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I'd like to welcome you all to Kongsvinger Lutheran Church. Today is the first Sunday in Advent, the first Sunday of the new church year, so do we say Happy New Year? I'm not sure. I will not be giving any New Year's prophecies.
Alas, we'll just have to read the prophet Ezekiel when we get to that part of the Sunday school. But we will be following the order now of divine service setting two, and we'll be in divine service setting two all the way up until Trinity.
At Trinity, we'll make the switch back to divine service setting three, just to let you know. And if I miss some of my cues, I'm out of practice on divine service setting two, alas. So the opening hymn is 341.
Today, we will be using psalm tone B, as in beginner, B as in beginner, and for the intruet, and if you're physically present here at Kongsvinger and you are able, please rise. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. Let us then confess our sins to God, our Father. Most merciful God, we confess that we are by nature sinful and unclean. We have sinned against you and thought word and deed by what we have done and by what we have left undone.
We have not loved you with our whole heart. We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We justly deserve your present and eternal punishment. For the sake of your Son, Jesus Christ, have mercy on us.
Forgive us, renew us, and lead us, so that we may delight in your will and walk in your ways to the glory of your holy name.
Almighty God in his mercy has given his Son to die for you and for his sake. He forgives you all of your sins. As a called and ordained servant of Christ and by his authority, I therefore forgive you all of your sins in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Our psalm tone today is B. To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul. Let not my enemies exalt over me. Make me to know your ways, O Lord. Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation.
May integrity and uprightness preserve me. Redeem Israel, O God. Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit as it was in the beginning, is now and will be forever.
To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul. Let not my enemies exalt over me. In peace, let us pray to the Lord for the peace from above and for our salvation. Let us pray to the Lord for the peace of the whole world, for the well-being of the church of God, and for the unity of all.
Let us pray to the Lord for this holy house and for all who offer here their worship and praise. Let us pray to the Lord. Help, save, comfort, and defend us, gracious Lord. A reminder, during the penitential season of Advent, we do not sing a hymn of praise.
Lord be with you.
And also with you.
Let us pray. Stir up your power, O Lord, and come that by your protection we may be rescued from the threatening perils of our sins and saved by your mighty deliverance. For you live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
You may be seated. The Old Testament reading for this, the first Sunday in Advent, is taken from the prophet Jeremiah, chapter 23. Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous branch.
And he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In his days, Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called.
The Lord is our righteousness. Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when they shall no longer say, as the Lord lives, who brought up the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt, but as the Lord lives, who brought up and led the offspring of the house of Israel out of the north country, and out of all the countries where he had driven them.
Then they shall dwell in their own land. This is the word of the Lord. Speak the gradual together. None who wait for you shall be put to shame. Make me to know your ways, O Lord. The epistle is taken from Romans chapter 13.
Besides this, you know the time that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. The night is far gone. The day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.
Let us walk properly, as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to gratify its desires.
This is the word of the Lord. The Holy Gospel according to St. Matthew, the 21st chapter. When they drew near to Jerusalem, they came to Bethphage, to the Mount of Olives. And then Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, go to the village in front of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied in a colt with her.
Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says to you, the Lord needs them and he will send them at once. This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying, say to the daughter of Zion, behold, your king is coming to you, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt full of a beast of burden.
And the disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them. They brought the donkey and the colt and put on them their cloaks, and he sat on them. Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road.
And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, Hosanna to the son of David. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest. This is the gospel of the Lord.
You may be seated. Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. You may be seated. In the name of Jesus.
All right, I'm gonna start in a weird place today. It's gonna help us out, at least for the focus that I would like as we look through these texts this year. You'll note we'll look through these same texts next year, the year after that.
We have an opportunity now that we're on the one-year series to really begin to memorize the scriptures and to go deep into them, since the repetition will allow us to do that. But I'm gonna start, and of all places, Genesis chapter 11.
There's something we need to pick up from this verse in order to kind of key in onto what's going on in Jeremiah 23. Here's what it says. Now the whole earth had one language and the same words, and as people migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they settled there.
You'll note that this is not what they were supposed to be doing. This is after the flood, and God has specifically commanded humanity that they are to spread out throughout the earth. They are to go out and fill the earth once again.
But they decided that they're going to do what six-year-old girls do when they play soccer, and that's they're gonna play clump ball. Have you ever seen six-year-old girls play soccer? Wow, okay. You'll note when you play soccer, people are supposed to have positions.
