Hold Fast the Word

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 Rosebrook. The Holy Gospel according to St. Matthew, the 21st chapter.

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When Jesus entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came up to him as he was teaching and said, by what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?

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Jesus answered them, I will also ask you one question, and if you tell me the answer, then I will tell you by what authority

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I do these things. The baptism of John. From where did it come? From heaven or from man?

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And they discussed it among themselves, saying, if we say from heaven, he will say to us, why then did you not believe him?

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But if we say from man, we are afraid of the crowd, for they all hold that John was a prophet. So they answered

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Jesus, we do not know, and he said to them, well, neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.

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So what do you think? A man had two sons, and he went to the first and said, son, go and work in the vineyard today.

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And he answered, I will not. But afterward he changed his mind and he went. And he went to the other son and said the same, and he answered,

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I will go, sir. But he did not go. Which of the two did the will of his father? They said the first.

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Jesus said to them, truly I say to you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes go into the kingdom of God before you.

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For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him. But the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him.

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And even when you saw it, you did not afterward change your minds and believe him.

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This is the gospel of the Lord. In the name of Jesus. Paul writes an epistle to the

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Philippians. And it sounds quite fatherly, if you think about it. And he's admonishing, encouraging his children in the faith to do all things without grumbling.

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I think we have to do that with all of our children, whether they're spiritual children or grown children or even small kids.

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Do all things without grumbling or disputing that you may be blameless and innocent children of God, without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain.

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One of the things I remember very distinctly is that back when I was first pastor of Kongsvinger Lutheran Church, we used to, when we would leave the divine service,

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I would line up over there and people would come by and shake my hand and stuff like this. And one woman came up to me one day and she says, you know pastor,

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I just figured it out. What'd you figure out? I figured it out that you are preaching to all of us as if we're all

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Christians. And I said, yeah, how is this scandalous?

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She said, well, isn't that presumptuous? I said, no, a

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Christian church called me to be their pastor. Don't you think I should treat everybody like they're

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Christians? Because here's the thing, I remember when I was a Nazarene, one of the things

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I'd note about Nazarene preaching is they preach to everybody who shows up to church every single Sunday as if they're not

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Christians at all, as if they're potential Christians. You can probably someday attain

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Christianhood. This is not a good way to preach, but you'll note here the

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Apostle Paul in this letter that he's written to the church at Philippi, he's treating them all as Christians.

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And he's treating them as his spiritual children. And I know a thing or two about parenting,

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I've raised three kids, and I can tell you things get a little different when your children get to be adults.

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You're still parenting them, but the whole mode changes. And there's nothing worse, and I really mean this, there's nothing worse than having raised a child in the way they should go, and then when they become adults they go the different way, right?

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It's painful, it's absolutely painful to watch your children make really awful decisions and to make sinful decisions, or even worse, wander from the

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Christian faith. It's very painful. Is it any wonder that Paul says, you know, that I may be proud that I did not run in vain, or labor in vain?

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These are the anxieties that fathers have as well as mothers. But you're going to note the admonition here is to do what?

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Hold fast to the word of life. Hold fast to the word of life.

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If you remember back in the Garden of Eden, what got us into all this misery that we seem to experience in this life was all because, well,

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Adam listened to the voice of his wife. And Eve listened to the voice of the serpent, rather than to the voice of God.

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And things have been going downhill ever since. It's quite the mess, if you think about it.

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And over again, I just marvel as I do my work on Fighting for the Faith, I marvel at the number of people who attack the word of God, or ignore the word of God, or wantonly twist the word of God.

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It's always fascinating. When I see somebody attacking the scriptures, I know exactly what they're doing.

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What they're doing is basically trying to knock the biblical texts out, basically silence

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God so that they can replace the voice of God with their own voice.

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This is a dangerous, dangerous thing to do. But we as Christians are not admonished to do that.

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We are instead admonished to hold fast to the word of life. And you sit there and go, yeah, but in the

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Bible there's these bits that don't seem to fit with kind of how we view things here in the modern world, right?

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But I would note, every word of God proves to be true. And scientific theories, they sure do change quite frequently, right?

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When I was growing up, we didn't have the DNA genome sequenced like we do now.

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And we didn't have the, well, we had the Hubble telescope kind of late in the 80s, if I'm remembering correctly.

