Yeah. Good afternoon thank you for being back in our service this afternoon if you would stand we'll get started with our service. Proverbs chapter 22 verse number four says by humility and the fear of the Lord are riches and honor and life. It's good to be in the Lord's house today. Brother Savage would you open us in a word of prayer. And join me in singing page 188, The Love of God. The love of God is greater, God, than tongue or man can ever tell. It goes beyond the highest law. ♪ God gave His Son to me ♪ ♪ He's a good child, a good child ♪ ♪ Born and brought in this city ♪ ♪ Oh, love of God, how rich and poor ♪ ♪ How miserable and strong ♪ ♪ It shall forevermore be known ♪ ♪ Sing a song where only time shall pass away ♪ ♪ And worlds we've known and kingdoms far and free ♪ ♪ Where history unravels and ends ♪ ♪ The mountains grow, the floods flow sure ♪ ♪ In the skies of mortal pain ♪ ♪ For ever I'll soar on earth again ♪ ♪ And everywhere I'll smile and dream ♪ ♪ For I'm the love of God above ♪ ♪ Who made me all that I should have been ♪ Amen, and we'll continue singing page 243, Victory in Jesus. ♪ And with bleeding Jesus I sing amen ♪ ♪ He sent me and brought me with his redeeming blood ♪ ♪ In the field of wailing where no blood is to be shed ♪ ♪ A pretty girl ♪ ♪ I heard about this evening ♪ ♪ A pretty girl in the evening ♪ ♪ How a pretty lady walked in there ♪ ♪ And was so blind to see ♪ ♪ And when they arrived in detail ♪ ♪ A pretty girl in the evening ♪ ♪ We convent in one ♪ ♪ Hark, the herald angels sing ♪ ♪ Gleaming in the night ♪ ♪ Hark, the herald angels sing ♪ ♪ My Savior, Lord of all the world ♪ ♪ Peace on me and glory in the earth ♪ ♪ Give me peace in the world ♪ ♪ Give me peace in the world ♪ Thank you, Mavis. Savior, lead me lest I stray. Gently lead me all the way. I am safe when by thy side. I would in thy love abide. Lead me, lead me, Savior, lead me lest I stray. Gently down the stream of time, Savior, lead me all the way. Thou the refuge of my soul when the stormy billows roll. I am safe when Thou art nigh. On Thy mercy I rely. Lead me, lead me, Savior, lead me lest I stray. Gently down the stream of time, Savior, lead me all the way. Savior, lead me, lead at last, when the storm of life is past, to the land of endless day, where all tears are wiped away. Savior, lead me lest I stray. Gently down the stream of time, Savior, lead me all the way. All right, everybody wide awake? See if the preacher is, here we go. Yes, sir. All right, take your Psalm books, turn to 145, and your Bibles to Psalm 40. Psalm books to 145, I know, you thought it was a question. Psalm 145, I mean, Psalm 145, Psalm 40. I love the song, It Is Well. And powerful, if you know the story behind it, even more powerful. But the Bible says that we're to speak to ourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. So we're going to have a, I think the beauty of our hymns is the message of them. You know, too many times it's, You know, it's about the beat and the rhythm and the recitation and a lot of modern songs. I'm not against contemporary songs that are scriptural written in current times. I'm against contemporary Christian music that takes a world's culture and a world's tone and tries to make it religious music. That's not how it works. And so people are saying, you know, that you're against contemporary music, you're, you know, you're against modern music. And, you know, if contemporary is a time, I'm okay with the time zone, but contemporary with a culture, I'm against that. We try to, at our church, try to take time where we actually go into some of the songs, see the scriptural application, and then be able to encourage our hearts with it. You know, it's hard. When I was a young man, a teenager, growing up in Florida, and then as a young adult married, I owned a landscaping business. And I hate the smell of grass, freshly mowed grass nowadays. I thought it was a lot of great freedom in that and it wasn't. And so I was glad to resell that business and get out from underneath it. But it was one good thing about it was that most the lawnmower in, and at least that was my hope, because I sang a lot when I was mowing the grass. And I remember it as well being one of those songs I just loved to sing. You know, the words in itself are good, but in the story, it just has become more impactful in my life. In Psalm chapter 40, we see verse five. Many, O Lord my God, are thy wonderful work which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are to usward. They cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee. If I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered. Turn over to Proverbs chapter 30. Proverbs chapter 30. Proverbs 30 and verse 8, remove far from me vanity and lies, give me neither poverty nor riches, feed me with food convenient for me, lest I be full and deny thee and say, who is the Lord? Or lest I be poor and still and take the name of my God in vain. It is in these verses that we understand that God has a work in our life, and if we're not careful, we can start to take credit for things, or start to blame God for things. And one thing I love about the song of it as well, is we see a man, Horatio Spafford, who understood The lot in life where he was and the circumstances that God brought him through, which were, you know, outside of the story of Job, the story of Horatio Spafford just seems like it's right on par with that, where ruin comes into his life and yet he responds well. And I want us to be encouraged through the story of the song, through the scriptural truth of the song and tie it into scripture and then encourage our hearts so that whether the lawnmower is drowning