You have goalies, and then you have forwards, and you have people who are defenders and stuff like that, and you're supposed to have your team spread out throughout the whole field. But six-year-old girls, when they play soccer, they all just come together in one big clump, and they kind of move around like this, and it's rather fascinating to watch, and when somebody scores, you sit there and go, who scored and how did it happen?
Because how you get a ball out of the clump is quite the thing. But all of that being said, we're not supposed to play clump ball after the flood, at least humanity wasn't supposed to, and so they've decided that they're all going to settle there.
An important thing here, and that is this, is that you'll note at this point, there is one language on the earth, and weird thing, and you ask an evolutionist, ask an evolutionist, where did all the languages come from?
Why do we have Japanese and Chinese, and why do we have Thai and German and Celt and all these other little sub things, and why is there Norwegian and Swedish and all this kind of stuff? And you know what, they don't legitimately know.
They don't have an answer. But the weirdest thing is that when you look at the archeological evidence, all of these languages appeared pretty much at the same time fully developed. It's weird how that happened.
But alas, I digress. So here, humanity is in one place, and they said to one another, come, let us make bricks. Burn them thoroughly, and they had brick for stone, bitumen for mortar, and then they said, come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top to the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.
And those are the important words, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth. We don't want to leave each other. Family is a high value to us, and it would require us to leave our immediate family network, to travel across different parts of the world, and to fill in the earth as God has told us.
Important note here is that within Gnosticism, they actually offer an alternative theory as to why the people here decided to build themselves a tower. It's rather fascinating, as I've been doing a deep dive into Gnosticism for the past couple of years, and I've run across this in several different Gnostic sects.
And the idea here is that in Gnosticism, Yahweh's the bad guy, okay? And so the reason why they were building a tower according to Gnosticism, and this is one of their secret knowledge bits, right? So I'm telling their secrets here to you.
The reason why they built the tower is so that they wouldn't be destroyed if God decided to send another flood. See, that tower would be high enough that they would just sit there and go, well, there's all the floodwaters, neener, neener, neener, God, you missed us.
That's basically their idea. And so I would note, when somebody comes along to you and says, listen, I know the real reason why something happened in the scriptures. It's not in the biblical text, but let me tell you, it's over here.
Don't listen to them, okay? The text says very clearly why this went down the way it did and what their intent was. It had nothing to do with the fact that they, well, wanted to survive another flood just in case.
Instead, the idea here is we don't wanna be dispersed. We don't want to go over the face of the whole earth. We wanna make a name for ourselves. So Yahweh came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built, and Yahweh said, behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do, and nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.
Come, let us go down there and confuse their language so that they may not understand one another's speech. So Yahweh dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city.
Note the important word. Yahweh dispersed them. God said, nope, you're not gonna clump up here, and I'm going to spread things out for you, and you can imagine this had to be quite a shocking event. There they are working on their tower, and somebody says, can you hand me a bucket of nails and a hammer, please, and it comes out,.
Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, right,.
And nobody's able to get anything done. Nobody can communicate. It's kind of a mess, and then you've got the big problem of people figuring out, well, who says the same words that I say? And so you sit there and go, hey, does anyone here speak English?
Anyone here speak English, right? And then, you know, your neighbor who really annoys you says I speak English, and you go, ugh, right? Not you, because now God has chosen your network of friends and relatives, because what fun is it to hang out with a bunch of people you can't understand, right?
And so this brings this entire project to a complete grinding halt, and then it goes on to say, therefore, its name was Babel, because there Yahweh confused the language of all the earth, and from there Yahweh dispersed them over the face of all the earth.
A little bit of a note here, if you know anything about Judaism, another thing I've been studying a lot lately, is there's a group of Jews called Ashkenazi Jews. Have you ever heard this? So in the Jewish community, there's different kinds of Jews, and the Ashkenazi Jews are the Jews that settled in the northern part of Europe, up in Germany, in the Ukraine, in Byzantium, and places like that, and they trace their name back to one of the sons of Japheth named Ashkenaz.
So it's kind of a biblical idea, but you'll note that they weren't really dispersed until much later in human history. Ashkenaz was dispersed there first, but when they were dispersed and they got to Europe, they became known as the Ashkenazi Jews.
