Sermon in Phoenix 09.01.2011

May the peace of God, which passes all human understanding, rest in our hearts now and always. Amen.

For our service this evening, with hearts of prayer that the Heavenly Father would bless us with His Word, I will read familiar words from the 84th Psalm. And the words are as follows in Jesus' name.

How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts! My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord. My heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God. Yea, the sparrow hath found a house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young. Even thine altars, O Lord of hosts, my King and my God. Blessed are they that dwell in thy house. They will be still praising thee, Selah. Amen.

First of all, I would like to thank both Roland and Mike for the kind words of encouragement and invitation. Maybe later, during the program, I will share some of those thoughts that have been with me as this whole process and calling has taken place to move here to Phoenix. But it is, as Brother Roland mentioned, that God has allowed it to be that He has given a heart and a willing heart to serve here in Phoenix.

When I look around this evening, it is with great joy that I am and we are, as our family, here. To be numbered among God's children and a member of His most precious kingdom is the greatest matter and the greatest gift that any human might know. To be numbered as one of those who have been called from this unbelieving world, from this cold and dark world into this marvelous light. To be called as one of His own, being given faith in one's heart. To be a member of this earthly kingdom, this kingdom of God here upon earth. But even more than this, to be counted as one of those journeying towards heaven. To be counted among one of those who will one day, by the grace of God, make it to that destination.

I have, this evening, as you can imagine, had many ideas or thoughts or worries or concerns. I was telling Maggie on my way here that, in some ways, this sermon that I would be delivering tonight would be more nerve-wracking than my very first service in 1987. And my thoughts went many in differing directions.

I thought of the Apostle Paul. When he, in his work, in his time of ministry, when he wrote in his epistles to the Corinthian believers, of his own calling. And how he said that, I come before you, not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, but declaring unto you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and in trembling. And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power. That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.

Also, I thought of those words in the third chapter, where the Apostle writes of that division that was there among the children of the believers there in the city of Corinth, where some had started to follow after Paul, others after Apollos. Where the Apostle says, And while one say, I am of Paul, and another I am of Apollos, are ye not carnal? Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man? I have planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth, but God that giveth the increase. Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one, and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labor. For we are laborers together with God, ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building. According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon, but let every man take heed how he buildeth. For other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

I thought of those words of the Apostle, and I thought of the work that is before us. But my thoughts mostly turned to this psalm that is recorded, of which I read, How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts.

Brothers and sisters, it speaks of God's kingdom here upon earth. And this kingdom of which we have been called. You know, we don't have any reason to boast or to say that it is because I have been such a person, because I have chosen in the womb of my mother to be a child of God, because I have lived my life so well that I would be deserving of this great gift to be one of God's own. But rather, brothers and sisters, it is the grace of grace, the love of our Heavenly Father, that He has called us to be His own, and then to place us directly into this precious kingdom here upon earth.

This evening, here in the services of God's children, are those young and old. And if we were to ask from the youngest who would understand to the oldest, that how has been your life of faith? Have you felt that your life has been so successful? Or rather, have you felt that you've struggled and been a faulty traveler?

There is one common experience that I've had in confirmation camps over the years of many of you here who I have remembered from confirmation camps, although not always by name, but by face. I remember, and there's one particular brother here, and I won't mention his name this evening. Someday I will have a chance to visit with him. He was at a confirmation camp all west. And it was a very difficult confirmation camp. There was a group of young boys at that camp who came to that camp and they, you could see, struggled with matters of faith. And they came there and they, at camp, also caused there some difficulties. And it was one of those camps where I, in my own mind, had wrote off those brothers thinking that these boys at camp, it is hopeless for them. The enemy of souls has worked already so much in their hearts that is it possible that God would be able to soften the hearts of these young.

As camp went on, it felt even more and more hopeless. But, brothers and sisters, I learned a very powerful lesson there at that camp. That it was not in the teaching of the teachers. It was not in the speaking of those servants that were there, but in the power of the Heavenly Father.

The last night of that camp, after the instruction had been painstaking, long, with worry, with fears, the brothers spoke at that last evening devotion, and God opened His word accordingly. After that devotion, I will never forget that evening. Those young brothers of whom we had seen and worried and questioned and doubted went one by one to their big brothers to their fellow students, to their teachers, and they needed to speak about those matters that had troubled.

