Second Sunday After Christmas Service

Kongsvinger Lutheran Church

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I would like to welcome you to the Kongsvinger Lutheran Church, it's a chilly morning. Today is the second

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Sunday after Christmas, tomorrow is the Epiphany, and so I'm kind of cheating a little bit today,

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I'm going to find a way to work in the Epiphany Gospel text into my servant. If you consider that to be liturgical malfeasance, please contact

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Dr. Cary Larson, Dr. Cary of the American Association of Lutheran Churches.

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Again, divine service setting one today, and if you are physically present here at Kongsvinger and able, 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, to the glory of your holy name, amen.

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Almighty God, in his mercy, has given his Son to die for you, and for his sake he forgives you all of your sins.

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As a called and ordained servant of Christ, and by his authority, I therefore forgive you all of your sins, in the name of the

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Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Out of the mouth of babes and infants, you have established strength because of your foes, to still the enemy and the avenger.

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O Lord, O Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!

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You have set your glory above the heavens.

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What is man that you are mindful of him, and the

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Son of Man that you care for him? Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings, and crowned him with glory and honor.

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You have given him dominion over the works of your hands.

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You have put all things under his feet. 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.

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Out of the mouth of babes and infants, you have established strength because of your foes, to still the enemy and the avenger.

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

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Lord. For the peace of the whole world, for the well -being of the

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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, let us pray to the

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

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Lord be with you. Let us pray.

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Almighty God, you have poured into our hearts the true light of your incarnate word. Grant that this light may shine forth in our lives, through the same

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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. You may be seated.

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The Old Testament reading for this, the second Sunday after Christmas, is taken from the book of Genesis chapter 46.

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So Israel took his journey with all that he had, and he came to Beersheba, and offered sacrifices to the

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God of his father Isaac. And God spoke to Israel in visions of the night, and said,

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Jacob, Jacob. He said, here I am. He said,

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I am God, the God of your father. Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for there

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I will make you into a great nation. I myself will go down with you to Egypt.

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And I will also bring you up again, and Joseph's hand shall close your eyes. Then Jacob set out from Beersheba.

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The sons of Israel carried Jacob, their father, their little ones, and their wives, in the wagons that Pharaoh had sent to carry him.

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They also took their livestock and their goods, which they had gained in the land of Canaan, and came into Egypt.

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Jacob and all of his offspring with him, his sons and his sons' sons with him, his daughters and his sons' daughters, all his offspring he brought with him into Egypt.

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This is the word of the Lord. We'll speak the gradual together.

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Save us, O Lord, our God, and gather us from among the nations. You, O Lord, are our

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Father. The epistle is taken from 1

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Peter 4. Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.

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But rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.

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If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.

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But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or as an evildoer or as a meddler.

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Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name.

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For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God. And if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God?

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And if the righteous is scarcely saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner? Therefore let those who suffer according to God's will entrust their souls to a faithful creator while doing good.

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This is the word of the Lord. When the wise men had departed, behold, an angel of the

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Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, and said, Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you.

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For Herod is about to search for the child to destroy him. And he rose, and took the child and his mother by night, and departed to Egypt, and remained there until the death of Herod.

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This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, Out of Egypt I called my son.

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Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious. And he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men.

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Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah. A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and loud lamentation,

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Rachel weeping for her children. She refused to be comforted, because they are no more. But when

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Herod died, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, saying, Rise, take the child and his mother, and go to the land of Israel.

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For those who sought the child's life are dead. And he rose, and took the child and his mother, and went to the land of Israel.

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But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there.

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And being warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee, and he went and lived in a city called

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Nazareth. That what was spoken by the prophets might be fulfilled, that he shall be called a

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Nazarene. This is the gospel of the Lord. You may be seated.

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Grace, mercy, and peace be from God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. You may be seated. In the name of Jesus.

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Y 'all know that every good story has a villain. This is true of like true stories.

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This is true of fictitious stories. You need a protagonist, and you need an antagonist. And there needs to be something that the protagonist is accomplishing, and the antagonist is doing everything, and to keep it from being accomplished.

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This is how stories and history are written. That being the case, when we look at our gospel text today, you'll note that we pick up where the magi left, and tomorrow's epiphany...

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I hate it when we don't get to do epiphany. It's one of my pet peeves. But that being the case,

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I'm going to sneak a little bit of epiphany in, because you know the three rules for sound biblical exegesis, right? Context, context, and context.

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So we'll throw some context in when we get to our gospel text. But all that being said, before we can understand what's going on in our gospel text as a sign for today, it's important for us to recognize that the enemy is on the scene.