And so think of it this way, we've all been dispersed, and I hate to say it this way, but I begin to think that maybe karma might be a thing, because we here at Kongsvinger, have you noticed that God has dispersed us to America and Siberia?
Have you noticed that? And so I'm thinking that maybe we've done something wrong. And you'll note that God has sent them to the north country. You'll hear that in the Jeremiah passage, but when you hear it in this context here in Oslo, Minnesota, you have to say that God has dispersed us to the north country.
That's the right way of saying it. At least, that's the way the locals do it. So that being said, let's take a look now at our Old Testament text for today, Jeremiah chapter 23, and watch what it says.
Behold, the days are coming, declares Yahweh, when I will raise up for David a righteous branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. And you'll note that this is a prophecy in anticipation of the Messiah, Jesus Christ, in anticipation of both his first and his second advent.
But we, knowing now that Christ has already come, we know who this son of David is, this righteous branch, the one who shall deal wisely, shall execute justice and righteousness in.
The land.
And here the word in Hebrew, Eretz, could actually function as a little bit stronger than land. It could be the earth. That's one of the alternate translations here. And you'll note that's exactly what we've got here.
So at the beginning of our advent season, the beginning of our penitential season, as we are anticipating celebrating the birth of Christ, let us consider the fact that because of our sin, the current crop of politicians that we have, not just here in the United States or in Minnesota, they're weak, anemic.
Righteousness is not exactly a thing that traffics in our political scene. And it has been this way for millennia. Human politicians and rulers do not deal wisely. They don't rightly execute justice. Few of them can, you call them righteous.
Many of them you can call shrewd, and some of them you can even call crooks. And you'll note that part of our consequence of sin is bad government. And you'll note the American system kind of works well because it presupposes that people are greedy.
I hate to say that, but they basically said, rather than fight it, why don't we figure out how to harness it? And so our entire political system and our economic system basically has harnessed sin and turned it into an economic engine.
But as we look at what's happening to our world politically and around the world politically, we can see that we do not have anyone that fits this description. And as Christians then, we long for, we yearn for, we even groan inwardly regarding the fact that the current crop of politicians are such a mess.
And so Christ here is held up to us as one who deals wisely, execute justice. He is righteousness. In his days, Judah will be saved and Israel will dwell securely. That's not happening now. And this is the name by which he will be called.
Yahweh is our righteousness. And this invokes some beautiful texts in scripture. Yahweh, the Lord, is our righteousness. Note then that we, if we were to stand before God in our own righteousness, that ain't going to go well.
And as we enter into this penitential season, we are reminded that we are to focus now, in anticipation of Christ's birth, a focus on the sin that exists within us that has made it not only possible, but required for God to send his son so that we can be forgiven, pardoned, saved.
But this text, Yahweh is our righteousness, invokes some wonderful passages in scripture. Philippians chapter 3 comes to mind, a text I go to with some frequency, where the apostle Paul points out that we are to look out for the evildoers who mutilate the flesh, those who have an outward form of self-righteousness through their self-righteous religion, the Pharisees, and they do not actually worship God by spirit or truth.
And as a result, the apostle Paul says that we, we Christians, really are the ones who worship by the spirit of God. We glory in Christ, and we put no confidence in our flesh, though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also.
If anyone thinks he has reasons for confidence in the flesh, Paul says, I have more. I was circumcised on the eighth day of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews, as to the law, a Pharisee, as to zeal, a persecutor of the church, as to righteousness under the law, blameless.
But whatever gain I had, I count it as a loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake, I have suffered the loss of all things, and I count all of those good works and the Torah as rubbish in order that I might gain Christ and be found in him.
And here are the important words, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness that is from God and depends on faith. You'll note that these words of the Apostle Paul here in Philippians chapter three, they are the fulfillment of this prophecy from Jeremiah 23, that he will be called Yahweh is our righteousness.
Jesus is our righteousness. We have received from God by grace through faith salvation, not by our righteousness, but by his. We are clothed in his righteousness. And fascinating thing, to this day, there are people out there who do not see and understand this particular aspect of Christians and what the Bible teaches.
And as a result of it, they teach some pretty funky doctrines. So for instance, there's a particularly well-known reformed charismatic pastor from Minnesota, from the Minneapolis area. And he legitimately teaches that on the day of judgment, that Christians are going to face final judgment or some kind of like extra judgment.
