Winter Services/Sermon in Rockford 16.03.2018

We shall continue our services with that same prayer of heart that God would be with us through His Spirit. I would like to break in greetings of love and God's peace from COCADO. At this last year or so, of course, most of you know that we have lived here in Minnesota. At Cocaine was, at this time, our home congregation. It is very, very good to be able to bring greetings. We hear them often, and I think if you're like me, we can take them for granted.

We hear them at every service like this or where a speaker brother has traveled to a congregation or perhaps mission trip and brings back the greetings of love and God's peace. But I have thought and mentioned to some of the brothers and sisters in smaller private conversations, or we could say, phone-type conversations, that it is such a blessed thing that we can gather together at the services to hear the word of God preached in all of its truth and purity, for it is the way that we hallow the name of God. And as we recall from the Small Catechism, that we not only pray that the name of God would be hallowed, but that it would be hallowed by us, and that we would live in accordance with the word of God. And of course, that's where the endeavor of faith comes. We have such a gift.

The gift of faith. The home of God's kingdom where we can proclaim to each other that blessed gospel that we heard them say it again time and time again: Brother, sister, be of good cheer. Our sins are forgiven. I don't think that we can fully comprehend the fullness of what that means, certainly not in this life.

But we know that we yearn for and need to hear that message time and again. I have thought to read a part from the first chapter of Luke about Mary, being that of course we celebrate and recall her life here on Earth. And I think that our brother did a very good job of explaining to us, through the sister Hannah, many of the things that are contained in the same passage of the first chapter of Luke. I was quite surprised that many of his thoughts were very much the same. But I will still read these words in Jesus' name.

Starting with the forty-sixth verse and going on to the fifty-fifth verse. And again, I think we'll see that the heart of Hannah was very much the same as the heart of Mary. Mary said, "My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior. For He hath regarded the low estate of His handmaid. For behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.

For He that is mighty hath done great things to me, and holy is His name. His mercy is on them that fear Him from generation to generation. He hath showed strength with His arm and hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. He hath put down the mighty from their seats and exalted them of low degree. He hath filled the hungry with good things, and the rich He hath sent away empty.

He hath helped His servant Israel in remembrance of His mercy, as He spake to our fathers, to Abraham and to his seed forever." Amen.

I too had to rejoice or feel uplifted when our brother welcomed us to the services and he had that kind of thought implanted into our mind that we would confess our faith and comfort you through the same comfort that we have received. And I thought of that, and I have thought of it many times, that if I was going to try to express and make confession of my journey of faith, that I would have to say that it is totally the work of God that I am able to be here in your midst this evening. When I look back on my childhood and the days of my youth, I don't see there any reason why I should be in faith today.

And of course, I'm also old enough to have come through a difficult time in God's kingdom and the time of spiritual warfare. And there again, I see that it was God's guidance and his good mercy that he gave unto me that I could be preserved in faith and be able to be part of the fellowship of God's children. It is grace that we are saved by. We cannot bring anything ourselves before God, such that we would merit anything. But he has been, through his Son, the author and finisher of our faith.

And so we, with gladness and with thankfulness, are here at God's kingdom and part of this throng that is making the journey towards eternal life. Mary is such a good example for me, and I think for you, too—an age-old example of humility and gentleness and such a childlike faith. We didn't read that part of where the angel appeared to her and related his mission from God. But I did read and think of that, too: how would it have been for any of us to be in the presence of Gabriel, the angel,

and to receive a message, especially from the heavenly Father, and not to be afraid in some way? Mary was so childlike in her faith that she simply asked that question: how would it be possible that she could have a child, making she had no husband or there was no biological reason for her to be expecting a child? And when the angel explained unto her how that would happen, that she would conceive a child by the Holy Spirit, then she simply said in this way, "Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word." And the angel then departed from her.

I have thought many times, more recently, that it is such a blessed thing to be a child in God's kingdom, to be childlike, to be humble. When we are faced with adversity, be it in our lives—maybe it could be one of many things that we face, temporal adversity of one kind or another—we know how it happens that we become stressed very easily. We are, after all, sheep, and we are not beasts of burden. So when we are tempted and tried, it doesn't take even so much, and we begin to doubt through fear and try to determine perhaps a way forward and try to solve the problems with our own power or own intellect.

And then, I think you could say as well as I can, that we come to that point that it is in God's hands; what is impossible for us is possible for God. And that's a good place to be. But we carry this flesh and blood, and our brother spoke of it. We are so prideful, and we make this journey with a lot of carnality and a lot of ourselves, and we could so easily begin to grow in ourselves to think that we know better or we understand better or we see more clearly. And even the Kingdom of God or God's Word teaches us.

