Third Sunday in Lent

Kongsvinger Lutheran Church

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I would like to welcome you to Kongsvinger Lutheran Church. Today is the third Sunday in Lent.

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We'll be following the order of divine service setting 2, opening hymn is Psalm 663. For the intro today we'll be using psalm tone

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C as in karamba. C as in karamba. Hi karamba.

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I always like the looks that I get. Okay. If you are physically present here at Kongsvinger, please rise for the opening hymn.

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Divine service setting 2. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.

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Let us then confess our sins to God our Father. Most merciful God, we confess that we are by nature sinful and unclean.

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We have sinned against you and thought word and deed by what we have done and by what we have left undone.

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We have not loved you with our whole heart. We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves.

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We justly deserve your present and eternal punishment. For the sake of your Son, Jesus Christ, have mercy on us.

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Forgive us, renew us, and lead us so that we may delight in your will and walk in your ways.

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To the glory of your holy name. Amen. Almighty God in his mercy has given his

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Son to die for you and for his sake he forgives you all of your sins. As a called and ordained servant of Christ and by his authority

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

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Holy Spirit. Amen. Psalm tone C for our intro today.

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My eyes are ever toward the Lord. Turn to me and be gracious to me.

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To you, O Lord. Oh my

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God, in you I trust. Let me not be put to shame.

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The troubles of my heart are enlarged. Consider my affliction and my trouble.

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O guard my soul and deliver me. Glory be to the

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Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit.

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

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Amen. My eyes are ever toward the Lord. Turn to me and be gracious to me.

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In peace let us pray to the Lord. For the peace from above and for our salvation let us pray to the

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Lord. For the peace of the whole world for the well -being of the church of God and for the unity of all let us pray to the

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Lord. For this holy house and for all who offer here their worship and praise let us pray to the

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Lord. Help, save, comfort and defend us gracious Lord.

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The Lord be with you. Let us pray. O God whose glory it is always to have mercy be gracious to all who have gone astray from your ways and bring them again with penitent hearts and steadfast faith to embrace and hold fast the unchangeable truth of your word 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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Amen. You may be seated. The Old Testament reading for the third

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Sunday in Lent is taken from the book of Exodus chapter eight. Then the

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Lord said to Moses say to Aaron stretch out your staff and strike the dust of the earth so that it may become gnats in all the land of Egypt and they did so.

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Aaron stretched out his hand with his staff and struck the dust of the earth and there were gnats on man and beast and all the all the dust of the earth became gnats in all the land of Egypt.

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The magicians tried by their secret arts to produce gnats but they could not. So there were gnats on man and beast and then the magician said to Pharaoh this is the finger of God but Pharaoh's heart was hardened and he would not listen to them as the

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Lord had said. Then the Lord said to Moses rise up early in the morning and present yourself to Pharaoh as he goes out to the water and say to him thus says the

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Lord let my people go so that they may serve me or else if you will not let my people go behold

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I will send swarms of flies on you and on your servants and your people and into your houses and the houses of the

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Egyptians shall be filled with swarms of flies and also the ground on which they stand but on that day

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I will set apart the land of Goshen where my people dwell so that no swarms of flies shall be there that you may know that I am the

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Lord in the midst of the earth thus I will put a division between my people and your people tomorrow the sign shall happen and the

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Lord did so there came great swarms of flies into the house of Pharaoh and into his servants houses throughout all the land of Egypt the land was ruined by the swarms of flies this is the word of the

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Lord we'll speak the gradual together arise oh

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Lord let not man prevail when my enemies turn back the epistle is taken from Ephesians chapter five therefore be imitators of God as beloved children and walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and a sacrifice to God but sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you as is proper among the saints let there be no filthiness or foolish talk or crude joking which are out of place but instead let there be thanksgiving for you may be sure of this that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure or who is covetous that is an idolater has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God let no one deceive you with empty words for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience therefore do not associate with them for at one time you were darkness but now you are light in the

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Lord walk as children of light for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true this is the word of the

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Lord the holy gospel according to Saint Luke the 11th chapter now

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Jesus was casting out a demon that was mute when the demon had gone out the mute man spoke and the people marveled but some of them said oh he cast out demons by Beelzebul the prince of demons while others to test him kept seeking from him a sign from heaven but he knowing their thoughts said to them every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste and a divided household falls and if Satan is also divided against himself how will his kingdom stand for you say that I cast out demons by Beelzebul and if I cast out demons by Beelzebul by whom do your sons cast them out therefore they will be your judges but if it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons and the kingdom of God has come upon you when a strong man fully armed guards his own palace his goods are safe but when one stronger than he attacks him and overcomes him he takes away his armor in which he trusted and divides his spoil whoever is not with me is against me whoever does not gather with me scatters and when the unclean spirit has gone out of a person it passes through waterless places seeking rest and finding none it says

