The Folly of What We Preach

Kongsvinger Lutheran Church

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

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

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And now here's a message from Pastor Chris Roseberg. Our epistle reading comes from 1st

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Corinthians chapter 1 verses 18 through 31 and that's found on page 952 in your

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Pew For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God for it is written,

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I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart. Where is the one who is wise?

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Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?

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For since in the wisdom of God the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased

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God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom but we preach

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Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles. But to those who are called, both

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Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolish of God is wiser than men and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

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For considering your calling brothers not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth, but God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise.

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God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong. God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.

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And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that as it is written, let the ones who boast, boast in the

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Lord. This is the word of the Lord. In the name of Jesus, I gotta admit it, when

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I was a kid, Christmas time was wonderful, I've talked about this in the past, but there was something that I didn't like about Christmas, especially when

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I was a younger lad, and that is, is that my parents had this really sick sense of humor and they would literally, no joke, as part of the packages of Christmas that I would get from them, over and again

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I found that they would gift wrap underwear, t -shirts and socks.

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There's nothing worse than getting a clean set of tighty -whities at Christmas when you're an eight -year -old boy.

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This is just awful, it's embarrassing and terrible. And I want you to think about this in this way.

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We're going to return to our epistle text today, and we're going to consider that many people really consider the cross of Christ the same way that an eight -year -old would consider getting tighty -whities for Christmas.

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It's foolish, it's useless, who needs that? That's kind of the idea.

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And so if you would turn back to 1 Corinthians chapter 1, we're going to note that the Apostle Paul is really concerned about not emptying the cross of Christ of its power, despite the fact that it is so ridiculously offensive and irrelevant to those who are not being saved.

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We'll note that. So verse 17, I'm going to pick up just a smidge of the context in verse 17, and the

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Apostle Paul talked about that Christ sent him to preach the gospel and not with words of eloquent wisdom.

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Eloquent wisdom might impress the world, but that's not what Paul came to do. And he says these words, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.

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And so you're going to note that the proclamation of Christ and Him crucified for our sins doesn't depend on philosophy or wisdom or good rhetoric, and I'll explain that as we go.

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So verse 18 then picks up our pericope. For the word of the cross, that would be the gospel, is folly.

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Greek word moria may be translated as foolishness. I find it fascinating that Tolkien named the mines of Moria that the smaller fellows made.

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You know, that's an interesting name. It means foolishness. Now listen, the word of the cross is foolishness.

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It's folly to those who are perishing. However, to us who are being saved, the word of the cross, the gospel, is the power of God.

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Now I'm going to note that the Greek word for power here is dunamis, and it's very fascinating that today there's a whole section of Christianity and charismatic movement that talks about dunamis power.

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They don't really understand what the Greek word means, and they'll say dunamis power is where we get the word dynamite from, or dynamo.

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Well, technically that's a derivative, and so they'll say that in order for us to go and preach the gospel, we must operate in signs and wonders and demonstrate the dynamite dunamis power of God, which is to put the emphasis on the wrong syllable.

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To put it just bluntly, let me explain. Paul is here saying, under the inspiration of none other than the

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Holy Spirit Himself, that it's the word of the cross. It's the gospel that is the power of God.

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You know, it would be like my parents trying to explain to me, we understand you don't like underwear, t -shirts, and socks, but they are everything.

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That's kind of what he's saying, and the eight -year -old sits there and goes, no, they're nothing. Throws them back behind their back.

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That's the idea. For God says this, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, the discernment of the discerning.

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I'm going to thwart. So then he asks this question, where is the one who is wise?

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And we know, in our day and age, there's lots of people who claim to be wise. You think of the famous atheist

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Richard Dawkins. This is a fellow who the world thinks is, well, just the smartest guy in the world, and yet Richard Dawkins has made a career of basically being an outspoken atheist, a scoffer at God in a

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Jesus Christ. And so the world thinks this fellow is wise. He teaches at Oxford.

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There is no one smarter than Richard Dawkins, but what does Scripture say of an atheist? Scripture says it's the fool who says in his heart there is no

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God. Not the wise guy. Not the scholar. The fool.

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So then he asks, where's the scribe? Where's the debater of this age? And you're gonna note that Paul's gonna contrast the concept of the debater of this age with the foolishness of what we herald, what we preach.