Those, when I thought of that, they thought of my own frailties and experiences in life, even as a servant of the word. And as times passed, as a member of a board, how that kind of mind had come to me too—that I was in my own pride and my own thoughts and understandings. But we know when it comes to the matters of God, the things of his kingdom, the spiritual matters, that we understand only in part, and we understand little. But we can take this example from Mary—how her faith was that saving faith. And she so simply accepted that duty that God had given unto her to be the mother of the Son of God.

All of those things must have been so overwhelming. A true example of battle of flesh or battle of reason against faith, we could say. But it seems as though she was given that kind of special gift that she could live by faith and accept the word of God into her heart. On the bigger picture, we know that that speaks to us in a way of congregation life—life here in God's kingdom.

The servants of God come to this place of serving, of course, with their own temptations and their own worries and health cares. And there is, like the Old Testament prophets' experience, that kind of thought that the burden of the word of God is upon me. And I've thought of that so often when we come to proclaim God's word, we come with that timidity and humility as to how to approach that word, and with that prayer that God would open the word to us, and that the Word would feed and guide the children of God. Because we cannot and we dare not serve ourselves or our own understandings or thoughts.

But we want to be faithful to the Word of God, and let the Word of God explain itself. And so that it is always refreshing and always nourishing to the children of God. We do need to be fed through God's word to receive that bread of life, the Lord Jesus Christ. And I think you certainly have experienced this too, dear brothers and sisters, that sometimes of all the words that are proclaimed at the services, sometimes some small statement or some small part falls our way. A crumb of grace comes to us and we find that we have in fact received that word that is needed, especially by us.

So that whether we come to proclaim the word of God or to receive the word of God, we come with that prayer that God would help us, that He would open the word to the servant and we as the listener could receive that Word into our heart, and that we would be able to grow in grace and the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Certainly, the Word of God and the Gospel contain many things, teachings and warnings and admonitions. And of course, that very core of the gospel, the proclamation of the forgiveness of sins in Jesus' name.

But here, when we look at Mary's song or Mary's words of rejoicing, when I read these words—and I had many times read them—that they are so beautiful and so deep and so rich and telling of her heart that my mind would want to say, is it possible that she could have expressed such deep words and reason or deep words and meaning?

But we know that God gave her a very joyous time when her heart was overflowing with joy. And He gave her words to speak that are recorded for us that bring joy to us and nourishment to our soul. Mary, too, in her life experienced many sorrows. And I wonder today when I was reading this part, was that did Mary need to have such great feelings of grace and joy? Because later in her life, she had to experience sorrow too.

And she would be able to remember what she doubted and to recall the words of the angel and to remember these words that she uttered. Sometimes God prepares us for what's in the future by His means today, by such moments of grace and feelings of grace. My experience is not that I always have grace feelings. Many times I travel and it seems that I am quite cold and quite dry even in my thoughts and in my endeavor of faith and seemingly often untouched.

But God has also provided those moments of joy and grace moments when my heart has been full, and sometimes it has been for some weeks and some months that I have been able to recall a special occasion or service and I feel buoyed up and my journey is light.

But of course, we can't live in those same grace feelings all the time, but we live by faith and trust in the power of the gospel. But here, when we read Mary's words, you can feel how her heart is so rejoicing. She is experiencing the joy of salvation, personal faith, and how God has been good to her. And it comes forth in her words. She said, "My soul does magnify the Lord."

She thought, and we could paraphrase that her in her heart was that great feeling that of all those things that God had done for her. He was her source of strength and source of the means of travel, source of wisdom, we could say. So she, if she had that kind of view, that she was small, but He was great. Similar to John the Baptist, who said that, speaking of Jesus, that He must increase. I must decrease.

And that's again speaking to that condition of heart that we would be the humble children of God when we make our journey through this life. My spirit rejoiceth in God, my Savior. There again, you can see that there is nothing in that Mary feels is her part in this way of salvation. And this hope that she has, it is all the work of God. And she rejoices that it is that way.

The children of God, sometimes, and maybe more than others, experience great temptation in their life, great adversity. Yet, there is preserved in their heart the joy of salvation. And we must not forget that in our daily struggles and when we face adversity that God has not intended that we would be the beast of burden or live under sorrow. But that He has created us or called us to be His children here in this kingdom, so that we might experience that joy of salvation, that hope that we have, the hope of eternal life through the grace work of His dear Son. For He has regarded the lowest state of His hand, a maiden, for behold from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.

