Twenty Fourth Sunday After Trinity Service

Kongsvinger Lutheran Church

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I would like to welcome you all to Kongsvinger Lutheran Church today is the 24th

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Sunday after Trinity will be following the order of divine service setting three couple of announcements ahead of time as you came in here at Kongsvinger you may have noticed that there were red binders on the table where the bulletins are let me explain what those are those are for people who struggle to because of the weight of our hymnals and would like something a little bit lighter to be able to follow the liturgy they were created by the

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Johnstons and I think it's a great thing so if you're having one of those days where you're struggling you know physical physical disabilities or physical limitations and you need something a little bit lighter those are there for you to use for following the liturgy instead of the hymnal kind of lighten up on the weight the other thing

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I need to kind of warn you about is that our sermon hymn today is one I don't think we've ever sung here and the let's just say the tune is challenging it's written by Martin Luther and I don't have any other way to introduce it to you then to throw it into the liturgy is it's the assigned hymn for the day and that being the case all

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I can say is is that if you feel like you're muddling through it that's kind of how we're going to learn we're going to learn by muddling our way through it it's a little bit of a challenge those of you who read music it should be a little bit easier for you and maybe your voices can help the rest of the folks in the congregation who are who feel a little bit lost in that hymn my apologies it is the assigned hymn in years past I actually slotted a different hymn and I thought no let's hear let's go for it let's it's the lyrics are great it's just that the tune is hard so be advised

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I know that ahead of time and then the psalm tone today is going to be psalm tone

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G psalm tone G as in God's era right that's gonna be our psalm tone today all right if you are physically present here at Kongsvinger and you are 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 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 our help is in the name of the

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

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Jesus Christ to be gracious and merciful to me a poor sinful being upon this your confession

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I by virtue of my office as a called and ordained servant of the word I announce the grace of God unto all of you and in the stead and by the command of my

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Lord Jesus Christ I forgive you all of your sins in the name of the Father and the Son and the

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Holy Spirit some tone G today oh come let us worship and bow down let us kneel before the

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Lord our maker for he is our

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God people of his pasture and the sheep of his let us sing to the

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Lord let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation let us come into his presence with thanksgiving let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise for the

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Lord is a great and a great his hands are the depths of the earth the heights of the mountains are the father and to the son and to the whole as it was in the begin is now let us worship and bow down let us kneel before the

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Lord our for he is our people of his pasture and the sheep of his stir up O Lord the wills of your faithful people that they plenteously bringing forth the fruit of the of good works may by you be plenteously rewarded through Jesus Christ your son our

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Lord who lives and reigns with you in the Holy Spirit one God now and forever may be seated the

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Old Testament reading for the 24th Sunday after Trinity is taken from the prophet Isaiah chapter 51 awake awake put on strength

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O arm of the Lord awake as in the days of old the generations of long ago was it not you who cut

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Rahab in pieces that pierced the dragon was it not you who dried up the sea the waters of the great deep who made the depths of the sea away for the redeemed to pass over and the ransomed of the

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Lord shall return and come to Zion with singing everlasting joy shall be upon their heads they shall obtain gladness and joy and sorrow and sign shall flee away

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I I am he who comforts you who are you that you are afraid of man who dies of the son of man who is made like grass and I've forgotten the

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Lord your maker who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth and you who fear continually all the day because of the wrath of the oppressor when he sets himself to destroy and where is the wrath of the oppressor he who has bowed down shall speedily be released he shall not die and go down to the pit neither shall his bread be lacking

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I am the Lord your God who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar the

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Lord of hosts is his name and I put my words in your mouth and covered you in the shadow of my hand establishing the heavens and laying the foundations of the earth and saying to Zion you are my people this is the word of the

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Lord speak the gradual together you have delivered my soul from death

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I love the Lord because he has heard the epistle is taken from Colossians chapter 1 and so from the day we heard we have not ceased to pray for you asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding so as to walk in a manner worthy of the

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Lord fully pleasing to him bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God may you be strengthened with all power according to his glorious might for all endurance and patience with joy giving thanks to the

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Father who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the Saints in life he has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved

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Son in whom we have redemption the forgiveness of sins this is the word of the

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Lord the Holy Gospel according to st.