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But that James Webb telescope, we didn't have that thing. And I would note that with each of the improvements that we've made technologically in the world of science, it's disrupted previous theories.

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And so all of that being said, don't hang your hat on science. Hang your hat on the word of God, because every word of God proves to be true.

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But now you think about it, our problem as human beings is that we don't want to listen to the word of God.

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Is it any wonder then that we have the third commandment? And I like the way that Luther addresses the third commandment.

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Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. And then he asked the question, was es das, what does this mean, right? And the answer is that we should fear and love

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God so that we do not despise preaching and his word, but hold it sacred, gladly hear and learn it.

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And I can legitimately say times in my life that I am not happy with myself are those times when

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I haven't held fast to the word of life, but stopped listening to it and listened to other voices that legitimately led me astray.

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Of course, I participated in my own leading astray because I stopped listening to the word of life.

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Not a good thing to do. When you think of King David, you think of King David, that whole affair with Bathsheba and everything that went wrong there.

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You see, he saw this woman, she was beautiful, she happened to already be married, he invited her up to his place and then he knocked her up, got her pregnant.

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And when he found out that she was pregnant, then he murdered her husband and then married her, you know, hoping that nobody would be able to kind of figure all of this out.

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But you think God didn't see it? But when he was rebuked by Nathan the prophet, God sent Nathan the prophet to sort some things out with David and to confront him and to rebuke him,

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Nathan the prophet ends up telling this parable, kind of starting off by telling this parable about a poor man, somebody who has very little means regarding money, and one of the things he did own, of the things he had on this earth, was a lamb that he loved so much, treated it like a daughter, it ate from his hand, and he just loved this thing.

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But a rich man, his next door neighbor, had somebody come and visit him from Germany, and so what did he do?

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I'm sorry, I had to throw that in there. So what did he do? He killed the poor man's lamb and fed it to his guests.

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And of course, anger of David here burns hot against the man who did this, but at that point

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Nathan springs the trap and he said to David, you're the man, you're the one who did this.

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And then he goes on, and here's what he says, thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, I anointed you the king over Israel, I delivered you out of the hand of Saul, I gave you your master's house and your master's wives into your arms, and gave you the house of Israel and of Judah, and if this were too little,

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I would add to as much more, and here it comes, why? Why have you despised the word of Yahweh to do what is evil in his sight?

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And that's exactly what he did. But you'll note that every time we sin against God in thought, word, deed, by what we do, by what we don't do, that we're supposed to do, we also can hear

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Nathan the prophet condemning us, why have you despised the word of Yahweh to do what is evil in his sight?

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And so we rightly recognize that God's word condemns each and every one of us for many great evils, but at the end of the day, every evil that we commit, every sin that we commit, every commandment that we transgress, at the core of it is the sin of idolatry and the breaking of the first commandment, listening to other voices, trusting them rather than trusting, trusting the word of the

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Lord. In fact, if you think of our gospel text today, I'll touch on it briefly because it's not the main focus of my sermon, but in our gospel text today, there's something fascinating that is taking place, at least worth noting, and that is that when

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Jesus in this parable, in this text, what is he doing?

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He's preaching, he's teaching. You know, Jesus wasn't casting the money changers out of the temple, that was one time when the

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Pharisees and the chief priests and the scribes asked Jesus by what authority he was doing these things, but our gospel text begins with these words, and when

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Jesus entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came up to him as he was teaching.

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What was Jesus doing? He was preaching the word of God, he wasn't causing a commotion, raising a riot, he wasn't casting the money changers out of the temple, he wasn't doing anything that really should be considered scandalous.

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What was he doing? He was teaching. He was teaching the word of God because he is the word of God in human flesh, and so he's challenged at this point, by what authority are you doing these things and who gave you this authority?

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Jesus then poses a question to them that they don't answer, and the fact that they don't answer it proves something, that they're listening to different voices.

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Listen to the way this goes down, I also will ask you one question, and if you tell me the answer, then

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I will also tell you by what authority I do these things. The baptism of John the Baptist, where did it come from, from heaven or from man?

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Pretty straightforward question, right? So they discussed it among themselves, saying, and listen to how this deliberation goes, if we say it's from heaven, he will say to us, well why then did you not believe him?

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Fair question, right? But if we say, well it's from man, we're afraid of the crowd for they all hold that John was a prophet.