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I will return to my house from which I came and when it comes it finds the house swept and put in order then it does it goes and brings seven other spirits more evil than itself and they enter and dwell there and the last date of that person is worse than the first as he said these things a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to him blessed is the womb that bore you in the breast at which you nursed but he said blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it this is the gospel of the lord sermon hymn 659 you may be seated in the name of Jesus hear the words of our lord again from our gospel text blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it you'll know our gospel text here starts off with something that's a wee bit controversial today's because after all we live in the 21st century we are smart people we are we just landed something on the moon did it fall over or not it fell over well still what an accomplishment good on us right and and we're going to be putting human beings back on the moon in the next couple years so I mean aren't we smart people and we've figured out how everything works don't you think in the 21st century we can get rid of this idea about demons come on really demons let me remind you what

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Christ said blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it keep here does not mean to just like kind of raw obedience it's actually more like to guard to preserve to hold sacred things like that and so I would note um you know

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I'm just a parish pastor of a small church in the middle of the sugar beet fields of Oslo Minnesota I mean

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I'm not even high ranking as far as pastors go in the AALC so I think it's a little bit above my pay grade to somehow go and say let's edit the bible and take a few things out that we're just not comfortable with anymore you know so I we need to talk to management regarding that and I would note that even the presiding pastor of the

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AALC I don't think he has the credentials to do this either and so maybe we should just trust the trinity yeah you know

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I mean after all I mean he created the world and the universe and he says his word is true and it never returns to him void and things like that so maybe we should just go with it you know demons are they real well my opinion you bet your bippy they're real okay had a few run -ins with them myself over the years and they're not a lot of fun is the best way

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I could put it so it would be stupid of us to deny that we have a great horde of demons out there whose whole intent seems to be to destroy

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Christ's church have you seen the state of the church lately I mean

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I get a front row seat oftentimes watching and listening to sermons from different churches around the globe and just sit there and marvel at how little

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God's word makes any appearances and how many times people just teach outright weird things in fact the scriptures prophesied that in the last days that people would be teaching doctrines of demons

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I think we're there and so the demons are real and then we learn in uh in revelation 12 and 13 that satan is in a tizzy he's in a rage and he's waging war against the saints that's us so I think it'd be a good idea for us to take a text like this and just go yep that's what's really going on here there are really demons and yes

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Jesus is really stronger than them you know that's kind of the point of where this text is going so it says this

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Jesus was casting out a demon that was mute and when the demon had gone out of the mute man the mute man spoke and the people marveled but some of them said oh he casts out demons by Beelzebul the prince of demons hmm there's an eighth commandment violation occurring here you would think that they would know the ten commandments and the ten commandments the eighth one says you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor and so here you'll note that Jesus's opponents they can't deny that Jesus is performing miracles sick people are brought to him they leave healed paralytics are brought to him they are walking and leaping mute people possessed by demons that make them mute have the demons cast out of them and now they're speaking and glorifying

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God and so they can't deny the miracles are taking place so what do you do in a situation like that if you don't believe in Jesus you just create a false narrative right ah yeah we know what's really going on here

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I mean after all we're the rabbis in the synagogue and we're the scribes and the pharisees and we know better than you common folk what's really going on here because I mean after all when you look at Jesus and the things he's teaching it doesn't square with the

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Talmud Talmud's not biblical by the way it doesn't square with the Mishnah in our oral tradition and stuff like that maybe it squares with the with the written

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Torah but we know that the written Torah is not enough right so we know that Jesus isn't really from God therefore all of this is just theater

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Jesus is just engaging in theater he's really working for Satan himself and so when a demon comes up to him and says you get out of him the demon goes okay

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I'll leave right what a horrible command the eighth commandment violation this is in fact

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I would note in the cross reference when you read Matthew chapter 12 this is the passage that also covers this in Matthew's account this is where Jesus talks about blaspheming the

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Holy Spirit the unforgivable sin it was undeniable that God was among them and that God was working powerfully in their midst and yet they attributed to the demonic how many people today do the same thing when it comes to Christianity and the real

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Jesus all people say oh I believe in Jesus he's the most wonderful thing ever and then you ask them about the

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Jesus they believe in it sounds a lot like precious moments Jesus I mean the Jesus who's into butterflies and rainbows and unicorns and strange things like this but who would never ever ever even for the slightest moment ever consider rebuking somebody for doing something wrong or telling them they've made bad life choices because I mean we know that in our day and age the worst thing that you could do is offend somebody and tell them that they've made a bad life choice