God there in that camp allowed a taste of heaven. The gospel was preached, and I know that there are a number of you brothers who are even here this evening who were participants of that camp, who to this day lived and traveled under the grace of the Heavenly Father. You are now raising families of your own. You are raising those children of whom here in this psalmist text speaks.

Where the psalmist first praises God, how amiable are thy tabernacles, how beautiful is God's kingdom here upon earth. And this evening also, may it be that God's kingdom always remains for each of us, that most beautiful place, place, that place where we will always hear that word of forgiveness, that word of grace, and that word of truth, that we would be able to always hear the instructions of the Heavenly Father. Not only hear them, but also believe them.

Brothers and sisters, a destination far beyond this life waits. That is the glory of Heaven.

This evening, when you consider this matter, the glory of Heaven, and I know for those confirmation students many years ago, when they came to camp, their hearts were divided between the kingdom of this world and the kingdom of God. They had tasted in their flesh those sweet things that were so pleasing to their flesh.

This evening, we have all tasted of that sweetness, haven't we? We have all felt how our flesh has been drawn to those things of this world. And when we have so tasted, our flesh is drawn to those things. And I speak, brothers and sisters, from my own portion. I have experienced in my own life how the flesh is drawn to those things of this world. And it is a daily battle for me that I might endeavor as one of God's children.

Brothers spoke this morning of how there are those times when we make this vow that we are going to battle against that temptation with our own wisdom and our own understanding and our own strength. But I found it to be differently in my life. That when I attempt to battle against those temptations of my flesh, the world, with my own flesh, that battle doesn't go well. The battle goes much better when one travels under the care of the gospel.

So when I think back to those days and those years and that time of work that has been left for us, this is the work, brothers and sisters, that is before us. As we look around us this evening, there are children. There are mothers and fathers. There are grandmothers and grandfathers. This is God's kingdom.

The work that is before us is multifaceted. But it's also reduced to very simple terms. In this, that if we were to ask this evening, where is your success come from, you with me would say, our success has been in the care of the gospel. So this is how we would begin and continue this work.

So there at home, you beloved mothers and fathers, and even those of you, some of you brothers of whom I referred to, who would with me remember of those days there at confirmation camp, how would it be then that you further the work that has been entrusted into your care? May it be, dear fathers, that you would be ready and willing to not only teach, but that you would give of your life for those ones of whom God has given to you to serve.

But how would you best serve? You would serve best in reassuring those children that their sins are forgiven in the name and precious blood of Jesus. Use this first as the center most in your teaching. There is also the importance of teaching right and wrong. We understand that as well. It's also part of the teaching of a parent.

But the most important part, and of what this psalmist even ached for, he says, My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord. My heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God.

We each feel in ourselves as I've asked at those confirmation camps and also in youth camps, but also in couples camps, and also among the seniors. If you were to write a letter to God and request of Him your needs, what would it be? I have been very interested in finding out that to a person. When those confirmation students have written, they have always written that, oh, I have felt myself to be the poorest, the weakest in God's kingdom, the most sinful.

Have you brothers and sisters also lamented this? I have. Felt as King David and also the Apostle Paul, how weak and poor one has been, how faulty and needy, and as the psalmist says, my heart fainteth and crieth out for the living God.

May it always be, then, that this is our most inner desire to remain traveling as one of God's own, as a grace beggar in his kingdom.

The Apostle writes in his epistle to the Romans that I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the source and power of my strength.

On those foreign trips, and this last summer in July and August, I was in Africa for that first confirmation camp there. And some evening I would like, God willing, to have a slideshow and present from that trip of my experiences. It was quite a memorable week, week and a half there. We learned so much.

When I went there, I thought, and I asked many of the brothers, when I was preparing those lessons, what might I serve and how might I serve and what level should I teach those lessons and so on. The brothers all assured me that you would teach at very basic elementary levels, for it is such an infant, newly formed congregation there in Africa.

You know, brothers and sisters, I found it to be much different. I found it to be that there in Africa, it hasn't been by the will, the understanding of man. But God has worked there in that far away country and he's prepared the hearts of his children there to accept his word.

And just recently, Brother Keith was there and he sent word back of this trip and he had requested there from that trip. When they had first traveled in the outlying areas, the rural areas in those congregations around in the farmland and they had visited over those coming ten year anniversary services there in the city of Lome. How so many there wanted to go to the services there in Lome, but they couldn't afford to go.

