Services/Sermon in Outlook 10.11.2018

Dear brothers and sisters, as we continue these fall services, we continue with that prayer of faith that God would feed us and open His Word through His Spirit and feed us with that portion that we need for this time and strengthen our faith and call us together.

And I thought of what should I read for this time and my mind came to that portion in the Old Testament which speaks to a time when God gave His children a time of work and it was in a time when the walls of Jerusalem were run down and there was a time of perhaps despair but how God called His children and gave them a mind to work.

And so I would ask to read from the book of Nehemiah from its fourth chapter starting at verse 6 and the words are as follows in Jesus' name. So built we the wall and all the wall was joined together unto the half thereof for the people had a mind to work.

But it came to pass that when Sanballat and Tobiah and the Arabians and the Ammonites and the Ashdodites heard that the walls of Jerusalem were made up and that the breaches began to be seen, then were they very wroth and conspired all of them together to come and to fight against Jerusalem and to hinder it.

Nevertheless, we made our prayer unto our God and set a watch against them day and night because of them.

And Judah said, the strength of the bearers of burdens is decayed and there is much rubbish so that we are not able to build the wall.

And our adversaries said, they shall not know neither see till we come in the midst among them and slay them and cause the work to cease.

And it came to pass that when the Jews which dwelt by them came they said unto us ten times from all places when she shall return unto us they will be upon you.

Therefore said I in the lower places behind the wall and on the upper places and on the higher places I even set the people after their families with their swords, their spears and their bows.

And I looked and rose up and said unto the nobles and to the rulers and to the rest of the people, be not ye afraid of them. Remember the Lord which is great and terrible and fight for your brethren, your sons and your daughters, your wives and your houses. Amen.

But in this time of Nehemiah in its beginning chapter it says that there was a remnant small flock that was left of the captivity in that province and there was great affliction.

And it says that the walls of Jerusalem was broken down and the gates were burned with fire.

And so it says sometimes throughout history there have been times when God's children have been but a remnant and how the enemy has tried to attack especially hard.

And I even think of the times that we live here in the Zion of North America and everywhere there are those areas that are especially seeing the attacks from also inside of God's Kingdom.

From God's Kingdom is one precious flock. So when the enemy attacks somewhere he attacks us all.

And we feel even though we are perhaps shielded from being there on the battlefront we feel those attacks wherever God's children are.

So it was also in the time of the Lord and also in the time of Nehemiah.

Nehemiah himself, he was as is written here, he was a cupbearer of the king.

It says here in the beginning chapter that this time caused Nehemiah great sorrow and grief, that he was crying and weeping over Jerusalem so that even the king noticed.

And it says here in the second chapter of Nehemiah it says, Wherefore the king said unto me, Why is thy countenance sad seeing thou art not sick?

So this must be also for God's children who especially feel the attacks. They can even take the people of Jerusalem, they can even take this sorrow and time of grief to their everyday lives.

Perhaps even those in the world might even notice as did in Nehemiah's time. This king noticed Nehemiah. This is nothing else but the sorrow of the heart.

The king noticed that Nehemiah was sorrowful and he noticed that it must be something of the heart.

God's children are joined together with love for each other.

And when one, we are of the same family, same we are the body of Christ.

When one member suffers we all suffer.

This is the way we have felt in God's kingdom and this is the way it has always been.

Even though God's children are sometimes scattered they yet remember one another with prayers unto the Heavenly Father.

And we know that prayers have been and are sent unto the Heavenly Father even in the time that we live.

That God would help those who are there especially in the forefront of battle.

That he would also help those whom the enemy wishes to devour and lead away.

Hold, hold them away from God's children.

But this king gave, you can say there was a blessing in this also, that the king gave Nehemiah the permission to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.

And he also gave him material to build the walls of Jerusalem.

And God sometimes uses even this world around us to help his kingdom go forward.

And this is a great comfort unto us children of God today.

We know that we live in a time of great joy for the work.

We see many young.

We see the need to teach these young of the way and the journey to gather together.

To gather together more and more.

More and more as the Hebrew writer says as you see the day approaching the end of time seems to be approaching when we see the signs around us.

So Nehemiah was able to get permission to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem and also to get material for doing so.

But then I thought of the time that we live also.

And I remember having a discussion with a dear brother.

And he remembers having a discussion with one of the elders.

And one of these elders always had something very positive to say.

And they asked this elder that if she since she has always something positive to say, is there anything positive she can say about the enemy of souls?

She thought for a while and she said, Oh, he is a hard worker.

