First Sunday in Lent Service

Kongsvinger Lutheran Church

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There we go.

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

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Now you'll note that during Lent, the liturgy changes. There is no hymn of praise. We do not say

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Alleluia. In fact, when we greet the Gospel, we have a completely different tune that we use that omits all of the

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Alleluia. So you'll note that Alleluia's disappear for the next 40 days, and that's part and parcel of the penitential season that we are in.

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So today, when we get to our intro, we will be using the psalm tone

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C as in cranberries. I'm working on my own phonetic alphabet, so all of that being said, the opening hymn is 562, and if you are present physically here at Kongsvinger, please rise for the opening hymn.

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In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. 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 in 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

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Son, Jesus Christ, have mercy on us. 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 cold and ordained servant of Christ and by his authority,

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I therefore forgive you all of your sins. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen.

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Amen. Psalm 106. When he calls to me,

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I will answer him. With long life

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I will satisfy him. He who dwells in the shelter of the

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Most High. I will say to the

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Lord, my refuge and my fortress, because you have made the

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Lord your dwelling place. No evil shall be allowed to befall you.

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You will tread on the lion and the adder. Glory be to the

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Father, and to the Son, and to the

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

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When he calls to me, I will answer him. With long life

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I will satisfy him. In peace let us pray to the

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Lord. For the peace from above, and for our salvation.

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Let us pray to the Lord. For the peace of the whole world, for the well -being of the

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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.

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Let us pray to the Lord. Help, save, comfort, and defend us, gracious Lord.

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The Lord be with you. Let us pray. O Lord God, you led your ancient people through the wilderness and brought them to the promised land.

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Guide the people of your Church that following our Savior we may walk through the wilderness of this world toward the glory of the world to come.

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Through Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you in the Holy Spirit, one

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God, now and forever, amen. You may be seated. The Old Testament reading for this

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Invocabit, the first Sunday in Lent, is taken from the book of Genesis chapter 3.

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Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman,

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Did God actually say, You shall not eat of any tree in the garden? And the woman said to the serpent,

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We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.

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But the serpent said to the woman, You will not surely die, for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.

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So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate.

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Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.

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And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves in the presence of the

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Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, Where are you?

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And he said, I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself. He said,

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Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?

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The man said, The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.

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Then the Lord God said to the woman, What is this that you have done? The woman said, The serpent deceived me, and I ate.

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The Lord God said to the serpent, Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all the beasts of the field.

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On your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring.

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He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel. To the woman he said,

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I will surely multiply your pain and childbearing, and pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be for your husband, but he shall rule over you.

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And to Adam he said, Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten of the tree of which

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I commanded you, you shall not eat of it. Cursed is the ground because of you. In pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life, thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the plants of the field.

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By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken, for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.

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The man called his wife Eve because she was the mother of all the living, and the Lord God made for Adam and his wife garments of skin, and clothed them.

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This is the word of the Lord, we'll speak the gradual together. He will command his angels concerning you, on their hands they will bear you up.

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The epistle is taken from 2nd Corinthians chapter 6.

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Working together with him then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain. For he says,

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In a favorable time I listened to you, and in a day of salvation I have helped you. Behold, now is the favorable time, behold, now is the day of salvation.

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We put no stumbling block in anyone's way, so that no fault may be found with our ministry. But as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way, by great endurance, and affliction, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger, and by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, the

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Holy Spirit, genuine love. By truthful speech and the power of God, with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left, through honor and dishonor, through slander and praise, we are treated as imposters and yet are true, as unknown yet well known, as dying and behold we live, as punished and yet not killed, as sorrowful yet always rejoicing, as poor yet making many rich, as having nothing yet possessing everything.

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This is the word of the Lord. Please rise. The Holy Gospel according to St.

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Matthew, the fourth chapter. Then Jesus was led up by the

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Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil, and after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.

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The tempter came and said to him, If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.

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But he answered, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him,

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If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, He will command his angels concerning you, and on their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.

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Jesus said to him again, It is written, You shall not put the Lord your God to the test. Again the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.

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And he said to him, All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me. Then Jesus said to him,

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Be gone, Satan, for it is written, You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only shall you serve. Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him.

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This is the gospel of the Lord. Hymn 657, you may be seated.

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In the name of Jesus. Have you ever spilled coffee on a computer?

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Coffee and computers do not get along very well. Have you guys noticed that? Weird things happen when you spill coffee on technology or things like that.

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You'll note that the technology has a tendency to no longer work properly. Or have you ever like dropped something and you have to go and check to see if, well, if things are working okay.

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And when you realize that there's been damage that has been done and that you have to get things fixed, it's always a bummer.

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That's kind of how this works out. But have you considered mankind's fall into sin?

