Some years ago there was a heartrending story which appeared in the paper. It concerned a young father who shot himself in the telephone booth of a bar.

James Lee had called the newspaper and told a reporter he had sent the paper a manila envelope outlining his story. The reporter frantically tried to trace the call but was too late. When the police arrived the young man was slumped in the booth with a bullet through the head. In his pockets they found a child’s crayon drawing, much folded and worn. On it was written "Please leave in my coat pocket - I want to have it buried with me." The drawing was signed in childish print by his daughter Shirley Lee, who had perished in a fire just 5 months before. Lee was so grief stricken he had asked total strangers to attend his daughter’s funeral so she would have a nice service. He said there was no family to attend since Shirley’s mother had been dead since the child was two.

Speaking to the reporter before his death, the heartbroken father said that all he had in life was gone and he felt so alone. He gave his modest estate to the church Shirley attended and said, "Maybe in ten or twenty years someone will see one of the plaques and wonder who Shirley Ellen Lee was and say, Someone must have loved her very, very much." The grieving father could not stand loneliness or the loss so he took his own life. He felt it better to be dead than alive in an impersonal world. How many James Lees are there in this world? They don’t wear signs saying "I’m lonely, will you help me?" Yet Psalm 142 presents us with the picture of a lonely man while at the same time let us listen to the prayer of a lonely man

He recognised he had a soul. Man is body, soul and spirit.

IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL Gen 2v7 "God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul." Jesus, in Matthew 10v28 said, "Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul." In other words, the soul never dies.

DESTINY OF THE SOUL When they separate what happens? The body returns to dust. The soul either goes to Heaven to be with Christ or to Hell without Christ.

Psalm 142:7 Bring my soul out of prison, that I may praise thy name: the righteous shall compass me about; for thou shalt deal bountifully with me.

He feels like a prisoner, cut off, but nobody cares. Do you feel alone, or a prisoner to the habits of life? You’ve got a soul, which will never die, and no one seems to care whether it lives in Heaven or Hell.

There was someone who cared, there is Someone who cares - that’s why we are here tonight. That’s exactly why Jesus came. . Just look at the cross tonight and you will know He cares; just listen to His cry tonight and you will know He cares.