They Worshiped Him

Kongsvinger Lutheran Church

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Welcome to the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church. Kungsvinger is a beacon for the gospel of Jesus Christ and is located on the plains of northwestern

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Minnesota. We proclaim Christ and Him crucified for our sins and salvation by grace through faith alone.

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And now, here's a message from Pastor Chris Roseberg. The Holy Gospel according to St. Matthew, chapter 14, verses 22 through 33.

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Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go before Him to the other side while He dismissed the crowds.

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After He dismissed the crowds, He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray, and when evening came,

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He was there alone. But the boat by this time was a long way from the land, beaten by the waves, for the wind was against them.

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And it was in the fourth watch of the night that He came to them, walking on the sea. But when the disciples saw

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Him walking on the sea, they were terrified and said, It's a ghost! And they cried out in fear.

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But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, Take heart. I am.

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Do not be afraid. Peter answered Him, Lord, if it's You, command me to come to You on the water.

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He said, Come. So Peter got out of the boat, walked on the water, and came to Jesus.

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But when he saw the wind, he was afraid. And beginning to sink, he cried out, Lord, save me!

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Jesus immediately reached out His hand and took hold of him, saying to him, O you of little faith, why did you doubt?

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And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased, and those in the boat worshipped

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Him, saying, Truly, you are the Son of God. This is the

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Gospel of the Lord. In the name of Jesus. Well, there it is.

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It's this walk on the water text. We all know what this means. Just allegorize the whole thing. You have your dream destiny thingy that you're supposed to be fulfilling right now.

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If you haven't heard from God and gotten your purpose yet, you need to learn how to hear His voice. Once you learn how to hear

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His voice, He's going to test your faith to see if you're brave enough, if you have faith enough to get out of the boat and walk on the water and keep your eyes on Him so that you can fulfill your dream destiny thingy.

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And then the storm really kind of represents, well, you know, the haters in your life who would say you can't do that as your purpose and things of this nature.

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Hogwash. Doesn't mean any of that. If you would like to understand what this text is about, it's so rich.

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You have to think back to the back of the book for a second. Think back to the back of the book. Yeah, when it describes the throne of God in the book of Revelation, is there a stormy sea or a glassy sea?

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Glassy. Smooth as ice. Perfectly reflected.

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Totally calm. In the scriptures, over and again, we see that tempestuous waters, well, they hearken back to chaos, to uncreation, if you would.

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And so there's a little bit of that interplay. And then you have Leviathan in the book of Job. And so here we have

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Jesus in our text walking on the stormy waters, almost like walking on the back of Leviathan, which all of this is pointing to who

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Jesus is. Think about our miserable state here for a second. Adam and Eve, they disobeyed

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God, eat of the fruit of the tree they were told not to eat of, listened to the serpent, and then envenomated us all with the poison of unbelief and hatred towards God.

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Terrible situation. And here we have Jesus, none other than God in human flesh among us, and who are the only people who recognize

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Jesus immediately for who he is? Answer, demoniacs.

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How is it that the devils recognize Jesus for who he is, and we do not?

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And so, like I pointed out last week, the big miracle that we saw last week, the one that is in all four of the

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Gospels, the feeding of the 5 ,000, their God miraculously feeding his children in the wilderness, hearkens to and points to who

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Jesus is. In John 6, we learn that they thought that Jesus is none other than, well, the promised king, and they wanted to make him king.

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This is the one who Moses told us about. And Jesus had to kind of put that all away for them.

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But this text now, as we work through what's going on in the

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Gospel of Matthew, the disciples now are starting to finally get just who

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Jesus is. The punchline is not about you. The punchline is about him, and coming to grips with the fact that we are so steeped in sin, so blinded by the devil, so filled with ourselves and our own agenda, that when

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God is among us, we don't even recognize him. And the truth of the matter is, this isn't just talking about the disciples.

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This is talking about me. I'm pretty sure if Jesus were sitting in the back row, because Lutherans always sit in the back row, if he were sitting in the back row,

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I wouldn't recognize him. I wouldn't recognize that at that moment,

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I would need to step aside and let Christ do his work, because I'm doing it in his stead.

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If he were to show up, he gets to do the job, not me. I wouldn't even know him.

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I don't know what he looks like. I don't know what color his eyes are. I'm assuming, being the fact that he's

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Semitic, that he has brown eyes, but I couldn't tell you. I don't know how tall he is. I don't know what his laugh sounds like.

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And neither do you. And yet this is the God who made us. And so here in the in -between time, under the curse, this is an indictment on all of us.

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There's God visiting his people, and we, so blind in our sin, caught up in our own selfishness, our own greed, our own adulteries, our own coveting, we don't even recognize him.

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And neither do the disciples, until they start connecting some dots. And so our first dot is actually found in our

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Old Testament text. Frightening text, if you think about it. You think about poor Job. This is a fellow who literally lost everything.

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And of course his comforters come along and try to explain to him the theological reasons why he lost everything.

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Because he wasn't good enough, he wasn't smart enough, and gosh darn, people didn't like him. And that's why

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God punished him, because he just wasn't measuring up. The thing is, God wasn't punishing him.