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Do you see the problem here? It's kind of a sin of omission if you think about it. Who's the one person they're not afraid of?

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God. They don't fear God. They fear the crowd, but they don't fear

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God, and by them getting all upset that Jesus is teaching in the temple, it shows that they despise

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God's word. They don't listen to it. In fact, that's kind of the point that Jesus makes with the parable that follows.

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So what do you think? A man had two sons. He went to the first and said, son, go and work in the vineyard today, and he answered,

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I will not. This sounds like me when I was a kid. My mom says, it's Saturday, I need you to vacuum the house.

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No! I want to watch, I won't talk about what I want to watch. I want to watch

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Sid and Marty Croft, right? Anyway, you get the idea. No, I will not. But afterward, he changed his mind, he repented, and he went.

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He went to the other son, and it's clear who Jesus is referring to here. The other son is typified by the scribes and the

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Pharisees and the chief priests. He went to the other son, and he said the same thing, and he said,

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I will go, sir, but he did not go. Which of the two did the will of his father?

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Well, it's obvious. The first. And then Jesus says these words, truly

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I say to you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes, they go into the kingdom of God before you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him.

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But the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him. Why? Because he was from God.

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And what was his message? Repent. Repent. Turn from your wickedness. God will forgive.

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And even when you saw it, you did not afterward change your minds and believe him. And the whole point that Jesus is making is that God is the one who sent

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John the Baptist, and the message that John the Baptist preaches is the same message we hear all the prophets of the

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Old Testament preaching. It's the same message that Christ preached. It's the same message the apostles preached, the preaching of repentance.

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And so with that in mind, note then that we are here today because the word of God has come to each and every one of us.

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And like those tax collectors and prostitutes, you all have believed the word of God.

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The reason you're here is because you want to hear his word. You want to hear it rightly taught.

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You want to hear it convict you of your sins. You want to hear the comforting words of the forgiveness of sins won by Christ.

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You're here to feast on his body and blood. And so you'll note then that the word comes to us not to condemn us today, but to encourage us because we are holding fast to the word of truth.

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That's the reason why we're here. So hear the comforting and encouraging fatherly words of the

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Apostle Paul as he wrote to the church at Philippi. If there's any encouragement in Christ, if there's any comfort from love, if there's any participation in the

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Spirit and any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.

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I always like to point out the fact that there's an accord here. That means that the apostles drove a Honda. So what?

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Sorry, sorry. All of that being said, note then that this is describing the

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Christian life. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, self -control, right?

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Against such things, there is no law. And so the Apostle Paul is encouraging us as well as the church at Philippi in a fatherly way, encouraging us about the encouragement that is in Christ, the comfort that we have from love, the participation in the

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Spirit that we participate in together, the affection and the sympathy and the accord that we all have together, which is ours in Christ.

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And Paul reminds us that the root of sin is selfishness. If you think about it,

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Satan is the ultimate narcissist. And how do we know this? Because he demands that people worship him.

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And he's such a sick puppy that he legitimately tried to convince his creator to worship him when he tempted

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Christ in the wilderness. Who does that, right? And when we are at our worst and the most like Satan, we are selfish.

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We are thinking about our own interests, not the interests of others. It's all about the unholy trinity of me, myself, and I.

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What's in it for me? With them is the way we talk about it back in the corporate world.

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In fact, over and again, when you train salespeople on how to become really good salespeople, they excel in telling narratives to people to buy such a big product because of what's in it for them.

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To get them to imagine how their lives would be so much greater and better and easier if they just spend $10 ,000 on this gizmo.

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It'll do all of this. And they always, and again, it's the with them, the what's in it for me. And you'll note, this is how our society is trained by our consumer culture.

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But Paul here, reminding us of the Holy Spirit, he says these words. Do nothing, not some things, do nothing from selfish ambition or vain conceit.

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But in humility, count others as more significant than yourselves.

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Hmm. That's a little hard to do, isn't it? But I would have you try this on for a little bit here.

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I remind you that as a pastor, I wear a uniform.

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And this bit right here is supposed to remind you that this is a slave shackle.

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You'll note that I don't cast vision here at Kongsvinger Lutheran Church. This isn't my church.

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This is Christ's church. And I'm just the house slave. I'm a well -trained house slave, middle -class house slave, but that's my job.