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In our Old Testament text, we read the account. Satan, that murderer from the beginning, had plotted in his evil, maniacal, narcissistic heart that he was going to murder humanity and make

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God the murder weapon by getting man to disobey God's command to not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

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He heard full well what God said, the day you eat of it, you will surely die. And so the devil being the devil, this is a good way to do this.

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I'm going to kill humanity made in the image of God. He hates God. He hates humanity made in the image of God.

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So he got them to disobey. And I think he was surprised to see when they were still alive afterwards.

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But were they? But were they really alive? You see, because they definitely died spiritually, and as a result of it, each and every one of us were born dead in trespasses and sins.

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And here's the worst part of the damage that has been done to humanity. We think we're okay.

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It's that stupid thing from the Monty Python, the Holy Grail movie, the Black Knight.

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He cuts off his arm and he says, it's a mere flesh wound. Cuts off his other arm and he says,

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I'll bite your legs off. And he cuts all of his legs and he can't do anything, he says, let's call it a draw.

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It's nuts when you think about it. And here's the thing, we think not only are we okay, that sin isn't that big of a deal.

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And when it comes to the things of God, we can just at any moment just turn on a dime and love

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God with all of our heart and stuff like this. But that's not true.

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In fact, third article of the Creed in the Catechism, when Luther asked, what does this mean?

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He says these words, I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ my

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Lord or come to him. You can't do this by your own reason or strength. We're completely dead in trespasses and sins.

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And that's the hard part to come to grips with. We oftentimes think that we're good when babies are born in the world.

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We sit there and go, oh, look, a perfect face of innocence. Not true, not true.

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Babies have the same sinful nature that all of us have. They just haven't had time to develop it.

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But they are not born innocent. In fact, the psalmist, David, he writes in Psalm 51, in sin did my mother conceive me.

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And so we must consider then that what has happened to humanity is devastating.

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We are broken beyond repair. And worst of the worst is that we have been put under the dominion of darkness.

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And we are not able to free ourselves from the dominion of darkness. If you think about all of our good stories, and I'm not talking about bad ones, good stories.

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Our good stories are always about some evil, horrible, powerful tyrant who desires to enslave and to conquer the entire world.

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And the valiant effort to try to save the world from that fate. And you know, think of like the

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Lord of the Rings and Sauron and things like this. But here's the deal. If you're going to properly understand the

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Lord of the Rings, you have to understand that you're not Aragorn, the son of Baratheon. You're not.

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Neither am I. He's a stand -in for Christ. And so when we consider what the devil does, the devil wages war against the church.

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And too many churches have not battled the devil back. And as a result of it, from their pulpits, they are hearing messages where the scripture describes them as doctrines of demons.

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This is legitimately the case. And I can't help but think that Satan being Satan just is cracking up and just laughing his head off when people sit there in church with an open

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Bible and they hear the word of God wrongly taught. And they're taking notes and they're going to apply themselves to it.

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And I can't think of a more twisted text, a text that's more twisted, than the story that we read in our

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Old Testament text, right? You know, and then you'll note that the alternate reading for this week tells us about the story of what?

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David and Goliath. Kind of a fascinating thing. David and Goliath, that story,

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David and Goliath, that's a reading for this week. And I think it's fascinating because the story of David and Goliath perfectly mirrors what's going on in our

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Gospel text. And so what we're going to do is we're going to kind of back up a little bit. Remember last week we got to hear about the anointing of David?

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And there's a fascinating thing that goes here, and we'll take a look at the story of David and Goliath in more detail.

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I'm going to work from the alternate Old Testament text. And here's where, a little bit of a reminder of what happened last week.

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When they came, he looked on Eliab. This is Samuel looking on Eliab and thought, surely the

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Lord's anointed is before him. But Yahweh said to Samuel, do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature because I have rejected him.

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For the Lord sees not as man sees, but looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart. Then Jesse called

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Abinadab and made him to pass before Samuel. And he said, neither has Yahweh chosen this one.

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Then Jesse made Shammah pass by, and he said, neither has the Lord chosen this one. And Jesse made seven of his sons pass by before Samuel.

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And Samuel said to Jesse, the Lord has not chosen these. I didn't highlight this last week, but I'm going to point it out now.

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And that is, I don't think it's a coincidence that Jesse had eight sons. And that David was the eighth son, the youngest, if you would.

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And so, you know, all these seven sons have gone by. You'll note in scripture, oftentimes, not always, but oftentimes the number seven is associated with this present creation.

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God created the world in six days, rested on the seventh. And that being the case,

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Jesus Christ, when he was crucified, he was crucified on the eve of the

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Sabbath, okay? Which means he was crucified on the sixth day, and then he didn't rise on the seventh, he rested.

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You'll note that Jesus perfectly kept the Sabbath that Saturday. He didn't even burn a single calorie. It's kind of a, you know, that's something

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I strive to do most days off, to not burn any calories, but he didn't burn a single one on that Saturday.

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And then he rose, not on the seventh day, he rose on the eighth day.

