The Church Triumphant Cheering From the Stands

Kongsvinger Lutheran Church

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

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

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And now, here's a message from Pastor Chris Roseberg. The Holy Gospel according to St. Matthew, the fifth chapter.

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Seeing the crowds, Jesus went up on the mountain, and when He sat down, His disciples came to Him. And He opened

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His mouth and taught them, saying, And blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.

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Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

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This is the gospel of the Lord. Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God, our Heavenly Father, through His Son, Jesus Christ, our

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Lord, in the power of the Spirit. You may be seated. I have a special request, and that is if somebody has a couple of Kleenexes handy.

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I forgot to bring some up, and I don't think I'm going to make it through the sermon today without them. So, here. Thank you,

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Becky. Huh? Okay, got it. In the name of Jesus.

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Amen. Hear again the words of our Lord from our gospel text, and we should pay close attention to them.

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Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.

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Rejoice, be glad, your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. How are you guys doing at that rejoicing thing when things go poorly in your life?

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When you are slandered, accused of things you haven't done? When people revile you because of your faith and your confession of Christ?

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Christ says, rejoice, be glad. I can honestly say this is not an easy business at all.

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And so as we work our way through our text, our first text from Revelation chapter 7,

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I'm going to note then that this text is given to us in order to give us hope.

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The outcome of our faith is vital to our running our course today, and I'll use that metaphor a few times.

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But I want to make this very clear. Here again the words of the hymn that we just sang. Verse 6, 5 says,

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Now the scriptures are clear, and we confess this in our creed, that there is only one church.

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We believe in one holy, and the right word is

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Catholic, which means universal, one holy Catholic and apostolic church. There's only one church.

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But our text from Revelation today reveals that there is a distinction made when it comes to the one true church.

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And that is that those who have finished their course are part of a group that we call the church triumphant.

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We, on the other hand, here, who are made to suffer, who are persecuted, who are reviled for our confession of faith, we are called the church militant.

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And the big difference between the two is that the church triumphant, they no longer walk by faith.

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They behold the glory of Christ, and they worship in his presence. We, on the other hand, do not.

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In fact, a good way to think about it is that each and every one of us, and yes, in the army of Christ, both men and women serve.

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And that being the case, it's important for us to note this, is that we are all currently deployed militarily.

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And people who are deployed in the military don't have a lot of say as to what battles they are going to fight.

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They are deployed by their higher -ups in the chain of command. And so we are all deployed behind enemy lines, and we are called by Christ to overcome evil with good, not to fight evil with evil.

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But in doing this, you'll note that in all warfare, there are casualties. There are.

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This is just the reality of the situation. And each and every one of us, if you haven't been wounded in this war yet, then my question is, where have you been?

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Because you will be wounded. You young people pay attention. This is a fight that we're in.

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And this is a war that's been going on for millennia, and it was started by the devil. But all of that being said, this picture that we have now in the book of Revelation 7 of the great multitude of the church triumphant is for our hope, and it's to give us strength and to give us the ability to carry on.

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Because I don't know if you've noticed, if you've gone through suffering or persecution or been slandered horribly and mistreated all for the name of Christ, and that has gone on for a long period of time, waking up some mornings, you feel like you got no gas in the tank.

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And your question is, how on earth am I supposed to muster today? How am

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I supposed to do it? So consider then what John writes for us in the

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Revelation. After this, I looked, and behold, I saw a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes, all peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the

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Lamb, clothed in white robes. And here we get this picture. The outcome of our faith is the salvation of our souls, and everybody is going to be there.

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The Norwegians are going to be there. The Polish are going to be there. The people from the Netherlands and Nigeria, the

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Aussies are going to muster. Everybody is going to be there, including the Germans. I know, it's hard to believe the

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Germans are going to be there. But it said every, okay? And note then, it says this, that they are clothed in white robes.

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And the text will explain to us how their robes came to be so bright. And with worship of palm branches in their hands, they cried out in a loud voice,

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Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.

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Note their great confession in their loud voice. They're saying that they were saved by God. Christ is the one who saved them.

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Salvation didn't belong to them. It belonged to God, and He's the one who gave it to them as a gift.

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Remember, all of us are saved by grace through faith, apart from works. And this proclamation that salvation belongs to our

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God causes then the angels to join in the worship. And they were standing around the throne, and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they too fell on their faces before the throne, and they worshipped, saying, and listen to these words.

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We just sang them when we sang This is the Feast. Amen, blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honor, and power, and might be to our

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God forever and ever. This is the outcome of our faith.

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But this is not today for us. This is some time off into our future.

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But yet those who have gone before us in the faith, this is where they presently are. So then one of the elders addressed me, saying,

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Who are these clothed in white robes, and from where have they come? And John demurs, and he basically says,

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Sir, you know, he's not about to answer the question. He wants to be instructed. And so he said to me,

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These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the

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Lamb. And the great tribulation here is not talking about some future tribulation that is coming.

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This is talking about the great tribulation and the strife that we all find ourselves in as Christians today.