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And if you want to know what's going on, you'll note that Herod, in our gospel text, is going to attempt to murder

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Jesus. And he just sends out a huge dragnet and kills a whole bunch of infants along the way.

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What kind of sick puppy does that? But I would note, before we even get to our text, that we've seen killing of baby boys before in the

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Bible. It seems to be part of the story of Exodus, doesn't it? Could there possibly be a connection?

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And what about this idea? Remember in the Old Testament, there was this guy named Joseph. What was he famous for? He had dreams, right?

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Yeah. And in our gospel text, there's a guy named Joseph, and he has dreams too.

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And the dreams that Joseph of the Old Testament had led people into Egypt. And the dreams that Joseph in our gospel text had led

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Jesus into Egypt. Are you beginning to see that God is basically saying, pay attention, pay attention, that what was going on in the types and shadows in the

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Old Testament are now being fulfilled in the reality, in the history, now that the

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Son of God is on the scene. But all that being said, let's take a look at what the antagonist, what the enemy of Christ is up to.

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In order to come up with the interpretation of this, of all places, we're going to go to the book of Revelation, Revelation chapter 12.

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I'm going to read two sections from this, but one section now and then another section later in the sermon.

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And here's what it says in Revelation 12, 1. A great sign appeared in heaven. A woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of 12 stars.

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She was pregnant and crying out in birth pains and the agony of giving birth. Contrary to what

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Rome would lead you to believe, this is not the Virgin Mary. If you know the dreams of Joseph and the

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Old Testament, then you know full well what this is representing. It's not representing the Virgin Mary, although the Virgin Mary is the one who physically gives birth to Christ.

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This is true. But here in the book of Revelation, this kind of word puzzle, this apocalyptic picture here is not depicting the

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Virgin Mary. If you think back to when Joseph had dreams, right? Boy, his brothers hated him when he shared his dreams.

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What a foolish guy he was to share with his whole family. I'm just saying that was not a wise thing to do. But he said, hey,

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I've had this dream. We were out in the field and your sheaves bowed down to my sheaves.

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It's like, what? Are we going to bow down to you? Are you going to be the boss of us? And then he has another dream.

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These are prophetic dreams from God. And in that dream, he saw the sun, the moon, and well, 12 stars, 11 stars bowed down to his star.

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That's the imagery here. So what it is that we're seeing in the book of Revelation chapter 12, starting at verse one, is a picture, if you would, of the bride of Christ in her

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Old Testament form. That's the way to think about it. It would be anachronistic to call her the church, although I would note that Lutheran scholars oftentimes refer to the saints of the

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Old Testament as the church. This is not wrong. It's just that there's somebody somewhere, they're going to sit there and go, they're not the church, they're

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Israel. It's like, yes, I know. And we're not denying that, okay? But the idea is you have to be careful with your language because sometimes it'll set people off.

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But all that being said, this is a picture of the Old Testament church, and the Old Testament church then being the one that will be pursued by the dragon.

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And then eventually, her next of kin, her children then being pursued is kind of the point here.

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So another sign then appeared in heaven. Behold a great red dragon, seven heads, ten horns on his head, seven diadems.

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His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth. This is none other than Lucifer himself,

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Satan. And you'll note this reference points out the fact that when he rebelled against God and wanted to dethrone

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God and take his place instead, he convinced one third of the angels of heaven to join him in this rebellion.

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What on earth were these angels thinking, right? Well, a third of them joined him.

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And then what became of them when they were cast to the earth? These are the demons. So the dragon then stood before the woman who was about to give birth so that when she bore her child, he might devour it.

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And here's where we start to see something here. In our gospel text today, it's

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Herod who is doing the work of Satan. I want you to think about that, is that Satan is spirit and as such, he has to kind of enlist people to do his work.

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That being the case, you'll note then we now know what's going on. It's not merely Herod who's trying to kill

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Jesus. It's Satan himself. That's the whole point. And by the way, a little bit of a spoiler here if you're not familiar with the story,

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Satan will eventually succeed in killing Jesus. Not while he's an infant, but when he's an adult.

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And the scriptures are very clear that if Satan had understood what it is that Jesus was doing on the cross, he would have never crucified, never allowed him to die.

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Because it's through Christ's death that Satan's power is destroyed. All of our sins are atoned for and we are reconciled to God.

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And the scriptures describe, even in this text, Satan as the accuser of the saints. And if all of your sins are atoned for in Christ, and they are, does

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Satan have anything left that he can accuse you of? Nope. It's like a prosecuting attorney who doesn't have a job.

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That's kind of the point. So he was about the business to destroy the child right after it was born.

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She gave birth to a male child, one who's to rule all the nations with a rod of iron, but her child was caught up to God and to his throne.

