I loved my daddy, and as much as I wanted to spend time with him, but on those days I wished he wouldn't come home!

d. It was not well with my soul.

2. Jesus is coming soon, is it well with our soul?

3. Do we long to see Him, to look upon His face?

4. Will He be disappointed with us?

Some fear the coming of the Lord, because "It is not well with their soul." Why not come today and correct that matter? Why don't you come and make certain your salvation. Maybe you need to come and deal with the matter of your service to God. All of us need to consider His Second Coming. Whatever the need today, why not come and make things right with God. Only then can we say with confidence, "It is well with my soul".