You Can't Earn the Title of Child

Kongsvinger Lutheran Church

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Eternal God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ grant us your Holy Spirit who writes the preached word into our hearts

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So that we may receive and believe it and be gladdened and comforted by it in eternity glorify your word in our hearts

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Make it so bright and warm that we may find pleasure in it and through your inspiration thinking what is right by your power

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Fulfill the word for the sake of your son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen Okay, any

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Questions crop up as a result of the sermon story of Mary and Martha. Yes It's gonna be before there and the reason why is because in John 11 when

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Lazarus is raised from the dead Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem and Immediately following that is going to be his triumphal entry.

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So the raising of Lazarus from the dead the the response that you see in John 11 from the

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Pharisees when they hear that Jesus actually Performed this is that their solution was let's not only kill Jesus.

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Let's kill Lazarus too, which is just bizarre So what we read in this account then is

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It's got to be prior to that just because of the way you put it on the timeline the way John lays out his gospel so All right

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Any other questions? All right. Dwayne's not here bummer because we're gonna get into Leviticus.

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So Maybe not Okay Is that That would be bad that would be really bad

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Just around here just doing it because you had time and you did it and you cut it up and didn't say anything

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Trees were disappearing here and there because they were planning on disappearing You know that's just one thing.

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Another thing too is having a contest for a queen

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Mm -hmm Yeah, yeah But it doesn't love them

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You know for the way Yep, and we have to recognize that because of our sinful nature

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And and this is where one of the descriptions that is used of the sinful nature in the time of the

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Reformation the the phrase that they use the Latin phrase was they described it us as suffering from the

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Incurvatus and say that we're bent in on ourselves. This is our natural

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State as a result of man's fall into sin And so I mean, I think somebody had pointed out that you know infants

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I mean, they look so cute and everything like that but thank God they don't have the muscle control and they're not as large as they as Adults because they have no control over their anger and their and and things like this

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They are very bent in on themselves. And this is our natural state Yeah, right, yeah, that's that's a dangerous child the child that knows that they're

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Drool okay Wow Yeah What if she doesn't

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Yeah The nature

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Yeah, let's let's just it's best if you say I'm repenting. I've done wrong forget the promise of not doing it again

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Because then you make yourself out to be a liar and you're making a note that you can't keep So, let me give you a text to kind of help

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Paul in the book of Galatians in chapter 5 talking about this very thing about these Judaizers who are really holding up their

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Law -keeping as something that is going to justify them before God Paul says

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Galatians 5 to Look, I Paul say to you that if you accept circumcision

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Christ will be of no advantage to you and I testify again to every man Who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law

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You are severed from Christ you who would be justified by the law you have fallen from grace

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So you're gonna know the the Judaizer is holding up their law -keeping to God with the expectation that that is what's going to justify them

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So let me give you a different analogy one that it's going to help put this in its proper context

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So so David your last name is Fagerlund And and I'm assuming your father was a

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Fagerlund. All right. So when you were born your parents named you

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David Fagerlund, all right How how long did it take you to earn the status of son to your parents?

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You didn't Exactly it was given to you So so the idea then is is that when we are holding up our good works to God?

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with the expectation that we can be justified by them that would be as silly as You trying to do your chores as an eight -year -old boy in order to earn the right to be your father's son

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You're already that right?

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Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's that's a different theology altogether

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We're not gonna get into an allowance theology, but I'm gonna assume that your childhood's like mine where you had fallen short of the

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Things that your father had communicated to you that he expected you to do

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Have yeah every day now Did your father say now son you keep this up and and you're no longer my son?