So Keith sent an email requesting $800 that would be able to help defray the costs for those who might want to attend the services there in Lome. $800 seems to be so little. But we find on those trips that God has prepared the hearts of his children. And this hasn't been the doings of man, but it has been the doings of the Heavenly Father. That he has called out of darkness those souls.

It's difficult to explain, and even more difficult to describe what it is that you experience when you're there. But when you're able to hear from the mouths of those there, of how they believe, how they've been called, how they've been forgiven, how their sin debt has been paid, and they rejoice, and how they are so thankful now to be one of God's own children. It's very humbling.

We here in America have been given such a time of work since the last heresy in 1973. It's been over 30 years. There becomes complacency. There comes taking matters for granted. There comes even the burden of dragging our flesh to services, of attending Bible class, of partaking of day circle.

But God has saw fit, brothers and sisters, to provide all of these work forms for us. May it be that we would always remain with this same thought of the psalmist, my soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord, my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God.

And then he says, in such a precious way, yea, the sparrow hath found a house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young.

Today, here in Phoenix, brothers have told me that there have been in excess of 50 babies born for the last number of years. Yea, the sparrow hath found a nest for herself. These little ones that God has entrusted to us are those of God's children. They have been entrusted to us to raise, to nurture, to love.

God's kingdom is a place, an oasis in the desert, if you will, where we can lay our young, where we can grow together, not only our young, but our mothers and fathers, you have felt your own weakness in raising these little ones. You have lamented, oh, there is so little time. You have felt your own weakness, but also to you grandmothers and grandfathers who have endeavored through those years. You have raised your children. They have become adults. Most of them have remained believing. Such a great grace gift of God.

And now as you elders have grown closer to the shore of heaven, it is inevitable that the enemy knows but he has little time. And he places before you more doubts, temptations. He wants for himself that you would fall from living faith.

I remember often words of my grandfather when he spoke of his last days and he said the trials of his faith become more difficult as he has grown older. I couldn't understand what grandfather meant. He was an old man already. Why would such a grandpa have any temptations? He seemed to be so stable and solid.

But how has it been, beloved elder, brother and sister of mine? Haven't you also felt that the enemy hasn't left you alone, but rather has plagued you and allowed you questions and doubts of your endeavor?

For all of these, our hearts ache and thirst for God's kingdom. Where therein is found peace and righteousness. God has and so this is that place wherein God has placed us.

But now also to that place wherein he has called me and my family to serve. I humbly ask that you, dear brothers and sisters, would truly remember me in your prayers. Not only me, but my loved ones.

I want to serve obediently. But I also know, even from history, how it's been that there have been those faithful servants who have fallen prey to the enemy. Love me, not my flesh, but my undying soul, so much that you would speak, that you would instruct, that you would care, so that I with you would always remain in this precious kingdom.

On one hand, I trust and I believe that you brothers and sisters will. We have felt so much. The love, the prayers, the thoughtful words. I believe and I trust that you will care for us.

Forgiveness. But then as quickly as that assurance comes, there comes doubts, of which this evening, brothers and sisters, can I still hear that precious gospel from my many sins and doubts. I want to and I promise to believe with each of you.

And I would also wish to encourage each of you, brothers and sisters, believers, with that same gospel of forgiveness. That you can uplift your hearts to believe all of your sins forgiven in the name and precious blood of Jesus.

Jesus, I look forward to these days that we can spend together. I have even for many years thought that how and I don't know how to explain with right words. Words seem to be so shallow. But I have thought that what kind of a rich job it would be. When I have left a camp or I have left a speaking tour, a mission trip to Ecuador, Africa, I have thought that how would it be that God would be so gracious someday to allow me to work in his vineyard as my career. He is now blessed even this inner thought.

So it is with anticipation that I look forward to the work that is before us. But most of all, I look forward to that day when this day of work will be over. And then heaven waits for those who are faithful unto the end.

So it is with this hope that I would be able to serve you here in Phoenix and also in Prescott. But serve with such a joy. And always with this hope, always with this goal in mind, as we sang that song, that beyond this life waits heaven. This waits for all of us, brothers and sisters, when we believe.

So we have such great confidence in our heavenly father that he will bless now and always. In Jesus' name, Amen.