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And so think of it this way. God has not chosen to come and solve our problem in the way that we would expect or want or consider relevant.

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The reason being is that, well, since the fall of Adam and Eve, and after Adam and Eve listened to the serpent and said, when we eat of the fruit of this tree, you'll be like God, knowing good and evil.

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Now there's seven billion little deities running around the planet, and each and every one of them is concerned about their own glory, what is reasonable to them.

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And they don't seem to understand that all of that is a result of our fall into sin. So God has not come, and we as Christians are not sent out, no joke, we're not sent out to go and debate everybody.

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That's not the point. Instead, God has not

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God made foolish the wisdom of the world. Indeed he has. Think of the wisdom of the world today.

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I mean, literally people think that it is the most intelligent thing in the world to believe that a bazillion years ago there was this puddle of primordial ooze that got struck by lightning and somehow amoeba showed up in it.

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And then later down the road, those amoeba jumped out of the pool into a tree and became apes.

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And that we somehow descended from them. That's considered to be real science, but it's not.

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So has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? Indeed. For since in the wisdom of God, the world did not know

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God through wisdom. It pleased God through the folly of what we, and I know your translation says preach, but let me kind of mix it up a little bit.

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I think a better word here for this Greek word, charuso, would be herald.

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Herald. Through the folly of what we together herald. It's a kind of important.

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Preach kind of implies we we hear the word preach and we think pastor. Pastors preach. And then you know the world doesn't like to be preached to.

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You think of that famous Madonna song. Mama don't preach. That's not really what we're called to do.

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We're heralds. We've been given a message. A herald is a fellow who's been given a message from a king.

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He goes out into the courtyard where the people are, into the town square, and he says, hear ye, hear ye, thus says the king.

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This, that, and the other thing. He reads what the king is proclaiming. So we are heralds. We are proclaimers.

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So just kind of keep that in mind. The gist of what's going on here. Notice the we. This is not

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Paul saying we only apostles or we only pastors. This is we the church.

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We herald. So it pleased God through the folly of what we herald to save those who believe.

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It makes perfect sense because the gospel, the word of the cross, is the power of God.

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Now Jews demand signs. Greek, they seek wisdom. Americans, they seek entertainment.

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Yeah, just want to add that to the mix. And you think of it this way. Think of our gospel text today. There's Jesus coming into the temple at the time of the

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Passover, makes a whip of cords, and he drives out the money changers. And what sign do you show us that you have authority to do these things?

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And Jesus didn't do a magic trick. He didn't say, watch this. No, he didn't do that.

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No, instead what he did was tear down this temple and I'll rebuild it again in three days.

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And you can hear the disdain and the scoffing in their response. It's taken forever to build this temple.

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You're gonna build it up in three days? Right. This guy's a loony. That's what they're thinking.

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But see, the temple he was speaking about was the temple of his body. Because the old

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Jewish temple built on Mount Moriah was a type and shadow of the true temple, which is

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Christ, the true sacrifice for our sins. And truly he was raised again.

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So it is pleased God through the folly of what we proclaim, what we herald to save those who believe.

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Jews demand signs, Greeks seek wisdoms, Americans want entertainment. But we herald

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Christ crucified. And this is a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles and is a buzzkill for Americans.

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Because they want entertainment. And you're gonna note here that the Apostle Paul is saying we herald

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Christ and him crucified. He's expecting that we're going to keep heralding it, even though there's a whole swath of humanity that is gonna think that this is totally dumb.

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So you sit there and you talk to a pagan person and you say, listen, I have a message for you from King Jesus.

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Really? You do? What's the message? Here's the message. He loves you. He's bled and died for you.

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He was born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, crucified, died, buried, rose again on the third day so that you can be forgiven of your sins and reconciled to God.

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And here's the best news ever. Although you are a sinner, God himself is offering you full and complete pardon in Christ Jesus.

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Repent and believe this good news. Whoo, yeah,

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I've, well, I'm late. I gotta get somewhere else. They might think you're nuts.

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Religious crazy person. Because of course they're thinking, what good is a dead

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Jewish guy? I've got real problems in my life. My children are misbehaving.

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My husband is being a jerk. My boss, I mean, they didn't give me a raise this year.