us out or whether we're in the showers singing or just humming a tune at work absentmindedly and it comes to it as well, that means a little more to us than the last time we hung it or sang it in church or something like that. If you have your songbook, 145, when peace like a river attendeth my way. One of the wonderful things I loved about living in Wisconsin was being able to get on the Eau Claire River in the town we were at in Eau Claire and just get an inner tube and just float down the river. You didn't have any, You didn't have any timeline, you know, because there were very limited places to get out of the river at that point. But you would get in the river, you'd float down through the downtown area, float down to the other end of town, and there'd be a place to get off. And there's usually guys there that would, you know, you'd pay them to drive you back up to your car at the front end of the river. But just being on that river, I don't know, If you're like me, if I get on anything water where I can't see the bottom, I hear that music. You know? Right? I just don't like that. And I remember the first time going through there, I was worried about what was in the water with me. And then my wife would say, just relax and enjoy it. We'd sit in that inner tube. I wasn't brave enough the first time to have my feet dangling and catching everything. I'd butt down and figured if it was gonna bite me, it was gonna get that part and I'll get out and respond from there. But then you just learn to relax and the speed of the river. It was very slow, no rapids or anything, and just casually making yourself through gravity and downhill motion of the river, just casually going through life, looking up at the sky and the clouds and enjoying the adventure and occasionally holding hands if somebody was close enough around you or tried to splash them and just the leisure float on a river, and that's what the image I get when I think of this first part of the verse, when peace like a river attendeth me. And then Horatio writes, when sorrows like sea billows roll. You think about that, the waves crashing on the shore. And there's times that the waves crashing on the shore is fun. You know, the kids run away from it and have a lot of fun with that. There's other times the waves come crashing, they pull you off your feet to ground. slides from underneath you, you know, the sand gives and you have a moment of panic and if you're watching your kids and that happens, I mean, you just got this image of them being pulled out into a riptide and not being able to fight their way and to succumb to the power of the ocean as it crashes down. And some of us, life has done that to us, right? It's crashing down and it's a serene scene and then all of a sudden it's there and it's pulled our feet out from underneath us. Horatio knows a little bit about that. And guess what? We read throughout Scripture, there's a lot of people who know a little bit about that. And don't you love the commonness of the stories of the Bible? It's people running into trouble finding a faithful God that takes care of them. Or it's people running into trouble trying to do it their own way and they cause more trouble. And the commonness of that relates to us. It doesn't matter where we're from, and what our background is, and if you were born up north, or you're born down south, or if you're rooting for the red, or you're rooting for the orange and blue, it doesn't matter. The commonness of that, God taking care of us through all of that. He says this last line of that first verse, or this third line of that first verse, whatever my lot, That's sort of what Solomon is saying here in Proverbs 30. Lest I be fool and deny thee, and say, who is the Lord? Or lest I be poor and steal and take the name of my God in vain. You know, whatever my lot, whether I'm successful or whether it's a failure, whether it's good news or whether it's bad news, whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say, it is well. It is well with my soul. Some of you may know the story of Horatio Spafford. It is this, he was a... well-known lawyer in the Chicago area. In 1871, when the Chicago fires came through, it really devastated him financially. He was an elder at a church, very involved with D.L. Moody and revivals, and had been a financial sponsor of some of the travels of D.L. Moody and other pastors that would be in that Great Awakening. Very involved, very religious man, very pious, great testimony as a Christian, a great testimony in the community, but had suffered loss just like every other citizen that had been in the wake of that Chicago fire. And in 1873, a couple years later, they're still in recovery, rebuilding, cleanup phase, and having some big burden on them. D.L. Moody invites them to come to Europe. so that they can travel with him in Europe, refresh, relax, be in Europe with him while he's doing a revival throughout England and into France. And so they, on that invitation, and trying to still recover and maintain their sanity, he loads his wife and his four daughters onto a ship, and he's gonna take care of some business over the next couple days, and he'll be a couple days behind them, and he'll come on another ship. And his wife loads up with four daughters. The oldest is 12 years old. The youngest is 18 months. Loads up on their ship and they go somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. They collide with another ship. 226 souls between those two ships drown and die at sea. Horatio's wife arrives in England and she sends back a telegram, two words, saved alone. Obviously the devastation that she's feeling. the devastation that he's feeling, the