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It was because of his great faith that he was suffering. And how many of us accept the sufferings that we are going through in our lives as gifts from God?

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And Job, well, I'm sorry, he sounds a lot like me. Complaining bitterly, please

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God, take this away. Why are you doing this to me? And finally,

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God answers Job in chapter 38. We'll start in verse 1. Terrifying words.

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The Lord, Yahweh, answered Job out of the whirlwind and said, Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?

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At this point, poor Job would probably be looking for the smallest rock that he can crawl under.

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Pray that God wouldn't see him. Dress for action like a man, Job. I'm going to question you.

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And you make it known to me. See, Job doesn't understand why he's going through what he's going through.

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And here's the fun part. God doesn't have to tell him. We all know why, but he doesn't.

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And so God, rather than explain, Job, see, here was this thing, you know, the devil and I, we had a bet.

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He said that if everything was taken away from you, that you'd curse God. And so I said, game on.

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And it was only like for a dollar. That wouldn't make a lot of sense to him, right? That's kind of what's going on here.

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So God now questions Job. Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?

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Tell me if you have understanding. Who determined its measurement? Surely you know.

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Or who stretched the line upon it? Or what were its bases sunk? Or who laid its cornerstone when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?

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Or who shut in the sea with doors when it burst out from the womb? When I made clouds its garment and thick darkness its swaddling band and prescribed limits for it and set bars and doors and said, thus far you shall come and no farther.

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And here shall your proud waves be stayed. Have you commanded the morning since your days began and caused the dawn to know its place, that it might take hold of the skirts of the earth and the wicked shaken out of it?

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This changed like clay under the seal and its features stand out like a garment. From the wicked their light is withheld and their uplifted arm is broken.

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Have you entered into the springs of the sea or walked in the recesses of the deep? Have the gates of death been revealed to you or have you seen the gates of deep darkness?

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Have you comprehended the expanse of the earth? Declare it if you know all of this. As the

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Norwegians would say, Ufta. Wow. You see, there's our problem.

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There's our big problem. I want you to think about this. God is putting Job in his place and reminding him he's not

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God. He is. And in all of his descriptions here of who he is and what he does through his questions and inquiry, he's declaring that he is the

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Lord of heaven and earth. That all things visible and invisible were created by him and that he commands them.

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He was there when he laid the foundations of the earth, when the waters came forth from a womb.

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I had no idea until this text talks this way that the seas themselves had a womb. Yet God speaks in these terms and we do not understand these things.

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These are way higher than we are. But we in our sinful state, well, we believe the lie of the devil that because we ate of that fruit of the knowledge of good and evil that we are like God.

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And there's the problem. How many gods are there on this planet? Seven billion?

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Approaching eight? And unfortunately, I was born a little god and so were you. One of the most offensive sentences in all of scripture is this one.

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In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And so the chaos that we see around us, if you think that chaos is just maybe like the difficulty that you're having to pay your bills or maybe that your children aren't quite obeying as you would like or maybe you have, you know, you have a crick in your neck or maybe your knee is not really feeling so good.

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Yeah, granted, these are sufferings, but this is not at all what the chaos that we see on this tempestuous sea is pointing to.

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It's pointing us to the chaos that we brought onto this planet because of our rebellion against God. All of this is because of our collective evil and wickedness and rebellion.

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We're all guilty. We were all born dead in trespasses and sins, condemned by Adam's sin, which

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God has held against each and every one of us because if you were there, you would have done it too. We're all guilty.

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And we have brought chaos into a creation that was good. But see,

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Christ in His incarnation has not come to condemn us as we deserve, me included.

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Instead, He's come to do something far more amazing than that. So with that, let's return now to our

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Gospel text. Wonderful text. So immediately, Jesus made the disciples get into the boat.

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They're trying to make Jesus king by force. Jesus says, you disciples, you skedaddle out of here.

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And He's the one who's going to dismiss the crowds. And we learn from the Gospel of John that the way Jesus dismissed the crowds is by saying some tough words.

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Very difficult words to understand that becomes Jesus' great church shrinkage sermon where He says, unless you eat my body and drink my blood, you do not have life in you.

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And everyone goes, what is this man saying?

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And they said, this is a hard saying. And a lot of people end up leaving and saying, this is not what

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I signed up for. I signed up for glory. Let's go get the Romans out of here. Jesus dismisses the crowd with a tough sermon.

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After that, after He had dismissed the crowds, He went up to the mountain by Himself to pray. And when evening came,

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He was there alone. But the boat by this time was a long way from the land, beaten by the waves, for the wind was against them.

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And in the fourth watch of the night, He came to them walking on the sea. But when the disciples saw

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Him walking on the sea, they were terrified. And they said, it's a ghost. Kind of interesting note here.

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Galilean lore for the fishermen who still fish on the sea almost to this day exactly like this.

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The way the story goes, there's a lot of men who lost their lives fishing on this Sea of Galilee.

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And when the wind would come up, it would come up in a moment, and the white caps would capsize these small boats, and men would go to their grave in the

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Sea of Galilee. And the way the story went is that if you saw a ghost, it was the ghost of the fellow who died last.

