Twelfth Sunday After Trinity Service

Kongsvinger Lutheran Church

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What was the other one? The one that has no problem. Well, the good news is there's a lot of different antibiotics.

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Yeah. I have taken a little dose that I haven't for months, and it's just not working.

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But there's a lot of different herbicides. Yeah. Yeah, it's just not working now.

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It might be different. That's okay. I want to sit next to you.

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Oh, yeah. It feels good. It's better in your body. That's it.

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Your life will go better. Oh, yeah. I'm a doctor now. Yeah.

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I was out here. Hi. Careful with that.

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It's all right. Yeah. How are you doing?

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Good. Good to see you. Yeah. He gets a rag now. Yeah. How are you doing?

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Good. It's good to see you. I like to have a great time.

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I agree, too. I agree. It's good. When I was describing to you, there were two cameras and all this stuff.

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I was like, how did that happen? Awesome. Which makes much more sense.

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There we go. James is out of town, so I'll be late.

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That's great. Are you doing all right?

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I'm not like, they were just like, it's awesome. I got you.

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That was great. I love it. I'm 5 % excited.

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Can you stay in the conversation? I've been waiting for this, too. That's perfect.

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I love it. It's great. I'll get something.

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Is it your birthday? No. It's my birthday. Next year will be

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Jack and I's anniversary. I already like them now. Here, it's pretty good.

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Here's mine. Super nice. James, I think they're on a deadline.

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Yeah. Those are the cake talkers.

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Right, so you get the cake talkers. The first time

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I was here, they took the interstate down to dirt.

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It took them everything. That same thing happened in South Carolina, and that took years.

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Probably as a kid. I'm pretty sure that I did.

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But I didn't know much about it at all. If it makes you feel any better, that's what

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I'm going to do. So the original plan is to make a series?

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Yes. How many? About five or six. But I need like a half hour before I actually have to get there.

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Oh, yeah, yeah. I know. So the first one was written by Rob Sterling, and the first planet of his.

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Which if you look at it, it's like a plot that's based on two hour long episodes of Twilight.

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Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I love the Twilight stuff. I probably would.

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But I just don't. I guess. With this one, you're not going to actually be able to properly see what you get.

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So there's blind originals, and then there's new ones now that are supposed to be prequels to the original.

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The prequels are also No, it's not compared to the It's a different universe than the original.

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That's not a prequel to much of the original. No, no. It's a retelling.

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It's a retelling. It's not a prequel. It's not a sequel. It's a completely different series.

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Okay. Exactly. So whoever did it, what would you have made in the original ones?

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Tell us. She probably didn't.

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It depends. I'm not very happy. Is it working?

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It's working now. It just depends on how many people are watching.

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If it kind of has to stop. I'm sorry. Josh, hit these.

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Sorry. Just turn it?

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That's good. You okay? Is this for kids that preschool three to five years old?

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So it is a preschool through the desert and the dumps.

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Hallelujah! My favorite hymn.

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It's a good one. This makes Mikey happy. That's my favorite hymn of them all.

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At the end of the day, I have much more to give. I don't want to say that much more than that. I might have to make something else.

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Oh, they're mixed. Hallelujah! Oh, you can still say it.

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It's still true. Do you have a curriculum then?

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Yeah, it's not the same. Every day, we're supposed to See, growing up for me, it's usually conservative.

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What's usually conservative? Well, that's the thing. I don't have to buy anything for my classroom unless I want to.

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Things, whatever. I was told

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I would be there at 8 to 7 a .m. on Wednesday to do what? Oh, just get a presentation done.

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It was more of an interview. It was more of an interview, too, but I stayed the next two hours.

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It wasn't a bad interview. It was a good one. The next thing

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I knew, I was like, oh, that's what I'm doing wrong. What were you doing all day?

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First page is upside down. Oh, here it is. Why did you wait to be on this side here?

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You got to sit down before you sit in the bathroom. It's right there. Do either of you need to go to the bathroom?