helplessness that he's feeling. He gets on a boat to go join his wife and to provide comfort to her, gets on a boat. And as they're going across, there are a number of family members that were involved of those two ships that wrecked and the people that drowned. And the captain announces to everybody that this is roughly the spot. where those souls were lost, where those ships collided and those people drowned. It is in that moment that Horatio, feeling the emotion of everything going on in his life, is when he shares a testimony of how God's working in his life. Because see, in his second verse, as he's penning these words right there in that area of the ocean where his family is changed forever. He hasn't gone to comfort his wife, and he needs comfort himself. He's in the worst of human tragedy that he writes this song, and his second verse talks about The condition he was in when Jesus saved him. Read that second verse. Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come, let this blessed assurance control that Christ has regarded my helpless estate and has shed his own blood for my soul. Do you see that? He has reason to either blame God And why did you do this? An 18-month-old, my precious 12-year-old, God, I don't know how you could do it. And maybe, maybe in a sense of religiousness, he said, I don't know why you did it, but I'm going to hope that you've got some good through it. My wife is suffering. for all the days it takes for me to get with her, for her needing my comfort and me being helpless, and I'm right at this moment, in the middle of human tragedy, and his mind doesn't go to what he's missing, his mind goes to what he's received. That doesn't speak volumes for the testimony of this man. It is in the worst of tragedy that man tends to reveal themselves. It is the worst of circumstances that a truth of a person's testimony reveals himself. And this man immediately goes to that, yes, Satan is Buffett. Yes, I'm feeling this. Buffett carries the idea of a punch in the bag, receiving bruises and blows, and it's as though Satan should fight me and it feels like I'm constantly in a battle. I'm going to remember this one thing! That Christ hath regarded my helpless estate and hath shed His own blood for my soul. It's not a man who's overwhelmed by the circumstances. They are overwhelming. But he's a man who understands who God is and the position he has in life. Look at that third verse. My sin. Oh, the bliss of this glorious thought. And the idea of bliss, he's talking about how the amazing satisfaction, the amazing overwhelming thought that this is. It is so outstanding to even think about this. My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought. My sin, not in part, but the whole is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul. Now when you go through tragedy, is that your testimony? When you face death, when you face sickness, when you face broken relationships, when you face the tragedies that life can throw at you, is your thought to say, Jesus saves me, God loves me, I don't need anything else? If it's not... We probably need to get things readjusted. We probably need to get refocused on what it is to be saved from our sins and what it is to understand that the worst a believer would face in this world is nothing compared to the glory that awaits us in heaven. The closest we're ever going to come to the disfavor of God is suffering in a cursed world. It only gets better from here for the believer. This is the closest we'll ever come to hell, if you will. For the unsaved, though, this life is the closest they'll ever come to know in heaven. And that's why when Paul says we don't sorrow as those that have no hope, it's not the same circumstances. Oh, we're both facing death. Oh, we're both facing broken relationships. Oh, we're both facing the circumstances of life. And how we respond matters when we remember that God has paid attention to us. He's regarded our condition and he has sent his son to save us. not just in part, not just from our past, and He saved us from that, bless God, and not just the sins we will commit in the present, and He's forgiven us for that, praise God, but for the sins of the future that we don't even know, He's forgiven those as well. What a great God. Why would we not say, it is well with my soul. It doesn't matter the election went the way that you would want or didn't go the way that you want. God's still in charge. God is still on the throne. God is still working in man's life. And God is still giving us a purpose to try to proclaim to them, you can know the position of being in this moment of knowing it is well with your soul because of the forgiveness that God has given you. I love to sing this song and when we get to this last verse, I go a little crazy. I want the pianist to build up in the anxiousness. And the Lord haste the day when my faith, all of my walk, all of my belief, all of my good steps and all of my bad steps, the totality of my walk on this earth. Hopefully it's a maturing faith, not a retarding faith, but a maturing faith. And as it comes to the culmination of the end of my life, and that time where the dead in Christ shall rise first, and those that are alive will meet Him in the air, when there is a shout, there's a sound of a trumpet. And in Lord haste the day when my faith shall be sight, the clouds be rolled back as a scroll, the trump shall resound, and that's when the piano's building up heavy, and the trump shall resound. Even so, even so, it is well with my soul. Wait, what's he say about that? And the Lord shall descend. See, If we were in Horatio's circumstances, I'm afraid me, I would focus on what was