Closing Services/Sermon in LLC Rockford Summer Services 07.07.2019 02.00 pm UTC

Dear brothers and sisters, service guests, listeners, we've now come to that moment where we must end this festive occasion, our 2019 LLC Summer Services.

As we end, I wish to read a short portion from the 33rd Psalm, verses 18 through 22. The words are as follows in Jesus' name. Behold, the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear Him, upon them that hope in His mercy, to deliver their soul from death and to keep them alive in famine.

Our soul waiteth for the Lord, He is our help and our shield, for our hearts shall rejoice in Him, because we have trusted in His holy name. Let Thy mercy, O Lord, be upon us, according as we hope in Thee. Amen.

First, I wish to do which it's difficult to do, difficult to find words to express the feelings of thankfulness. But on behalf of the LLC Board of Directors and the office staff, and I think I can say on behalf of all of you who have enjoyed and attended these services these days, we wish to express our thankfulness to the Rockford Lestadi Lutheran Church, and to the Southern Minnesota congregations, Minneapolis, Elk River, Monticello and Cocado, who have all helped with this event.

Thank you for your work and service of love. Thank you for your work and service of all who have helped prepare for this event. And I also wish to thank those many brothers and sisters who have helped prepare this site, not only for this event, but for the future. A future that is exciting to so many of us. We wonder, now God has brought us to this point, and what yet does He have in store for us.

Thank you also to those working in that aspect of these services. I also want to thank those of you who have served here, you servants of the Word. Some have traveled from far to be here, others closer, but you have used the gifts, been obedient to your calling. God has blessed your service. We have been fed and uplifted by the preaching of God's Word. And I thank you also. And to your spouses and families who have supported you and sacrificed while you have served.

I also want to thank our community, our neighbors, our vendors who have all helped with the necessary arrangements for this event. And we appreciate that which you have done to make this such an enjoyable and important, precious time for us.

As I said, this is now a time that is quickly turning to a time of memories. And I was wondering, knowing that I would have this turn to serve, as the services are ending, what would be my thoughts? I ask you, what are your thoughts as this event ends and as you depart to continue your earthly journey?

Services, the Bible, preaching of God's Word, the Gospel, the Tent, the Camping, fellowship with God's children, meeting fellow travelers whom you haven't seen for a long time. The Sunday school lesson. Many will be the memories.

I think you will join with the feelings of my heart. That I will go forth with feelings of peace and love and encouragement on the pathway of a child of God, which we just heard about to our dear brother.

When my wife and I have left a special occasion, a special place, and departed, we've often looked at each other and thought with a little sadness, now that time has ended. Now that event is done. But then quickly we've reminded each other that we look forward to the next event. And then our gaze brightens, our countenance is uplifted, and with joy and excitement, we know that there's another event awaiting for us as God's children. And with joy we look forward to that.

We've already heard a moment ago a welcome to winter services and summer services next year. And isn't it nice, now as this event is ending, to look forward to those events and to begin to make plans.

But we as God's children live of hope and of joy. It is a blessing of a life of faith. And in this way, we don't have to be sad that this is ending. Rather, we can be thankful that we were granted this event. It was God's blessing. And here we praise and thank Him as we look forward with hope to the next time that we can gather.

And it's for that reason that this psalm came to my mind. Because it is a psalm of thanksgiving and praise and of hope.

In the first verses of this psalm it says, Rejoice in the Lord, O ye righteous, for praise is comely for the upright. Praise the Lord with harp. Sing unto Him with a psaltery and an instrument of ten strings. Sing unto Him a new song. Play skillfully with a loud noise.

You get the feeling from the psalm writer that they're so uplifted, so happy. And they're rejoicing that it's not enough just to sing with a loud voice. But they need the help of those instruments to also praise God.

Isn't that how you feel, dear brothers and sisters? We've had many occasions here not to sing only in connection with the services, but just to gather and sing. We have rejoiced and praised the Lord in song.

The psalm writer says to sing unto Him a new song. And I thought, isn't it this way that as each day is a new day of grace, each day we are thankful that God has given us a new day of life, and yet on this new day we can still own the name of a child of God. It's a new song. A new song of thankfulness and praise each day. And that's what we again experience as God's children.

It also tells us here in the fourth verse, For the word of the Lord is right, and all His works are done in truth.

We have heard the preaching of God's word. It is answered to our spirit. We have been instructed. We have been comforted and uplifted. And the word of the Lord is right, just as the psalm writer has written, and all His works are done in truth.

This psalm continues to speak about the Heavenly Father, our Creator, as the one who is in charge. When He has created the world with His word, it happened. And in this way that when He has willed something to happen, it happens.

He controls the waters. He makes the plants to grow. Even these days we've experienced a time of rain and a time of abundant sunshine. And reminded of the beauty of God's creation and our Creator, who is in charge of all. We are subject to Him. We love and fear Him.

The twelfth verse of this psalm says, Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, and the people whom He hath chosen for His own inheritance.

