Sixteenth Sunday After Trinity Service

Kongsvinger Lutheran Church

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I would like to welcome you all to Kongsvinger Lutheran Church.

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Today is the observance of the 16th Sunday after Trinity and we'll be following the order of the divine service setting three.

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We'll be doing that throughout the Pentecost season. We'll make the switch at Advent just to let you know we're actually kind of getting in the neighborhood of Advent.

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It's hard to believe but it's true. And today for the intro we'll be using Psalm tone

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E as an electric light orchestra so don't let me down. That guy's got an old

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Pentecostal on me, that's just weird. All right, opening hymn is 741.

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If you were able, please rise for the opening hymn. In the name of the

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Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Beloved in the Lord, let us draw near with a true heart and confess our sins unto

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God our Father, beseeching him in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to grant us forgiveness.

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Our help is in the name of the Lord. I said I will confess my transgressions unto the

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Lord. Almighty God, merciful

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Father, I, a poor miserable sinner, confess unto you all my sins and iniquities with which

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I have ever offended you and justly deserve your temporal and eternal punishment.

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But I am heartily sorry for them and sincerely repent of them and I pray you of your boundless mercy and for the sake of the holy, innocent, bitter sufferings and death of your beloved

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Son, Jesus Christ, to be gracious and merciful to me, a poor sinful being.

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Upon this, your confession, I by virtue of my office as a called and ordained servant of the

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Word, I announce the grace of God unto all of you and in the stead and by the command of my Lord, Jesus Christ, I forgive you all of your sins.

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In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Psalm tone

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E. Be gracious to me,

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O Lord, for to you do I cry all the day.

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For you, O Lord, are good and forgiving, abounding in steadfast love to all who call upon you.

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Incline your ear, Lord, and answer me, for I am poor and needy.

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In the day of my trouble I call upon you, for you answer me.

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I give thanks to you, O Lord my God, with my whole heart and I will glorify your name forever.

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For great is your steadfast love toward me. You have delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol.

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Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the

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Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now and will be forever.

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Amen. Be gracious to me, O Lord, for to you do

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I cry all the day. For you, O Lord, are good and forgiving, abounding in steadfast love to all who call upon you.

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Glory be to God on high, and on earth peace the world toward men.

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We praise thee, we bless thee, we worship thee, we glorify thee, we give thanks to thee for thy great glory.

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God the Father almighty, O Lord Jesus Christ, O God that takes away the sin of the world.

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The Lord be with you. And with thy spirit.

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Let us pray. O Lord, we pray that your grace may always go before and follow after us, that we may continually be given to all good works through Jesus Christ, your

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Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you in the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

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You may be seated. The Old Testament reading for this, the 16th

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Sunday after Trinity, is taken from the book of 1 Kings chapter 17. After this, the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, became ill.

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And his illness was so severe that there was no breath left in him. And she said to Elijah, what have you against me,

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O man of God? Have you come to me to bring my sin to remembrance and to cause the death of my son?

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And he said to her, give me your son. And he took him from her arms and carried him up to the upper chamber where he lodged and laid him on his own bed.

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And then he cried to the Lord, O Lord, my God, have you brought calamity even upon the widow with whom

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I sojourned by killing her son? Then he stretched himself upon the child three times and cried to the

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Lord, O Lord, my God, let this child's life come into him again. And the

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Lord listened to the voice of Elijah. And the life of the child came into him again, and he revived.

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And Elijah took the child and brought him down from the upper chamber into the house and delivered him to his mother.

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And Elijah said, see, your son lives. And the woman said to Elijah, now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the

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Lord in your mouth is truth. This is the word of the Lord. Speak the gradual together.

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Nations will fear the name of the Lord. For the

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Lord builds up Zion. He appears in his glory. Epistle is taken from Ephesians chapter three.

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So I ask you not to lose heart over what I am suffering for you, which is your glory.

