Sermon in Phoenix 05.05.2013

May the peace of God which passes all human understanding rest in our hearts now and forever. Let us quiet this morning in opening prayer and thanksgiving.

Holy and righteous God, beloved Heavenly Father, we thank You, dear Father, this morning for this beautiful new day of grace where we have been able to awaken with this knowledge and joy in our hearts that we were protected through the night as Your children, and awakened as Your children to travel another day toward our final and eternal destination, the glory of Heaven.

This morning, dear Father, as we gather together before Your Holy Word, we pray for Your service blessing. You, dear Father, who know the hearts of each one of us, Your children, You know of our trials and difficulties, our struggles, our worries, and also our doubts. We pray, dear Father, that You would send on to us Your Word to comfort and to strengthen, to lead and to guide another day of grace.

This morning, dear Father, we remember all of those loved ones who struggle with situations in life. You know, dear Father, better than any of all of those situations and matters of which we don't understand much. But You, almighty and everlasting Father, who know all things, understands that which we today endure. So we pray, on behalf of those, dear Father, that You would comfort them as only You know to comfort.

Today, we also, dear Father, pray, on behalf of Your Kingdom here upon earth, that Your Kingdom would be revealed to those who are on the outside of Your Kingdom. It is through Your Word that speaks that in order to find a gracious and loving Heavenly Father, they must find Your Son and also Your Kingdom. Lead them, dear Father, to Your Kingdom, wherein they would travel with us as grace beggars towards Heaven.

Dear Father, we pray for Your service blessing. We ask it all in the name of Your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Today, brothers and sisters, and very fittingly, it is Prayer Sunday. And when we consider this matter of prayer, it is our own personal discussion with our Heavenly Father. Today's text is found in the 16th chapter of St. John. And I will read from the 23rd through the 33rd verse. And the words are as follows in Jesus' name.

"And in that day, ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily I say unto you, whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it to you. Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name. Ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full. These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs, but the time cometh when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but I shall show you plainly of the Father. At that day ye shall ask in my name, and I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father for you. For the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I am come out from God. I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world again. I leave the world to go to the Father."

His disciples said unto him, "Lo, now speakest thou plainly, and speakest no proverb. Now are we sure that thou knowest all things, and needest not that any man should ask thee. By this we believe that thou camest forth from God."

Jesus answered them, "Do ye now believe? Behold, the hour cometh, yea, is now come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave me alone. And yet, I am not alone, because the Father is with me. These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world."

Amen.

In the beginning, many loving greetings from brothers and sisters. Last weekend I was in Minneapolis. We had our biannual board members workshop in Minneapolis. There were just over a hundred board members, I believe, from all over the U.S. and Canada. And there we enjoyed the comfort of God's Word and the direction of the Spirit, and joined in the discussions around the mutual work of God's kingdom.

But when we were there, of course, many brothers and sisters remembered you, the congregation here in Phoenix, that God would give strength to remain comforted and believing of God's rich and abundant goodness to His children. And throughout the week, I have also received many loving greetings from throughout the North American Zion, but also greetings from as far away as those brothers and sisters in Finland and Sweden.

We find, especially during times of difficulties, how God's kingdom is such a precious place to live, where we can be around and in the fellowship of God's own, comforted and reminded of God's rich love and grace and promises of His care.

This portion of God's Word is part of Jesus' farewell sermon and prayer on behalf of His children. Prayer is very central and important in the life of God's children. It is our conversation between us, our own personal psalm, with that of the Heavenly Father.

Disciples felt their weakness during the times that they lived. Prayer. We remember how disciples even asked Jesus that teach us how to pray. They understood the need of prayer. They understood of their own weakness. They understood of their doubts, their lackings. And through prayer, we ask of God for those things of which God already knows we have need of. But yet, God promises to hear the prayers of His children.

At the end of this portion that we read, Jesus speaks that He's going to go to His Father and that His children would be scattered. It doesn't mean that they would be scattered in a bad way, but that they would be placed into those places in which God wants them and allows them to be.