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And the woman then fled into the wilderness where she has a place prepared by God in which she is to be nourished for 1260 days.

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Again, this is not the Virgin Mary. This is talking about the church. All of that being said, then, we now take a look at the context of our gospel text.

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And we'll back up to verse one of chapter two. Again, this is liturgical malfeasance on my part, reading the epiphany text one day ahead of time.

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Oh, well, okay. I am defiant in that way. So here's what it says.

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Now, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem saying, where is he who has been born the king of the

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Jews? I've pointed this out before, and I'll continue to point this out. Your Christmas cards are wrong, okay?

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They depict three wise guys on camels, okay? And they're carrying their gifts with them, gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

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I assure you, back in the day, traveling was a very dangerous thing to do. And if you were traveling on a camel with a box of gold, there would have been people who would have figured out how to unalive you and take the gold, okay?

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So this being the case, all of those depictions in our Christmas cards of just three guys on camels, it's just baloney.

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It doesn't compute, even with this text. Let's instead kind of put this into its proper perspective.

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Maybe 500 people traveling with potentially 1 ,000, many of them armed.

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And you'll note that these wise men are not going to get up in the morning, as Bruce Burns pointed out, and make their own breakfast, okay?

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So they got servants. And this means that this is an impressive group of people. And where have they come from?

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From the east, most likely from Persia. How did they know about what was going on?

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That's kind of the big mystery the text doesn't say. But here's what happens.

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They show up in Jerusalem. And you can imagine that this is the buzz of all the town. The Jerusalem Times headline, you know, wise men from the east show up asking questions about the king of the

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Jews who's been born. Okay, this is all over the newspapers. The media has gone wall to wall with it.

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It's a big deal in Jerusalem, right? And so when they arrive, I don't know who they're asking.

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Maybe they're asking merchants in the mall. I don't know.

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They said, where is he who has been born the king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose, and we have come to worship him.

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Wait, what? Now, I want you to think about this for a second. How is it possible that genetic descendants of Abraham are completely in the dark about the fact that the king of the

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Jews has been born? How do they not even know? I would note this hints at the darkness of our sin.

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See the gospel of John chapter one, when it talks about Jesus being the light of the world, he's coming to the darkness.

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The darkness has not overcome it. He came to his own, but his own didn't even recognize him, right? So here we've got a bunch of Gentile pagan astrologers showing up in Jerusalem going, hey, where's the king of the

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Jews? We saw his star. And they're sitting there going, what king of the Jews are you talking about?

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Now, here's another interesting bit of data. And that is that when you go back into your

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Bible, into the Old Testament, to the book of Genesis, Jacob, whose name was changed to Israel, as he gets close to the end of his life, he gives a prophecy.

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And he prophesies over all of his different 12 sons. And over Judah, he says that the scepter will not depart from Judah until the

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Messiah comes. Now, that's the paraphrase of it. It doesn't say it in those exact words. But the idea then being, and this is how the church has historically understood it, is that once Judah became the predominant kingly tribe of Israel, that they would continue to rule and reign.

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And when they stopped ruling and reigning, Messiah was on the scene, okay? Now, here's an interesting fact.

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From the time that the kingdom is established under Saul, the son of Kish, until the guy right before Herod, there's an unbroken chain of Jewish men ruling and reigning over Judea.

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This is most certainly true. Sometimes as kings of an independent state, sometimes as governors like Nehemiah and others who were set up by other governments like Persia.

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You think of the Seleucids, the Greek empire established by those who took over Alexander the

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Great's conquest. And then you also then think of the Romans after them. But when Herod shows up and the

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Roman Empire makes him king, he's the first guy who isn't Jewish to be ruling over the

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Jews. And I mean that for real. Not only was he not Jewish, he was an

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Edomite. In fact, of the Edomian tribe. And he was so, well, aware of this fact that he tried to hide it and tried to pretend to be

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Jewish and things like this. But he's not a very good Jew, like not at all, because he isn't a

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Jew at all. That being the case, as Israel prophesied all the way back in the book of Genesis, now that Judah is no longer in control, the scepter is no longer in Judah's hand, guess who's on the scene?

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The Messiah is, right? So if you knew your Bible, you'd know this. And there were probably people at that time who may have kind of sorted that all out.

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But here's the deal. These magi show up asking where the king of the Jews has been born.

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And Herod is not exactly keen on anybody who could potentially threaten his throne.

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In fact, he was so paranoid about keeping his throne, he murdered one of his wives. He also murdered a couple of his sons because they thought that they had it out for him.