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For this reason, I bow my knees before the father from whom every family in heaven on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory, that he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his spirit in your inner being so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you being rooted and grounded in love may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and the length and height and the depth and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

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Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think according to the power at work within us, to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever.

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Amen. This is the word of the Lord. The holy gospel according to Saint Luke the seventh chapter.

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Glory be to thee, O Lord. Soon afterward,

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Jesus went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a great crowd went with him. And as he drew near to the gate of the town, behold, a man who had died was being carried, the only son of his mother.

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And she was a widow, and a considerable crowd from the town was with her. And when the

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Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and said to her, Do not weep. And he came up and touched the beer, and the bearer stood still.

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And he said, Young man, I say to you, arise. And the dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother.

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Fear seized them all, and they glorified God, saying, A great prophet has arisen among us.

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God has visited his people. And this report about him spread through the whole of Judea and all the surrounding country.

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This is the gospel of the Lord. We confess our faith together in the words of the

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Apostles. I believe in God, the

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Father Almighty, the maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, his only

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Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the

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Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried.

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He descended into hell. The third day he rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God, the

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Father Almighty. From thence he will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the

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Holy Spirit, the Holy Christian Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.

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Amen. In the name of Jesus.

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You know, we human beings have an insufficient definition of death and life. I know that sounds a little bit weird.

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You're sitting there going, come on, this is just really obvious, Rose, bro. You know, people who can fog a mirror, they're alive.

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People who can't, they're dead. Wrong. Wrong. Absolutely wrong.

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Let me tell you, we have to embrace the biblical definitions of death and life, and those definitions are woefully insufficient.

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Remember when Adam and Eve were told by God, or Adam was told by God, on the day you eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you will surely die?

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Did Adam not die? Of course he did. Was he still breathing?

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That's immaterial, right? So we recognize then, because of our fall into sin, because of our first parents, each and every one of us are born dead in trespasses, in sins.

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So I know when your babies are born, they check to see whether or not they have 10 fingers and 10 toes, and if their color is right, and if they're breathing and crying, and all those things.

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But every one of your children and every one of my children were born dead in trespasses and sins, which then leads to the question, well then, what is life?

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Well, here's what we're going to do today. We're going to look at our gospel text, and we're going to need a governing passage to help us understand theologically what's going on here.

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And in order to do that, we're going to have to flip over to the gospel of John chapter 5, and listen very carefully to what

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Jesus says regarding death and life. We'll test this theory out, by the way, with our

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Old Testament text, and then we'll apply it to our gospel. So we'll look at a few passages today.

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So in the gospel of John chapter 5, starting at verse 19, Jesus is talking to people, and he says, truly, truly, or amen, amen, lego human,

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I say to you, the son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the father doing.

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For whatever the father does, that the son does likewise. For the father loves the son and shows him all that he himself is doing, and greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel.

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Which then begs the question, if Jesus can only do the things that the father is doing, and the things the father showed him, what's the father doing?

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Well, the text goes on. For as the father raises the dead and gives life, gives them life, so also the son gives life to whom he will.

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Well, isn't this talking about the resurrection? Yes and no. No, in this part, the father raises the dead.

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For the father judges no one, has given all judgment to the son, so that all may honor the son just as they honor the father.

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Whoever does not honor the son does not honor the father who sent him. And here's our governing verse, verse 24.

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Amen, amen. That's how it reads in the Greek. I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life.

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He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. Now, if you're going to pass from death to life, you would have to actually be dead for that to happen.

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It seems kind of logical, right? You know, sometimes exegesis is that simple, but you sit there and go, but, but, but, but, no, just embrace the definitions.

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You have to allow this bigger definition to fill in here. So, you'll note that in our country, in our community, in our towns, we have a whole bunch of people who are literally the walking, breathing dead.

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Dead in trespasses and sins, and God is the one who brings them to life. How? Well, through the means of grace, through the word of God, through the preached word, through the waters of baptism, right?

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So, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life, and that person has already passed from death to life.