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The Christians have found themselves in over the past 2 ,000 years as they have proclaimed

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Christ, and faith in Him, and the forgiveness of sins, and reconciliation with God.

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And you'll note then, how did their robes become so white? Well, Christ took the blood that He shed for them, and shed for you on the cross of Calvary, mixed it in the waters of their baptism, and that they have washed their robes now.

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When they started out, they were filth and muck covered in their own sin, and the robes were threadbare, and completely unpresentable, and smelly, and putrid.

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But now, because of the great mercy of Christ, the blood of the Lamb has taken their robes and made them white.

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And they are no longer considered sinners. They stand as the righteous before God, because the blood of Christ has washed away their sins.

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And I would remind you, brothers and sisters, the blood of Christ has also washed away your sins. And this is good news.

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And so it says then, So therefore they are before the throne of God. They serve Him day and night in His temple, and He who sits on the throne,

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He will shelter them with His presence. They shall no longer hunger, neither shall they thirst.

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The sun shall not strike them, no need for suntan lotion, nor any scorching heat.

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For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and He will guide them to springs of living water, and God Himself will wipe away every tear from their eyes.

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And see, this is the picture. This is what we're shooting for. This is what awaits us.

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But in the midst of our trials and persecutions and sufferings, we note that, well, that just seems like a long way off.

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So how then do we take such a hopeful picture of the future, of our future, and work it in then to what we experience in our lifetime now?

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And oddly enough, the book of Hebrews gives us the answer to this. Remember, Christ says,

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Rejoice when you are persecuted. Rejoice when you are made to suffer, when you are reviled. And in the great whole of faith passage in Hebrews, we get this wonderful picture of all the saints who've gone before us.

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We talk about all the people who did what they did, how Moses did what he did by faith, how Abraham did what he did by faith, and how their faith made it possible for them to, well, to conduct these great exploits.

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But listen to the list as it winds to a close in verse 32 of chapter 11 of Hebrews.

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What more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, of Barak, of Samson, of Jephthah, of David, of Samuel and the prophets, who through their faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight, women received back their dead by resurrection, some were tortured.

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And there's the turn. Some people by faith were tortured, refusing to accept release so that they might rise again to a better life.

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Others, they suffered mocking and flogging and even chains and imprisonment.

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They were stoned. They were sawn in two. They were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated, of whom the world was not worthy, wandering about in deserts and mountains and in dens in the caves of the earth.

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All of these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect.

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And so you'll note this list here of exploits includes the great suffering and persecution that Jesus himself told us that we should rejoice in.

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But when you're in the midst of it, you'll note then that even in our own congregation, some have been put into a situation where you will either confess

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Christ or you will lose relationships. And that's the truth.

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Some in this congregation have been slandered and maligned horribly. All kinds of evil has been spoken against them.

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And people speak evil against some of you. Why? Well, because you attend that church.

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That's the truth. And tell me it doesn't feel good. It doesn't feel good at all.

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And when's it going to end? I don't know. When is it going to end? Are there not days when you get up and say,

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I can't do this anymore. I can't do this another day.

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I want to be done with it. And yet you can't. Well, actually you could. Just deny

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Christ. Stop coming here. Then you wouldn't have to suffer anymore.

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And here's when the next picture helps us out. Remember the church triumphant.

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The church triumphant who worships in the very presence of God and worships with the angels. It says this in chapter 12 then,

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Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.

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How can we do this? Well, and this is where the next picture is kind of helpful.

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The author of Hebrews seems to understand something about how the Olympics work. In fact, the Apostle Paul knew full well how the

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Olympics worked, and he even uses some of the Olympic metaphors to help us in finishing our course.

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And I would have you consider then in this light that the church triumphant, according to Hebrews 12, they are the ones who are the great crowd of witnesses who are watching us as we are finishing our course, as we are fighting our battles.

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In fact, let me take you back in time. I remember August 5, 1984 very well.

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August 5, 1984, I lived in Southern California, and that day we, my family, we were at the

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Los Angeles Coliseum. The Olympics were on that year. Oh, and I've been an incurable fanatic of the

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Olympics ever since. And that particular Olympics was just so spectacular. We probably spent five, seven days at different venues and events, but that day we were at the

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Los Angeles Coliseum. We were watching track and field, and my family had procured amazing seats.

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If it were set up as a football field, we were on the 50 -yard line, halfway up the stands at the

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Coliseum. The seats were perfect, but, man, it was hot. It was like 90 degrees outside, and it was humid, and, of course, with the intensity and no shade, it just seemed to bake us all in there.

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But still, I got to see Carl Lewis run his race. I got to see Edwin Moses.

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I got to see even Zola Budd running. And, of course, on that day,

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August 5th, that was the day that Olympic history was made. It was the first time ever that they had the women's marathon run in the

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Olympics. It started off in Santa Monica, ended in the Los Angeles Coliseum, and every one of us, we were pulling for the

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U .S. hopeful, Joan Benoit. And the way it works out is that they run their 26 miles, and then they come in at the very last part of it.