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Never so he would work with you he would discipline you like a father should and that's because he loved you and You never once Stopped being his son

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Never and that was a gift given to you and a precious one at that Same thing now as Christians then we are made alive in Christ by the working and powerful working of God In that comes in when we talk about the means of grace

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We'll talk about the two primary means through the preached word through the gospel So you somebody hears the gospel and they're called to repent and to believe in Christ God the

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Holy Spirit Then works repentance in them and they are made a child of God. That's one way in which it works

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That's one of the means of grace. We can also point then to baptism and all the baptismal promises This is a means by which the water in the word works

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You are now a child of God and you pray to the Father our Father who art in heaven

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When you are trying to hold your good works works up to God in order to earn salvation

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You are denying that you are already a child of God You know

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You know and Christ himself talks about this in the

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Sermon on the Mount and let me find it real quick and It might take me a second to pull this up Okay, so it's probably gonna be past this part

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Oh Here listen to this Christ right in Matthew 6 as part of the Sermon on the

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Mount beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them In order to be seen by them so you'll note then that sometimes

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We're using our good works in order to earn brownie points with God sometime sometimes we're doing our good works because we're trying to earn brownie points with with The neighborhood you're or you're our spouse or you know a family member, but the idea here is is that I Keep coming back to the analogy and I'll say it again.

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Is that the reason why cows moo is because they're cows The reason is why cats meow is because they're cats

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The reason why Christians do good works is because they are Christians There is no such thing as a

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Christian who does not do good works What does James say just as the body that is not breathing is dead

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So faith without works is dead But that being the case then there's a proper way of understanding

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Why we do our works and so you'll note then the warning of Christ Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them for then you will have no reward from your father who is in heaven the reason why we do our good works and ultimately a good work is going to be

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Doing something for our neighbor merely because our neighbor needs it

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All right, so I would say coming back to your snow blowing analogy when it snows here our

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Neighbors need us to blow our sidewalks They and it's a true need and to keep that up because if you neglect that somebody's gonna break their neck on Your on your street on your corner right in front of your house

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And so you do that then blowing the snow not because you expect to receive an award

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You know the the snow blower of the year award from East Grand Forks. I don't think they give out such a thing

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No, we do that because our neighbors need us to do this. It's a need and so we do it Does that make sense?

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Yeah Yeah Let me kind of take the heart language because I get a little queasy on heart language and and here's the reason why is because We need to interpret that is we're talking really about what is my heart's intent?

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Okay, so if I told you, you know mark the only reason why I Serving you as your pastor is because you know,

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I'm trying to earn another two lanes on my Olympic sized swimming pool in heaven I really don't care about you, but I'm gonna serve you so that when

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I get to heaven, you know It looks like the Hearst Castle right that that's the only reason I'm serving you

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Am I serving you then? I wouldn't consider it a good service then. No, there's only one person

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I'm serving. It's me All right and and so Yeah, I mean you can enjoy the benefits of it

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I mean the reality is is that and this is where we kind of think of the first use of the law

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And you kind of work this out There's three uses of the law first use is the law of the use of the government

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That the government has been given the sword by Christ in order to punish the evildoer, you know

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There are a lot of good citizens here in the United States And you know why they're good citizens is because they know if they step their toe out of line they're gonna be thrown in prison and So they behave properly

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Because they don't want to get in trouble with the law so I don't complain when they behave lawfully

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But the only reason why they're doing that is because of the whip, you know the whip of the government, you know

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And so, you know, this is this this earns nothing with God nothing. In fact, all of our good works are for naught

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Period when it comes to our right standing before Christ Now third use of the law shows us what a good work is this is most certainly true

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So the idea then as Christians we still have our old sinful nature and my old sinful nature

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That guy is terrible I don't even want to get you started about who that guy is.

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I hate him. I cannot stand that guy he is just the worst person ever and the problem is he's always with me and He's the one who wants to do things for his own glory.

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He will only do things when it's there's something in it for him He hates giving just to give

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All right, and that's that's the sinful nature that I have and I think we all can relate to that and so here's the fun part

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Is I still have to do all of my good works with my old sinful

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Adam tied around my neck? yoked with that guy So the new person

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I am in Christ wants to do good works the old Adam Doesn't want to do a thing and this is the conflict that Paul talks about in Romans 7 in Romans 7

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You know, I'm gonna I'm gonna take this and duplicate this tab because I want to come back to this text Romans 7

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Paul talks about Kind of what we would consider the normal state of the Christian life and I I've said it before I'll say it again

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This thing is for the birds So Paul talking about the law said did that which is good then bring death to me the law doesn't bring us death no, it by no means it was sin producing death in me through what was good in order that sin might be shown to be sin and Through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure for we know that the law is spiritual

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But I'm of the flesh Sold under sin. I don't understand my own actions.