And this is going to test to see whether or not you have any righteousness of your own. And if your righteousness doesn't measure up, then you're not going to be in. And I sit there and think, what are you talking about, man?
Yahweh is our righteousness. I do not have a righteousness of my own. In fact, my righteous deeds, my best good works, this is where it gets awful if you think about it, is that your best works, my best works, every single one of our best, best, best things that we've ever done is still tainted by sin.
As a result of it, Christ had to not only die for your worst sins, he died for everything in between and all the way up to your best good work, Christ had to bleed and die for. And so that being the case, this idea of facing some kind of final justification based upon your righteousness, baloney, baloney, it's just hogwash.
Not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ. So here, Jeremiah is totally prophesying the New Testament doctrine of salvation by grace through faith alone apart from works, and prophesying that Yahweh would send his son to bleed and die for our sins, and that he, although did no evil, God would lay on him the iniquity of us all.
And then by grace through faith, we are clothed in the righteousness of Christ, having our sins washed away, Christ now clothes his bride in splendor, in the splendor of his own righteousness. And so you'll note here, as we go into this penitential season, I'm not hearing a lot of doom and gloom, in fact, as I'm listening to these texts, I think that William Tapley would be a little bit upset, there's nothing here that he could point to regarding the destruction of the world.
Have you ever heard William Tapley sing doom and gloom? Oh, it's rather fascinating, he's got really mad Casio skills, if you haven't seen it, just look it up on the internet. But all that being said, there is no doom and gloom here.
So as we enter into this penitential season, you'll note that there are still little aspects of the echo from last week, the end of the world that still are echoing here today, and it's in light of the great things that are coming upon Christ's return that we should then consider repentance.
Jeremiah goes on to say, therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares Yahweh, when they shall no longer say, as Yahweh lives, who brought up the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt, but as Yahweh lives, who brought up and led the offspring of the house of Israel, that's you and I, we've all been grafted into Israel, out of the north country, yes, even Oslo, Minnesota, out of the north country and out of all the countries where he had driven them, this is where Yahweh has driven all of us because of our sin and our rebellion, they shall then dwell in their own land, in the new earth, beautiful promises.
But you'll note, no threatenings here of God's judgment, not for us Christians, not here, advent one, we should be on our face, isn't John the Baptist supposed to be showing up and screaming at us that we need to repent?
Not on advent one. You'll note, our repentance is informed in the first week of advent by the great things that are coming, in fact, that's the whole point of our epistle text, besides this, you know, Paul writes, that the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep, and this is the slumber of sin, for salvation is near to us now than when we first believed, and how many thousands of years ago did Paul pen those words?
You gotta admit that salvation is definitely nearer to us now than it was when Paul first believed, let alone when we first believed, in fact, we'll note that because the way God keeps time and day for him is like a thousand years, a thousand years is like a day, right?
Jesus just left yesterday, practically, it was just the day before yesterday that Jesus ascended into heaven, that being the case. You'll note that Christ isn't slow in coming, he knows exactly what he's doing, and in fact, his salvation is nearer now than ever before, but this isn't held up for us to somehow shake in our boots and consider that, oh no, I wonder if we're gonna make it, no, the night is far gone, the day is at hand, so then let us cast off the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light, in light of Christ's soon appearing, let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in drunkenness and sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy, instead, because Christ's return is so near, because we will joyfully be called from the grave, or we'll reunite with him up in the clouds when he returns in glory to judge the living and the dead, we will see him as he is, we will experience the joys of the world that is to come, we will finally be done with our sin, clothed in his righteousness, we then skate through the day of judgment, legitimately, it's a joyous occasion for us, so put on the Lord Jesus Christ now, make no provision for the flesh now, in light of the great things that are coming, don't gratify the desires of your sinful flesh, your sinful flesh is at war with you and hates the new person that you are in Christ, and so we see this beautiful theme working out, and here's where it's kind of fascinating, there's a thing that's coming up in the book of Ezekiel, and we're still a few weeks off, maybe a month or two out, but in the book of Ezekiel, there's an interesting thing that happens in the middle part of the book, God is having Ezekiel write out words of judgment against the kings of the earth, the Gentiles, and in one particular chapter, God is having Ezekiel speak out judgment against the king of Tyre, and then this weird thing happens, okay, it's invoking the king of Tyre, and all of a sudden, in prophecy, it says, you were there in Eden, how old is this king of Tyre, I don't remember him being on the ark, but this is where it gets interesting, in the scriptures, there's layers, if you would, layers of meaning, layers of prophecy, and so when God there begins to talk about judgment against the king of Tyre, he begins to describe and give us some of the back story of Satan himself, it's a fascinating