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And then watch what happens in verse 25. Amen, amen, I say to you, Jesus said, an hour is coming and is now here when the dead will hear the voice of the

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Son of God, and those who hear will live. Well, isn't that talking about the last day?

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No. How do I know? An hour is coming and is now here.

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Has the general resurrection occurred yet? Okay, are the people that have departed from us and who are buried in our graveyard, are they going to come and have fellowship time with us today?

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No, right? So, this first part is talking about the preaching of the gospel.

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We hear the voice of the Son of God, and we, now hearing him, we have been made alive, and we live.

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Sin is death. Christ is life. In fact, he says, I am the way, the truth, and the life.

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For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son to have life in himself. And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the

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Son of man. So, do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs, that's talking about the day of the resurrection, all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, and those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who've done evil to the resurrection of judgment.

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But verse 24, again, I say to you, whoever hears my words and believes him who sent me has eternal life.

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He does not come into judgment, but has already passed from death to life. That's our governing text.

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Now, here's the basic idea. Have you ever sat there and asked yourself, why did

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Jesus raise certain people from the dead, only to allow them to die again, right?

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There's three notable times that Christ raised people from the dead. The daughter of Jarius, the synagogue ruler.

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Here we have the account of Jesus raising the dead son of the widow of Nain. And then most notable, kind of like the apex one, is

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Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. So, here's the thing. Every time I read about these before,

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I kind of backed up and said, what's really going on here? I always thought, you know, this is just kind of a mess.

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I felt bad for that girl. I felt bad for the son, and I felt terrible for Lazarus. Because I can tell you this,

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I'm not afraid of death. I just don't want to go through the experience of it. And I definitely don't want to do it twice, okay, right?

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So, why? Why are we having Jesus raising people from the dead, only to have them die again?

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Answer. There's many multiple answers, but I'm going to focus on one in particular. The dead person being raised to life is indicative of us all being raised to life.

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It's, if you would, a picture of being born again. That's the whole idea.

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And here's the thing. If you pay attention to the details, the people who are raised from the dead aren't the only ones who are raised to life, if you take the expanded understanding of it.

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So, let's test this out, shall we? So, last week, we heard the account of the widow of Zarephath.

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Elijah was told by God to skedaddle, because the people were out to get him, because there's a famine on the land, right?

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And so, he leaves Israel, and he heads to Zarephath. Let me read last week's gospel text, because I think it's going to help with our context.

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So, the word of Yahweh came to Elijah. He is hiding out in the brook

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Kerith, being fed by ravens. And he says, arise and go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and dwell there.

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And listen to the words. Behold, I have commanded a widow there to feed you. So, before Elijah even leaves for Zarephath, God has made it clear,

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I've had a conversation with the widow there, and I've commanded her to feed you.

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Now, we're going to learn as this text unfolds, this woman has got nothing. Her refrigerator is empty.

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Her cupboards are bare. And the only thing she really has, as far as food is concerned, is a handful of flour and a bit of oil in a jug.

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That ain't a lot. So, when she gets the phone call, her phone rings, and she picks up, yeah, this is

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Yahweh. Hi, the God of Israel? Yeah, it's the God of Israel. Hi, what can

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I do to help you? I need you to feed Elijah. I'm sending him to you. Wait, what? Click. I would note that's probably stress -inducing.

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Okay, she's got nothing, and God has commanded her to feed

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Elijah. Well, you'll note that explains kind of the stress that she's under when

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Elijah shows up. So, it says, he arose, went to Zarephath, and when he came to the gate of the city, behold, a widow was there gathering sticks.

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And he called her and said, bring me a little water in a vessel that I may drink. And as she was going to bring it, he called to her and said, hey, bring me a morsel of bread in your hand.

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And now she snaps. And she said, as Yahweh, your God lives.

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Whose God? Elijah's God, not hers. She's not a believer. She's a pagan, right?