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I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate Can anybody relate to this?

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All right Now the great book on this on this particular chapter the name of is called the eye in the storm not

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EYE But the letter I capital letter I note here what he says I want to do good but I do the very thing

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I hate It's not interesting All right, who's the

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I there? This is the regenerate? Apostle Paul speaking talking about the fact that he still has a sinful nature and let me

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Let me finish make the point says I do not do what I want But I do the things I hate now if I do what

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I do not want now I agree that the law is good, but it's no longer I who do it But it's sin that still dwells within me for I know that nothing good dwells in me

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That is in my sinful flesh for I have the desire to do what's right But I don't have the ability to carry it out

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I do not do the good that I want But the evil that I do not want is what I keep on doing now if I do what

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I do not want It's no longer I who do it, but it's sin that dwells within me.

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So I find it to be a law That when I want to do right evil lies close at hand

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Close so all of your good works your sinful nature and evil lies close at hand

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Wanting to take our good works that we're doing for the sake of our neighbor that we desire to do as Christians and do

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Automatically and twist them into evil There's nothing wrong with that Okay, so so here so I will look we'll come back to well actually we'll talk about what you retired from doing you were

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United States Postal Worker for years All right Yeah, yeah, okay just because you get paid

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Just because you get paid doesn't mean that it's not a good work Let's just put that out there.

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All right, so the idea then is is that you Sacrificed and gave of your time

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Your walking effort your mental acuity and all this kind of stuff, you know through rain sleet hail and snow

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You know, yeah, mostly snow. Yeah. Well, we do live in American Siberia, but You delivered the mail and here's the thing that's a valid need that we all have

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What would happen to our society if There was no mail coming.

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Nobody was delivering the packages and the messages and the letters and documents and all the things that we need

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So this is so we all have that need and it just so happens that the United States Postal Service which is an extension of the

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US government and And so this is where it gets interesting which being as an extension of the

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US government that government was instituted by Christ and All governments then are going to be instituted by Christ and then have their their authority not just in him

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But also given to them by every family, which means it falls under the fourth commandment So the very works that you were doing and you were paid for Which gave you the ability to put food on your table to you know

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Save for your retirement and all the things that you had to do That's still a good work.

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Despite the fact that you received compensation for it and you'll note that at the end of the day

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All of our good works are Compensated Christ makes that very clear that our good works are rewarded by him

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Does that make sense? Yeah, so that doesn't mean they're not good works because Christ rewards them.

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Oh The text. All right Let me come back to a

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Matt Matthew 6 for a minute, okay Beware practicing your righteousness before other people To be seen by them.

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You'll have no reward from your father in heaven. That's when you give to the needy Sound no trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets

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So that they may be praised by others truly. I say to you they have received their reward

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But when you give to the needy do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing So that your giving may be in secret and your father who sees in secret

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He will reward you and when you pray you must not be like the hypocrites Where they love to stand and pray synagogues and street corners so that they can be seen by others.

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No, it's praying a good work Yeah, absolutely. It is. It's even commanded by God and yet you're gonna see here that this good work has been twisted to evil

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All right Truly I say to you they've received their reward, but when you pray go into your room Shut the door

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Pray to your father who's in secret your father who's in secret will reward you and when you pray don't keep up empty phrases

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You know you get the point. So that's a clear text talking about our standing now you you you

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Colossians 3. Oh Yeah, yeah

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Mm -hmm. Yep. I there's something I do want to pick up before I get to that though.

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All right and Before I get to that, let me go to Galatians chapter 5 real quick again.