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What a nice guy this is, you know. I love you, honey. I kill you. Okay. And so this idea then of these foreigners showing up going, where's the king of the

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Jews? You can see Herod just going, there's a king of the Jews? Oh, there's somebody who has a rightful claim to the throne of David.

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Where is he? I'm going to kill him too, right? So when Herod, the king, heard this, he was troubled, you think, and all

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Jerusalem with him. And so he calls an emergency meeting, calls together the chief priests, the scribes of the people, and he inquired of them where the

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Messiah was to be born, which kind of proves the point that he was a miserable Jew. He wasn't even

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Jewish anyway, because every Jewish boy who's been to synagogue and grew up in the synagogue would know full well where the

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Messiah is supposed to be born. So they give him the Sunday school answer. Well, the prophet wrote, you will

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Bethlehem in the land of Judah are by no means least among the rulers of Judah for from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people

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Israel. And so now Herod got, he's got the location. He doesn't know which child it is.

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He has the location, but he can't kill the wise men.

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Believe me, if there were three of them, they would have died under mysterious circumstances like Jeffrey Epstein. I'm just saying.

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Okay, but since he can't unalive them, he's got to basically let them do the rest of the work.

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Let them go and find this child, and then they can report back to me who he is.

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And then after they've left town, I can just go and unalive this king of the

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Jews, right? So he summoned the wise men secretly, and he ascertained from them what time the star had appeared.

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Now we learned later in our gospel text, when? When did the star appear? Answer, roughly two years earlier.

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Okay, so how old is Jesus at this point? He's a toddler, okay?

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Now I understand this is going to mess up your entire nativity scene at your house, okay?

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I get it, okay? You're just going to have to work that out yourself, okay? Because all of our nativity scenes have three guys on camels, and they're there at the manger with the baby

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Jesus. That's not how this went down. Get over it, okay? So we'll just call it art, okay?

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If you can take a banana and tape it to a wall, you can show three wise guys, you know, worshiping

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Jesus at the manger. Art, right? So all of that being said, okay,

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Herod then ascertained, it was two years earlier, he then sent them to Bethlehem, saying, I want you to go and search diligently for the child, and when you've found him, bring me word so that I too may come and worship him.

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So after listening to the king, they went on their way, and behold, the star that they had seen when it rose went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was.

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That's a strange acting star. Maybe it was one of those orbs from New Jersey, I don't know, you know, a drone or something.

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Just saying. I would note that this is not how stars normally behave. Maybe it was an angel, something that we don't understand, because I've never heard of stars moving and then coming to rest over a particular house.

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Indeed, but this is what happened. So when they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy.

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Now, I already asked the question, how do they even know the king of the Jews had been born? Again, the answer is, we don't know.

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There are good guesses, okay? The best guess is this one, that you remember

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Daniel, one of the captives that was in exile in Babylon, and what a high position he had.

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Well, Daniel was the guy who was over the Magi of Babylon. He was the chief

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Magi. It's a weird profession to have if you're a Jewish boy, but you get the idea.

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That was the case. Nebuchadnezzar made him that. And so it kind of hints at this idea that Daniel, in his prophetic work, had left something behind in his workshop that these guys then inherited and were looking for.

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And so that's what tipped them off. Maybe Daniel's the guy who led them to understand what was going on here.

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But again, the scripture doesn't say that's just a guess. So going into the house, so there's

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Jesus, the toddler. They saw the child with Mary, his mother, and they fell down and they worshiped him.

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They did what? They fell down and they worshiped him. And the way this

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Greek word works, it's not merely worship. They weren't saying, our God is an awesome

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God. They weren't doing that. What were they doing? They had their faces down to the ground, foreheads in the dirt, worshiping

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Christ. Wow, worshiping a human child, is that allowed?

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Can you do that? And you'll note, this is the reason why this is the first gospel text for the season of Epiphany, because it reveals who

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Jesus is, Emmanuel, God with us. Here, he is being worshiped.

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And then they opened their treasures. They offered him gifts, gold, frankincense, and myrrh, gold.

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Kind of important for Mary and Joseph, because they're about to take an unexpected trip to Egypt, and they're going to have to find a way to live there for a while.

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Frankincense brings up incense, and in prayers that ascend to God, myrrh.

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Well, that's a weird one. It's an embalming spice. Strange gift to give to a child.

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It is there, nonetheless. And then being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way.

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So now, these guys get dreams themselves. You can see them all waking up going, we can't go back to Herod.

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We all had these dreams that warned us not to do this. Now, I want you to think about the logistics. Even if it's just 500 of them, they've got to figure out how to skedaddle without drawing attention to themselves.

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And Bethlehem is not that far from Jerusalem, which means they had to engage in some kind of trickery, some kind of deception.

