The Dawning of the Day of the Lord

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. The Holy Gospel according to St. Matthew chapter 24 verses 36 through 44.

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Jesus said, but concerning that day and hour no one knows not even the angels of heaven nor the sun but the

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Father only. As were the days of Noah so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking marrying and giving in marriage until the day when

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Noah entered the ark and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away so will be the coming of the

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Son of Man. Then two men will be in the field one will be taken one left.

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Two women will be grinding at the mill one will be taken one left. Therefore stay awake for you do not know on what day your

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Lord is coming but know this that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into.

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Therefore you also must be ready for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.

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In the name of Jesus. All right hear this from our epistle text this morning.

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Besides this you know the time that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep for salvation is nearer to us than when we first believed.

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The night is far gone the day is at hand. Now the windows in my office in my pirate cave if you've been there you know that it's decked out in modern pirate.

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The windows in my office they face east. I'm in North Dakota I could see the see the dike and the time you know the time of the year when the days are short the nights are cold and the days are cold too.

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We're all familiar with those days. I wake up early in the morning hours and I begin to work and out my window the day begins with total darkness.

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Now the only lights I can see are what my wife calls our Narnia light. All right we have one of those wrought iron lights in my yard.

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She calls it our Narnia light and that stays on and then it turns off you know when the Sun comes up.

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But I also can see a city street light over on the corner. Now eventually as I'm working

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I begin to see in the sky the first pale pinks of the night beginning to signal the imminent arrival of the day.

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And I know that when I begin to see color in the sky that it is not long before the

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Sun will burst into the sky and the new day will dawn and my office will be flooded with sunlight.

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I have to put on my sunglasses. The whole room is just blazing with the

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Sun. Now brothers and sisters what I've just described is exactly what

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Advent is all about. Advent is that in -between time.

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We see we've been wakened from the grave. Christ has spoken to us. We have been regenerated.

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We are alive in the wee morning hours of the new creation. But the

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Sun has not yet come up. You see through the word through the washing of regeneration we've been awakened from our sinful slumber.

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Notice that sin is likened to sleeping. We've risen before the Sun has arrived and that's spelled

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S -O -N. Before the Sun has arrived and when we gaze at the eschatological east, often the eschatological eastern horizon, we can see that already colors are appearing and becoming more pronounced.

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The light is growing brighter and brighter and soon the darkness will be no more. The dawning of the new day is greater than Christmas.

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This dawning of this new day is greater than Christmas, Easter, oh and the last day of school combined.

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Those were the three pinnacle days of the kids calendar.

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Christmas, Easter, last day of school. It's greater than all of that and we when this day dawns we will finally behold

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Jesus with our own eyes. We will finally be able to worship at his feet. Our hearts will swell when we finally behold the awesomeness of our crucified risen

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Savior and King who will sit on the throne of David forever. So look at the horizon.

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Can you see that the night is far spent? If you can't see it then trust the words of our

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Epistle text. The night is far spent. The sun,

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S -O -N, is almost here. Now here's a little bit of a factoid

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I'd like to consider today. Your view of the future has a well huge impact, almost a determining impact on how you live your life.

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You may have heard the phrase, that person is so heavenly minded they're of no earthly good.

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Have you ever heard this? Whoever says this doesn't know what they're talking about and if a pastor says this from a pulpit you need to put a dunce cap on him and send him to the back of the congregation for remedial instruction on theology and what the

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Scriptures say. It's a little strong I know but that's the truth. The fact is is that Scripture says you are only able to be of any earthly good when you are really heavenly minded.

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We have our minds looking forward to and seeing what is coming and we live our lives appropriately.

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So let me kind of point out this on the back end of it, the negative side. If you believe that Jesus is a myth and I hope that there's nobody here who believes this but if you believe that Jesus is a myth, a legend, a fairy tale, something akin to the

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Tooth Fairy or Santa Claus or maybe even the Easter Bunny, then you believe that he's never going to come back and you probably even doubt that he came in the first place.

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If this is what you believe then you are asleep. You're asleep in your sins.

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You live in the darkness blissfully unaware of the coming dawn. Because of this you continue to practice the works of darkness which our scripture passage makes clear includes sexual immorality, hatred, murder, coveting, gossiping, the like, things like this.

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In fact you live for yourself and all you do is for you and your benefit.