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I wanted to show you this conflict that we have with ourselves Galatians 5 16 walk by the

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Spirit You'll not gratify the desires of the sinful flesh The desires of the flair flesh are against the

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Spirit the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh These are opposed to each other to keep you from doing the things that you want to do

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Notice again kind of this is a good parallel to what we saw in Romans 7 So if you're led by the

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Spirit, you're not under the law now the works of the flesh are evident sexual immorality impurity sensuality idolatry sorcery enmity strife jealousy fits of anger rivalries dissensions divisions envy drunkenness orgies and Things like these and I warn you as I warned but you before that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God, however, the fruit of the

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Spirit is love joy peace patience kindness goodness faithfulness gentleness self -control

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Against such things there is no law and those who belong to Christ have already crucified the flesh with its passions and its desires

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So you can see now that when it comes to our good works, you know The text makes it clear that you know, our sinful nature is at war with us now regarding the the good works list

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Okay I'll start a little bit earlier in Colossians 2 3

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Colossians 3 verse 12 So note then the admonition we as Christians we do good works and scripture does give us these admonishments

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So put on then as God's chosen ones holy and beloved

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Now know as we exegete this part of Colossians Why are we doing this because we are already

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God's chosen. We are already his holy and beloved ones

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We are not doing this in order to become that So because we are already

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God's chosen ones. We are already holy. We are already beloved because of that you put on compassionate hearts

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Kindness Humility meekness and patience bearing with one another and if one has a complaint against another forgiving each other as the

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Lord has forgiven you you Also must forgive and above all these put on love which binds everything together in perfect harmony

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Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts to which indeed you were called in one body and be thankful Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly

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Teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs

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With thankfulness in your hearts to God and whatever you do in word or deed Do everything in the name of the

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Lord Jesus giving thanks to God the Father through him And now here comes a tangible list that we can all look at wives submit to your husbands as is fitting in the

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Lord husbands Love your wives and do not be harsh with them children Obey your parents and everything for this pleases the

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Lord fathers. Do not provoke your children lest they become discouraged Bondservants obey in everything those who are your earthly masters not by way of eye service as people pleasers but with sincerity of heart fearing the

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Lord and whatever you do work heartily as for the Lord and Not for men knowing that from the

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Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward You are serving the Lord Christ. The wrongdoer will be paid back for the wrong that he has done and there is no partiality

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Yes, sir Kind of mixed mixed motivation

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Yeah, well, let's say you're you're working for your boss and you just really give it your your best

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You're gonna know you're gonna note then I would I would argue based on the text we just read that you're that's gonna be a mixed motivation and this is one of the reasons why the

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Lutheran Reformers pointed out that our best good works will damn us

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Because you know, I I really have a hard time pointing to any particular good work I've ever done where I can honestly say

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I did it selflessly. I I'm having a tough time finding that so even our good works are tainted with mixed motivation and with sin

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Which is why you don't hold them up to God and say this is the thing that I've done to earn my salvation

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You might as well go grab a cow patty off You know someone's farm and hold it up to Jesus and say I've earned my salvation with this.

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Good luck. It ain't gonna work So, oh, yeah, that's that's not a good currency

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Marilyn Yeah Yeah, exactly

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Uh -huh Right, which ego coming down back to the order of which

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Colossians is written Colossians 2 becomes before Colossians 3.

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I know that's profound Steve, you know I'm really I traffic in really great profundities that way

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But you'll note that in Colossians 2 it talks about so clearly and let's let's read it out again because it's so helpful here

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That the discussion of good works in the epistles is always preceded by a clear

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Preaching of the gospel at least in the Pauline epistles. So Paul says this You know,

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I'll just read this in its context starting at verse 8 chapter 2 See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit

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According to human tradition according to the elemental spirits of the world not according to Christ For in him the whole fullness of the deity dwells bodily you have been filled in him who is the head of all rule and authority

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In him also you were circumcised and note the passive nature of that this you received this from Christ You were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands by the putting off the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ having been buried with him in baptism in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God who raised

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Him from the dead and you you who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh

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Watch how the verbs work. God has made you alive together with him Forgiving for having forgiven us all of our trespasses by Canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands this he set aside nailing it to the cross

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Is that beautiful so so here's the idea coming back to the point you were making Marilyn is that it would be easy to despair

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When hearing that even our best good works are tainted with sin and could damn us

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If it were not for the fact that the entire record of debt that stood against us including all of our tainted good works

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Hadn't already been forgiven so the idea then is is that over again the picture in Scripture on the

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Day of Judgment is that's the day when the books are opened and if you're a breathing human being who is aware of the fact that you've fallen short and Every one of your trespasses against God's law

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Had been recorded somewhere Your initial fear and anxiety would be.