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I mean you know what would happen if you do that you get cancelled right and that's how this works but you'll note let me come back to our epistle text remember what it said the sexual immorality impurity covetousness must not even be named among you as is proper among the saints and I can hear a bunch of people going yeah yeah yeah yeah but don't you think that it's the 21st century and we've got to get past this idea that there's only two genders don't we don't we need to just embrace the times and the new developments that have occurred within the psyche and the zeitgeist of humanity don't you think we need to put away this idea that there's sexual sins and things that are wrong and stuff like this no remember what

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Jesus said again let me remind you blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it and so even if the entire world in large portions of the visible church have decided that they're going to embrace the new morality whatever that is it's the new morality by the way is just nothing but the old morality immorality with a new veneer on it it's like I saw this this youtube channel that I thought was absolutely fascinating the guy's entire shtick on youtube is he takes junk food like legitimate legitimate junk food and he rebrands it as something healthy and it is the most amazing channel ever where at the end of it you're thinking you know maybe twinkies are good for me okay that's what's happening today is that people are taking the old immorality rebranding it and say no sexual immorality is good for you

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I mean it's a don't you think that you deserve whatever you want to do and have and think it just yeah it's just nonsense right but again

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Christ says blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it so here they've committed an eighth commandment violation come up with a false narrative about Jesus and then

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Jesus decides that he's going to knowing their thoughts explain a few things to them about how things operate because they clearly don't understand how this warfare works so Jesus said every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste a divided house falls you know all the rumblings of civil war in the

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United States here we've seen that happen before boy you think the United States would be at its greatest if civil war broke out or again at its weakest think about it you know if we ever go to war with ourselves expect other other countries to engage in all kinds of weird things while we're fighting amongst ourselves you'll know that the house is not strong when it's divided against itself and so Christ goes on he says if Satan is divided against himself how will his kingdom stand so Christ is basically pointing out listen

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Satan doesn't let go of his victims he will not willingly do so if Satan has got you in his grips you are incapable of freeing yourself from the situation you need one stronger than Satan to come in and free you that's kind of the point you'll note that nobody casts demons out of themselves which by the way a little bit of a side note one of those youtube hucksters that I cover who claims that he's a demon slayer kid you not he has a video on how to cast demons out of yourself and it's just an absolute joke it's like really seriously what are you even thinking right so Jesus then says this you say

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I cast out demons by Beelzebul well if I cast out demons by Beelzebul by whom do your sons cast them out therefore they will be your judges but if it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons then the kingdom of God has come upon you and here

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Jesus is invoking those words from our old testament text now you'll know something about me if you've ever listened to any of my sermons or you've watched me on youtube and that is is that context is a big thing for me right context context context and I gotta admit on a first reading of the old testament text for this

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Sunday every fiber of my being went context right because you'll note our old testament text begins with the third of 10 plagues why start there it's so annoying it just drives me nuts but I think

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I knew what they were doing they were trying to key in on something very important but let me provide a little bit of the context because it's going to be helpful in unpacking what

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Christ says it says here in exodus 8 that the Lord said to Moses say to Aaron stretch out your staff and strike the dust of the earth so that may become gnats in all the land of Egypt this is the third plague first plague was when

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Moses and Aaron showed up at the Nile there was Pharaoh getting ready to get into a boat I don't know what he was going to do and they struck the

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Nile with the staff and the whole Nile and all the water in Egypt turned to blood plague number one plague number two was

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I think one of the most interesting ones and that was is that they caused frogs frogs to come up on the land of Egypt frogs everywhere frogs in fact if you were to ask the question how many frogs were there there were so many they were knee -deep in them so yeah thank you even the

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Canadians are chuckling okay good to know all right that's right there were that many frogs they were knee -deep in them that being the case that was the second plague and here's the interesting thing when you read the account in the earlier chapters in exodus the two the two magicians of pharaoh now in exodus it doesn't say that there were two we learned that there are two from the new testament the new testament tells us there were two magicians and they happen to have names and their names are janice and jambres those are the names of the magicians of pharaoh so janice and jambres at um at the first plague they were able to reproduce the miracle

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I think probably through sight of hand and magic and the second plague they were able to also reproduce which then made it so that pharaoh was not very impressed with what was going on when it came to these plagues third plague rolls around and when janice and jambres try it they couldn't accomplish it which he have to sit there and go what on earth were they thinking here work work with me here the text says so the aaron struck the staff strike the dust of the earth so they might become gnats they did so aaron stretched out his hand with the staff and struck the dust of the earth and there were gnats on man and beast all the dust of the earth became gnats and all the land and the magician tried magicians tried by their secret arts to produce gnats but they could not what kind of morons do this wouldn't you it be a greater miracle to figure out how to get rid of the gnats then why would you want to add gnats to gnats