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Matthew the ninth chapter while Jesus was saying these things to them behold a ruler came and knelt before him saying my daughter has just died but come lay your hand on her and she will live

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Jesus rose and followed him with his disciples and behold a woman who had suffered from a discharge of blood for 12 years came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment for she said to herself if I only touch his garment

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I will be made well Jesus turned and seeing her said take heart daughter for your faith has made you well and instantly the woman was made well and when

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Jesus came to the rulers house and saw the flute players in the crowd making a commotion he said go away for the girl is not dead but sleeping but when the crowd had and they laughed at him but when the crowd had been put outside he went in and took her by the hand and the girl arose and the report of this went through all that district this is the gospel of the

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Lord we confess our faith together in the words of the

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Apostles Creed I believe in God the

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Father Almighty maker of heaven and earth and in Jesus Christ his only son our

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Lord who was conceived by the Holy Spirit born of the Virgin Mary suffered under Pontius Pilate was crucified died and was buried 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 shall 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 amen you may be seated him number 755 is our sermon him again it is a bit of a challenge we'll work our way through it in the name of Jesus you know many times

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I go back and pick through the rub the rubbish the the destruction layer of my spiritual life

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I've talked about the fact that Barb and I we both went to the same Christian high school together and we also after high school ended up in a cult called the ladder rain movement and sometimes

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I have to go back and kind of do a postmortem to figure out what on earth went wrong how on earth were we so deceived into thinking that number one we needed to speak gibberish number two that there was a prophetess over us and she was actually speaking words from God number three that we had demons that needed to be cast out of us because we were

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Christians and all the weird nonsense that went on there was just absolutely reprehensible and so you'll know when when

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I do videos for fighting for the faith I can have compassion on the people who are deceived because I myself have been terribly deceived but in doing a postmortem

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I keep coming back to kind of the same thing and that is is that the church that we attended the schools that I attended and Barb also attended they did not help us there's a passage of scripture that talks about those who are ever learning but never able to arrive at a full knowledge of the truth and so when

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I think back to when I was in high school I can think back to the very steady diet of preaching that I heard not only in Bible class but also in our chapel services which we were required to attend and I gotta tell you there was a constant focus and that focus was on me rather than Christ it was always on me

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I needed to obey I needed to make the sacrifice I needed to pay my tithe

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I needed to do this I needed to conquer and in one of my one of my

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Bible studies Barb and I were part of something called discipleship core at Maranatha High School so that's kind of the spiritual elite of the high school that we went to we were part of that discipleship core and over and again we would hear things like you all are the generation that's going to change the world you are the ones who are going to slay your

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Giants you're gonna dare to be a Daniel you're gonna get out there and when we were in the latter rain we were told because we were so young at the time we were in our early 20s that we were we were part of the generation that was going to rise up and be able to perform miracles at at will and be able to do all these kinds of crazy things and it was just nonsense

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I think back to the fact that when we were in a small group

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Bible study this is a small group Bible studies became the thing while we were in high school and so Barb and I attended a small group

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Bible study do we have a pastor leading it no I just you know who can lead a small group

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Bible study basically anybody who's breathing can lead a Bible study and over and again the way we were taught to read the scriptures went something like this you would open up the

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Bible the small group leader would read a verse out of context and then we would go around the room and ask the answer this important question what does this verse mean to you and it's crazy when you think about it because that being the focus the focus was always on me always on me and what

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I had to do never was the focus on what God had done for me what Christ had done for me that was very foreign stuff in fact one of the things

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I remember at from that time is that there was this disconcerting thing that would happen from time to time we were told we had to have daily devotions because the logic went something like this if you are in a personal relationship with Jesus and we all need to be in a personal relationship with Jesus well

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Jesus is kind of like a very clean nerdy and needy girlfriend okay so if you're not texting

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Jesus like five times a day to let Jesus know how wonderful he is he'll text back and go why aren't you spending time with me why aren't you talking to me and this kind of stuff like this and so that being the case when you would have your devotions it always felt like it was a to -do item

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I just I needed to have my time reading the Bible so I pull out the

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Bible and I would read one maybe two chapters and I would say there

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I've done it right check that off of my list now be quiet Jesus and stop stop texting me those clingy needy things telling me how you miss me and all that kind of stuff right this is how

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I would how I think about it always was something that I just needed to get behind me do it so that I can say that I've done it and never did

