Then Sings My Soul: It Is Well with My Soul
Then Sings My Soul • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 40:13
0 ratings
· 220 viewsNo matter what storm we are facing, we do not lose heart. We are able to keep the faith and not lose heart when we recognize there is a greater, unseen truth.
Files
Notes
Transcript
Good Morning. Today we are going to begin a new series entitled: Then Sings my soul. This four-week series will look at how various classic hymns convey the truth of Scripture to us. And by doing so, we will see that both the truth and different musical modes of expressing that truth are still relevant to our faith today. As we begin today, I would like to start our sermon by singing together the classic hymn that will be discussing today
It is Well With my Soul
It is Well With my Soul
In a Seinfeld episode, Kramer adopts the mantra “Serenity now!” to calm himself down. Things come to a head when some children in the apartment complex vandalize his entryway. Kramer has a breakdown and can be heard screaming, “Serenity now!” while the sound of things being destroyed is heard. It is later revealed that he destroyed twenty-five of his friend’s computers during this emotional breakdown. As humorous as this clip is, how often do we approach peace through some sort of accomplishment perspective? “If I say this mantra or do this routine, then I’ll be able to handle stress, disappointment, and general storms of life!” But as the clip humorously shows—and as we’ve experienced in this life—eventually those tactics will let us down. That is why we need the truth and comfort that comes from God’s Word, and the peace it points us toward.
The hymn that we are unpacking today was written my a man named Horatio Spafford. Horatio Spafford was someone who experienced a very tragic event in life. He, his wife, and children were supposed to travel from America to Europe. Horatio was delayed by work, and so his wife and children traveled to Europe on the ship Ville du Havre. While en route, the French ship collided with another and quickly sank. Horatio’s wife survived but their four daughters all drowned. Out of that experience of grief, Horatio wrote the hymn “It Is Well with My Soul.” He begins the hymn: When peace like a river attendeth my way, when sorrows like sea billows roll; whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say, “It is well, it is well with my soul. It is important to note that he doesn’t say “It is well with my soul” like Kramer says “Serenity now.” This is not a mantra to repeat to lower blood pressure. Rather, it comes from the assurance “that Christ has regarded my helpless estate, and has shed his own blood for my soul”.
The apostle Paul was another person well acquainted with grief and suffering. In his second letter to the church in Corinth, Paul says,
We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair;
In case you are wondering what he means by “afflicted in every way,” he gives an example further in the letter, when he writes,
Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea;
Not unlike Horatio Spafford, Paul had experienced pain and danger at sea and yet, like Spafford, he was not finally crushed nor driven to despair. How can that be? Paul recognized two very important truths.
No Matter the Trial, We Do Not Face it Alone
No Matter the Trial, We Do Not Face it Alone
The first was that no matter how bad of a situation he was facing, he was not facing it alone. Jesus was in him
always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.
Scripture tells us
Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
And Jesus wasn’t just with Paul for the fellowship, but for the purpose of making Christ known to others. He realized there was a purpose in his suffering, in that he could point others to Jesus (4:12–14). That is why Paul says,
For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.
He knew the terrible storms of life, but he had realized that in those storms he could point others to Jesus and, by doing so, glorify God.
Our Trials Do Not Compare to Glory
Our Trials Do Not Compare to Glory
Paul also realized that in light of eternity, the suffering we experience—no matter how tremendous—is momentary. And he reassured himself of this truth by remembering that his faith wasn’t focused on what could be seen but on the currently unseen reality that was greater.
For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
While it is easy to tell others what Paul did, it isn’t easy to apply it to our life. But that is where prayer comes in. In the hymn by Spafford, his words are very similar to Paul’s, except they include a plea to God: O Lord, haste the day when my 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. Spafford and Paul both understood this fundamental truth: that all of reality is not necessarily the world that we see and interact with now. That there is a truth beyond our current senses, and sometimes we have to set our faith upon that truth, that unseen realm, and pray that God will soon roll back the clouds obscuring our sight.
In the hymn that Spafford wrote, he zeros in on what matters: our salvation and the truth of our eternal home. So often we let pain, fear, and grief distort our focus from what truly matters: that we have been made right with God because of Jesus. When he learned that his children had died, what did he celebrate? That his sin, not part of it but all of it, was nailed to the cross and no longer his. Why would that be a comfort during a time of deep grief? Because he understood that if his sin was forgiven, then he had an eternity of glory awaiting him!
Conclusion: Body of Christ, I would that we are all looking at life the way that Horatio Spafford looked at life.