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And maybe not leave in one big group, but kind of leave just a few at a time to not draw attention to themselves.

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This is why, then, it says that Herod had been tricked by them.

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He had been utterly deceived. They not only left, they left in a deceptive way. Keep that in mind. So when they had departed, behold, an angel of the

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Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, rise, take the child and his mother and flee to Egypt and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child to destroy him.

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Joseph, having dreams about going to Egypt. Again, note the themes. And you're going to note here,

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Joseph springs into action immediately. He doesn't sit there and go, it's two in the morning.

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We'll leave after I've had my first cup of coffee at eight. That would probably be my response.

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I'm just saying, the older I get, the more my morning coffee is important, even if it's decaf.

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The point is that I have a morning routine and I don't want to interrupt it. But Joseph, no morning routine.

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He basically says, get up. And so they took the child and his mother by night and they departed to Egypt and they remained there until the death of Herod.

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And this was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet out of Egypt. I called my son.

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Now, we read this and we just blow right through it. We speed through texts like this.

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You should be going about 30 here rather than 65 when you read a text like this.

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What does it mean, out of Egypt, I have called my son? Which prophet said that and how is it referring to Jesus?

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I'm glad you asked. Because in the prophet Hosea, one of the minor prophets, chapter 11, verse 1, says these words.

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When Israel was a child, I loved him. And out of Egypt, I called my son.

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But every Jew in Jesus's time would have read this verse of Hosea, this sentence of his, and basically said, this has already been fulfilled.

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Because Israel came out of Egypt. Have you heard of this thing called the Exodus? Have you ever heard theologians say that Jesus is

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Israel squished down to one person? This is the reason why.

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This is the reason for it. Because God, the Holy Spirit, speaking through the apostle

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Matthew, has revealed to us a dynamic of Hosea's prophecy in chapter 11 that we would never have seen otherwise.

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And so when it says, when Israel was a child, I loved him, that's not talking about Jacob.

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That's talking about Jesus. And out of Egypt, I've called my son. That's talking about Jesus.

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And so you'll note here, God, the Holy Spirit, sometimes reserves the right to give you the understanding of his own texts, of his own words.

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And so indeed, that being the case, if Jesus is Israel squished down to one person, and he is, well, let me ask you about the other group, the other group known as Israel.

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How good were they at obeying God's law? About as good as you are, right?

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Some generations a little better than others. But did Israel fulfill their promises and keep

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God's covenant and obey his commands? Nope, not at all. What about Israel squished down to one person?

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How did he do? Perfect. He kept God's law perfectly for you.

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And so the fact that Matthew records for us details that Luke doesn't even record, tells us about what

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Jesus did and how he was taken all the way back to Egypt in order to fulfill the prophecy from Hosea chapter 11, verse 1, tells us something that's going on.

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And everybody who knows their Old Testament is sitting there going, oh my goodness,

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I'd never seen this connection before. Could it possibly be? And the answer is yes. Not only can it possibly be, it is.

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And theologians will oftentimes refer to Jesus in this portion of Matthew as Matthew basically saying

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Jesus is the new Moses. Now, not the new Moses in the sense that he's going to give us more law, but he's the new

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Moses in the sense that he's the one that God has sent to free us from slavery.

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And so the types and shadows of the Exodus, the people of God are born in slavery.

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God delivers them from slavery, takes them through the wilderness, which is roughly a lifetime to then bring them to the promised land.

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All of that is like a big map. Okay. The basic says this is what's happening to you

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Christians. Okay. You are dead in trespasses and sins. Christ redeemed you.

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He's baptized you not in the Red Sea, but in the waters of baptism. And now you are in that in -between time from the time of your baptism to the time when you haven't yet entered into the promised land, right?

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That wilderness wandering. And Jesus is the one leading you to the real promised land, which is a land flowing truly with milk and honey.

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In a world without end, without sin, without death, without disease, without terrorist attacks and things like this, right?

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So all of that being said, all of this is being invoked in this passage.

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In fact, when you think back to when Moses was called by God and there in the burning bush, it says,

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Moses was keeping the flock of his father, Jethro, the priest of Midian. And he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness.

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It came to Horeb, the mountain of God. And the angel of Yahweh appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of the bush.

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And he looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed. And Moses said, I will turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.

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And when Yahweh saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, Moshe, Moshe.

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That's his word. That's his name in Hebrew, okay? It means to draw out. Moshe. And he said, here

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I am. He said, do not come near. Take the sandals off your feet. The place in which you are standing is holy ground.

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And he said, I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob. Moses hid his face for he was afraid to look at God.

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And then Yahweh said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt.

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I've heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings.

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And I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of the land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey.