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As Yahweh, your God lives, I have nothing baked, only a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug.

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And now I am gathering a couple of sticks that I may go and prepare it for myself and my son so that we may eat it and die.

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If you just take what she's saying at face value, the stress of being commanded by God to feed

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Elijah has brought her to the point where the solution that she's come up with is to unalive herself and her son.

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And Elijah's response is kind of funny. He said, all right, don't fear, but do as you've said.

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Go ahead and unalive yourself. But first, make me a little cake of it and bring it to me.

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And afterwards, make something for yourself and for your son. For thus says

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Yahweh, the God of Israel, the jar of flour shall not be spent and the jug of oil shall not be empty until the day that Yahweh sends rain upon the earth.

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And she went and did as Elijah said. And she and her whole household ate for many days.

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The jar of oil was not spent, neither did the jug of oil become empty according to the word of Yahweh that he had spoken by Elijah.

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Great text, when you think about it. God provides for her. And so all that she was stressed out about, well, it turns out she didn't need to be stressed out.

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But here's the deal. You put a prophet of the one true God in the home of a pagan woman who worships false gods.

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What do you think the dinnertime conversations are going to steer into? Those idols are worthless.

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They can't help you. They can't hear you. That's just wood and stone and nonsense. You need to worship the one true

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God. And it's sinful for you. You're breaking the commandment. You shall have no other gods. I'm sure Elijah had conversations like that.

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And it kind of shows him what happens next. So here's our Old Testament text for this week. After this, the son of the woman, both of them are dead, by the way.

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The woman is dead and the son is dead, right? Using the expanded definition of death.

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The only person alive in this scenario is Elijah. He's the only one living, right? After this, the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, became ill.

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His illness was so severe there was no breath in him. That's a polite way of saying he died. That's what happens to people when they die.

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They don't breathe anymore, okay? And so she said to Elijah, what have you against me,

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O man of God? You have come to me to bring my sin to remembrance and to cause the death of my son.

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Who told her she was a sinner? Who told her she had sin? How much you want to bet Elijah did, right?

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And so now, being convicted of her sin, she believes that it is her sin that has caused the death of her son.

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And all of this because Elijah has come to town. Now, Elijah knows a little bit more about God than just his justice.

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Elijah also knows about God's mercy. So he said, give me your son. So he took him from her arms and carried him up to the upper chamber where he lodged, laid him on his own bed, and then he cried to Yahweh, O Yahweh, my

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God, have you brought calamity even upon the widow with whom I sojourned by killing her son? If I can take a phrase from the movie

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Hook, bad form, God. You know, here she's doing exactly what you told her to do.

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She's caring for me and I'm hiding out in her place and you've killed her son. I don't think that's a good thing for you to be doing,

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God. That's kind of the subtext of what's going on here. So then he stretched himself upon the child three times.

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I don't know, father, son, Holy Spirit, how many days was

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Jesus in the tomb? Three days. Yeah, gotta pay attention to that three step right here. Three times he cried to Yahweh, O Yahweh, my

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God. And you'll know that's true. Yahweh is his God.

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This woman, not yet. Let this child's life come into him again and Yahweh listened to the voice of Elijah and the life of the child came into him again and he revived.

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And Elijah took the child, brought him down from the upper chamber into the house, delivered him to his mother and Elijah said, see your son lives.

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And the woman said, now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of Yahweh in your mouth is truth.

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I would note two people were raised from the dead that day, the boy and his mother.

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And if you look at the expanded definition of life given to us by Jesus, you can't miss it.

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There were two people raised from death that day. And Jesus even invokes this widow of Zarephath.

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That's the thing that got him nearly thrown off the cliff in Nazareth. Nazareth, right? So I would note, where is she today?

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With Christ. Worshiping him before his very throne in heaven among the saints in glory along with her son.

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Now, we're starting to see it. Let's take a look at our gospel text. Our gospel text does the same thing, but I would note to a magnitude of like 11, using the spinal tap scale, right?