This is the way it was in the time of Nehemiah as well.

The enemy of souls is a hard worker.

And so when even though Nehemiah, the children of God of that time, they were given a chance to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.

Just before our text it says in the fourth chapter at the beginning, but it came to pass when Sanballat heard that we builded the wall he was wroth or he was angry and took great indignation and mocked the Jews.

And he spake before his brethren and the army of Samaria and said, What do these feeble Jews? Will they fortify themselves? Will they sacrifice? Will they make an end in a day? Will they revive the stones out of the heaps of the rubbish which are burned?

And so when God's children do this precious work it makes the enemy angry.

And he is busy.

And he attacks.

And so even though many of us has been shielded from these attacks, oh how we are reminded from God's word that we need to be watchful in this faith that we have.

We need to be mindful of this enemy that is so busy in this last time.

He knows he has a short time.

And so if he's been busy before he is especially busy in this time that we live.

But he is not.

But our text began with this.

You can say it's a sermon of faith.

So built we the wall.

And all the wall was joined together unto the half thereof for the people had a mind to work.

We can trust in God.

We don't have to be fearful.

God is with us.

Who can be against us?

And we know that God's kingdom is like a wall.

We are, you guys are living stones on this wall, you dear children of God.

And we are fitted together.

And between us is this mortar which many have said is like the mortar of love that joins us together.

And when we think of this mortar of love that holds us together it is no wonder that the enemy wishes to break the love between God's children.

For if he can do that he can do great things.

But this is why we need to gather together.

Become closer one to another.

Visit with one another.

And when we visit with one another I even have thought in recent times how should we visit with one another?

We know that in today's world it is a world of huge technological advances in communication.

We know that there are many ways today to communicate instantly, briefly.

And although this is something that helps us and it's something that we need for this time it can also be a danger unto us.

We need to be able to visit with one another through different means.

But I thought in these last times how precious it is when we can visit one another face to face.

And in gatherings like God's children's, the services of God's children and in our homes we need to open our homes and we need to visit about the most important matters.

Matters of faith.

We need to again and again approach each other and remember that we are living a perilous time.

We are living a time when the enemy attacks especially you dear youth.

Remember to ask each other to look each other in the eye.

For we know the eye is a window unto the heart.

And say how are matters of faith.

And when I say this I say it with a mirror unto my own self.

For I have been poor in these matters also.

But we can make new promises to be our brothers and sisters keepers.

But we always have this reminder first and foremost as God's word teaches us to first take heed unto ourselves and then unto the flock. Amen.

That reminds me of another saying that I heard from a dear elder.

Brother was speaking of when there was some times of struggle and battle in Zion there was one elderly lady and she provided this believing grandmother and she provided simple instruction that when there is times of battle she said simply that it is time for us to very carefully put away our own sins and believe them forgiven.

This is the good foundation for us to begin to do our work whatever work that God has called us to do.

And he calls us as we will read here to do many different kinds of work there on the walls of Zion.

But it came to pass that when Sanballat and Tobiah and the Arabians and the Ammonites and the Ashdodites heard that the walls of Jerusalem were made up and the breaches began to be stopped they were very wroth.

And when I read this verse I thought how the enemy has many different names.

He has many allies.

And it says here and conspired all of them together to come and to fight against Jerusalem and to hinder it.

So we have, we cannot ever be complacent in our walk of faith.

We fight an evil foe.

He is a hard worker as we have heard.

And he is also very sly.

And he knows how to in this time especially make his net finer and finer so that he can draw us away from this precious kingdom.

And he especially has a great love for us.

He has a great love for us.

And he is a great friend of us.

And he especially attacks in this time you youth also.

And it reminds me how one dear brother he explained during one of the confirmation camps he was explaining first of all that he used to do some trapping in his time.

And he brought some traps into the confirmation camp.

And he was showing us the different kinds of traps that he used.

And then he asked the confirmation students a question.

And he said what is the easiest animal to trap?

And some people answered with the different kinds of animals perhaps maybe a coyote although that one is pretty hard to trap or maybe a rabbit or maybe a wolf or a bear.

And then he said the answer is young ones.

Young animals are the easiest to trap.

So this time that we live especially is a time to root and ground our youth in this precious state so that they would be able to withstand the wiles of the enemy.

But then this dear brother he said from his personal experience he said that he once caught a really old and wily wolf.

And he set a trap in a very devious way.

He knew that this wolf would see the trap and would circle around.

And then he arranged the entrance or where he tried to think of where this wolf would go.

