Services/Sermon in Cokato 01.04.2020

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, let us quieten our hearts and minds this evening in prayer and thanksgiving.

Holy and righteous God, our dear Heavenly Father, as we have come here this evening to gather around Your holy and precious Word, we, a few in this church, and many that are listening in their homes and their own place of watching, we come here this evening, dear Father, before Your holy face, desiring to thank You for the many, many blessings that You have blessed us with here in this temporal life wherein we dwell.

Father, we thank You, dear Father, for our homes, our dear families, those escorts that You have gifted to each one of us. Dear Father, we uplift our thanks. Above all these things, dear Father, we desire to thank You for this greatest gift, this gift of Your dear Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, whom You saw it good, dear Father, to send down from Heaven, to save sin-fallen mankind.

Dear Father, we pray this evening that You would continue to carry us, continue to comfort us, continue to uplift us on this narrow road that leads us to Heaven's glory.

Dear Father, we remember those who are battling with difficulties in this life. Whatever those difficulties and trials may be, dear Father, You know. And we put our trust in You that even in these difficult days, we have felt Your presence, Your gracious hand, dear Father, lifting us and carrying us even through the dark days.

Dear Father, we pray on behalf of our country, the leaders of our country, that You would give wisdom and guidance, that You would lead and guide them in all things so that Your will would be done.

And dear Father, this evening we pray as Your dear Son taught us. Our Father, who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen.

Amen.

As I came here this evening, dear brothers and sisters, there are a few here. Not many. But I know there are those that are listening online. And I come here thinking and wondering what all of this even means to us. But it has reminded me, dear brother and sister, how much I have taken for granted being able to gather together with You in person. Something we didn't really even think about a few weeks ago. Something like this could take place.

Nevertheless, we know, and I have been thankful to God that He has arranged these kinds of services for us so that we can still gather together and hear His precious Word and be comforted with that gospel. A life-giving gospel.

We are fast approaching the time of Easter. And I thought I would just read a few verses from the gospel according to St. John from its 14th chapter. And I will read verses 25-27 in Jesus' name.

"These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you. But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in My name, He shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you. Peace I leave with you. My peace I give unto you. Not as the world giveth give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled. Neither let it be afraid." Amen.

These words of God come to us at a time that was taking place. Jesus was with His disciples and they were there. It was not long before Jesus was captured and taken to be crucified at that time of Easter.

Our Lord Jesus Christ comforted His disciples in this chapter and He was reminding them and telling them right in the beginning that let not your heart be troubled. Ye believe in God, believe also in me. And He was reminding them that He was going to prepare a place for His children.

Dear brother and sister, you are His children. Lord and Savior Jesus has gone to prepare a place for us. His suffering and death on that middle cross there on Golgotha. He was crucified there. He descended into hell. But was raised again on that third day, Easter morning.

Dear brother and sister, this was God's love for you and me. We live today especially, I think, a time of trial, a time of wondering, a time of uncertainty. But dear brother and sister, we have nothing to fear. God our heavenly Father continues to lead and guide us, continues to comfort us with that precious gospel.

And He does this through that Comforter that Jesus was reminding those disciples of in this red text. It was Judas, and it says that it was not Iscariot, one of Jesus' disciples, that asked him this question, and he said, "How is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us and not unto the world?"

Dear brother and sister, we can understand this because we own that Spirit, that Comforter that Jesus was speaking of here, where this Comforter reveals unto us that great glory of Jesus himself, of what Jesus did. We understand in part, but yet through eyes of faith and through this Spirit that God has gifted us with, we can know and understand and believe that Jesus died for yours and my sins.

Jesus told Judas here and the rest of his disciples, and He was telling them of what would take place there when He would die on that middle cross. And He reminded them and said that, "But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in My name, He shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you."

Dear brother and sister, do we not experience this when we hear God's precious Word, this comforting message through the Spirit? It is God in the third person. It isn't of any man, is it? We know that God is a triune God: God the Father, God the Son, which was Jesus Christ, and God the Spirit, and they were three in one.