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You get the point. And Moses is the man that God is going to do that through.

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But all of that's in the types and shadows, which means Jesus is the one that God has sent to deliver us from our sufferings, from our slavery to sin, to death and the devil.

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He has come to deliver us not out of the hands of the Egyptians, which are kind of a stand in for Satan and his horde, if you were.

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Think about it this way. I mean, you know, Pharaoh, what's his uniform look like?

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What's his headdress look like? He's the snake hat guy, guy who's got like a turban on.

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It looks like he's got cobra wings, right? He's the original Cobra Kai. You get the idea.

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So he's a stand in for Satan. But Christ hasn't come to deliver us out of the hand of Egyptians, but to save us out of the hands, the claws of Satan and to bring us in to the new earth.

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It's glorious when you think about it. But you're going to note here, that being said,

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Moses was in danger as a child and nearly was killed. Jesus is in danger as a child.

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And so when Herod, when he saw that he had been deceived by the wise men, he became furious and he sent and he killed all the male children in Bethlehem and all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men.

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Like I said, we've seen that before. Remember when Moses was an infant? Pharaoh had ordered that the male children born to the

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Israelites all be drowned. Beginning to see connections here that are important.

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And then what was fulfilled, then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet.

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And this is an interesting passage from Jeremiah. A voice was heard in Ramah, which is another name from Bethlehem, weeping and loud lamentation.

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Rachel weeping for her children. She refused to be comforted because they are no more. And if you've ever wondered why is

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Rachel mentioned here in this prophecy, it's because in Bethlehem, that's where the tomb of Rachel was.

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And so it's kind of an homage or a hint at this idea that even

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Rachel, the dearly departed saint of the Old Testament, is weeping over what atrocity has taken place in Bethlehem.

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And so that being the case, you'll note that Satan, who is the one who incited

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Herod to do these horrible things, that he has also decided that not only should

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Jesus be in danger, and he was, and he eventually killed Christ, but he's also seen fit that you and I are also in danger.

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And this is where we can begin to see a connection between what's going on in our gospel text and how the church fathers originally put the one -year lectionary together and use the epistle text that they did.

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But let me come back to the book of Revelation to make that connection. If you're familiar with Revelation chapter 12, after Christ's death, burial, resurrection, and ascension, the accuser of the saints and the deceiver of the world is thrown out of heaven.

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In verse 10 it says, The salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his

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Christ have come. For the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down. He accuses them day and night before our

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God. Satan, the crazy prosecuting attorney of the saints, is out of a job.

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So he's cast out of heaven. And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they love not their lives, even unto death.

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Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them. But then you get these really ominous words.

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So let me see if I understand this correctly. A multi -headed red dragon has come down to earth in great wrath.

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He has this short amount of time. And I don't know, but I'm pretty sure that rage -filled multi -headed dragons whose time are short don't exactly behave in sane or safe manners.

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You'll note that in the epistle of 1 Peter, we are warned about our adversary, the devil, who prowls around like a lion seeking those whom he may devour.

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And so the text goes on here to say, When the dragon saw that he'd been thrown down to the earth, he pursued the woman.

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That's the church who had given birth to the male child. But the woman was given the two wings of the great eagle so that she might fly from the serpent into the wilderness to a place where she is to be nourished for a time, time and half a time.

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Then the serpent poured water like a river out of his mouth after the woman to sweep her away with a flood.

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But the earth came to the help of the woman and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed the river that the dragon had poured from his mouth.

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Then the dragon became furious with the woman and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring, on those who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus.

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To do what? Make war. And so this is where we find ourselves.

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This danger that Christ was in, and he was in grave danger, we now find ourselves in.

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Satan, having crucified Christ, is not satisfied that Christ has died and risen from the dead because that resulted in him being thrown out of heaven.

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He's going to wage war and does wage war against you and I. In fact, you'll note that our gospel text leaves off on an ominous note that basically

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Jesus is still in danger. As a child, it says this, when

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Herod died, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, saying, rise, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel.

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For those who sought the child's life, they're dead. But he rose and took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel.

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But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judea in place of his father Herod, it's almost as if Joseph wanted to go back to Bethlehem, but that wasn't going to work.

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That's just a little too close to Jerusalem. He was afraid to go there and being warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district in Galilee.

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And he went and lived in a city called Nazareth. Huh, danger, danger, danger.

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And you'll note where Herod failed initially, eventually another

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Herod will succeed with the help of Pilate in killing Christ. But here's then where our epistle comes into play, because there's a direct connection between the sufferings of Christ and what we are made to suffer as Christians.

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Have any of you noticed that when you tell people you believe what the scriptures say, that you found a church where they actually preach the word?