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You're looking out for number one, the big eye, the big ego. So if this is you

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I must warn you, the day is dawning and do not think for a second that you will be able to press the snooze button once the day of the

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Lord dawns. That ain't gonna happen. Boy do I love my snooze button. Best invention ever.

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My college roommates hated it though because I would five, six, seven, eight times.

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It took me a while to wake up. But when the day of the Lord dawns you will not be able to press the snooze button.

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In fact Peter warns those who are not awake and those who scoff at the idea that the darkness is fast fleeing before the dawning of Christ.

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Our cross -reference today is found in 2nd Peter chapter 3 starting at verse 1 if you'd like to follow along.

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And here's what Peter writes. This is now the second letter that I'm writing to you beloved and both of them

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I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder that you should remember the predictions of the

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Holy Prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles knowing this first of all that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing following their own sinful desires.

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Show me a pastor from the pulpit that scoffs at the idea that Jesus is returning and I'll show you a pastor who is following his own sinful desires.

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Show me a pastor who scoffs at the idea that Jesus is returning soon or that the well the

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Bible is the inspired inerrant Word of God and I'll show you a pastor who's got some really interesting skeletons in his closet.

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This is what this text says. They are scoffing because they are following their own sinful desires.

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They will say where is the promise of his coming for ever since the fathers fell asleep all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.

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You see they kind of extrapolate it this way. Human beings as far back as anybody can remember as always the history books kind of record have all been screwed up.

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We've all been this way. It's been darkness ever since the beginning of the dawning of time and darkness has continued till now.

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Darkness has been there my whole life therefore ergo darkness will continue forever. To err is human they say.

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Oh but this is not what God says. This is not what God says. And then to make matters worse give me an example of this.

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A pastor friend of mine a colleague who works with me with our Aletheia Outreach down in Australia was telling us the story of well an event that he had to go to where there was an installation of an

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Anglican priest and he had been invited you know clergymen from all over the region were invited to this this fellows installation and the presiding bishop of the

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Anglican Church there made a quip about well those people who believe in the inerrancy of Scripture they clearly don't know what they're talking about because Jesus said behold

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I come quickly. It's been a few thousand years if you haven't checked your watch so therefore

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God's Word must not be trustworthy. Send this man back to college for remedial logic and he said it from the pulpit.

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But see here's what Peter says. For ever since the fathers fell asleep all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation that's their argument for they deliberately overlooked this fact that the heavens existed long ago the earth was formed out of water and through water by the

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Word of God and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished.

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This is a reference to the flood. By the same word the heavens and the earth that now exist are stored up for fire being kept until the day of judgment and the destruction of the ungodly.

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But do not overlook this one fact beloved that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day and this is due to the fact that God himself exists in eternity.

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We are the ones who exist in time and space and we experience things one thing after another. God experiences them all at the same time.

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So with him well one day is like a thousand years and a thousand years is as a day and the

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Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness but as patient towards you.

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In other words the fact that Christ continues to tarry is a sign that God loves you. He's being patient with you not wishing that any should perish including you.

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Instead God desires that all should reach repentance. But the day of the

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Lord will come like a thief and then the heavens will pass away with a roar the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved and the earth and the works that are done in it will be exposed.

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Since all these things are thus to be dissolved what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness?

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Notice here Peter wants us to be so heavenly minded that we can finally be of some earthly good.

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And think of it this way everything right now that you can see, smell, taste, touch, experience, purchase, buy, love.

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Everything that you're looking at all of this is going bye -bye. None of it will exist after this.

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The whole creation will die. God himself is killing it.

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He's also making a new heavens and a new earth. You have the information of what's coming next.

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Since all of these things are to be dissolved they are what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn.

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But according to his promise we are waiting for the new heavens and the new earth in which righteousness dwells.

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That's right. In the world that is coming there is no darkness. There is no sin. There are no corrupt politicians.

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Yes! Sorry I get excited about things like that. There are no awful bosses who treat you poorly.

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There are no people who are engaging in sexual immorality or fall short.

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You have in this new creation will be completely set free from the dominion of darkness, the tyranny of sin, the tyranny of death.

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There will be no disease. There will be no hospitals. Oh and by the way in case you hadn't paid attention to the subtext of our of our

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Old Testament reading from Isaiah, people are going to learn about God from God himself.

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I'm out of a job. I'm really nervous about all of this.

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I'm gonna have to learn how to farm. Some of you farmers well

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I'm gonna need your help because pastor is going to be well out of a job and homeless if I don't get to work.