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And if I ever get uppity, all you have to do is point to my collar and say, pastor, you've forgotten that you're a slave.

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Get back to the bottom where you belong. And I like the fact that in the past, in Christendom, in Western society, government officials oftentimes were called ministers, the prime minister rather than the president, the prime minister, the minister of defense, the minister of this.

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And the word minister reminds us of what? That government officials are there to do something, not to rule and to reign, but to minister, to be the servants of society in helping society meet its greater needs that it has together.

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But oftentimes, we trade ministers for ambitious young men who wear skinny jeans and cast vision and demand obedience and demand allegiance and honor and things like this, right?

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That's out of place altogether. And so, the way Christ has set everything up, we are to do nothing from selfish ambition or vain conceit.

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In humility, we are to count others as more significant than ourselves. And imagine what a great place this world would be if we all did that.

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And by the way, think about this. When you kind of sort this out in your mind, slaves are the ones who have the most freedom, and those who aspire to rule and to reign and to wield power and build empires to their name and their egos, they are the most enslaved.

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Work this out with me here, okay? At the bottom, man, it's great.

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There's nobody ambitious. Everybody down at the bottom, they've had all that ambition knocked out of them, right?

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They've suffered tremendously, and they've seen the veneer of this world stripped off, and they see it for the ugly, terrible thing that it is, right?

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And at the bottom, it's really fun. That's where all the really shady characters are. Let me tell you, it's really a lot of fun down there, right?

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But here's the thing. As a slave, you can serve everybody. The only person you cannot serve is the one who doesn't want to be served.

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But down at the bottom, you have perfect freedom to serve. And here's the thing, down at the bottom where everybody's serving each other, everybody's needs are met.

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It's kind of fun. But, oh, the guy who wants to climb to the top, who wants to make the name for himself, right?

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What does he have to do? He has to climb up the backs of the dead bodies that he's murdered in order to get to the top of the pyramid.

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And while he's up there, what does he have to do? Make sure that he's going to protect his position so that nobody can knock him off the top.

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How long does that last? Not very long, because it's just a matter of time before that guy either dies or somebody knocks him off the top.

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And then what becomes of all of his ambition? It goes away. And at the end of it, when that person dies, everyone goes, oh, thank

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God, that person's dead, right? Because when we're serving ourselves, we are tyrannical.

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This is what the Word teaches us. So, as Christians, we are not to be selfish or ambitious or conceited.

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Instead, in humility, count others as more significant than ourselves. Let each of you then not only look only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.

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This answers the long question from the book of Genesis, am I my brother's keeper? The answer is yes, you are.

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Have this mind among yourselves which is already yours in Christ Jesus. You already possess this, all right?

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Have you ever, like, gone into your coat closet, grabbed a coat, reached your hand in and pulled out a $20 bill that was in your pocket that you didn't even know you had?

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It's like, it's the best thing ever, like finding money in a pocket, you know, in a coat or something like that.

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That's the thing. You had it the whole time and you didn't even know it. But that's what Paul here is saying.

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Have this mind among yourselves which is already yours in Christ Jesus. You already possess this as his children.

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He says this, who though he was in the very morphe, I think I would like to translate morphe here as nature, he was by nature

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God, he did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped.

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Good word, by the way, grasped. Think this out with me here. If you think about the

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Garden of Eden, there is Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and the serpent is speaking words to the woman saying, when you eat of this fruit, you will be like God, knowing good and evil.

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And what does she do? She reaches out her hand and she grasps the fruit because she wants to be like God.

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Christ, on the other hand, is God. He's God of God, light of light, very God of very

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God. But God not made, we just confessed that in the Nicene Creed. He by nature is

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God, yet he didn't count equality with God a thing to be grasped. So he emptied himself by taking on the form of a slave, being born in the likeness of men and being found in human form, human nature.

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He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. And this is what saves us.

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We selfishly ambitious, conceited, narcissistic, Satan -like children of the devil, which is what we are when we are conceived.

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Christ has taken all of our sins upon himself, humbling himself to serve all of us and serving us he has done exceedingly well at, taking our sin upon himself, laying down his life, bleeding and suffering the penalty of our sins in our place so that we can be forgiven.

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And you'll note, the one who humbled himself in this way, God the

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Father has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name. So the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven on earth and under the earth and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is

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Lord to the glory of God the Father. So have you figured it out yet? The reason why you're able to look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others is because this very mind of Christ is what you already possess.