And he said that he would go and the wolf would circle around.

And he arranged some of the things in the area so that this would funnel this wolf around and go through a trap.

And he was able to catch this trap.

And so this enemy works hard today.

He is evil and he is able to also trap the older ones.

The ones who think they are wise.

This is a reminder for us God's children.

We need to remain in the center of the flock.

We need to remain in the care and protection of our dear Heavenly Father.

We need to be humble and as little children and daily battle against this enemy.

But even though this enemy it conspired together against the children of God we need to be humble and listen to what Nehemiah writes here.

Nevertheless we made our prayer unto our God and set watch against them day and night because of them.

This is a precious comfort and reminder for us children of God today.

When we think of even that presentation that we had.

We can help so much just by praying unto each other.

And even though there are some of those elders here their prayers also are so much needed in Zion.

And you dear young also and all of you remember to pray for those who work on the walls of Zion.

In our text we also read and our adversary said they shall not know neither see till we come in the midst of them and slay them and cause the work to cease.

This is a reminder for us that the enemy also attacks from within God's kingdom.

And he has one goal in mind that is to tear down the walls, the mortar also, and to stop the work of God's kingdom.

But dear child of God today we have spoke of the work of God's kingdom how precious it is.

It is God's work.

We are His children.

We are in His care.

And His work and His kingdom will go forward.

And we need to pray that it will go forward for us also.

This is what Luther even says of the Lord's prayer when we say let the kingdom come.

Luther says right how God's kingdom will come.

But we pray in this petition that it would come unto us also.

That we would pray that God would keep us as His child protect us that we could serve in His kingdom freely and joyfully.

And this is what we desire to do is it not dear child of God in this time and throughout our lifetime and even unto the end of old age if God blesses us with old age that He would keep us as His child in this precious kingdom that we would still be given the strength and that we would pray for the workers in Zion those who are more useful that can do this duty that they would be given watchfulness that they would look for the enemy and warn of the danger.

And they which builded on the wall and they that bear burdens with those that laid it everyone with one of his hands wrought in the work and with the other hand held a weapon.

And then in the 18th verse it says for the builders everyone had his sword girded by his side and so builded and he that sounded the trumpet was by me.

So God the work of God's kingdom, the building of the walls of Zion, it continued even in this perilous time that Nehemiah lived it will also continue in our time.

And this work is done with many prayers but also with weapons at our ready.

And we know that when we work with one hand and we have a weapon with the other, oh how we must slow down the work but nevertheless the work is precious.

And perhaps it is a time now also where we need to have our weapons ready while we do this precious work.

And then later Nehemiah writes towards the end of the chapter here that the chapter here in the 19th verse it says, And I said unto the nobles and to the rulers and to the rest of the people the work is great and large and we are separated on the wall one far from the other.

This is the way it may seem for God's children even today when we do the work in our home congregations.

When we hear of the battles it feels that we are often separated by distance but then Nehemiah writes, In what place therefore you hear the sound of the trumpet resort ye thither unto us our God shall fight for us.

This is the way it is even today we can draw great comfort for this that when we pray God hears the prayers of his children when we desire to do the work that he has given us joyfully and freely it is his work and he will bless this work.

So we labored in the work and half of them held the spears from the rising of the morning till the stars appeared.

And so we pray even now God would bless this precious work it is so precious even though we live in a world that is becoming more and more evil but it is still a time of work it is still a time when God's children are a light unto this world it is still a time when this precious gospel is preached.

And oh how we heard in that presentation that when you strip everything else away the most important thing remains the most important thing remains which is the preaching of the gospel the preaching of the message from the cross from Jesus Christ the one who was crucified.

It is him alone that has earned our salvation for us.

It is to this message that we cling children of God today that he was crucified and died for us shed his blood for us.

It was he who opened heaven's way for us and we need to believe our very own sins and doubts forgiven.

And even now uplift your hearts to believe all travel faults forgiven in Jesus name and precious blood.

And I also when I have been up here speaking have often felt that perhaps I have been weak also in the work that can you bless me can I believe my sins and doubts forgiven.

And we know that we are not saved by what we do but we are saved by believing believing our own sins and doubts forgiven.

This gospel is the power that carries us from this time to our home there in heaven.

And so we who labor in this work in our own places of watching we need to remember that God will take care of us.

We can also trust that we can lay aside all those things that bother us.

God has wished to hear our prayers he has wished to carry his children his son has promised to be with his children all the way unto the end of the world through his spirit.

And so we comfortingly trust in God in all things in Jesus name Amen.