In our own personal place of watching, God allows us to remain as His own. But in those places that we find ourselves in this life, there are times that we find ourselves to be alone, or feel to be alone. And it is especially during those times when we remember to pray to God.

When we think in scriptures, when we think of those who have mentioned or been mentioned around this matter of prayer, prayer, it has been at those moments in their life when they have been especially tried, or faced with a particular difficult situation.

When we think of Abraham, and he was to bring his son Isaac to the top of the mountain as a sacrifice, do you think Abraham prayed? When we consider Noah, and he was given that task of preaching God's kingdom, preaching that sermon of repentance to all of those in that first world, do you think Noah prayed? Do you think when Jonah, because of his disobedience, had been cast into the belly of the fish, do you think that Jonah thought to pray?

It says in Jonah, in the book of Jonah, "Jonah prayed unto his Lord, then Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God out of the fish's belly, and said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the Lord, and he heard me. Out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice."

God was there in that, as he says, the belly of hell. We also, as God's children, during times in this life, also feel that we've gone to that place of such difficulty, and during those times, we remember to pray.

And as Jonah prayed, he said, "For thou hast cast me into the deep in the midst of the seas, and the floods come past me about, all the billows and thy waves passed over me. Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight, yet I will look again toward thy holy temple. The waters come past me about, even to the soul. The depth closed me round about. The weeds were wrapped about my head. I went down to the bottoms of the mountains. The earth with their bars was about me forever. Yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption, O Lord my God. When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord, and my prayer came in unto thee, into thy holy temple. They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy, but I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving. I will pray that I have vowed salvation is of the Lord."

And the Lord spake unto the fish and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry ground.

In Jonah's difficulties, he turned to the heavenly father, his only source of strength. God was alone. He was alone. But not alone as he thought because God was with him.

How was it for the disciples? Jesus told them that they would be forsaken, they would be ridiculed, and they would be mocked for my name's sake. They were cast into prison. What did they do when they were in the prisons? It says and speaks of Paul and Silas, when they were in prison, they prayed. And there, when they were in prison, God heard the voice of prayer, and he allowed it to be that the prison doors were broken, and they were released then, that night from prison.

But they also, when they were there in the midst of those difficulties, in the depths of woe, they sang. They sang praises unto the Heavenly Father. They sang of those needs and prayers of salvation and guidance from God.

There are also those kinds of prayers that are prayers of thanksgiving, prayers of joy, those kinds of salutations that go to the heart of the Heavenly Father. We remember Mary, the mother of Jesus, sang with those songs of praise to God for her salvation.

But we also remember in the Old Testament time, for example, Hannah. She was without a child. She was that one that was worried that would God ever bless her with a child.

In those days when the children of Israel lived, and during that time, children were of great acceptance. They were welcomed into the world, and it was thought to be an honor to bear children. Oh, how things have changed.

But it was so also in society that if someone was without a child, then it was thought that the reason must be because of the sinfulness of either the wife or the husband. They would often turn inwardly and ask that what have I done that God hasn't given me a child.

Perhaps it's not even so unlike our day for those of you mothers, or rather for those of you wives who haven't been given children in marriage. We know in God's kingdom that there are many different kinds of situations. There are those who have been given many children. Year after year, God blesses with another gift from heaven. There are those who are given fewer, and some who have been given none.

There the wife who has been given none, also the husband, can often reflect and ask inwardly, that is there something that I have done that I have not been able to have a child? Am I not worthy? Would I not be a worthy parent? Would I not be able to raise that child according to God's teaching? And so on. Often come those kinds of doubts.

So it was for this Hannah. There was even strife that came between her and her husband. Children. And it says that she was in bitterness of soul and prayed unto the Lord and wept sore. But God heard the prayers of Hannah in his time. He then allowed it to be that she was blessed with a child.