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People look at you and go, uh, right? Or worse, you get into arguments with your relatives because you say, well, that's not what the

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Bible says. Well, how dare you tell me what the Bible says? The Bible's wrong. We can't trust the

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Bible. They talk like this, right? And then, of course, I would like to point something out. Did you guys watch the

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Rose Bowl? I didn't watch the Rose Bowl. I'm not really a college football guy. But there's a story that's noteworthy for us

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Christians, okay? So Ohio beat Oregon. Yay, the

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Ducks are evil anyway, okay? All that being said, the quarterback for the

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Ohio college football team is a Christian. And after they defeated the Ducks, they interviewed him on national television.

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And the first thing he said, I would like to thank my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Seems innocuous enough, right?

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I mean, how many people do stuff like that? A lot of people do things like this. Well, apparently, that put him into a bad spot.

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Because afterwards, when he went to celebrate with his teammates, because they had set up like this stage, and in front of the stage were these roses, and all of his teammates were up there celebrating, and they were given their own ceremonial rose, the security guard said to him, you're not allowed up here.

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Why? Because he praised Jesus. Isn't that weird?

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That happened just a couple of days ago. Isn't that weird? If you don't think that persecutions face us as Christians, you don't quite get the fact that Satan's at war with us, right?

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And we have lived in a society that was established with a lot of Christians in it.

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Are there a lot of them left? No, they're not, okay? That being the case, listen to the words of Saint Peter.

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Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you as though something strange were happening to you.

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The fiery what? Trial. I don't know. Trials that are on fire don't sound like a lot of fun.

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No, they just don't. But all that being the case, Peter is saying, when this happens to you, don't act like something strange is happening to you.

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I feel bad for the people who attend Lakewood, okay, and listen to Joel Osteen. I didn't sign up for persecution.

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I signed up for the best life now, Christian pack. I'm supposed to be the head and not the tail.

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I'm supposed to be prosperous and healthy and wealthy and wise. I didn't sign up for persecution, right?

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Oh, you signed up for the wrong version of Christianity because that version ain't even a real version. It's a false form of it, okay?

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So Peter says, don't be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you as though something strange were happening to you.

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Satan hated Jesus and wanted him dead as an infant. Satan hates you and has a terrible plan for your life, and he's waging war against you, and he's going to make your life difficult, especially the more you confess and believe and trust and proclaim

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Christ. But Peter says this, when the fiery trial shows up, don't do this and go, oh, poor me.

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Oh, no, says rejoice. Rejoice insofar as you share in Christ's sufferings.

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Now, hold on a second here. You're saying you can share in Christ's sufferings?

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Yeah, okay. Remember the apostle Paul, before he was the apostle Paul, he was a guy named

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Saul of Tarsus, okay? He hated Christians, hated them. He's the guy who's responsible for the first Christian martyr,

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Stephen. We celebrated Stephen's martyrdom the second day of Christmas, right?

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There's the apostle Paul, before he's the apostle Paul, persecuting, rounding up Christians, having them beaten in synagogues, dragging them out of their houses, bringing them into prison, and when

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Jesus decides he's going to intervene, Jesus's words to Paul were, why are you persecuting me?

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Who are you, Lord? I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. So when you suffer as a

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Christian, you are participating, sharing in the sufferings of Christ.

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Christ is suffering with you. That being the case, rejoicing is in order.

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Rejoice insofar as you share in Christ's sufferings, so that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.

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If you're insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed because the spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.

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But here's the thing. Sometimes Christians suffer for some pretty stupid reasons. So let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a meddler, okay?

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Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name.

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For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God, and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome of those that do not obey the gospel of God?

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So brothers and sisters, I know that we've kind of been all over the map here in our text today.

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Rightly so, I think. But the idea then is this. Jesus as an infant is in danger.

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We are in danger as Christians because we are in Christ. He was this close to dying as an infant, but he ultimately was killed.

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And through his death, we have been reconciled to God. And Christ himself tells us as his disciples to deny ourselves, to take up our cross and follow

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Jesus. Where are we going, Jesus? We're following you. Where are we heading to? Our death, right?

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This is most certainly true. But Jesus has already died for our sins. And in your baptism, you were tucked away into Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection.

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You are already alive in him. He's not taking us to death, the second death.

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He's taking us to true life, eternal life. And all of this, he's won for us by his sinless, perfect life.

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He was Israel squished down to one person, and this Israel fulfilled all of God's law, and he did it for you.

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And he did so as the second Moses to set us free from the real slavery that we all suffer from, slavery to sin, to death, and to the devil.