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Here's what it says. Soon afterwards, Jesus went to a town called Nain and his disciples and a great crowd went with him.

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So Jesus is with a great crowd, huge crowd. And you're going to note there's another huge crowd.

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So two huge crowds kind of colliding. One is the huge crowd of life. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, right?

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The other crowd, big crowd, is the crowd of death. They've all gathered for a to bury a young man who died tragically.

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And here's what we got to remember. Death comes for all of us and death isn't always polite and waits until you're old, right?

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Death can take any one of us at any time. But if you are given longer life, then you need to pay attention to the signs that your journey is getting towards its end.

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Because you need to keep this in mind. You're only here for a short amount of time. We all know about this.

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You know, one of the things I hate about vacations is knowing that I have to come back, right?

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When I travel and I'm on one of those long haul flights, you have to come up with strategies to deal with those things, by the way.

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Being stuck in an aluminum tube at 40 ,000 feet for 8, 10, 13 hours is a little bit of a slob, right?

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But there's kind of a rhythm to these flights, okay? When you get on the flight, you sit down, you put your luggage in the overhead bin, and you make yourself comfortable, right?

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And then you play with the little stupid screen in front of you to figure out kind of what movies are on. Then you hear the safety spiel.

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You need to pay attention to where the track lights are pointing because they're pointing you to an exit. The exit may be behind you or it could be in front of you.

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And they're always doing this with their things, like this. And after you get the safety spiel, then we take off and you get up to a level flight.

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And the first thing on a really long haul flight they do is they come out, especially on a Delta flight, and they give you a hot towel to wash your hands.

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And then they offer you a beverage, right? And you can have an adult beverage if you want. And then after that, a little bit after that, they bring dinner out.

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Eating dinner on a plane is a joke, okay? How are you supposed to eat dinner on an airplane with your elbows stuck to your chest, okay?

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And on Delta, they don't even give you silverware anymore. They give you bamboo, okay? I might as well be eating with chopsticks and you're doing this and, you know, it's just annoying, right?

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Well then after that, there's a routine after that. After dinner, everybody has to go to the bathroom. There's a line.

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And then after that, after that, then you get in your seat and you try to figure out the most difficult thing in all of life, how to fall asleep.

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And if you are unfortunate, like I've been unfortunate a few times, you figure it out 15 minutes before they turn the light back on and then serve you breakfast.

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And as soon as they serve you breakfast, you know you're one hour away from the end of your flight, right?

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Listen, when you're starting to get gray hair, hot flashes, if you're going through menopause as a woman, right?

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Or if you're losing your hair. I note that in our hymn today, it talks about God knows the hairs on our head and some of you that number is zero, okay?

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When your health starts to fail and you're noticing that you can't do the things you did when you were a child, you're getting towards the end of your flight.

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We have to take death seriously. Pay attention to the signs, right?

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So here we've got these two crowds now colliding. Jesus drew near to the gate of the town.

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Behold, a man who had died was being carried out. The only son of his mother, she was a widow. A considerable crowd from the town was with her.

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And when the Lord saw her, and here it comes, he had compassion on her.

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Great Greek word there, splod needs, oh my, right? He had compassion.

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It means his guts were wrenched for this woman. Here's the Lord of life seeing this procession and great crowd of death, and he has compassion on her.

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And he offers words of consolation. He says, do not weep. And he's not giving a command like it's somehow wrong to weep when your son dies.

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That's not it. He's offering her words of consolation because he knows about what's to happen next.

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So then he came up and he touched the beard. The bearer stood still.

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And he said, young man, I say to you, arise. Now, when

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Jesus says, young man, I say to you, arise, what do you think is going to happen? He's going to arise. I would note, going back to what

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Jesus says in John chapter five, Jesus says, anyone who hears my words and believes him who sent me has eternal life.