When Samuel was born into their home, in the second chapter of 1 Samuel it says, Hannah prayed and said, "My heart rejoiceth in the Lord. Mine horn is exalted in the Lord. My mouth is enlarged over mine enemies, because I rejoice in thy salvation. For there is none holy as the Lord, for there is none beside thee, neither is there any rock like our God. Talk no more so exceedingly proud. Let not arrogancy come out of your mouth, for the Lord is a God of knowledge, and by him actions are weighed. The bowels of the mighty men are broken. And they that stumbled are girded with strength. They that are full have hired out themselves for bread, and they that were hungry ceased, so that the barren hath born seven, and she that hath many children is waxed feeble. The Lord killeth and maketh alive. He bringeth down to the grave and bringeth up. The Lord maketh poor and maketh rich. He bringeth low and lifteth up. He raiseth up the poor out of the dust and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill to set them among princes and to make them inherit the throne of glory for the pillars of the earth are the Lord's and he has set the world upon them."

She recognized, brothers and sisters, that God is the creator, the giver of life, that one who knows and understands all things and upon him did she place her trust.

Brothers and sisters today, as God's own, do we not also find the importance of placing our trust in the care of our heavenly father. He knows all things. He has allowed things as they are to go as they've gone. He has his reasons in all things. Who are we? Little children in his kingdom.

Jesus prayed on behalf of his own. He continues to pray on behalf of his children. We are in good care with the care of the heavenly father. He has promised God in all ways to keep us. Our foot, as the psalmist says, will not be moved except God allow it to be. We are in good care.

On the other hand, we know, brothers and sisters, that during times of heavy difficulty and trials, we ask these questions and we ask questions that we will never in this life perhaps know. But yet through God's word we find comfort and strength. God's ways are a mystery to man. We find our smallness when we consider his majesty. But God, the giver of all, he has promised the care for us now and always.

I have thought in recent days, in the face of the many difficulties that many face, and I know one dear brother who today struggles for answers. One family who struggles for answers. In this life, we perhaps will never know answers to those questions.

There were times also, on the other hand, when the disciples were especially tried. And I think of that time when Jesus had spoken to his disciples and he was teaching them very difficult things that they would need to experience and to endure. And he asked his disciples when he was seeing many around him leave and depart. Some were saying that it's such a hard saying, who can believe it? Some heard that and departed one way, and another went another way.

Jesus turned to his disciples and he asked them this question, "Will you also go away?"

This is the sermon that comes also from the enemy. Especially during heavy times of difficulty, the devil would like to say that it is God that has forgotten you. God has forsaken you. God has left you alone and see what kind of God he is. That in the middle of difficulties, he leaves. This is not far from each one of us in our own worries and our own doubts.

But when Jesus asked this question to his disciples, "Will you also go away?" What did the disciples and specifically Peter answer?

Then Simon Peter answered him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? For thou hast the words of life."

So it is when we face those kinds of difficulties, brothers and sisters, we can cast, as we sang in our opening song, all of our burdens upon him. He knows our needs and our trials, our difficulties, and he through all things has promised through his word to be with and to comfort his children.

What was the source of strength for all of those former believers who have gone before us? It was in the power of the gospel. And that today, brothers and sisters, also remains our source of strength as we journey homeward.

Brothers and sisters, this morning as I come before you, I come before you with doubts. There have surely been those worries and concerns on my behalf. And I have needed to learn in the school of the Lord how God carries his own homeward. It is through the power of the gospel.

And this morning I ask can I still remain believing my own sins and doubts forgiven. God I also want to assure each one of you brothers and sisters in your own place of watching that your own sins and doubts are forgiven in the name and precious blood of Jesus.

I think those are good words that Peter spoke. "Lord, where shall we go? To whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life."

We can remain with confidence and comforted hearts even on this day of grace that God will carry and protect and guide us as we journey homeward.

We also have been given this morning opportunity for the Lord's Holy Supper. Jesus instituted this for a reason to remember that which he has done on behalf of his children. He wants us to come close to see and to experience all that which he's done and that which we remember he's done on our behalf.

Namely this, that he's shed his blood, given his life, so that we today as his children have hope and courage of heaven. Come as you find yourself for your faith to be strengthened around his word.

In Jesus' name, Amen.