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You do? Come on. Did you go to mom or dad? Did you go to mom or dad?

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Did you go to mom or dad? Did you go to mom or dad? Did you go to mom or dad? Did you go to mom or dad? Did you go to mom or dad? Did you go to mom or dad?

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Did you go to mom or dad? Did you go to mom or dad?

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Did you go to mom or dad? Did you go to mom or dad? Did you go to mom or dad? Did you go to mom or dad?

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Did you go to mom or dad? Did you go to mom or dad? Did you go to mom or dad?

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Did you go to mom or dad? Did you go to mom or dad? Did you go to mom or dad?

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Did you go to mom or dad? Did you go to mom or dad? Did you go to mom or dad?

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Did you go to mom or dad? Did you go to mom or dad?

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Did you go to mom or dad? Did you go to mom or dad? Did you go to mom or dad? Did you go to mom or dad?

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Did you go to mom or dad? and death, or darkness come from thee.

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Deliver my heart, yet, thou won't hear my plea.

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Thou and those in heav 'n is my plea,

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I sin when ye were free. Thou touch'dt not, not like them,

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Thou didst teach them strength and strength. When ye were free, thou and friends in heart,

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Ye gave them no reply. Thou know'dt all that ye did to us,

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All that ye have bequeathed, Then promised me thy handsomely,

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As thy forefathers should. Thou know'dt all that ye did to us,

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All that ye have bequeathed, Then promised me thy handsomely,

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As thy forefathers should. Thou know'dt all that ye did to us,

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As thy forefathers should. Thou know'dt all that ye did to us,

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All that ye have bequeathed, Then promised me thy handsomely. In the name of the

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Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Beloved in the Lord, let us draw near with a true heart,

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And confess our sins unto God our Father, Beseeching him in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, To grant us forgiveness.

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Our help is in the name of the Lord, Who made heaven and earth. I said I will confess my transgressions unto the

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Lord, And ye will forgive the iniquity of my sins. Almighty God, merciful

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Father, I, a poor, miserable sinner, Confess unto you all my sins and iniquities

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With which I have ever offended you, And justly deserve your temporal and eternal punishment.

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But I am heartily sorry for them, And sincerely repent of them. And I pray you of your boundless mercy,

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And for the sake of the holy, innocent, Bitter sufferings and death Of your beloved

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Son, Jesus Christ, To be gracious and merciful to me, A poor, sinful being.

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Upon this your confession, I, by virtue of my office, As a called and ordained servant of the Word, I announce the grace of God unto all of you,

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And in the stead and by the command of my Lord Jesus Christ, I forgive you all of your sins, In the name of the

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Father, and the Son, And the Holy Spirit. Amen. Make haste,

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O God, to deliver me, O Lord, make haste to help me.

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Let them be put to shame and confusion Who seek my life.

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Let them be turned back And brought to dishonor

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Who desire my hurt. May all who seek you

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Rejoice and be glad in you.

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You are my help and deliverer, O Lord, do not delay.

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Glory be to the Father, And to the Son, And to the

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Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning,

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Is now and will be forever. Amen.

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Make haste, O God, to deliver me, O Lord, make haste to help me.

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Let them be put to shame and confusion Who seek my life.

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Glory be to the Father, And to the

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Son, And to the Holy Spirit.

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As it was in the beginning,

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Is now and will be forever. Amen.

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Lord, have mercy upon us.

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Christ, have mercy upon us.

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Lord, have mercy upon us.

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Glory be to God on high. The Lord be with you.

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And with your spirit. Almighty and merciful

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God, by your gift alone your faithful people render true and laudable service. Help us steadfastly to live in this life according to your promises and finally attain your heavenly glory through Jesus Christ, your

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Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you in the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

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Amen. You may be seated. The Old Testament reading for this, the 12th

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Sunday after Trinity, is taken from the prophet Isaiah chapter 29. Is it not yet a very little while until Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field shall be regarded as a forest?