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And if he appears to you, that means you're next. So that's what's going on here. And they're screaming out, oh my goodness, it's a ghost!

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We're doomed! And immediately Jesus spoke to them saying, take heart.

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And the ESV totally botches this. It does not say, it is I. Jesus says, take heart.

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Ego eimi. I am. The same words that were spoken by Jesus to Moses in the burning bush when he said, what is your name?

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Who should I say sent me? My name is I am. Hayah. He says, do not be afraid.

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Here, Jesus is literally saying to them, I am God. All that you see in this chaos around you, brought on by your own sin.

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Do not be afraid. I am God. This sea is my pet.

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It obeys my commands. I remember when I put it here. I was there when it was formed.

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It's kind of the idea. So Peter answered him, and you're going to note this. Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.

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Is Peter asking to come on to the water because of his great faith, or because of his great doubt?

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You can almost see him kind of doing that. What you talking about, Willis? This is not because of his great faith.

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Peter's not walking on the water because of his great faith. It's because of his great doubt. And notice Jesus' kindness.

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He doesn't rebuke them there saying, oh you of little faith. Come over here and touch my beard.

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He says to him, come. Come. He doesn't rebuke him for his doubt in the boat.

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He says to him, come. Come and see. So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus.

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But when he saw the wind, he was afraid. And beginning to sink, he cried out, and here's the prayer,

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Lord save me. This is a daily prayer for us, is it not?

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You get up in the morning and the challenges of the day that you are facing are horrible.

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You look in the mirror and you look at the consequences of your own sin as you get older. Your body's falling apart.

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All of the chaos in our lives brought on by our own sin. Sins that people commit against us and sins that we commit against others.

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And you look in your heart and you realize, there's nothing good in me. I also am filled with absolute fear.

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Fear that I'll be overcome by somebody else's evil. Fear that I'll be overcome by my own evil.

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Fear of standing before God and having to give an accounting of my life. Fear of the world going mad around us.

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Think of Charlottesville yesterday. And all we can do is cry out in the midst of all of this,

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Lord save me. Have mercy on me.

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And Jesus does the unthinkable. He reaches out his hand and he takes hold of him, saying to him, oh you of little faith, why did you doubt?

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And then the words of our epistle text come roaring in at this point. What does this word say?

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The word that's near you. It's in your mouth. It's in your heart. That is the word of faith that we proclaim. Because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is

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Lord, that's to confess Him as God. And you believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.

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For with the heart one believes and is justified. With the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the

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Scripture says, everyone who believes in Him will not be put to shame.

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There is no distinction between Jew and Greek. The same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing His riches on all who call upon Him.

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For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

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And if you're thinking the salvation is from the difficulties in your life, you're thinking too small.

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It's the salvation from the cosmic evil that we have brought into this world because of our rebellion.

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Where storms on seas of Galilee's are just small reflections.

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Manifestations of the evil that we have brought here. In the midst of all of this, we cry out,

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Lord Jesus save me. And Jesus saves us. Oh you of little faith.

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And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased. Could you just imagine one moment, complete utter chaos.

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The next moment, the glassy sea of revelation. And they put it all together.

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And they worship Jesus. Saying truly, you are the

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Son of God. And now it all comes together. All of the dominoes fall and they realize just who it is.

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Who they have been with the whole time. To confess that Jesus is the Son of God is to confess

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Him as God. And as God for us. Because God in His great wrath for their sin and their unbelief could have capsized their little boat and sent them to the bottom as they all deserved.

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But He says fear not. I am. He says fear not. I've come to save you.

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Lord save me. And He does. So brothers and sisters, consider this text.

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Consider the punchline of it. That Jesus truly is the Son of God. And that all who call on Him will be saved.

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So examine your hearts. Examine your hearts in light of God's law. And realize that you need to be saved.

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That you do not measure up. That you are guilty of idolatry. That you are guilty of not keeping

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God's holy words sacred. Of blaspheming His name. Of rebelling against your parents.

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Murdering your brothers and sisters and fellow humans. If not with guns and knives and with your words.

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That you are guilty of sexual immorality and coveting and rebellion and all kinds of horrible nastiness.

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That each and every one of us, we've fallen woefully short. And the chaos we see in our creation and in our own lives is our own doing.

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Yet Jesus walks over all of that. And in His grace and mercy,

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He takes His cross and goes all the way to Calvary. And ceases the wind and the tempest by bleeding and dying for us.

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So that we can live with Him in eternity. In a world without end.

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Where there are no stormy seas. And before the throne of God there is only a sea of glass.

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And all of this is a gift. Let us worship this

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Son of God who in His great mercy has heard our cries for salvation.

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And has picked us up out of the chaos. And set us firmly in His kingdom.

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In the name of Jesus, Amen. If you would like to support the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church you can do so by sending a tax -free donation to Kungsvinger Lutheran Church 15950 470th

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Avenue NW Oslo, MN 56744 And again that address is

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Kungsvinger Lutheran Church 15950 470th

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Avenue NW Oslo, MN 56744 56744

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