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We oftentimes refer to it as the eighth day, because it's the first day of the new creation. And here,

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David, he's the eighth son of Jesse, kind of invokes that thing.

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You'll note that, how many sides does our baptismal font have? Count them up, eight.

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That's the eighth day, new creation kind of stuff. So there's something going on here that we need to consider.

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And so Samuel asked, are these all of your sons? He said, well, there yet remains the youngest, behold, he's keeping the sheep.

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And Samuel said to Jesse, send and get him, for we will not sit down till he comes here. And then he sent and brought him in, and now he was ruddy and had beautiful eyes.

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Ruddy means that he was red in complexion. Never thought of King David as a ginger, but there it is, right?

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And he had beautiful eyes and handsome, and Yahweh said, arise, anoint him, for he is the one. And Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers.

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And the spirit of Yahweh rushed upon him from that day forward, and Samuel rose up and went to Ramah. You'll note that David's anointing as king invokes, if you would, the memory of Christ's baptism in the

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Jordan River, where the Holy Spirit descends on him. And when Christ was baptized, what was the voice that we heard from heaven?

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This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased. You'll note when Christ is tempted in the wilderness in our gospel text, what is

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Satan going after? He's going after that word of God and trying to create in Jesus doubt, the opposite of faith.

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If you are the son of God, now I know you are, but I mean, if you are, and I'm not saying you're not, but you should really test this out,

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Jesus. Don't you think it's presumptuous to think that you're the son of God? I mean, come on, who thinks that way?

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And so you'll note that that was where the temptation is. But David here, after his anointing, you'll note that he does not go to the palace.

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He does not go and sit on the throne. He is not coronated. He's not crowned. He doesn't begin to decree and declare.

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He doesn't do any of those things. What does David do after his anointing? A bunch of menial tasks, if you think about it.

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And that's kind of a fascinating thing. It says this now, it continues in chapter 16. The spirit of Yahweh departed from Saul, and a harmful spirit from Yahweh tormented him.

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And Saul's servant said to him, Behold, now a harmful spirit from God is tormenting you. Let our

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Lord now command your servants who are before you to seek a man who is skillful in playing the lyre. And when the harmful spirit from God is upon you, he will play it, and you will be well.

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So Saul said to his servants, Provide for me a man who can play well, and bring him to me. One of the young men answered,

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Behold, I have seen a son of Jesse, a Bethlehemite, who is skillful in playing, a man of valor, a man of war, prudent in speech, and a man of good presence, and Yahweh is with him.

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Therefore Saul sent messengers to Jesse and said, Send me David, your son, who is with the sheep. And Jesse took a donkey laden with bread and skin and wine, and a young goat, and sent them by David his son to Saul.

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So the anointed king of Israel is delivering goats, still keeping sheep, and now he's going to be a musician.

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I do think it's fascinating that he's a musician here because David is the psalmist, and one has to wonder if some of the earlier psalms of David were used to calm the fevered anxiety and demonically tormented

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Saul. So Saul sent to Jesse, saying, Let David remain in my service. He has found favor in my sight.

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You know when David showed up, he didn't sit there and say, Hey, you need to move over because I'm the king now. I've been anointed.

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God's rejected you, so you just need to go. He didn't do any of that. Whenever a harmful spirit from God came upon Saul, David took the lyre, played it with his hand, so Saul was refreshed and was well, and the harmful spirit departed from him.

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And then we get to chapter 17. This also is a tormented text, and over and again, you can tell somebody doesn't really understand the scriptures when they then go to chapter 17 and say things like this.

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You know, you need to figure out how to slay your Goliaths with your five smooth stones.

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This is a story that should inspire us to rise up in retaliation against the

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Goliaths in our life. Do you have the Goliath of debt hanging over you financially? Do you have the

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Goliath of a bad marriage? Do you have the Goliath of misbehaved children?

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Do you have the Goliath ... Yeah, there's a few of you here who have that Goliath, right?

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And so the idea then is that what happens here is that this text is allegorized in such a way that you become the champion.

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You are the champion who enters the field of battle, and you with your five smooth stones and your faith, you slay your

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Goliaths. And so you are told that this is what you're supposed to do. And so you take notes.

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All right, I need to slay my Goliaths. What are my Goliaths? My Goliaths are these. And what are my five smooth stones?

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I have no idea. You know, how do you start applying this? And so then when you go home, honey,

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I'm going to slay our Goliaths. You get right to it, honey. I'll be right here watching, right? And so you take your first of your five smooth stones, put it in your sling, and miss.

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And then you miss the second time, and the third, and the fourth, and the fifth, and the tenth, and the fiftieth.

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You get the idea here. You see, coming back to this, we are not capable of extricating ourselves from our problems.

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And you'll note the Bible isn't about self -help. This isn't a book of inspiring stories, like Aesop's Fables.