thing, and when you read it, it's like, he invokes the king of Tyre, and then immediately starts talking about Satan, and gives us some of the story that we don't know, about how splendid and beautiful he was, and how he became a narcissist, and all that kind of stuff, and so he sees those same traits in the king of Tyre, but God is clearly judging the king of Tyre, while at the same time, talking about Satan, God can do things like this, and so you'll note that during Palm Sunday, which we're a long way off from that at the moment, although Easter's gonna be a lot earlier this year, thank God, but all that being said, something fascinating is happening here, the text that we read on Palm Sunday, for Christ's triumphal entry, is the text from the Gospel of John, here, the church begins the new year, with the triumph of Christ, with Jeremiah's prophecy ringing in their ears, they will raise up, God will raise up a righteous branch for David, and he will deal justly, and all this kind of stuff, and it's as if the church fathers have said, I know this is about the first advent of Christ, but keep the second advent in mind, as you read this text, that's why they chose that epistle text, that focuses on Christ's imminent return, and the joys of heaven, and all of that being the case, putting off our sinful flesh, in light of all of that, and so as we read this account, again, think of it similarly, it doesn't work perfectly, to when Christ finally enters into Jerusalem in glory, because when he does return to Jerusalem in glory, to judge the living and the dead, he will not be riding a colt, the foal of a donkey, he's gonna be riding a war horse, and that thing's gonna have a lot of blood on it, right?
But you'll note here, that's the hint, the idea then, is that we read this with both the first and the second advent in our eyes, in our mind, in the forefront of our thoughts. Now when they drew near to Jerusalem, came to Bethphage, the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, go into the village in front of you, immediately you will find a donkey tied in a colt with her, untie them and bring them to me, if anyone says anything to you, you shall say, the Lord needs them, and he will send them at once.
Little bit of a note here, one of the worst sermons I ever heard was from a seeker-driven vision-casting leader, and he did a sermon on this called Grand Theft Donkey, and I thought, oh, you are totally missing the whole point, one of the most miserable sermons I've ever heard, Christ did not steal this donkey, he borrowed it, and the owners were assured that that was gonna be returned, and they acquiesced and gave it willingly, little bit of a note there.
So this took place then to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, say to the daughter of Zion, behold, your king is coming to you, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt full of a beast of burden.
The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them, they brought the donkey and the colt, and put on them their cloaks, as he sat on them. Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road, and the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, Hosanna to the son of David, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in the highest.
And so consider the chronology here in the church here, last week we heard the end of the world, we heard the judgment of God against the sheep, both for the sheep and against the goats, and we heard their fate, he is returned in glory, next order of business is seeing our king, seeing our king paraded before our eyes, as he goes to ascend his throne and take possession of the kingdom forever, right?
It's this beautiful picture here, and what takes place in this historical event is beginning to really kind of chime with the bells and the echoes of what's coming in just the days ahead when Jesus returns, that's the point, first advent, second advent now become overlapping and we can see it, we can see the joy that is set before us, is it any wonder that the apostle Paul so boldly, so wonderfully tells us, that we know that the hour has come for us to wake from sleep, that salvation is truly nearer to us now than when we first believed, indeed the night is far, far gone, look off into the east, can't you see the pink highlights in the clouds already on the low part of the horizon, the sun is about to rise, so then let us cast off the works of darkness, Christ who bled and died for all of those works in darkness has come to set us free, set us free from slavery to sin, death, the devil, he has delivered us from the dominion of darkness and transferred into his glorious kingdom of light, all of this he has done because of his great love and his mercy, because he acts wisely as Jeremiah prophesied, that he does justice, indeed he has, he is so just that he fulfilled his own justice so that you and I can be forgiven of our sins by taking our sins upon himself and bleeding and dying in our place and fulfilling the justice of God and its demands against us, and he is just around the corner, so note then, the call of advent one is let us walk properly as in the daytime, let us make no provision for the flesh and for it to gratify its sinful desires, let us humbly continue to repent and in the season consider the sin that made it necessary for God to send such a wonderful Savior to us and thank God that he has, but also that keep the joys of the earth that is to come, of the reunion you will have with those who have departed in the faith that you will have when you see them when Christ returns, of you seeing your Savior face to face and not hearing from him, depart from me you wicked and evil people, I never knew you, instead hearing from them, from him that well done good and faithful servant, now enter into the joy of your master, hear the joy that is set before us and because of what is coming, knowing that we will finally be set free from sin this day, pray to God the Holy Spirit to give you the strength to stay awake, to cast off the works of darkness and walk properly as he has commanded us to do, in the name of Jesus, amen.