I'm sure when we read that verse, we think that certainly Mary is always recalled at Christmas time or Mary's Day, certainly for that duty that God gave unto her to bear His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And for that reason, she has that name. But I think maybe there is more to that, that henceforth all generations shall call me blessed. I could say dear brothers and sisters, that see her feelings of grace at her, her simple faith that she lived by, that that is a very blessed place to be. We don't need a great theological understanding of things, but we know that the Lord Jesus suffered and died for our sake, and that we feel in ourselves that need for the gospel or the message of the forgiveness of sins, because we fight this warfare of flesh against spirit and spirit against flesh.

And we know that it shall be so until that day that we pass away from this life. We're in a warfare each day of our life. And we feel our frailty to be in this warfare. But also, we have that throne of grace that is in our midst, be it at home or here in services, that we have that power of God so close to us that it is as close as our nearest believing friend or husband or wife. We have the power of God and to salvation very, very close to us.

So that we can hear time and again that our sins are forgiven. We are on this journey and we do have the endeavor of faith. We do experience the attacks of the enemy of the soul and we are tempted. We can't say that it is otherwise. We are in this kind of situation.

Yet, we must not lose hope, for our hope is in the Lord Jesus Christ and that power that He has given unto us through the gospel. So that we should not be discouraged, neither should we despair. We should not despair of God's grace. To begin to think that we are such ones that are unfit for the kingdom of God, those that always seem to fall in some way and let the enemy of the soul so tempt us to think that it's no use, that even the power of the gospel is non-effectual in my life. We know that the enemy has preached that sermon and he always will preach that sermon.

But we must not accept that as truth, for we know that he does not ever tell the truth, but is the father of all lies. But when he comes to us, dear brothers and sisters, to accuse us that we are great sinners, that we are the worst of all and the least of the children of God, not worthy to be a child of God, with that, we can agree with them and answer that, yes, that is true. I am the least of the children of God and the greatest of sinners. But for such a one as I, has the Lord Jesus come.

So we always turn to the author and finisher of our faith, the Lord Jesus, to find the reason and the hope of salvation that we have. For He that is mighty has done great things to me, and holy is His name. That's the part we have touched on already, but the word of God is indeed holy of itself. But we, dear brothers and sisters, had that prayer of the heart that it would always be proclaimed in its truth and purity here in God's kingdom. We can hear that word time and time again and be refreshed by it, comforted, and be instructed by it.

But we as travelers have to have that prayer too, dear brothers and sisters, that we would receive that word into our heart. We know even there we are in battle where the enemy of the soul is, as in that parable of the sower, that as soon as the seed was tossed by the wayside, that raven or bird came down and took it away from us. So, we have that kind of issue too, that the enemy of the soul would want to come to us as soon as we hear God's word and say, but it's not always that way. Or it's different for me, or however he may try to speak to us to minimize the word of God and its power, or to cast doubt upon it. And His mercy is on them that fear Him from generation to generation.

That is something that we ask for, the mercy of God. That He would be merciful to me, that He would not forsake me, but keep me as His child in His kingdom, that He would guide me in times of adversity and even times of spiritual unrest, that He would speak to me in such a simple way that I could receive that word into my heart and also believe that word. It's God's work. I could relate many things of my experiences, but we'll say that time would not permit that on this kind of occasion. But God has been good to me, I could say that.

He has protected me through times of difficulty and when I would have gone certainly astray. But He is a good and gracious God. He is the one that has given to me mercy, even as Mary here states that His mercy is on them that fear Him from generation to generation. The believers of all time that have that healthy fear of God and that fear of falling into sin. He has helped them and He has protected them.

And He has given unto us that gospel of the forgiveness of sins and He has given unto us that precious grace gift of confession that we have sometimes spoken of much lately. But I thought myself that unless I think that some of the brothers relate there in Phoenix, one brother spoke of it and more recently I heard another brother speak of it. And they talked of that very blessed time that they had in their life, when as children or young adults they had troubled consciences and they went to their mother or father and their mother or father blessed them with the gospel. And many times it was the case that they had grown up in homes where there was the manner of the house—I don't want to say a custom—but that was the heart of the house, that the mother and father wanted to preach the gospel to their children each evening.

And some, as mentioned, some having felt the wounds of sin, knew that they could go to their mother and father and speak of that. But, yes, I had to contrast that with my own life. And it was not so; it did not happen so often when I was a child. And I think I remember only one time that my mother preached the gospel to me. But it is such a thing, dear brothers and sisters, that a simple thing that we have like that where we encourage mothers and fathers to proclaim the gospel in their home.