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You know, I hated Aesop's Fables as a kid, because have you ever noticed that they're just like dripping with moralism, right?

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It's like, so here, everybody knows the story of the tortoise and the hare, and they sit there and go, oh, man, that foolish rabbit, man, why didn't he, oh,

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I mean, he thought he was going to beat that tortoise. But then you get to the punchline of the stupid story, slow and steady wins the race.

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And you sit there and go, thanks, just what I needed, a moralistic story telling me to just slow and steady plod along, thank you,

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I appreciate that. I hate it when they take entertainment and then really try to put a message into it that's just like, it wouldn't sell otherwise, you know what

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I'm saying? So all of that being said, when you do this to David and Goliath, you miss the whole point.

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Because David is a type in shadow of Christ. And you'll see here in the early part of chapter 17, that David is not, again, he's not in the palace, he's not crowned, he's doing menial tasks.

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How can this be? The answer is, is because his life beautifully parallels

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Christ's incarnation. In fact, when you overlay it with Philippians chapter two, consider what

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Philippians chapter two says, do nothing from selfish ambition or vain, glorious conceit.

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That's a great word, by the way, in the Greek, I hate the fact that the English word just, it just comes across as conceit, but the

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Greek word's a little stronger than that. Do nothing from selfish ambition or vain, glorious conceit, but in humility, count others as more significant than yourselves.

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Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interest of others.

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What was Cain's question? Am I my brother's keeper? The answer again, yes, you are.

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And not only are you brother's keeper, you need to consider your brother as more significant than yourself.

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Well, if I do that, how are people to know how glorious and wonderful I am?

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Did you say that out loud or were you just thinking it, right? So he then says this, have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who though he was by nature,

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God did not count equality with God, a thing to be grasped, but he emptied himself by taking the form of a servant and being born in the likeness of men and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

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

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Lord to the glory of God the Father. But when we look at the life of Christ, then we must never lose sight of who he is.

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He is none other than the son of God, second person of the Holy Trinity in human flesh.

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He is the God who spoke us into existence. The reason why we even have a world and a universe, the sun, the moon, and the stars is because of his powerful words that spoke them into existence.

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And with such great power, why on earth did he not come to earth and just squash us like a bunch of rebellious bugs?

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Because that was not his intent. His intent was to save us. And in so doing, the

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King of kings and Lord of lords, Lord God Almighty himself humbled himself and was found in the form of a slave, a servant of all of us.

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And you'll note that same descent is there with David. David, although he is the rightful, anointed,

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God -ordained King of Israel, what is he doing? He's doing menial tasks, taking care of sheep, delivering food, and things like this.

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What a wonderful parallel to Christ, because that's the point. The story of David and Goliath is a parallel, if you would, then to our gospel text where Christ is tempted in the wilderness, because the real

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Goliath that we all face isn't Goliath. It's Satan. And we are not in our own strength able to go toe -to -toe with him and come out the victors.

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None of us can free ourselves from slavery to him and to the world and our own sinful flesh.

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None of us are able to overthrow him as the head of the dominion of darkness, and none of us are able to extricate ourselves from the dominion of darkness.

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This is why the book of Colossians says that God himself has delivered us from the dominion of darkness, and he did this through a champion,

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Christ. That's the point. So the story then continues. The Philistines gathered their armies for battle.

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They were gathered at Succah, which belongs to Judah, and encamped between Succah and Azekah and Ephes -damim.

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And Saul and the men of Israel were gathered and encamped in the valley of Elah. And they drew up in line of battle against the

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Philistines. And the Philistines stood on the mountain on one side, and Israel stood on the mountain on the other side, and a valley between them.

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And there came out from the camp of the Philistines a champion named Goliath of Gath, whose height was six cubits in a span, nine feet tall.

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Man, if this guy was living today, I mean, he would do well in the NBA. You know what I'm saying? Just to go dunk, that's kind of what we're talking about here.

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He had a helmet of bronze on his head. He was armed with a coat of mail, and the weight of the coat was 5 ,000 shekels of bronze.

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We're talking about 150 pounds of gear here. That's pretty impressive.

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He had a bronze armor on his legs, a javelin of bronze slung between his shoulders. The shaft of his spear was like a weaver's beam.

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His spear's head weighed 600 shekels of iron, and a shield -bearer went before him.

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He stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel, Why have you come out to draw up for battle? Am I not a

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Philistine, and are you not servants of Saul? Choose a man for yourselves, and let him come down to me.

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If he is able to fight with me and kill me, then we will be your servants. But if I prevail against him and kill him, then you shall be our servants and serve us.

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Representative warfare. What an idea. I like this. The winner -takes -all kind of mentality.

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You'll note that in the ancient days, they didn't really abide by those rules. You'll note that after David did defeat

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Goliath, then the armies got involved. They don't always follow that, but in our case, representative warfare is a good way of thinking about it, because you'll note, whether you recognize it or not, in the

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Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve, they were at war, although they didn't recognize it.