We rise to confess our faith together in the words of the Nicene Creed, I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth and of all things visible and invisible and in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, begotten of his Father before all worlds, God of God, light of light, very God of very God, begotten not made, being of one substance with the Father by whom all things were made, who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary and was made man and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate, he suffered and was buried and the third day he rose again according to the scriptures and ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of the Father and he will come again with glory to judge both the living and the dead, whose kingdom will have no end and I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son together is worshiped and glorified, who spoke by the prophets and I believe in one holy Christian and apostolic church.
I acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins and I look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. Amen. Remain standing for the prayers of the church. Let us pray for the whole Church of God in Christ Jesus and for all people according to their needs.
Gracious Lord, awaken your saints from the sleep and idleness that we and that we enter another church here and encourage the preachers of your word and all who hear for salvation is nearer to us than when we first believed.
Give boldness and faithfulness to our leaders on the AALC and all of our district leaders as well as all of the pastors in Christ. Renew the faith and quicken the love of all Christians and cast off, help them to cast off the works of darkness, put on Jesus Christ and live as children of the eternal day.
Lord, in your mercy. Lord of love, visit our homes, defend us from the temptation to walk in the works of darkness, clothe us with the armor of light, preserve the single in holiness and lead husbands and wives to love one another and raise their children in the faith.
Lord, in your mercy. Almighty God, behold our nation and its leaders and protect our armed forces and taking them under your care and blessing. Lord, in your mercy. Visit us in your compassion, O Lord.
Deliver the sick from their infirmity, the troubled from their afflictions, the grieving from their sorrow and the dying from their fear. Today we especially lift before you Elizabeth, Jeremy, Alan, Debbie, Paul, Kerry, Becky, Jim, Steve, Christopher, Sheila, Ron, Melba, Joanne, Bill, Michael, Cameron, Troy, Jim, Chloe, Ellen, Brooks, Gary, Natalie, Deb, Taryn, Candy, Todd, Bonnie, Brent, Roger, Kevin, Mark, Jeff, Joan, Sarah, Jessica, Josh, Ryan, Tim, Lori, Mike, Shirley, and Carol.
We pray for Annie and Ethan, Sheila, David, Judy, Linda, Jean, Tom, Dawson, Bruno, Jim, Ellen, Pam, Chuck, Charmaine, Robin, Colin, Bill, Colleen, Heather, and Rich. We also pray for Martha, Susan, Una, Dick, Wolfgang, Rosanna, the Lang family, Danielle, Aubrey, Luke, Justin, Caroline, Jack, Steven, Robert, Hermano, Rich, Luis, Tim, Cam, Cindy, Barbara, Gloria, Karen, Tara, Robert, Linda, Charita, Robin, Luis, Patty, Jeff, Marco, Selina, Rachel, Mason, Aaron, Ashley, Elizabeth, Sain, Lou, Robin, Lauren, and Kerry.
And we also lift up the family of Jose Estromera and those whom we now lift before you within our hearts. May all who cry to you receive grace according to your will, Lord, in your mercy. Merciful Lord, your Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ, entered into Jerusalem with shouts and cheers of joy.
Grant that we may be stirred by the word and sacraments to rejoice anew now and at his second advent. Lord, in your mercy. Holy God, you declared that the days were coming when you would accomplish our salvation, and in your time you caused your Son, the righteous branch, to spring up from David.
By your grace, keep us joined as branches to Christ, that we might bear fruit until the day that he returns in glory. For he lives and reigns with you in the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
We'll continue with the offertory, and then after the offertory we'll have the installation of our officers. Those new elected officers for the church, please come forward. And we'll give Josh a moment.
Okay, so the people who are joining us online for the installation, you can turn your cameras on at this point as well.