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Oh, I know it's in that book. I Really am NOT interested in having that thing read out in public that would really kill me, right?

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I don't want that thing that I did everybody hearing in knowing if it's recorded

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There you think God didn't know what you did. It's got recorded so you'll note then that our best good works the best ones that we have tainted with sin and Mixed with good motivation and bad because evil is close at hand.

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This is the way Paul talked about it in Romans 7 that The evil that was close at hand that was trying to twist that and take part of our good work and use it for our own

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Glory for our own justification for our own whatever, you know in that to that degree where we were hypocritical

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Christ has bled and died for that So for the Christian on the Day of Judgment when the books are opened

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Remember, it says that the record of debt that stood opposed to us with its legal

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Demands this he has set aside He's nailed it to the cross. So for every

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Christian then Somebody who's a truly penitent believer in Christ When your book is opened on the

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Day of Judgment, there are pages Missing They have been ripped out

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This is good This is very good.

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So all those things that you are most ashamed of and should be That whole record of debt has been ripped out and it's been nailed to the cross

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And so when Jesus opens up your book, you're gonna sit there and go there's pages missing

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Do I point that out? Yeah, you go So you in guilt you go

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Jesus there's pages missing from the book This book looks fine to me. Let's read it out

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The only thing left are your good works? That's all it's left

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Your sins are accounted for they are bled for they are died for they will never be able to accuse you they will never be whispered or even on the lips of Christ on the

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Day of Judgment the only thing and I mean this the only thing we get to hear from Christ on the

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Day of Judgment is Him reading out the litany of all the good works that we've done

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Because the record of debt is canceled. It's not there There's a gracious way of receiving a compliment and then there's a really sinful way

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So the gracious way would be thank you. I appreciate that the the sinful way would be like, of course, duh

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I'm the best cook in town And if you don't even if you think otherwise, you're a moron, you know, you know that would that would be the wrong way to do

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Yeah Maybe that's just the way

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I react anyway All right Yeah, so did that kind of help tease out

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I know that the story of Mary and Martha it's a it's a it kind of can get in your face it really can because Our sinful nature wants to put

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God in its debt Could you imagine if our salvation was earned even in part?

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God is now in our debt You owe me God And salvation is no longer a gift.

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It's a wage It's a wage You know Those of you who have employees who work for me who work for you?

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Everybody knows if you ever had an employee work for you. They never do their job out of the graciousness of their heart and If you don't pay them on payday

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You got a riot that's about to break out and you got a bunch of people who gonna walk out the door Dave knows what

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I'm talking about, right? You know, it could you imagine like I'm payday. It's like well, you know You guys what you were doing was a gift to us, you know

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Wouldn't be long before the authorities are showing up at that business, right? No. No, this is a wage man

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And so because you made an agreement I work this many hours you pay me this much money

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All right. That's not a gift and When you turn your good works into well, I've done this this this and this and this and this and this so you got to let me into heaven

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God That's a wage. I Don't care who you are.

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That's a wage But salvation is a gift Completely a gift it is received and when you try to earn it you insult

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God Insult him so badly. I mean I want you to think about the the dichotomy here that when

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Paul writes the book of Galatians He speaks in the sternest words regarding the

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Judaizers And he says of them even if we are an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel other than one you already we

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Already preached let him be damned anathema and if that was enough, let me say it again He makes the same point twice and then in Galatians 5 you who would be justified by the law

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You've been alienated from Christ. You've fallen from grace and then he says of The circumcision crowd those who trouble you.

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I wish they would just do the whole lop it off of me procedure Go ahead and cut it all off.

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That's what he says about them. These are harsh strong Pulling no punches

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Phrases, but then you go to Corinth and Consider the complete Catastrophe of a church

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Corinth was when Paul wrote 1st Corinthians you had people who were getting drunk on the communion wine who were of a higher social standing and Forbidding the lower class from having the

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Lord's Supper and the way they did it was by getting drunk on the communion wine and taking And hogging all the elements to themselves.