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An enemy came in to kill them, and they didn't see the threat for what it was.

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As a result of it, we fell and were put under the dominion of darkness. Adam was our representative, and in Adam, we have all fallen.

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So you'll note, he was our representative, he failed. But this is where Christ, the last

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Adam, the second Adam, comes onto the battlefield, and you'll note, he wins the day. I'm giving a little bit of a hint as to what goes at the end of this, but I apologize for the spoilers, but we continue then.

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Representative warfare. So the Philistine then said, I defy the ranks of Israel this day. Give me a man so that we might fight together.

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And when Saul and all of Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed, and they were greatly afraid.

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I really wish the people who insist on putting themselves into this text would put themselves there.

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That's the right place for us to be. We are among the armies of Israel, and there we are, dismayed and afraid, not willing to go forward and challenge

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Goliath, because we know full well we would lose, and there we are with shaking in our sandals, wetting ourselves, and behaving like a bunch of schoolgirls, right?

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That's the idea. So David then, the son of an Ephrathite of Bethlehem in Judah, named

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Jesse, who had eight sons. In the days of Saul, the man was already old and advanced in years.

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The three oldest sons of Jesse had followed Saul to the battle, and the names of his three sons who went to the battle were

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Eliab, the firstborn, and next to him was Binadab, and the third, Shammah. David was the youngest.

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The three eldest followed Saul, but David went back and forth from Saul to feed his father's sheep at Bethlehem.

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For forty days, the Philistines came forward and took a stand morning and evening.

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Forty days. How many times do we see the number forty in the Bible? Forty days and forty nights it rained for the flood.

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Forty years in the wilderness for the children of Israel. Christ is tempted in the wilderness for forty days.

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And here, for forty days, this Philistine came forward and took a stand morning and evening.

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I would note, there seems to be a consistent theme here. Forty days seems to invoke that generation that we're in, in the wilderness and the difficulties we face.

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So Jesse said to David and David his son, you take for your brothers an ephah of this parched grain and these ten loaves, carry them quickly to the camp to your brothers, and also take these ten cheeses to the commander of their thousand.

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See if your brothers are well and bring some token from them. Note, Jesse gives him commands to basically do menial tasks of delivering goods.

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And David doesn't sit there and go, but dad, I'm the king of Israel. Right? Nothing of the sort.

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Because again, he's exemplifying Christ's humility in the incarnation. Now Saul and they all, the men of Israel, were in the

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Valley of Elah fighting with the Philistines. I have to take issue with this one sentence. Were they really fighting though?

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They were getting ready to fight? Fighting with the Philistines? Fighting. While we sit here afraid.

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David rose early in the morning and left the sheep with the keeper, took the provisions and went as Jesse had commanded him.

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And he came to the encampment as the host was going out of the battle line shouting the war cry in Israel and the

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Philistines drew up for battle, army against army. And David left the things in charge of the keeper of the baggage and he ran to the ranks and went and greeted his brothers.

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And as he talked with them, behold, the champion, the Philistine of Gath, Goliath by name, came out of the ranks of the

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Philistines and spoke the same words as before. And David heard him. And all the men of Israel, when they saw the man, fled from him and they were much afraid.

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And the men of Israel said, have you seen this man who's come up? Surely he has come up to defy

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Israel. And the king will enrich the man who kills him with great riches and will give him his daughter and make his father's house free in Israel.

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Let me see if I got this right. The guy who kills Goliath will not only be rich, but he also gets a woman, a wife in marriage.

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Hmm. Have you ever stopped to think that Christ defeating Satan on the cross?

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He was promised a bride as well. Us, the church. The parallels again are just striking.

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So he continues. So David said to the men who stood by him, well, what shall be done for the man who kills this

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Philistine and takes away the reproach from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living

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God? And the people answered him in the same way. So shall it be done for the man who kills him. Now Eliab, his eldest brother, heard when he spoke to the men and Eliab's anger was kindled against David.

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And he said, why have you come down? And with whom have you left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know your presumption and the evil of your heart.

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You've come down to see the battle. And it's funny. I was reading in the church fathers this week and this passage was part of my reading.

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And one of the church fathers sees this as the slander against David by his brother as the slander of the

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Pharisees against Jesus. He sees a parallel between it. It's funny how the ancients read these texts.

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They couldn't read these Old Testament texts without seeing Christ and seeing the parallels. So much so that when

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David is insulted and slandered, the church father saw that as an affront to Jesus himself.

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And I think that's fascinating. Well, it makes sense if you think about it because Jesus is the son of David.

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The line of the Messiah has come to David and no farther at this point. So you can legitimately make the claim that the

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Messiah himself in the loins of David is on the field. That's kind of the point.

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So he says, I know your presumption, the evil of your heart. And David said, well, what have I done now? Was it not but a word?