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I really apply myself to understanding the scriptures but I would say this that whenever I found texts that were where it told me things that I needed to do

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I would highlight those then I would come to passages that made absolutely no sense to me whatsoever right and I didn't know what to make of them and I remember like one time you know reading a passage regarding salvation and stuff like this and and or reading a text that talked about what baptism does and going to my youth pastor and saying

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I I don't understand what this text is saying because it's saying the exact opposite of what it is that we're taught to believe here at this church and the the gymnastics that my youth pastor would go through was like Olympic level kind of gymnastics

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I mean it was absolutely spectacular and he would let he would stick the landing too but the argument would usually go something like this well there are some denominations who read it this way and this is how they understand it and then there's other people who read it and this is how they understand it and we understand it differently than the both of them but who are we to say who's right or wrong when it comes to this text and so just understand that there's a spectrum there's a spectrum a wide spectrum of belief about what this passage means and so we fall here on the spectrum but we're not going to condemn anybody else who falls in a different part of the spectrum because after all that would be presumptuous of us to condemn other people along those lines and you sit there and go what a completely unsatisfactory ridiculously awful explanation because at the end of the day

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I didn't understand the Bible at all like at all and here's the thing everything that I was catechized into at this time although I wasn't catechized in the proper sense everything

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I was catechized into made it so that the focus was on me following my heart what was

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God telling me inside of here and I needed to listen to this voice and the

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Bible yeah I read it but it was an annoying part of a thing that I had to do and as a result of it years of being catechized into this way of Scripture perfectly set

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Barb and I up and I mean perfectly set us up for the latter rain and when we came out of it aside from feeling completely betrayed

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I mean utterly betrayed we also felt a lot of shame Barb's question coming out of that was who can we trust where are we supposed to go from here and the only thing

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I could say at that time was I think the Bible is true but I'm beginning to think we don't know what it means that we don't really understand it and this is despite the fact that we were part of the discipleship core we had four years of Christian high school under our belts we attended chapel weekly

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Barb Barb didn't miss you she almost got perfect attendance but that's a whole other story okay that being the case what is it that goes wrong when people do this you come back to that third commandment and you'll note that Christ makes it very clear if you love me you will abide you will keep you will guard my commands and Christ is the one who's given us the commandments in in the

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Old Testament especially the ten commandments that we are to follow them so the third commandment is remember the

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Sabbath day by keeping it holy and when Luther asks the question what does this mean he answers the question that we should fear and love

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God so that we do not despise preaching or his word but hold it sacred and gladly hear and learn it when you look at the history of Israel especially the history of Judah and the apostasy that was taking place at the time of Jeremiah there's particular passages in the in Jeremiah's prophecy that really stand out today as an explanation for not only how

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Barb and I were deceived but I would argue how so many people who call themselves Christians are deceived as well listen to Jeremiah chapter 7

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I'm going to start at verse 23 God says this I gave them this command obey my voice and I will be your

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God and you shall be my people walk in all the way that I command you that it may be well with you and of course my

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Nazarene self hears this and goes well that tells me I need to hear God's voice but the question

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I never asked is where should I expect to hear where does

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God speak today right that's that's obviously the question that we've got is we've got to work out because there's people running around the

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Christian landscape today basically claiming that they are hearing the voice of God they've taken their

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Bibles they've effectively closed them and I cannot even begin to tell you how many hundreds if not thousands of sermons

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I have previewed and reviewed of people who claim to be prophets today who are preaching what they say is the voice of God with closed

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Bibles and open notes from whatever fever dream they had the night before that they claim was from God the scripture says obey my voice and you're gonna note here the problem is is that we don't want to let's be blunt there's a cost to actually hearing the voice of God and hearing it in the scriptures and the cost is your own dignity your own self -righteousness because when you read the scriptures the scriptures do not pat you on the head and say you are such a good boy you are such a good girl the scriptures instead teach us that we are not giant slayers in fact

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I never understood this idea of being a giant slayer because over and again one thing I was very sure of this is that I was not at all like David in the giant slaying department but I was a lot like Adam in the not keeping

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God's commandments department and that was the thing reading God's Word obeying his voice is going to take away your self -righteousness and it that is a scary thing and then