It tells us in this text what this Comforter will do in our midst, and we have felt that and we feel it each time we hear and come together around God's Word. We hear it in our homes when we visit with one another because we own that Spirit, which is God's Spirit.

And it says here that, "Peace I leave with you." Well, what is this peace that Jesus is speaking of here? It is that peace, that precious gospel, that you can believe all your sins forgiven in Jesus' name and blood. Does this not give us that true peace? It's not a false peace, but each time we hear that precious gospel, it brings peace and joy into our hearts.

I was pondering and reading as to what text they should use, and that text also came to my mind for this evening, and I thought it even correlates with this kind of peace that Jesus is speaking of here because Jesus was there in that portion of God's Word where He had told His disciples to go out into the ship, and He went apart to pray on their behalf and on your behalf.

It was after He had fed those five thousand with five loaves and two fishes.

This portion of God's Word in Matthew, in its fourteenth chapter, speaks to us about that time when Jesus sent His disciples onto that ship and He stayed there on dry ground and went apart in that mountain to pray.

Dear brother and sister, He prayed on yours and my behalf.

What happened when those disciples went away from Jesus and onto that sea in that ship? It says that the sea tossed with waves, tossed that ship around, and the wind was contrary.

When I was thinking about this, dear brother and sister, I thought of what is happening today. There is much fear today in this world, there's anxiety of wondering what will take place.

But isn't it so, dear brother and sister, when we can even take times like this and gather around God's Word where we can be reminded that where two or three are gathered, there Jesus is in the midst, just as He was there and came walking to those disciples on that ship, walking on that sea.

The waves were boisterous, the Bible says. Peter, doubt-ridden, spoke to Jesus there and even told Him that if it be Thou, bid me to come.

Jesus told him to come, and then what happened? As Peter stepped out of that ship, he began to walk on the water, but he took his eyes off of the Lord and Savior Jesus and began to sink.

Dear brother and sister, it is a reminder for us to continue to cling to this gospel, teach your children in your homes, forgive, forgive one another in your homes. There God is there leading and guiding you. He has promised He will never forsake you, and we can hold on to these promises of God.

Dear one, just as Peter cried, "Lord, save me," we have often had those sighs, haven't we, when the troubles of this world have beset us? Maybe sin has beset you, dear brother and sister, this evening, wherever you may be in your own place of watching, you can be uplifted this evening.

Believe all your sins and doubts forgiven in Jesus' name and precious blood and be of good comfort. We have a good God, a God that has promised He will never forsake us come what may come in this world.

Dear brother and sister, we need not fear. God knows. God is with us every waking moment of the day. He watches over us. He knows our trials. He knows our temptations, and He tells us to come and follow Him.

There was also reading a portion in the Psalms, a very comforting portion. It's found in Psalm 46, and it's a psalm for the sons of Korah. It says that God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble; therefore will not we fear though the earth be removed and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea.

Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof, then it says there is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God.

Dear brother and sister, is this river of grace that is here to that we can cling to in times of trouble? Be still and know that I am God.

This evening, dear brother and sister, we can be still. We can be at peace. We can cling to that gospel knowing that God is with us.

And like the Bible says, if God be with us, who can be against us?

Dear brother and sister, it pays to believe, believing on that promise that Jesus went to prepare the way, just as it said in the beginning of this chapter that we read: "In my Father's house there are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you."

And then He continues and He says, "And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also."

Dear brother and sister, this evening as you go to your night's rest, you can go believing, believing all your sins and doubts forgiven in Jesus' name and precious blood and be of good comfort.

We have a good God, a God that has promised He will continue to carry us all the way home to Heaven's glory.

And coming here, I come with my own doubts and fears and ask if you could forgive me for all my sins and doubts. I promise to believe with you in Jesus' name and always blessed name. Amen.

Let us quiet in our hearts in closing 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.