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And if the Son has made you free, he has made you free indeed. So in our wilderness wanderings as we suffer, and we continue to bumble our way towards the promised land, take heart and rejoice when you are made to suffer.

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Shame for being a Christian, because great is your reward in heaven, and you will rejoice when you see

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Jesus with your own eyes. He will vindicate you. You don't need to vindicate yourself. And trust yourself to the one who also protected

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Jesus so that he fulfilled his mission. Even when he was helpless as an infant and unable to protect himself,

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God intervened and protected him for him and for you and I.

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And God will see you safely through, even if it means your own death now.

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So let us entrust ourselves to this great God who has seen fit to save us in such a glorious and humble way.

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In the name of Jesus, amen. We rise to confess our faith together in the words of the

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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, and in one

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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

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God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the

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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 kingdom will 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 worshiped and glorified, who spoke by the prophets.

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And I believe in one holy Christian and 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. Remain standing for the prayers of the church. And if you like, you can also kneel.

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That's also quite appropriate. Let us pray for the whole

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Church of God in Christ Jesus and for all people according to their needs. Almighty Father, creator of heaven and earth, through your

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Son, Jesus Christ, you have restored your divine image to mankind. In holy baptism, you give that image to us.

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Give us joy in our adoption as your sons and daughters, Lord, in your mercy. O Lord, how excellent is your name in all of the earth.

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Out of the mouths of babes and nursing infants, you have perfected your praise. Silence the enemy and the avenger.

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Turn the hearts of all who, like Herod, would despise children or destroy the unborn for selfish gain.

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Show your forgiveness to those who are penitent. Give your comfort to all women who mourn the loss of infants and fix our eyes on Christ, who for a time was spared but has shed his blood for our salvation.

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Lord, in your mercy. Lord of hosts, preserve your church and look favorably on our ministers.

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Give them delight in this joyful season and restful reflection on the mystery of your incarnation, that they may preach your word boldly and faithfully.

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Lord, in your mercy. Heavenly Father, you prepared a place for your

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Son, Jesus, in the womb of the Virgin and in the home of Mary and Joseph. Bless our homes and all who dwell in them, that your word would be heard and your mercy be shown therein.

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Lord, in your mercy. Holy God, protect our people and our country.

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Grant wisdom and strength to Joseph, our outgoing president, and to Donald, who is to be inaugurated president.

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Guide all transitions of power according to your will and grant that all rulers may seek peace and defend us from war and strife.

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We also pray that you would grant wisdom to our leaders as they comfort our nation in the midst of the tragedy of the terrorist attack in New Orleans.

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We also pray that you would give them wisdom so that they may prevent such attacks in the future.

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Lord, in your mercy. Almighty God, in the birth of your Son, you have visited and redeemed your people.

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Continue to visit those who are lonely, sick, recovering, or near death. Today we pray for Linda, Eric, Christine, Annie, Angela, Michaela, and Rudy.

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We also pray for John, Arlen, Luis, Leon, Robin, and Roger, as well as Gail, Jeff, Rachel, David, Gloria, Haley, the

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Hundley family, Anne, Jonathan, Cricket, Miranda, Stephanie, Andrew, Angela, Norbert, and Savannah.

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We also pray for Heather, Pat, Doug, Melissa, and Carter, as well as Sean and Norma, and we also pray for those who mourn.

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We lift up to before you the family of Nancy, Al Carey. Let your presence be a comfort to all whom we've prayed for.

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Give them perseverance until that time that you grant healing, relief, deliverance, and peace. Lord, in your mercy.

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Lord Jesus, we lift before you those who are still in Satan's darkness and under his dominion, and whose warfare has resulted in their loss.

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We pray, Lord, that you would continue to wage warfare on their behalf, and that your light, the light of the gospel, would shine upon them, and through that the

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Holy Spirit would open their eyes to the truth. We pray for JP, for Rodney, Amy, Jodi, Gage, Sheila, Karen, Tara, Dawn, John, Georgette, Robert, Renee, Tamika, Christine, Monica, and Killian.

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Lord, in your mercy. Gracious Father, as you have given us new life and eternal treasure stored up in heaven until the day of your son's return, grant that all who commune today would receive the feast for the forgiveness of their sins and strengthening of their faith towards you and in fervent love towards their neighbors.

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Lord, in your mercy. Oh, Lord God, Heavenly Father, you allowed your son,

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Jesus Christ, to become a stranger and a sojourner in Egypt for our sake, and led him safely home to his fatherland.

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Mercifully grant that we poor sinners who are strangers and sojourners in this perilous world may soon be called home to our true fatherland, the kingdom of heaven, where we shall live in eternal joy and glory through the same

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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. Remain standing. Don, do you have the cue?