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They come in through the tunnel. Now, where we were seated, I'm on the 50 -yard line, halfway up, looking down.

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The tunnel was over there. And when Joan Benoit came in, we knew that they were coming because they were giving us updates on the scoreboard.

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It's like who was in the lead by how much and all this kind of stuff. They were keeping us all filled in, and we were clapping when they would update the board.

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But, man, when Joan Benoit came into the Coliseum, we lost it because she was like two minutes ahead of everybody else.

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And she came in, and we were on our feet, and you would think she had won the Super Bowl. It was just that electric.

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It was so amazing to watch. And once she crossed the finish line, somebody gave her an

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American flag, and she was doing her victory lap. And then, you know, pretty much things settled down after that.

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You know, as the rest of the runners, the also -rans, come in, you know, 5th, 6th, 7th, 20th, 30th.

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But then came Gabriela. She was from Switzerland.

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She was number 37th. And when she came into the Coliseum through the tunnel, there was a collective gasp.

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She was suffering from dehydration. She had missed the last water station.

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And in that heat, her body and her muscles were now fighting her. She was staggering.

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She was literally listing to one side. She couldn't bend her right knee, and this is how she was walking, coming in to finish the race.

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But it's the Olympics. You know, you've got to finish. And she wanted to finish.

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Immediately when she came in, you could tell that there were line officials and Olympic officials, and a doctor was on the line.

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Are you okay? Can you finish this race? Do I need to stop this? You know, and the questions are coming, and she's waving them off as she's staggering, not even able to keep a straight line.

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And then something amazing happened. Starting with the people closest to the tunnel where she came in, the crowd stood up, and every one of us, we were on our feet.

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Come on, you can do it. Come on, Gabriella, you can finish the race.

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Come on, Gabriella. And we were rooting her on, wondering if we were going to kill her by doing it.

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And so she painfully and slowly, slowly made her final lap.

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All the way around, each and every one of us on our feet, clapping, standing, rooting her on.

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Come on, you can do it. You can finish. You can do this. And when she made the final turn, she came through the straightaway, and I remember watching her pass in front of me, and I knew that this was a moment

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I would never forget. Never. And when she crossed the finish line, we cheered for her more than we cheered for Joan Benoit, who won the race.

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And so consider then that picture in light of what the author of Hebrews says.

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Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, we who are made to suffer, who are slandered, who are persecuted for our faith, who are suffering in our bodies, languishing even in our own sin, let us lay aside every weight and every sin which clings so closely and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and the perfecter of our faith.

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Brothers and sisters, we have a course to finish. Christianity is a marathon.

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And at the end of the marathon, across the finish line, is Christ waiting to scoop you up. But here's where the church triumphant plays their part.

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The church triumphant is the great cloud of witnesses, and they are there cheering us on to finish our course, encouraging us and calling us to lay aside our sin, which is weighing us down, and to pick up the pace and to finish our course.

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In that group, there's Judy Stengram, and Alda Shane, and Gary Sanis.

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Bennet Matson is there, cheering us on. Peggy Sandberg and Arden Linde, Joyce Devine and Ruth Moen, and Janet Rutenbeek is there now, too.

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You think of Jerry Mitchell, Shannon's fiancé, Matthew. They are there in the church triumphant, in the stands as our witnesses, praying for us, encouraging us on.

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Finish your course. Finish the race. It's worth it.

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Despise the shame. And that's where the next part comes in. Because it says, despising the shame.

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And he is now seated at the right hand of the throne of God. And so, our Revelation 7 picture of the church triumphant and worship at the throne in the presence of Christ is there to encourage us, to give us the joy that is before us.

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The outcome of our faith, seeing our God face to face, being reconciled to Him, receiving the salvation and the inheritance promised and won by Christ.

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That joy of knowing that we will be united with those who have gone before us, who are now rooting us on.

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That joy that is set before us gives us the ability to despise the suffering that we go through, the persecution that we experience, the shame that we are made to suffer, and we can despise it all for the joy that is set before us.

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And note this, that this joy is not earned. It is given. Salvation belongs to our God.

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You are bled for. You are died for. So repent. Lay aside your sin. It's making it so you can't run.

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And the saints who have gone before us are cheering you on. I can't think of a better picture, a more hopeful picture, than seeing this

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All Saints Day laid out for us in vivid detail what it is that awaits us and the hope and the joy that it gives us so that we can bear up in all the ways we have been made to suffer.

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Behold what love, the kind of love the Father has given to us. And it is love that he's given to us.

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That we, you, I, should be called the sons of God, and so we are. The reason why the world doesn't know us and despises us and persecutes us is because they don't know

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God. But beloved, we are God's children. And we are God's children now. And what we will be has not yet appeared.

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But we know that when Jesus appears, we will be like Him, because we shall see

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Him as He is. And everyone who thus hopes in Him purifies himself as he is pure.

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In the name of Jesus, Amen. And again, that address is

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