Even in recent days, we have observed the celebration of the independence of our countries here in North America. And in connection with that, we remember and pray that we, who have been given a free land, that it would also be, they would also be God-fearing countries, because God's word says that the nation is blessed, whose people, whose God is the Lord.

But I think the psalm writer is referring to this nation in another way. The kingdom of God. The children of God. When he says, The people whom He hath chosen for His own inheritance, blessed is that nation.

We've heard so much about the beauty of the kingdom of God, and how wonderful it is, what a great blessing it is, to be a dweller therein. We have an inheritance that awaits us, that home in heaven, and the great blessing of a refuge on earth, protected from so much evil in the world, when we are able to walk in obedience of faith, in God's kingdom.

Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, and the people whom He hath chosen for His own inheritance.

The psalm writer also speaks how the strength or arm of man means nothing unless it is God's will, because all power is in God, the Heavenly Father.

And so we come to these verses at the end. Behold, the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear Him, upon them that hope in His mercy.

God is watching over us. We have been reminded how our Lord Jesus spoke, that He would never forsake us, that He would be with us until the end of the world.

Behold, the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear Him, and thus we want to fear Him, not with being afraid, but with honor and with love, and with a desire to be obedient unto Him, even knowing how sinful and unworthy we are.

And we have hope in His mercy, as it says, He has caused to deliver their soul from death.

This deliverance of a soul from death is nothing more than that salvation work of our Lord Jesus Christ, that we have heard about through these services, how our Lord has loved us so much, that He gave His only begotten Son to die for our sins, to be victorious over hell, over death, and to arise victorious.

And we have this promise, owned by faith, that believing upon the redemption work of our Lord Jesus Christ, we have the hope of heaven. He, our Lord and Savior, prepared the way.

And in this way, our Father, Heavenly Father, loved His own to deliver our souls from death.

Our soul waiteth for the Lord. He is our help and our shield.

The children of God always are longing for home. We journey in this life, but we know that this isn't our permanent home. We are only here for a time. We are on a journey toward our final destination. Our home in heaven waits for us.

Our soul waits for our Lord and our Heavenly to dwell one day in eternity with our Heavenly Father.

For our hearts shall rejoice in Him because we have trusted in His holy name.

We wish to believe upon our Heavenly Father. We wish to trust in Him and yet remember that He knows all. He is guiding our lives. We can trust Him. He won't forsake us. He knows better. He knows more than we do.

And isn't it this way that so often in life we don't understand why current events have happened to us because they've taken such a different course than we would have expected or we would have wished.

But yet with a little time when we've been able to look back we've seen how God had His guiding hand and was leading and guiding us. He had a plan.

We want to trust in God. Trust in His only name. Our hearts rejoice in Him.

We have heard so preciously over and over again about the importance of the gospel of forgiveness of sins. That was a command which our Lord Jesus Christ gave unto His own when He arose victorious on Easter morning and then appeared unto His disciples to go forth and preach remission of sins in His name.

It was His command and it is our duty but also it is our strength to believe upon that same gospel which we preach.

And so I too as the others who have served before me have so freely spoken and encouraged that you can yet believe all sins and doubts forgiven in the name and precious blood of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

In this way departing with peace and joy of the conscience. No one needs to leave here with feelings of despair or being downcast or even unworthy because this grace belongs to you to believe your sins forgiven as preached through the mouths of God's children through the power of the Holy Spirit and His kingdom.

I also need to live of that gospel and feel my own weakness and doubts in serving and the toil of the journey every day. I ask if you can preach unto me the forgiveness of my sins. I want to believe with you.

And so as we thank all of those who have planned and worked so hard to prepare and then serve at this occasion we above all thank the Heavenly Father for this great and abundant blessing this special time He has granted unto us to be refreshed on the journey and feel His love and to have these feelings of joy to rejoice and thank the Heavenly Father for His great blessings.

And so we end with this last verse let Thy mercy O Lord be upon us according as we hope in Thee. We yet pray for God's mercy every day His love His care for us. Let Thy mercy be upon us to live of His grace as His great gift and to live of hope according as we hope in Thee.

We live in hope looking forward to a new day a new occasion believing that as God has blessed us to this day and on this occasion He will grant us more events.

We live in this hope not only for this life but that hope of heaven when we can endeavor in obedience of living faith.

Let Thy mercy O Lord be upon us according as we hope in Thee. Amen.

Let us close in prayer.

Dear Heavenly Father, as these festive summer services now end we thank You for Your love, for Your grace, Your mercy and abundant blessings.

We pray that You will continue to care for us those who are weak and sinful in Your kingdom, that You would preserve us in faith and protect us on the journey toward heaven.

We pray that You would yet continue in the days ahead to allow the light of Your kingdom shine into the world of unbelief around us. Call sinners unto the hearing of Your word so that no one would need to journey without the hope of heaven or in distress of sin.

As we depart from here and journey to our homes we ask dear Father that You would protect even our travels and give us hearts to speak of the good news of that which has happened here unto our loved ones at home.

We can speak with joy over the love unity that we have felt here as Your great grace blessing.

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.