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God says walk and all that I command you that that it may be well with you but listen to what God then says about Judah they did not obey or incline their ear they walked in their own counsels and the stubbornness of their own evil hearts and there's the problem right there correct me if I am wrong but does not everything in our society say follow your heart be true to yourself you need to find your authentic self and you need to be true to that stuff and don't you listen to anybody who would condemn you for who you are right you want to be a turnip rather than a male or a female you can be a turnip just let your turnip heart lead you into turnipness right this is how they talk but God says that following our own counsels following the stubbornness of our own he evil hearts does not bring us forward in God's kingdom and that sends us backwards that's exactly what he says they went backward and not forward so from the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt to this day

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I have persistently and listen to what God says I have persistently sent all my servants the prophets to them day after day now this sentence

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I have persistently sent them my servants the prophets then makes you go okay so the

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Old Testament prophets were actually sent by God that's the voice that God wants me to listen to so for instance when

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I'm reading Isaiah or Jeremiah or Micah or Nahum or Zechariah you get the idea here

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I'm hearing the voice of God and that's in the scriptures but then he goes on yet they did not listen to me or incline their ear but they stiffen their neck and they did worse than their fathers and I would note that we have all kinds of ways in which we do this going back to when

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I was in small group Bible studies what does this verse mean to you is a complete exact opposite of what

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God wants us to do and that's an exact exercise in teaching me to follow my own counsels and the own stubbornness of my evil heart because although I have heard a verse from the

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Bible I have not asked the question what does it mean I have not sought to understand what

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God has revealed there instead I have silenced the voice of God and then I begin to speak the nonsense of my own heart this verse means to me rainbows and bunnies and carebears and nonsense like that right but I'm not hearing the voice of God and when

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I do this one of the notable things about the so -called Azusa Street Revival which was a very instrumental in bringing the

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Pentecostal movement to bear is that William Seymour the guy who led that in multiple newspaper articles it described what was taking place at the

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Azusa Street Revival he wasn't reading the scriptures he wasn't preaching the scriptures what he would do is he would open up his

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Bible and then he would read two words and this is well documented in the

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Los Angeles Times it would be like me taking this path this prophecy from Jeremiah and reading two words own counsels and then from there they went into some kind of fevered

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Holy Ghost frenzy people going out of their minds but they weren't hearing the

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Word of God they just heard two words and then after that fever fever pitch came down and simmered down a little bit he'd read two more two more words not forward and oh and everyone would go nuts and stuff like this they weren't hearing the

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Word of God and yet people believe that that thing was a revival that God was restoring the gifts of the

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Spirit at that time but how can they believe that because they were in fact not hearing

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God's voice they were walking in their own counsels and the stubbornness of their evil hearts in Jeremiah chapter 8

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God laments and talks about the treachery of Judah he says to them and in verse 4 you shall say to them thus says

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Yahweh when men fall do they not rise again well it depends on if they slipped on the ice and they broke their hip is the kind of the way

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I would look at it here in Minnesota but that's a different story right if one turns away does he not return why then has this people turned away in perpetual backsliding they hold fast to deceit and they refuse to return is that not exactly what's happening in our day and has been happening all the way back in the times of Jeremiah they've paid attention and they listen but they have not spoken rightly no man relents of his evil saying what have

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I done everyone turns to his own course and like a horse plunging headlong into battle even the stork in the heavens knows her times the turtle dove the swallow in the crane keep the time of their coming but my people know not the rules of Yahweh how can you say we are wise and the law of Yahweh is with us but behold the lying pen of the scribes has made it into a lie fascinated in Jeremiah's time the sentence about the lying pen of the scribes that was a problem back then as it is today

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I mean how many of you have heard about Christian books right that have gone New York Times bestseller you think of like the

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Shack or something like that and the Shack a Christian bestseller depicted

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God the father is Aunt Jemima right and the whole book itself was designed to tear down the scriptures and make it so that you didn't trust the

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Word of God that was a problem all the way back then but here's where our epistle text comes to kind of save the day you've seen what it is that we're talking about the sin that that so easily infects all of us and that is the inattentiveness to God's Word but there's a very good reason why

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God wants us to hear His Word to study His Word to read it to mark it to inwardly digest it you'll note that in the

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Eastern meditation way of doing things what are you supposed to do you get in the lotus position you take your fingers and you do this