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And then forget the fact about politics. The whole world's going crazy there. And you're telling me about a guy who was nailed to a cross.

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Sorry. And that's just not entertaining either. See, Paul says we're gonna preach this in the face of people who think it's complete nonsense.

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So what are we supposed to do in the face of complete nonsense or people thinking that what we have to preach is complete nonsense?

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Oh, I know. Well, why don't we give the Jews some signs? Why don't we give the Greeks some wisdom and see if we can gussy up this message that we have here and make it a little bit more appealing?

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It's not what he says. Jews demand signs. Greeks seek wisdom. We herald

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Christ crucified. This is a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles. But to those who are called, both

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Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. Keep preaching that foolish message.

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Keep heralding Christ and Him crucified. And here's the thing. Some are going to hear it and go, that is the best news ever.

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I repent. I believe. And that is how the cross kind of divides humanity up.

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So consider your callings, brothers. Not many of you were wise according to worldly standards.

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We're kind of the rabble of humanity here. Not many were powerful. Not many were of noble birth.

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Anybody here who is a princess? No? Okay, just don't wear your tiara to church.

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That might be a little off -putting. Not many of us were powerful. Not many of our noble birth. But here's the thing.

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God chose what is foolish in the world in order to shame the wise. And you're going to note, this makes perfect sense.

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Jesus did not call as His disciples, the 12, a group of men who were great philosophers, studied under Aristotle or Plato, were versed in all of the ancient classic literature and things like this.

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Not at all. He called fishermen. Peter was not a lettered fellow.

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He was not known for his great oratory ability. He did not mix it up with the philosophers very well.

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No. So think of it this way. Aristotle, Plato, and all of those philosophers are totally overthrown by a fisherman from Galilee?

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Really? Right. Because God is shaming the wise by not coming to us on our own terms.

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God chose what is low and despised in the world, even the things that are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, so that no human might boast in the presence of God.

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And now it makes sense. Now it makes sense. Where is the boasting when you can say, listen,

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I'm a wretched ungodly sinner, bled for, died for by Christ.

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I'm a forgiven sinner. And here's the good news. Christ wants you to be a forgiven sinner too.

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There's no room for boasting. When we come to the Lord's table today, everyone's going to be on their knees.

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Everyone. That's the great leveler, if you would. And that's the whole point. In the message that we've been given to Harold, there's no room for boasting.

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Nobody has any boasting to do. So and note these next things.

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And because of Him, because of God, you now are in Christ Jesus. God is the one who put you in Christ in the waters of your baptism.

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So Christ has become to us wisdom from God, which He is, righteousness,

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He's our righteousness, and He's our sanctification, and He's our redemption. Note that with the message that we've been given to Harold, Jesus is everything.

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He is our wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, redemption. He's the Alpha, the

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Omega, the beginning, and the end, the first, and the last, the all in all. So that as it is written, let the one who boasts, boast in the

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Lord. I don't need to tell you about me. Let me tell you about Jesus. And our sinful nature bristles at the thought, where's the glory for me?

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There's none for you. Sorry, Jesus gets it all. It's not like you take glory, put it into an

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Excel spreadsheet, and come up with those pie charts. There's a little bit of glory for me and the rest for Jesus, but at least

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I have my little sliver, right? No, all of it goes to Christ. There's no boasting in the gospel that we've been given to proclaim.

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And let me read out just a little bit more then from the text, continuing in chapter 2. And the

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Apostle Paul says, When I came to you, brothers, I did not come to you proclaiming the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom.

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I like to always point out, this is most certainly true, because the Apostle Paul, he did not engage in rhetoric or entertainment or give them what they wanted so that he can bedazzle them.

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And he was so terrible at not being entertaining that one time he preached and droned on for so long that some poor fellow literally fell asleep during the sermon and fell out of a window and died.

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I have yet to kill anyone while preaching. The Apostle Paul did, but thankfully he was an apostle, so he was able to make things right by raising the fellow from the grave, dusting him off, and saying, so sorry, right?

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I can't do that, so if you die during the sermon, my apologies ahead of time.

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So here's the idea. Paul did not come with lofty speech or wisdom.