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And so he turned away from him toward another. And he spoke in the same way and the people answered him again as before.

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And when the words that David spoke were heard, they repeated them before Saul and then he sent for him.

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So David said to Saul, let no man's heart fail because of him. Your servant will go and fight with this

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Philistine. And Saul said to David, you are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him.

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You are but a youth and he has been a man of war from his youth. But David said to Saul, your servant used to keep sheep for his father.

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When there came a lion or a bear and took the lamb from the flock, I went after him and struck him and delivered it out of its mouth.

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And if he rose against me, I caught him by his beard and struck him and killed him. Now I would note, that does not sound like normal behavior or normal experiences that kids have during their youth, okay?

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Never once when I was taking care of my family dog, you know, a coyote or a lion or a bear come and me kill it with my bare hands.

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That's something I have yet to do. In fact, if anyone pulled that off today, I think it would make the evening news, right?

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But David, he sees this kind of miraculous thing that has happened, not once but a few times, as proof that God is with him.

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As a sign that he, that the Lord will not forsake him. He trusts in Yahweh and what

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God has done for him. And he then uses that faith to kind of extrapolate, if he delivered me from a lion, surely he's going to deliver me from the

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Philistine. And so he's not acting presumptuously, he's acting based upon his faith and what he's seen

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God do, all right? So, I went after him, struck him, delivered him out of his mouth.

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I caught him by his beard, killed him. So your servant has struck down both lions and bears, and this uncircumcised

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Philistine shall be like one of them. For he has defied the armies of the living God, and David said, Yahweh who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear will also deliver me from the hand of this

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Philistine. And of course, Saul can't fight this logic, so Saul said, go,

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Yahweh be with you. And you kind of have to think, he's probably scratching his head saying, this kid's about to commit suicide, right?

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So Saul clothed David with his armor. He put a helmet of bronze on his head and clothed him with a coat of mail, and David strapped his sword over his armor, and then he tried in vain to go, for he had not tested them.

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Then David said to Saul, I cannot go with these, for I have not tested them. So David put them off, and then he took off his staff in his hand and chose five smooth stones from the brook and put them in his shepherd's pouch.

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His sling was in his hand, and he approached the Philistines. And here I would remind you that the church fathers, when they think of those five smooth stones, they could not help but think of the five wounds of Christ on the cross.

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Two in his hands, two in his feet, one in his side. In fact, if you were to look at our altar cloth here, we have little crosses, right?

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We have five of these on our altar cloth, five of them representing the five wounds of Christ.

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Keep that in mind. So we even recognize that the symbolism is kind of important.

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So keep that in mind. If you were to think of what the five smooth stones are, since Christ is the one who really defeats Satan for us, the wounds of Christ are the things that he defeats them by.

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So the five smooth stones, and then, let's see here. He put them in his shepherd's pouch, and his sling is in his hand.

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He approached the Philistine. The Philistine moved forward and came near David with a shield bearer in front of him. And when the

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Philistine looked and saw David, he disdained him, for he was a youth, ruddy, handsome in appearance.

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And the Philistine said to David, am I a dog that you come at me with sticks? And the

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Philistine cursed David by his God. The Philistine said to David, come to me and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and to the beasts of the field.

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Then David said to the Philistine, you come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin.

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But I come to you in the name of Yahweh Sabaoth, the Lord of armies, the

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God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day Yahweh will deliver you into my hand and I will strike you down and cut off your head.

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That's some pretty good trash talk right there, that's impressive trash talk. Now a little bit of a note here.

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Back in the day when my father and I would get together from time to time and play golf, my dad is the worst trash talker on planet earth.

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I'm in therapy with this now. I'm legitimately in therapy over this. And so what's really hilarious is that we've discovered that using virtual reality we can play golf together and we haven't even had our first game and he's already trash talking me.

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I made sure to send him an Oculus Quest 2 so that we can play golf together and he says, son, are you sure that you should be doing this?

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Don't you think that this would really be devastating for your self -esteem? To which

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I replied, save it for the golf course, please. Right? Just keep this in mind. It's just ridiculous stuff.

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All right. So trash talking is a thing. I appreciate some good trash talking, but you got to note David here in his trash talk makes it very clear who's going to win the battle that day.

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And it's not him. It's the Lord. The battle belongs to the

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Lord. You're not David. You're not Christ. You don't win the battle.

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Christ wins the battle. And here David knows full well he's not even the one who's going to win this battle, but it's going to be

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God who wins it for him and gives him the victory. So he says, this day the

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Lord will deliver you into my hand. I will strike you down and I will cut off your head. And I will give you the dead bodies of the host of the

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Philistines this day to the birds of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel and that all this assembly may know that Yahweh saves not with sword and spear for the battle is

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Yahweh's and he will give you into our hands. Ah, that's some good gospel theology too if you think about it.