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I don't know why but you do this you close your eyes and you say oh right and the whole idea is to clear your mind to get your monkey mind to be quiet is how they describe it but you know that meditation in the scripture is the exact opposite it's reading a passage of God's Word and going back and rereading it memorizing it pondering it thinking it through not emptying your mind but filling your mind with His Word and there's a reason for this is because the

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Word of God is not like any other book there are there is no other book like it it is living and active sharper than a double -edged sword and only in the

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Word of God are you going to find the gospel you can't find it anywhere else

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I love that in the women's Bible study yesterday Dorothy Bressler who is just a wonderful saint and I love the fact that she attends here and she participates so wonderfully in our women's

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Bible studies Dorothy Bressler pointed out that if humanity were to invent a

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God and humanity has invented lots of gods that humanity would never invent the God of scriptures never aside from the complexities of the

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Trinity which are mind -bending the God of scriptures is not like any other

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God he's not vindictive he's not capricious you think of like Zeus right

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Zeus on a cranky day might throw a lightning bolt at you right you know you don't you don't want to upset him you want to stay on his good side and it's hard to figure out what's going to make him happy and you're worried that Zeus might wake up on the wrong side of the bed and that you might find yourself dead in Hades at the end of that day right but the

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God of scripture isn't like Zeus he isn't like the capricious nonsensical deities that humans have made up instead he's forgiving and he is the one who does it all for us

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I think about our Old Testament text let me pull this up I'm weaving this into my sermon at calling an audible because I didn't actually originally weave this into my sermon but as I was reading that Old Testament text it just fits so perfectly with the themes that were looked at we're looking at today that it does as well to consider this our

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Old Testament text listen to the focus the children of Israel are speaking to Yahweh and say awake awake put on strength

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O arm of Yahweh awake as in the days of old the generations of long ago was it not you who cut

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Rahab in pieces that pierced the dragon now those words by the way are a little confusing

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God did not cut Rahab the prostitute into pieces Rahab here is a kind of a reference back to Egypt and the dragon being referred to may in fact be one of the false deities of the

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Egyptian pantheon of gods right was it not you who dried up the sea the waters of the great deep who made the depths of the sea away for the redeemed to pass over note who's doing the doing who's running the verbs and who are they appealing to rise up O Lord put on strength do what you've done in the past it was you who did these things and he is the one who and the ransomed of Yahweh they shall return and come to Zion then was singing everlasting joy will be upon their heads they shall obtain gladness and joy and sorrow and sighing shall flee away and then

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God says I I am he who comforts you you'll note that the one true

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God the one revealed in Scripture who has sent his prophets to hear so that we can hear his voice who have sent who sent his own be only begotten

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Son that we should hear his voice through the Apostles that Christ has chosen that God of Scripture constantly comforts us we who don't even deserve to be on the isle of misfit toys he has redeemed us and given us everlasting joy he comforts us so God asked why then are you afraid of man who dies the son of man who is made like grass and that you have forgotten

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Yahweh your maker and then listen to what else God has done he is stretched out the heavens he's laid the foundations of the earth and you fear continually all the day because the wrath of the oppressor when he sets himself to destroy but where is the wrath of the oppressor who can be compared to Yahweh and the things that he has done with his mighty arm to save us the oppressor is bowed down as speedily those who are bowed down under the oppressor will be released he shall not die and go down to the pit and either shall his bread be lacking

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I am Yahweh your God who stirs up the sea so this waves roar

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Yahweh of hosts is his name and I put my words in your mouth and covered you in the shadow of my hand establishing the heavens and laying the foundations of the earth saying to Zion you are my people when

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I was in Nazarene I was taught that it was my job to dry up the Red Sea and to do all these mighty things that are set set in Scripture that God has done but I can tell you this

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I didn't do a single mighty one of them the only thing I brought into the equation of my salvation was sin and so do you then hear them these comforting words from the

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Apostle Paul writing to a church that he did not plant the church at Colossae was not a church plant of the

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Apostle Paul and one of his missionaries it was missionary journeys it was somebody else and Colossae's near near that Laodicea church they're not too far from there but listen to these words that Paul says so from the day that we heard that they had heard about their salvation that they had received the gospel the

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Apostle Paul says we've not ceased to pray for you praying for people is kind of important I would note that we have much to learn from the

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Apostle Paul here one of the things I might suggest for us here at Kongsvinger is that you'll notice that Christ continues to bring us people new people join us online new people join us here at Kongsvinger and it seems like there's a new face our new name always showing up in our