And I think that I would have so wanted to learn that and experience that as a child. And I think that it would have helped me so much in my journey of faith at that time. But that was not something that was of my home as a very common experience. Or to even be able to go and say that such and such has happened, that can I hear the gospel? Isn't that in its most simplest way, the confession of the grace gift of confession that it's not a work or it is not a detailed matter.

But when the heart is burdened, and it's hard to believe that once sins are forgiven, you want to go then to someone to be reassured and hear that gospel. That's simply what it is. It's a need of the heart for the traveler along life's way who has fallen short and needs to be refreshed and uplifted by the Gospel. Mary also, as Hannah, but in different words, said that He has showed strength with his arm. He has scattered the proud in the imaginations of their heart.

He has put down the mighty from their seats and exalted them of low degree. So again, we are before that same thought that the brother earlier brought up and was referred to, that this matter that we can grow big in the house of God. I remember an older preacher from COCADO, many of you would know him, but he used to speak in this way that he hit his head on the ceiling. Meaning, as he had grown his thoughts and his ideas and what I think, and had to return onto that place of a child more than once and be reminded that we are children in a kingdom of children.

So God gives His mercy and He gives His guidance and He preserves His children, the humble children of God, those that in their hearts feel they have nothing to offer. He is the one then that gathers them and guides them and leads them.

Whereas the proud in heart, they are turned away as it says here that it scattered them. The rich he has sent away empty. And I was thinking of that too, that the Word of God is so lively and so powerful even as the Scriptures testify that. But yet it comes in a way that is very simple in its message, but has the power of God. And those that are proud in their own heart, they receive nothing.

And yet the lowly child of God receives that nourishment that they need to make this journey. We, in the last fall, I made a trip to Ecuador or to not to Ecuador, to Kenya. And I would like to relate just this learning experience for myself that we had services there out in Savannah and some part of Kenya and one of those two services or maybe we would call them devotions because they were quite short.

And almost at the end of the second devotion, the door opened and the lady came in and sat down and she listened for, I don't know, it could have been five minutes at the most. And then she began to say that there was something different about what you had heard, that something stirred in her heart.

Her heart felt warmed by it. And me, it was my mind that was thinking that, well, almost came at the very end, what could there have been in those few words that made a difference that caused her to think and wonder and notice because she said that this is much different than the church that I go to or that she went to.

And so, we later discussed things and she wanted to believe. But it was to me a teaching moment. It taught me that the word of God is quick and powerful and that it is a two-edged sword that pierces and divides between thoughts and so forth.

And it is the Spirit of God that opens the heart to create a need for the gospel and for the forgiveness of sins. If we had recorded that service and played it back here, maybe we would think it was a very ordinary service and ordinary words that we have heard all the time. But at that moment, God through His Spirit gave such power unto them that He opened their hearts. And we know it is true too in our midst, and we pray that God would open the hearts of all people, our neighbors and friends and our brothers and sisters in faith who are troubled over different matters, that God can. And He is willing to open the heart of any person, even our prodigal children who have left from God's kingdom.

If they will listen to that voice, if they will allow themselves to hear that good speaking voice of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd. And that is our prayer too, is it not, brothers and sisters, that we always want to have the ears of a disciple and the heart to not only hear, but believe and continue and make this journey. Mary also recalled how God had helped His servant Israel and had spoken to the fathers, to Abraham and to his seed forever. So we live in that kind of kingdom or this kind of a kingdom, dear brothers and sisters, that God is for us. So then who can be against us?

And He provides the strength that we need to make our journey and choose the way through His word. That way is the way that leads them to life eternal. And so it's a good place to be, brothers and sisters, is it not? I'm sure that you feel that way yourself even at this moment. It's a good place to be here, God's kingdom, to be in the care of His congregation and to be in the light of His word.

We have much to rejoice over and we can be joyful even if we suffer trial and adversity. So dear brothers and sisters, young and old, grandmas and grandpas, all, afflict your heart to believe the forgiveness of all sins in Jesus' name and precious blood. Believe unto peace and unto freedom and unto joy. And trust in the heavenly Father and be content to live here in His kingdom as children of grace.

I desire to hear that for my own part too. That is the power that sustains me too as a very weak servant and a corrupt traveler in life. I wish to believe. In Jesus' name, amen. Let us close our services for this evening by uniting our hearts into the benediction.

The Lord bless us and keep us. The Lord make His face shine upon us and be gracious unto us. The Lord lift up His countenance upon us and give us peace. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.