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You had a guy who was sleeping with his father's wife You have

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You had people who were literally abusing and misusing the gifts of the

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Spirit I mean this would talk about a completely screwed -up Church But consider how

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Paul opens up the letter to them 1 Corinthians 1 Paul called by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus and our brother

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Sasson ease To the Church of God that is in Corinth to those who are sanctified in Christ Called to be saints together with those who in every place call upon the name of our

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Lord Jesus Christ Both their Lord and ours grace to you and peace from God our

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Father and the Lord Jesus Christ I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace that God Of God that was given you in Christ Jesus that in every way you were enriched in him in all speech and knowledge

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And even at the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you. Tell me this isn't like a really loving kind Way of addressing a church that has clearly got issues

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Like not small issues major issues, but he knows he doesn't call their salvation into question

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Doesn't threaten them within anathema doesn't claim. They're preaching a different gospel. Is that interesting?

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So you'll note then when you read Galatians the Apostle Paul basically says this is the hill we're gonna die on because when you mix works with grace you lose the gospel and So you cannot yield even the one inch

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When it comes to something that would take the gospel away because when you lose the gospel you lose everything

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When you have the gospel you have everything cool

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All right, you know without Dwayne here

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I feel like no obligation to look at Leviticus, but Yeah, all right, let's take a look at Leviticus 19

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We have a few minutes and we'll take a start to get into it So we can say that we're still working our way and we noted that last week the

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Old Testament text was in Leviticus 19 but let's back up into verse 1 and See if we can figure out what's going on in this text

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Yahweh spoke to Moses saying speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel and say to them

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You shall be holy for I Yahweh your God am holy

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Every one of you shall revere his mother and his father you shall keep my Sabbath I am

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Yahweh your God do not turn to idols or make for yourselves any gods of cast metal

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I am Yahweh your God And this is a recurring theme here

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God knows full well the seduction of idolatry and This is where our hearts always end up going anyway

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And so Lord saying listen to my voice obey me Listen to my commands.

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I am your God not that image that you've set up So when you offer a sacrifice of peace offerings to Yahweh You shall offer it so that you may be accepted

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It shall be eaten the same day you offer it or on the day after and anything left over until the third day shall be

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Burned up with fire now I've been making the point as we were working our way through Leviticus and we'll do a little cross -reference work here and the idea here is is that These sacrifices and these offerings to God are not even remotely related at all to the type of monetary giving that you see going on in churches today and And there's a reason for that and the reason is is that although a portion of the sacrifice was used to feed the

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Levites That was their portion so that they would be sustained the people making the offerings they got to partake and eat and consume their offerings

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So when you hear a televangelist today a televangelist says you don't show up before the

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Lord Empty -handed and make sure that you've got your money in your hand and send that in and all this kind of stuff That's just nonsense.

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All right, and there's a reason why tithing is an old covenant command not a new covenant command

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But I'm gonna say something really weird here. I'm gonna say something really strange But it'll help make the point

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When was the last time? We got together at the

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Matheson farm to tithe I Love to look on Marilyn's face

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Marilyn's like what? Yeah, what do you mean coming to my place to tithe? I think we need to go to the

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Matheson place and we need to tithe there and you're going. All right. What what? Sounds weird.

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All right. Yeah, something's up. Okay, I Here's what I mean by it.

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Let's take a look at Deuteronomy 14 and I want to show you this is one of the things that is in common with all of the sacrifices and That is is that these carcasses were not

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Thrown into a ditch Instead something else really happened here.

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Hang on a second here and Deut 14 In this text it talks about bringing your tithes and your offerings and I want you to see what you're supposed to do

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Deuteronomy 14 22 You shall tithe all the yield of your seed that comes from the field year by year now you think you know what that means until you keep reading and Before the

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Yahweh your God in the place that he will choose to make his name dwell there. You shall eat

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The tithe of your grain. What are you supposed to do with your tithe?

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As the late as a prophet weird al yankovic used to sing eat it eat it

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Eat it. Eat it. Don't you make me repeat it, right? if You're eating your tithe

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Is there anything left over to give to the tele evangelists? No, in fact, let's keep let's keep reading and see what you're supposed to do with this tithe.