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Bible studies and online services and that is is that I think we need to spend a little more time praying for those who are coming out of darkness into the light of Christ and pray something to the effect of what the

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Apostle Paul is praying for them and listen what he says asking asking God that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding and you'll note that Paul here isn't talking about making sure that you have your daily devotion so you can check it off so that you can just say

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I did that no he's talking about something completely different not the self -righteous way of looking at the scriptures as something as a duty that you just need to get over with but he's just he's praying that they would have a hunger and a thirst for a right understanding of God's Word and that through a careful study and attending to hear the word preached that they would be filled with the knowledge of God's will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding this can only be found in the scriptures and then he says this so as to walk in a manner that is worthy of the

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Lord fully pleasing to him already you are that because of Christ and then note this bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God that was a joy this week working with my

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Greek students through this passage because I asked them point -blank here is that when it talks about bearing fruit in this sentence what is the fruit that's being born back when

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I was in Nazarene the only thing that mattered was that you bear fruit by obeying the rules that the Nazarene Church had come up with y 'all familiar with him

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I keep using the litany of this list of man -made commandments over and over again you shall not drink you shall not dance you shall not smoke you shall not chew you shall not date girls who do right you shall not play cards and all this other kind of nonsense and remember the movie

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Footloose by the way Footloose is the very first movie that Barb and I went to see together as a couple okay took me a little bit of time to convince her that I was the one but once I did convince her our first date was to go to the movie theaters and we saw

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Footloose in the movie theater so technically you can say that's our movie and Footloose is technically our song but I keep reminding

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Barb that that was a long long time ago and that we're she's just four years away from being 60 years old okay and every time

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I say that holy smokes the volcano erupts and she says you're gonna be 60 years old but I'm not okay but all that being said in the movie

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Footloose I mean that may as well have been my experience in the Nazarene Church John Lithgow playing that legalistic preacher who's living somewhere in a small town in the

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Midwest of the United States and Kevin Bacon coming from the cities and he likes to dance he's a dancer but dancing is not allowed in that city because this preacher has held sway over the entire over the entire town so the high school students don't get a prom they don't get to dance we didn't get to dance either we had to have somebody have mercy on us and hold a prom for us because our school wouldn't right and then you have that big collision this wonderful thing that takes place

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Kevin Bacon's gets to go and speaks to the City Council of why they need to have this dance and what does he do he opens up his

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Bible that somebody had given him and said you might want to look at these passages over here and Kevin Bacon's atheistic non -christian character quotes the

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Bible correctly in pointing out that David danced before the Lord and that there were

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Psalms who call for God's people to dance and pointed out the hypocrisy of the man -made rules that they had come up with it just stands out this is my lived experience but here's the thing when you make up rules you become like the and remember

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Jesus's rebuke of the Pharisees in Mark 7 he says you make void the Word of God by your commandments you leave the commandments of God to establish your own tradition we are not to do that people following their own counsels making up their own rules and then calling it

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Christianity only in the scriptures are we going to learn the real knowledge of God and understand his will and grow in spiritual wisdom and understanding and God wills for us to bear fruit in every good work but also to increase in the knowledge of God God wills for us to do both and those churches where they'll talk about love but they hate doctrine they are disobeying

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God's Word here they are not growing in his will it is not merely your life it's your life and your doctrine the two have to go together and Paul is praying on behalf of the church at Colossae and we need to pray on behalf of ourselves that we may continue to grow and bear fruit in good work and continue to increase in the knowledge of God through his

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Word and then he says may you be strengthened which means you ain't doing the strengthening

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God is the one who has to strengthen you may you be strengthened with all power not yours his according to his glorious might for what for all endurance and patience with joy and you'll know the

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Christian life legitimately requires a lot of patience and a heck of a lot of endurance it's nothing easy but giving thanks to the

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Father and here come the next part of it the verbs and these are words that you can only find in Scripture and these are the ones that comfort us you'll know because we have not been attentive to God's Word as we ought to because we have followed our own hearts and followed our own ways and even participated with those who attack the

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Word of God or held it hostage in order to silence God's voice rather than hear it and understand it we've all participated in this and as a result of it we recognize that God's Word rightly condemns all of us in fact because of our participation in rebellion against God and refusing to hear his