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We as Christians, are we not the victors over Satan? Indeed we are.

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We're described in scripture as the victors over Satan. But who won that battle? Christ did. So who gave us the victory?

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Christ did. Same theology. That's how the gospel works. You and I under the dominion of darkness could not free ourselves, so Christ our champion entered the fray, he came to earth, was obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross, laid down his life so that you and I can be forgiven.

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So that you and I can be pardoned, so that you and I could be set free from the dominion of darkness.

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He is the one who set us free because we could not set ourselves free. And he is the one then having won the victory by his death on the cross, he gives it to us as a gift.

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So when the Philistines arose and came and drew near to meet David, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet the

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Philistine and David put out his hand and his bag, took out a stone, slung it, struck the Philistine on his forehead and the stone sank in his forehead and he fell on his face to the ground.

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Now, I think it's kind of fascinating. We already talked about the five smooth stones kind of representing the wounds of Christ, but in each detail as the story unfolds, the church fathers find even more meaning regarding this particular stone because you remember a couple weeks ago our gospel text, not our

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And when he struck the rock, water came out of it. And of course the epistle text said, and the rock that followed

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Israel was Christ. And so another church father says, not only are the five smooth stones represent the wounds of Christ, but the rock itself that sunk in the forehead of the

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Philistine, that was Jesus too. Let's like, let's over Jesus this.

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You can't really do that, can you? You can't over Jesus this text. I love that. I love that he did that.

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So the stone sank into the forehead. He fell on his face to the ground. So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling, with a stone and struck the

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Philistine and killed him. There was no sword in the hand of David. And then David ran and stood over the

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Philistine and took a sword and drew it out of its sheath, killed him and cut off his head with it. And everyone went, which invokes our

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Old Testament text. Remember in our Old Testament text, God handing out punishments to the serpent, to Eve and to Adam, right?

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The Lord said to the serpent, because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all the beasts of the field.

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On your belly you shall go, dust you shall eat all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring, singular.

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He shall crush your head and you shall bruise his heel. You'll note the beheading of Goliath invokes the ultimate promise here given in the garden that the

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Messiah would crush or bruise the head of the serpent and give it a mortal wound. But in the process, he will have his heel bruised.

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And that's kind of the point where Satan thought, well, for sure I will defeat Christ by having him crucified.

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That did not defeat him. That was the plan all along. Christ by laying his life down willingly becomes our perfect sacrifice.

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He is the one who God put our iniquity upon. He is the one who suffered in our place for our sins.

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And then when he died, that wasn't the end of him because death couldn't hold him.

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He then rose from the dead. So death was just a mere bruising of Christ's heel, unlike the black night when he says it was just a mere flesh wound.

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When Christ bled and died and literally died, that was just a flesh wound because he rose again from the dead victorious from the grave on the third day.

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I love these connections. So all of that being said, what we see then is this.

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This first Sunday of Lent, let us recognize where we have truly failed.

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Because of sin, we are not capable of extricating ourselves. We cannot go toe -to -toe with the devil and expect to win, and nor are we capable of freeing ourselves from our sin, from death, or even from hell itself.

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This is why we need a champion, and that champion is Christ. He in our gospel text stepped onto the field of battle and he went toe -to -toe with the devil.

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And where Adam and Eve failed, Christ succeeded. And I always like to point out that Christ, when he went toe -to -toe with the devil, chose not to go toe -to -toe with him while he was at his strongest, instead he went at him while he was at his weakest.

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And don't let that fact run by you too quickly.

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Over and again, when we think that we are going to go into a fight, what do we do? We train.

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We lift weights. We practice. You know, you think of the montage scene where Rocky was training to go up against Apollo Creed.

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Yeah. Sad to hear that Apollo died. It's sad. You're heroes and you're growing up and they get old and they die.

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Eventually I'm going to die too, but all that being said, we know the scene. There's Rocky beaten on pieces of sides of beef and then chasing chickens and running down the streets of Philadelphia, all in preparation for the fight.

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But in preparation for this fight, Christ didn't eat for 40 days. And the text says that he was hungry.

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We all know what hunger feels like to some degree, but this is hunger on a different level.

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And when Christ goes toe to toe with the devil, rather than turn away from the word of God, he clings tightly to it and uses it as the sword that it is against Satan.

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And where we have failed, Christ succeeds and he does it for us. He was tempted for you.

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He was tempted in every way and is yet without sin. And in three rounds with the devil, he defeated him with three verses from the book of Deuteronomy.

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Beautifully done. But we can see then that the battle truly belongs to the Lord. David was right.

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It's not your battle, nor is it mine. It is his. And he has won it victoriously.

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So let us repent of our self -delusional ideas that somehow we have the strength to defeat

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Satan. We don't. In fact, as Christians, we are admonished by the epistles to resist the devil firm in our faith.