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They have passed from death to life. Now, if I were to say that about my words, y 'all would lock me up in one of those padded rooms and help get me some mental medical attention, which

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I would definitely need. But Jesus backs it up. How do we know that somebody's crossed from death to life?

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I don't know. He told a corpse to wake up and he did. So he says, young man,

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I tell you, arise. And the dead man sat up. Dead men don't do that, okay?

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It shouldn't say the formerly dead man sat up and began to speak and Jesus gave him to his mother.

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But listen to the response. Fear sees them all. And this is not the fear of judgment.

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This is the true fear of God, right? And they glorified

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God. This great crowd of death glorified God saying a great prophet has arisen among us and God has visited his people.

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Is that not a confession of faith? So here's a good way to think about it.

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Yeah, the young man arose, but you have to think of it like a nuclear explosion, right?

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When a nuclear bomb goes off, the place where it hits is called ground zero.

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We've all seen videos of nuclear bombs blowing up. Ground zero, big mushroom cloud emanates from ground zero, but there's a shock wave that goes out.

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And when that shock wave hits buildings and ships and cars and things like that, it just obliterates them.

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Well, I would note that this young man is ground zero for a bomb that just went off. But this isn't the kind of bomb that kills and destroys.

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When this bomb went off, everyone in the crowd was raised to life. Rather than this bomb bringing death, this bomb brought life to all of them because they confess

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Jesus is the great prophet, the one prophesied in Deuteronomy 18, and that God himself has visited his people.

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This is a confession of faith. When death and life collide, life won.

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And so when you interpret this short little snippet of the ministry of Jesus that we're given in our gospel text through the words of Christ himself, and let me repeat them again.

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Truly I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life.

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He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. That's the whole point.

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And when you read the account of Lazarus, it's the same thing. When Jesus calls

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Lazarus from the tomb, there was a great crowd of people and many, many, many, many, many people believed in Jesus.

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And so here they've gone from being dead to being alive. There was far more than just one person who was raised in the town of Nain that day.

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But you have to look at Jesus's definition of death and life to get it. And I would note by comparison, if you go to John chapter 12 and you look at how the chief priests reacted to the news that Jesus raised

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Lazarus from the dead, it's stupid. It's funny in a bad kind of tragic way.

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It says in John chapter 12, large crowds of the Jews, when they learned that Jesus was there, they came not only on account of him, but they wanted to see

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Lazarus whom Jesus had raised from the dead. And so the chief priests then made plans to put

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Lazarus to death as well, because on account of him, many of the Jews were going away and they were believing in Jesus, which means that they were being raised to life as well.

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And just think about how stupid this is. You know, how dare Lazarus allow

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Jesus to raise him from the dead? Now all these people are believing in Jesus. I'm going to kill him. How dare he be alive?

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The only people who talk that way are those who are dead. And that's the point. The chief priests are dead.

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That's why they want to kill Christ. But Lazarus is alive and everyone who's believing in Jesus, as a result of that, seeing that in that report, they are made alive now in Christ.

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So here then, Christians, hear me out on this. Knowing then that our time here is short and it is really short, is there anything here that we need to be clinging to, hanging on to?

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I would say no, not at all. There's nothing that we need to worry about that's here. You can't take any of it with you anyway.

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We've kind of learned that in dealing with my mother -in -law's estate. She wasn't able to take any of it with her.

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We've had to deal with all of it, right? So that being the case, what is it that we're afraid of regarding death?

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You'll note that Jesus has utterly destroyed it. He's completely conquered it.

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He is stronger than death. He himself has been raised from the dead. He's gone through it for us.

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He was pierced for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities. He died in the place that we should have been dying in.

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He suffered the wrath of God in our place. Why? In order to kill us? No, in order to give us true life.

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And so here's the thing. Whatever death has taken from us, and I would note when it comes to people, every dear person that is close to us who confesses

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Christ, although their body is in the grave, they're not dead. They're alive.