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Word and obey his voice and walk in his ways we have earned nothing but God's wrath if anything we can all say it this way each and every one of us has been disqualified we've been disqualified from eternal life we've been disqualified from God's good graces and his gifts but the verbs that follow next the participles are beautiful giving thanks to the

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Father he is the one who is qualified you to share in the inheritance of the Saints in life you who are disqualified

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God says nope I qualify you you don't measure up so I'm going to send my son and he's going to measure up for you and he's going to give you everything you need so that you are qualified to share in the inheritance of Saints in life because left to your own devices you will never be qualified ever it's impossible for you to be qualified so God in his great mercy he is qualified you to share in the inheritance of the

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Saints in life and then listen to this he has delivered us from the dominion of darkness he did it not you you are not delivered from the dominion of darkness because you've made a freewill decision to walk into the light baloney

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God has taken well kind of like a rodeo example here no one can come to me unless the

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Father who sent me drags him Jesus says in John chapter 6 and so this wonderful rodeo of Christianity there you were that little calf that was left loose in the arena here comes

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God the Father chasing after you on his horse throwing his lasso and he takes you and he hog ties you and he drags you into his kingdom you are now saved right this is how

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Christianity works he has delivered us from the dominion of darkness he has transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved

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Son and in the kingdom of his beloved Son in Jesus Christ we have something unexpected something amazing something too good to just let it go we have the third we have redemption which is being set free from slavery and we also have the forgiveness of all of our sins and you ignore

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God's Word at the expense of not hearing these comforting words but when you apply yourself to the scriptures not because you have to check it off on your list of things to do but because you recognize that God wills for you as his children to grow in the knowledge of him in spiritual wisdom that when you apply yourself to the scriptures over and over and over again page after page chapter after chapter

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God reveals himself as the one with the mighty arm who delivers who is the one who saves he is the one who qualifies he is the one who delivers he is the one who transfers he is the one who redeems he is the one who forgives and he doesn't just do it to some unnamed group of people he does all of this for you and you can only hear this wonderful comforting message in the scriptures themselves so let us then enjoy seek to grow in the knowledge of God bearing fruit in keeping with repentance and good works and love towards each other and as Paul has prayed that we would increase in the knowledge of God made us be our prayer for us and for all those who are coming to us to hear

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God's Word that they also may bear fruit in every good work and increase in the knowledge of God through his

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Word because there we hear that we are forgiven for Christ's sake in the name of Jesus we rise for the offertory in peace let us pray to the

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Lord for the wounded people of God redeemed by Christ's blood that they would be healed and strengthened to lead worthy and fruitful lives in his kingdom by hearing his word and growing in the knowledge of God let us pray to the

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Lord we pray for faithful pastors who will preach the whole counsel of God's Word we pray for all those who serve in the office of Holy Ministry that they may proclaim the saving gospel with boldness and joy and and confidence and courage let us pray to the

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Lord for strength in the Holy Spirit to resist temptation and walk in the good works that he has prepared for us beforehand that believing his holy word we may lead godly lives here in time and there in eternity let us pray to the

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Lord for all who have been placed in authority over us including those who were recently elected that they would serve with the general welfare of all in view let us pray to the

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Lord for those who cry out to God in affliction today we especially pray for Don and Debra Evan John Marilyn McKayla Rudy Tatum and Angela we also pray for Arlen Louise Leone Robin Roger Cheryl and Sheila we pray for Haley the

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Hundley family and Jonathan Cricket Miranda Stephanie Andrew Angela and Norbert as well as Heather Pat Doug and Melissa and Gilman we ask that they would rejoice in the faithfulness of our

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Heavenly Father and await deliverance from their suffering with patience let us pray to the Lord for certainty in the promises of Christ body and blood that we may be drawn to our

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Lord's presence in the blessed sacrament to eat and to drink in faith and there adore him who is our rock in our salvation let us pray to the

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Lord Oh Lord Heavenly Father we gratefully remember the sufferings and death of your dear son

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Jesus Christ for our salvation rejoicing in his victorious resurrection from the dead we draw strength from his ascension before you where he ever stands for us as our own high priest gather us together from the ends of the earth to celebrate with all the faithful the marriage feast of the lamb in his kingdom which has no end graciously receive our prayers deliver and preserve us for to you alone we give all glory honor and worship