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Then he will flee from us. When he sees that we are firm in our faith and our trust in Christ, denying our own self -sufficiency and claiming in our faith that Christ is sufficient for us, then and only then will

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Satan leave. Firm in our faith is firm in the gospel, firm in Christ, firm in trust in him.

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And when Satan sees that he cannot disconnect us from him, then and only then does he flee from us.

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But if you think that you can go against the devil in your own strength, you are a fool. And you will fall spectacularly.

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So let us repent of self -sufficiency. Let us repent of thinking that we're the champion. Let us repent of thinking that sin is just a mere flesh wound.

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It's not. Let us recognize what Scripture says here. And during this

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Lenten season, let us repent accordingly and let our repentance be salted with the humility that comes from recognizing that we have sinned greatly against God and the damage is beyond measure.

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But only in Christ are we made whole. And he has won the battle so that we will be. In the name of Jesus, amen.

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We rise to confess our faith together in the words of the Nicene Creed. I believe in one

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God, the Father Almighty, the maker of heaven and earth and of all things visible and invisible.

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And in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, begotten of his

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Father before all worlds, God of God, light of light, very God of very

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God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father by whom all things were made, who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven and was incarnate by the

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Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary and was made man and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate.

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He suffered and was buried. And the third day he rose again, according to the Scriptures, and ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of the

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Father. And he will come again with glory to judge both the living and the dead, whose end have no end.

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And I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver of life, who proceeds from the

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Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified, who spoke by the prophets.

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And I believe in one holy Christian in apostolic church. I acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins, and I look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.

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Amen. We continue with the prayers of the church. Let us pray for the whole church of God in Christ Jesus and for all people according to their needs.

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Lord, most high, you are the dwelling place of your people for the sake of Jesus, who suffered temptation and death for our redemption.

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Be our refuge, preserve us from every evil and plague and strengthen us in faith so that we might be satisfied with your salvation.

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Lord, in your mercy. Heavenly Father, the first Adam stood idly by as Eve was tempted in the garden.

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The last Adam, your son, Jesus Christ, endured the taunts of the devil and overcame him in the wilderness.

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Embolden those called to serve in your name, to stand against Satan with the weapons of righteousness. Lord, in your mercy.

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Almighty God, preserve all catechumens and their teachers, all children and their parents, and every

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Christian home from the assaults of the evil one. As your son overcame Satan in the desert by the word of God, so also give us the victory through Christ and his word.

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Lord, in your mercy. Merciful Father, though we marvel at our own perceived power, your might surpasses all the might of man.

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Do not let positions of authority or influence be used toward violent and wicked ends. Bless us with wise and faithful leaders who will preserve our freedom and promote its use for noble purposes.

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Guide all legislatures, judges, and authorities in our nation, city, and state.

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Lord, in your mercy. Merciful Father, though we deserve nothing of your kindness, you have shown yourself to be the strength of the weak, the healer of the sick, the hope of those who mourn.

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Hear us on behalf of those who are troubled in mind or body, the dying, and those who grieve.

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Today we especially remember Jessica, Josh, Ryan, Tim, Lori, Mike, Shirley, and Carol.

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We pray for Annie and Ethan. We pray for Sheila, David, Judy, Linda, Jean, Tom, Dawson, Jim, Ellen, Pam, Chuck, Charmaine, Robin, Collin, Bill, Colleen, Heather, and Rich, Noah, Anna, Hope, Ronnie, the

01:13:01

Guidry family, Debbie, Estella, John, Rebecca, Jonathan, Miranda, Gerald, Renee, Martha, Susan, Una, Dick, Wolfgang, Rosanna, the

01:13:11

Lang family, Danielle, Aubrey, Luke, Justin, Caroline, Jack, Stephen, Robert, Hermano, Rich, Luis, Tim, Cam, Cindy, Barbara, Gloria, Karen, Tara, Robert, Linda, Charita, Robin, Luis, Patty, Jeff, Marco, Selena, Rachel, Mason, Erin, Ashley, Elizabeth, Sane, Lou, Robin, Lauren, and Carrie.

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Sustain them through their afflictions and pain. Heal them according to your gracious will and deliver them at the last to everlasting life in Christ.

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Lord in your mercy. Gracious God, the fall of Adam closed the way to the tree of life, but the death of Christ on the tree of the cross has opened to us the way of everlasting life.

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Give us the fruit of his cross, your forgiveness, life, and salvation. Lord in your mercy. Lord God, Heavenly Father, see how the adversary continually afflicts us and walks about as a roaring lion, seeking to devour us.

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We implore you for the sake of the suffering and death of your son, Jesus Christ, to help us by the grace of the

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Holy Spirit and to strengthen our hearts by your word. That our enemy would not prevail over us, but instead that we might abide forever in your grace and be preserved to life everlasting.

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Through the same Jesus Christ, your son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you in the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

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Amen. We continue with the offertory.