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It's the hundred dollar bill in your coat pocket right now, which makes it possible for us to have all of that love and encouragement and comfort and participation and accord that Paul was talking about, all because of Christ.

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It is only through the gospel that we are able to achieve such great things, because in our sin we cannot.

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Therefore, God has highly exalted him, bestowed on him the name that is above every name. At the name of Jesus, every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is

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Lord to the glory of God the Father. And therefore, he says, because of this, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now not only in my presence, but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is

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God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

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You'll note then that we, unlike the scribes and the Pharisees in our parable today, in our gospel, we don't fear men.

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We rightly fear God. And because of our fear of God, we work out our salvation by recognizing that it is

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God who works in us to will and to do for his good pleasure. And it is therefore, this is the reason why then we are able to do things without grumbling or disputing.

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And when disputes come up, we should address them swiftly, address them swiftly with the gospel, with reconciliation, love, mercy, and forgiveness.

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And so note that Paul says, so that you may be blameless and innocent children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation among whom you shine as lights in the world.

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And that's the thing, is that those who have the freedom that comes from Christ, having been set free from not only

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God's wrath and judgment, but also set free from slavery to sin, death, and the devil, those who walk in the freedom of slaves, an oxymoron indeed, but yet it's true, that we then are able to shine like lights in the world and the way we live stands out.

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It's absolutely true. But when we decide to be like the world, stop listening to the voice of God and his word, and instead follow the world's values of looking out for me, myself, and I, the light goes out and we join the darkness, just like the world.

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But you are all Christians. So you'll note then that we shine as lights in the world because we hold fast to the word of life so that on the day of Christ, not only will

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Paul be proud, your pastor will be proud, Christ will be proud that he didn't run or labor in vain.

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And all of this because we are attentive to the word. Here then, the admonition from the

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Old Testament to the children of Israel from that famous passage from Deuteronomy 6, verse 4, it begins with these very famous words,

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That's how it reads in the Hebrew. Hear, O Israel, Yahweh our God, Yahweh is one.

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It's the famous text. Every Jew knows this. But it goes on, it says, A word -saturated life is what is being described here in Deuteronomy 6, 4, and because we have been set free by Christ, we are set free then to live this word -saturated life where we meditate on it, think on it, teach it to our children, ourselves thinking about it to the and maybe even tattoos on our own body.

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Yeah, I said that. I know I shouldn't say that in a Norwegian Lutheran church, but I did. But you get the idea.

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And even the Apostle Peter, as he was getting ready to finish his course, the

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Apostle Peter writes this, he says, And we have the prophetic word, which is more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention to, as a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.

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Knowing this, first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation. No prophecy was ever produced by the will of men, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the

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Holy Spirit. Brothers and sisters, God is speaking to this day. He speaks to us in his word, and you know that his word is true.

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And all things that we need for life and for salvation, as well as to equip us for every good work that God would prepare us for, is in this word of life.

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So hold fast to the word of life. Do not let go of it. Let it saturate your very being.

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Let it be a big part of every day that you exist on this planet, a day where you will talk about it, teach it to your children and your grandchildren.

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You'll sit and talk of what's going on in the Scriptures and what it means among yourselves, even as you consider the sermon and the sermons to come and the word that will be preached to you.

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You'll talk of God's word when you walk by the wayside and when you lie down and when you rise, and it'll be, well, all over you.

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That's kind of the point, because every word of God proves to be true. And because you are already forgiven in Christ and have this mindset that we then would not abandon

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God's word but continue to hear it. God will have mercy on you for all the times when you have despised his word and shoved it away or refused to hear it, but still his voice calls to you from the

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Scriptures to come and to hear that your sins are evil and to hear that Christ has bled and died for all of them and assure you with the comforting words that there is hope even for you in the world to come, because Christ has set a place for you at his heavenly table at the marriage feast of the

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Lamb. And you have been invited, and because you are here, you are on your way to that very thing.

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So let us rejoice. Let us hold fast to the word as Christians, and let us repent of all the times when we haven't heard it, but also to not let go.

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Hold fast, as Paul says, in the name of Jesus. Amen. 567 -44 and again that address is

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Kungsvinger Lutheran Church, 15950 470th

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Avenue NW, Oslo, MN 56744 We thank you for your support.

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