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And then listen to these words. I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

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Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. That's all you came to do? Yes, the

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Apostle Paul is saying that he and we together should consider ourselves like the band

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The Knack. Thinking The Knack? Yes, haven't you ever heard that song,

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My Sharona? Right, now tell me all the rest of the songs that The Knack sung, all their other greatest hits.

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Zero. They were one -hit wonders. We as Christians, we are like The Knack.

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We are one -hit wonders. We preach Christ and Him crucified for our sins. We know nothing except for Christ and Him crucified for our sins.

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You're sounding a little repetitive there. Let me tell you about Christ and Him crucified for our sins, because it is that that is the power of God to salvation.

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I've got one song, I've got one message, and if you've been here for any length of time,

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I defy you. Go back through the sermons on the website. You're gonna find, you know what? That Pastor Rose, bro, all he ever preaches is

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Christ and Him crucified for our sins. That's right. I am a one -hit wonder. In fact,

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I got nothing to tell you except for, hey, you know, Christ has bled and died for your sins, and it means everything.

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And the Apostle Paul says, I chose to know nothing among you, so let us know nothing except for that one song,

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Christ and Him crucified for our sins. You see, the

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Apostle Paul didn't come in strength. He came in weakness. He came in fear and much trembling.

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And his message was not in plausible words of wisdom or even in the demonstration, but in the demonstration of the power of the

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Spirit and of power. And here's the idea. Since the gospel is the power of God, I know this.

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You want to see God moving in power. I've seen it happen here many times.

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When people are confronted with their sins, convicted, and feel sorrow, and call out to God, Lord have mercy on me a sinner.

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The Spirit is moving among us in power because that's what the gospel does. And so that your faith then doesn't rest on wisdom, doesn't rest in entertainment, but instead rests in the power of God.

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And the power of God is the word of the cross. That's the idea. I've seen people raised from the dead.

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And I mean it because I've preached the gospel to them and they were brought to faith in Christ.

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And this is what we need. Think back to our Old Testament text. Were any of you squirming while Dwayne was reading?

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Thou shalt not. You shall honor your father and mother. You will not murder.

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You will not commit adultery. You will not covet. You will not take the name of the Lord your God in vain. And I saw you guys.

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You guys were kind of sitting there going, how long is this going to go on? And every time we hear God's law, that's kind of the reaction that we all kind of internally feel.

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And the reason why is because each and every one of us, when we hear those commandments, we can say honestly,

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I'm trying, but I'm not really succeeding in doing.

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And see, that's the purpose of the law. It shows you your sin and your need for a Savior. It shows you that the most important thing in all of the universe is that our sin has separated us from God, has estranged us from Him, and that we are powerless to do what is necessary to reconcile ourselves to God.

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And the reality is is that keep the commandments as best as you can. You're still not going to keep them perfectly.

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And what is required is perfect obedience. Well, if that's what's required, then

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I ain't doing it. You ain't doing it either. But Christ has done it for you.

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And see, He is our righteousness, Paul said. He's our sanctification.

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He's our redemption. And that message of the cross, the word that is so foolish to everybody else, announces to them the very thing that they need the most.

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That reconciliation with God has been accomplished for you.

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Accomplished for you because Jesus came, born of the Virgin Mary, He kept that law perfectly, and He died instead of you.

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And you by faith are now clothed in His righteousness. You have been redeemed, reconciled to the

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Father, and have peace with God. So now that we understand that we must stay and continue preaching this really foolish message that isn't entertaining, isn't filled with plausible words of wisdom, and the only demonstration of power that comes from it is people brought to penitent faith in Christ, raised from the dead to eternal life.

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Eventually we'll see the real power of the gospel fulfilled when every one of the people in that graveyard rise from the grave when

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Jesus returns in glory. So let us warmly embrace being one -hit wonders.

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We'll get the knack of preaching the gospel, pun intended. Boo, boo, boo, that's right.

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If we're going to be fools, let us be fools preaching the gospel. And let us know nothing except for Christ and Him crucified for our sins.

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In the name of Jesus, Amen. If you would like to support the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church, you can do so by sending a tax -free donation to Kungsvinger Lutheran Church, 15950 470th

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Avenue Northwest, Oslo, Minnesota 56744. And again that address is

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Kungsvinger Lutheran Church, 15950 470th

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Avenue Northwest, Oslo, Minnesota 56744. We thank you for your support.

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