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This is what we are hoping for. This is what we are expecting and this is what God says is coming and does

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God ever lie? No. So in other words keep your eyes focused on the horizon what's coming because only then focusing on what is coming and hoping for expecting waiting can't wait for it to get here it's almost

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Christmas kind of thought talking right only then are you able to live a life in holiness and godliness only then are you to be of service to your neighbor you must become so heavenly minded that you will finally be of some good here on this planet

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Jesus says regarding this day we read it in our gospel text concerning that day that hour no one knows not even the angels of heaven or the

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Son but the Father only for as were the days of Noah so will be the coming of the Son of Man for as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking marrying giving in marriage until the day when

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Noah entered the ark and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away so will be the coming of the

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Son of Man and you think about it it's really foolish Noah according to scriptures preached for a hundred years he was a preacher of righteousness he was warning everybody that the flood is coming can you imagine how difficult it was for him to get the building permits to build an ark in his backyard and they never listened to him none of them but God doesn't lie and God judged the world just like he promised and there was plenty of room on the ark for others to come along but they persisted in sin and unbelief they slumbered they were asleep they were cozy in their beds of sin it's so warm there and I'm so tired

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I don't I can't get up that's what sin does to you but Jesus says this two men will be in the field one will be taken one left two women will be grinding at the mill one taken one left when the day when

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Jesus returns it says earlier in the passage that he's going to send out his angels and they will gather up the elect they will be gathered up and first Thessalonians says we will meet him in the sky therefore stay awake you don't know on what day your

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Lord is coming but know this that if the master of the house had known in which part of the night the thief was coming he would have stayed awake and would not have left let his house be broken into therefore you must be ready the son of man is coming at an hour you do not expect brothers and sisters you have been wakened you are awake

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Christ has raised you up do not return to your bed of sin and go back to sleep again here the words of Paul besides this you know the time the hour has come for you to wake from sleep for salvation is nearer to us than when we first believed the night is far gone the day is at hand today we live by the light of Bethlehem and Calvary the cradle and the cross keep looking at the eschatological horizon the night is far gone the reason that you know this is because Christ has awakened you so that his day will not catch you unawares you've been awakened in the wee hours of the first day of the new creation your sins have been washed away in the waters of your baptism you've been fed the breakfast of Christ's body and blood given and shed for you for the forgiveness of your sins you've received word from Jesus himself that all of your sins are forgiven in the words of the absolution the dawning of the day of your salvation is at hand can you see his light in the horizon

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Jesus is just about ready to burst forth from the eastern sky the war will finally be over and our reunion with those who've gone before us is mere minutes away all of this darkness sin and devilish satanic evil will disappear at his coming the way the darkness disappears when the

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Sun comes over the horizon so let us walk properly as in the daytime not in orgies or drunkenness not in sexual immorality and sensuality not in quarreling and jealousy and backbiting and stabbing each other and gossiping instead put on the

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Lord Jesus Christ make no provision for the flesh to gratify its desires and notice

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Jesus here is likened to a garment something that you put on and our sinful nature hates these clothes have you ever seen the movie

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A Christmas Story remember Ralphie his aunt made him that bunny suit the pink nightmare our sinful nature thinks about Christ in those terms you put on Christ and sitting there going oh you look ridiculous no you don't you look like you're ready for the dawn so all of those sinful desires passions thoughts actions they're gonna be no more when

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Jesus comes so let's drop them now leave them behind these are the shackles in the chains that bound us and enslaved us to the devil and his dominion of darkness in the first place the light is dawning so let us get out of bed cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light

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Luke says from our gospel text from a couple weeks ago there will be signs in the

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Sun and Moon and stars on the earth is that distress of nations and perplexity because of the roaring of the sea and the waves people fainting with fear and foreboding of what is coming on the world because they are not paying attention the powers of the heavens will be shaken they will see the

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Son of Man coming in cloud with power and great glory and now when you see these things begin to take place straighten up raise your heads because your redemption is drawing near the colors in the horizon tell us that your

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Jesus is near very very near it won't be long now and it shall come to pass

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Isaiah says that in the latter days the mountain of the house of the Lord will be established as the highest of the mountains it shall be lifted up above the hills and all the nations will flow to it

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I cannot wait a new world is coming it's almost here can you feel it 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 5 6 7 4 4 and again that address is

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Kungsvinger Lutheran Church 15950 470th