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Okay So you're supposed to eat it Eat the tithe of your grain of your wine of your oil the firstborn of your herd the flock

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That you may learn to fear Yahweh your God always So you're gonna learn to fear the

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Lord by eating these animals consuming this grain drinking this wine Putting that oil on your salad

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And if I don't know if they had salads back then but you get the idea if the way is too long for you So imagine if you lived up in the northern part of Israel, you got to travel down to Jerusalem So you live near the ancient city of Hatzor, you know, for instance, which is north of the

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Sea of Galilee So you got to make a trip down to Jerusalem for a feast day and you got to bring your tithe with you

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Here's what you're supposed to do So if the way is too long for you so that you are not able to carry the tithe

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When the Yahweh your God blesses you because the place is too far from you Which the Yahweh your

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God chooses to set his name there, then you shall turn it into money Bind up the money in your hand

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Go to the place that Yahweh your God chooses and that will become Jerusalem where the temple is and watch this

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Spend the money for whatever you desire Oxen or sheep or wine or even strong drink think scotch bourbon something like that and whatever your appetite craves and you shall eat there before Yahweh your

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God and rejoice You and your household.

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What does the tithe look like? It's supposed to be used for huh? lunch

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Even better than that. It's almost like Thanksgiving, right? Yeah, whatever your heart desires, so I think we need to tie that Maryland's place

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We need to take of the bounty that God has given us and we need to buy steaks

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Maybe some chicken Maybe some walleye You know the barbecue young and wine and whatever and we all we all need to go and tie that at Maryland's place

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What do you think? Yeah, exactly and this is gonna help us fear the

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Lord our God a good way to think of it is this way Thanksgiving which was

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Giving thanks out of the produce that God had given them by consuming that product produce in a large feast

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That's what tithing looks like more than Sending in your money to a televangelist

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You want to know tithing it looks like Thanksgiving it looks like Christmas Day at your house

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Big blowout party and everybody's suffering from a tryptophan coma at 2 in the afternoon

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All right that's What tithing is?

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So any of you guys want to tithe? Yeah, yeah, and this way this by the way is the whole reason why when the

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Apostle Paul in 1st Corinthians 9 talks about that discussion about the those who preach the gospel or to make their living by the gospel

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He never quotes a tithe text That would make no sense to a

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Jew Tithe, what are you talking about? We feast on the tithe We eat the tithe.

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We've consumed the tithe. We drink the tithe We tithing is a great thing. So he doesn't look at tithing as the means by which you support those who

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Preach the gospel Where does he go instead in the Torah to find something that would make sense as far as supporting pastors and preachers and those?

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Who who give the you know who make their living from the gospel? We'll see in a couple weeks

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There is don't muzzle the ox while it's treading out the grain That's the commandment that relates to pastors don't muzzle the ox while he's treading out the grain and Yeah, I'm a beast of burden.

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I'm an ox. Let's just get this out there, which by the way, okay, so Yeah.

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Yeah, so in Kongsvinger is a church where a path the pastor wears vestments

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Do you know that everything the pastor wears has significance to it? If for instance the uniform black shirt means

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I'm a sinner This is a slave collar, which means I'm the servant of the congregation So you put on that white alb

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Right, which I think all this Latin for a fire robe because when you put it on it's like yeah anyway

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It's just the reason why I got the new one I got has like a cutout in the collar because it'll breathe a little bit

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The other one just kept the heat like right up here. It's like Anyway, so that that that white all

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Represents the fact that I'm covered in the righteousness of Christ and then what about the stole? You know the big green thing that looks like a you know scarf

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What that's supposed to wreck me that's a yoke Okay, that's supposed to visibly represent that.

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I'm a beast averted that I'm the ox of the congregation So, you know that that's the whole purpose of it

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So I always find it fascinating when you know pastors Somehow look at the vestments is some you know that somehow they're super duper special because they wear them

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Now if you understand what all that means the whole purpose of that is to despecialize you so don't don't muzzle the ox while he's

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Trading out the grain. That's the command Yeah, yeah, and don't neglect the don't neglect the

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Levite who's within your towns. He has no portion or inherited. So invite them to your parties Battle tech, okay.

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Yeah So, I mean that's what tithing is all about and the command to take care of a pastor has to do with Feeding a beast of burden.

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Yeah, you got to make sure your ox is well fed Oh, he's gonna die while doing his job. Did that would be bad.