missing. I'd focus on how things have changed. I'd focus on how could God do that? Hadn't I been faithful to the man of God and the revival services? Hadn't I been faithful to church? I was an elder in church. I was giving money to finance. People were getting saved because of the sacrifices I was going through. How can you demand more of me, God? I'm afraid that's how I might respond. But I know, in my heart of heart, I want to respond like Horatio did. I want to respond that, Lord, no matter the circumstances, it is well with my soul. No matter the circumstances, it is well with my soul. When peace comes like a river, slow and steady, when it crashes on me as the billows roll, no matter what, the trump's going to sound. The Lord's going to descend. It is well with my soul. This is why we sing songs like this, to remind us how the songwriter can capture a moment, an emotion. And instead of doing that emotion in a way that's self-serving, we find hymns that are focused and written in a scriptural aspect towards God. They aren't self-serving, they're serving God. I think we can all agree that Ms. Spafford has reason to sing the blues. He has reason to be sorrowful. He could write easily a song talking about it, I sought the Lord's comfort and he came to me. He could write a song about though I walked through the valley of the shadow of death. He can write songs about that and lower the tone a little bit, but he doesn't. He's building a crescendo to talk about the Lord is bigger than the circumstances. The Lord is bigger than the emotion. The Lord is bigger than the moment. And it is well with my soul. Can you tell I love this song? I wish that I could get it across to everybody that this is a song for the weak. And you need to sing it and sing it knowing the story and sing it thinking about not just the circumstances. Oh, it's easy to talk about I got a promotion. It is well with my soul. Oh, I got good news from the doctor. It's well with my soul. Oh, my family's healthy. It's well with my soul. It's a little harder to stand at a gravesite and say it's well with my soul. It's a little harder to go through circumstances, death that comes sometimes through disease, sometimes through heartache, sometimes through the work of that own person's hands. But it is well with my soul. God is bigger than all of the circumstances. And we're to realize that and praise His name and say, it is not the circumstances that control me. It is well with my soul. Go back to verse one. 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. Let's stand. Heavenly Father, Lord, may this be an encouragement to us Not just because it's said with passion and not just because it's a song of emotion. Lord, it's a song of a right focus. There's times it's easy for us to be overwhelmed. There's times it's easy for us to be in this culture and to feel like it's not worth the time. It's times like this that sometimes the devil talks to us and says, see, what's happening? God doesn't love you. He's not listening to you. He's not paying attention to you. And humanly speaking, we can feel all alone. and we can feel like things aren't right in the world, and we can feel like things are topsy-turvy, we can feel like we don't understand why God did some things, but we should always reflect on the sins that are forgiven, the debt that's been paid, the promise of the Lord's return, and it is truly well with our soul. As we go into this invitation, may we refocus, refresh, not on the circumstances, but on Christ that's bigger than the circumstances. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Let's stand and just have the piano play, head bowed, eyes closed, please. I want us to be in a spirit of prayer. What's going on in your life? I don't know. I don't know your story. I don't know what's happened over the last year since I was here last. Some of you are new since then. Some of you have added to your families. Some of you have had some families be subtracted just through God's timing. But can you truly say it is well with my soul? I hope so. Take a moment to pray. All of us should be praying, Lord, thank you for that encouragement. Oh Lord, thank you for that correction. There's a response for all of us. pray while the piano plays. So, Go ahead and make your way to the back. Zach's going to come with our announcements. As brother Zach comes, I do want to say thank you for your understanding while we've had Cindy's mom with us. You probably figure out sometimes she doesn't, her thinking is missing just a little every now and then. We appreciate your understanding in that area. Thank you for loving her loving us and So our goal is the kind of worker More into our home and maybe hopefully eventually she'll be living with us. So I just want to say thank you for your understanding hopefully she didn't offend anybody if she did and Yeah, I'm sorry, okay? But I'm thankful that she's still alive, we still have her. And so thank you for ministering to her. This Friday we have a youth rally. It'll be at six o'clock from here. There'll be a meal at the youth rally and it's no cost to anybody. There will also be team cleaning, not this Saturday, but the week after on the 10 o'clock. And please bring money for lunch after that. There will be a team fundraiser luncheon on the Sunday following. And then... There's Lord's Supper is gonna be on the 26th at seven o'clock that night, and there will be no Wednesday service that week for Thanksgiving. And then in the start of December, December 1st, we'll have our missions offering, the Christmas missions offering. So just keep that in mind and prepare for that. Jeremy Newton, do you mind praying for us? Yes.