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Because Christ is alive, and we are all in him, and we are all alive together in him. And on the day that Jesus returns in glory to judge the living and the dead, and he calls us all out of the tombs, all the people who trusted in Christ, whom death has taken from us, will be restored to us, and they and us to them.

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Knowing that, we never say goodbye to anybody who's a Christian ever. We always say see you later.

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Because that is our hope. Our hope is not in anything in this world. To place our hope in anything in this world is to again place our hope in death.

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This world itself will die. Christ is going to kill it when he comes back. Destroy it with fire.

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He brings it through death and resurrection. The whole creation itself is going to be brought through death and resurrection. So brothers and sisters,

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I would note you're already dead, but you're already alive. We're not people with one foot in the grave.

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Everybody's born with one foot in the grave. We are people with one foot in eternity already. And only the scriptures can teach us this, and this can only be apprehended by faith.

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And by faith then we comfort ourselves with this truth. And so we praise

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God. We praise Christ for little miracles like this, where Jesus lets off a little bit of a nuclear bomb, and in the blast radius all the people are raised to life.

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True life. That's the point of all of these times which Christ raises people from the dead.

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It's that he gives life more than to just the corpse. He gives life to the corpse. He gives life to all of those around.

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And he has given us life. So we've got nothing to fear when it comes to death.

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At all. Not a thing. Let us praise the one who has gone before us and has been raised from the dead.

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We are members of his very body, and he is the head of the body of the church. Will he not also raise the members of his body when he returns in glory?

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Indeed he will. So brothers and sisters, take heart. Take comfort. Be a little bit defiant, if you would, of death.

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There's nothing wrong with that, because Jesus is the Lord of life, and he's proven it by raising not only three people from the dead, but also raising himself.

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In the name of Jesus. Amen. We rise to sing the offertory.

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Let us pray for the whole church of God in Christ Jesus and for all people according to their needs. Almighty God, you sent your son into the world to put an end to death.

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Keep us from losing heart in the face of sorrow. Strengthen us with power through your Holy Spirit, and help us to know the love of Christ, that through him we may no longer weep.

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Lord, in your mercy. O great physician, lend your own power to the works of mercy done in the name of your son, that they may increase faith in the words that your servants speak.

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Lord, in your mercy. Faithful father, when loss and heartache invade our homes and tempt us to doubt your divine care, hear our cries and renew our faith and life in you.

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Lord, in your mercy. Lord of life and death, you have given all things into the hands of your son.

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Inspire those who bear the sword in his stead to do so in faithfulness and love for their fellow man.

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Lord, in your mercy. Holy comforter, you gave aid to the widows of Zarephath and Nain, so that they would not be left alone.

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Provide faithful friends and companions to our shut -ins and those who live alone, that they may be encouraged in faith toward you and in love toward one another.

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Lord, in your mercy. Great physician, you lead us as St. Paul before us through many tribulations to know the fullness of your love.

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We ask that you would strengthen today Kathy, Georgette, Landon, John, Catherine, Cricket, Elizabeth, Carol, Susan, Sheila, Jana, Luca, John, Brent, Pat, Kim, Patricia, David, Roger, Robin, and Bonnie.

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We pray for Rodney, Matt, Angela, Susan, Marty, Marilyn, Mara, Angela, Mara, Naya, Jonathan, Jeff, Wendy, Luis, Deborah, Gloria, and Rachel.

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We also lift before you Jonathan and Heather and Gilman and those who mourn the family of Gaylord Solemn.

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We ask all who suffer that they may praise your faithfulness. Lord, in your mercy. Ever -present

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God, as you once visited your people in the person of your son, so Christ continues to visit your people now with his body and his blood in the

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Holy Supper. Grant that those who receive the sacrament this day would receive these gifts in true faith, trusting your word that in this meal the forgiveness of all of their sins is delivered to them by the

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Savior's own divine promise. Lord, in your mercy. Into your hands we commend all for whom we pray, trusting in your mercy through Jesus Christ, your