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In that day the deaf shall hear the words of a book, and out of their gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind shall see.

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The meek shall obtain fresh joy in the Lord, and the poor among mankind shall exult in the

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Holy One of Israel. For the ruthless shall come to nothing, and the scoffer cease, and all who watch to do evil shall be cut off.

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Who by a word make a man out to be an offender, and lay a snare for him who reproves in the gate, and with an empty plea turn aside him who is in the right?

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Therefore, thus says the Lord, who redeemed Abraham concerning the house of Jacob, Jacob shall no more be ashamed, no more shall his face grow pale.

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For when he sees his children and the works of my hands in his midst, they will sanctify my name, they will sanctify the

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Holy One of Jacob, and will stand before him. Nothing is coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, who has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter, but of the

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Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. Now, if the ministry of death, carved in letters on stone, came with such glory that the

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Israelites could not gaze at Moses' face because of its glory, which was being brought to an end, will not the ministry of the

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Spirit have even more glory? For if there was glory in the ministry of condemnation, the ministry of righteousness must far exceed it in glory.

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Indeed, in this case, what once had glory has come to have no glory at all, because of the glory that surpasses it.

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For if what was being brought to an end came with glory, how much more will what is permanent have glory?

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This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. The Holy Gospel according to St.

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Mark, the seventh chapter. There we go.

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Let me try that again. The Holy Gospel according to St. Mark, the seventh chapter. Jesus returned from the region of Tyre and went through Sidon to the

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Sea of Galilee in the region of the Decapolis. And they brought to him a man who was deaf and had a speech impediment.

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And they begged him to lay his hand on him. And taking him aside from the crowd, privately he put his fingers into his ear and after spitting, touched his tongue.

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And looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, Ephatha, that is, be opened. And his ears were opened and his tongue was released.

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And he spoke plainly. And Jesus charged them to tell no one. But the more he charged them, the more zealously they proclaimed it.

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And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, He has done all things well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.

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This is the Gospel of the Lord. We 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, Maker of heaven and earth and of all things visible and invisible.

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And in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, begotten of His Father before all worlds,

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God of all creation. Light of God, light of light, very 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

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Scriptures and ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of the Father and He shall 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 worshipped 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. You may be seated. In the name of Jesus.

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Amen. Alright, when I was living as a young man in the 1980s, this tune came on the radio.

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It was very popular at the time by a band called Depeche Mode. Here are the lyrics. People are people so why should it be that you and I should get along so awfully?

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People are people why should it be that you and I should get along so awfully? So we're different colors, we're different creeds and different people have different needs.

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It's obvious you hate me though I've done nothing wrong. I've never even met you so what could I have done? Have you noticed that human beings don't get along with each other?

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I would note that I think one of the stupidest things that we teach our children is by allowing them to watch like Disney princess movies and at the end when the princess and the prince finally get married, it always ends with these dumb words.

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They lived happily ever after. And here's the thing. Those stories were originally written and told as Christian allegory.

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The prince was never just a prince. The princess was never just a princess. The idea was the prince was always

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Christ and the princess is supposed to be the bride of Christ. It allegorizes that relationship.

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But now we live in a post Christian world and good grief Disney has no clue of the

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Christianity that they're spewing at Disneyland and other places and on their streaming services when they play these songs that come from these movies that are about princes and princesses from long ago in places like that.

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But all that being said, what we expect in this life is this as a result of those words misunderstood.

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That once a happy couple in love with each other hormones raging by the way.

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Have you noticed how completely incapable of sound decisions people who are experiencing love hormones are?

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How they are? No, you don't want to make that decision. Trust me. That's not the guy for you.

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That's not the girl for you. And they won't listen. They don't listen. But then eventually the love hormones wear off and they wake up one morning in the bed of that person and they go, what have

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I done? And here's the issue. We human beings because of the expectations that were raised on this fantasy ideas we believe that once we say

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I do that that means we're going to live happily ever after but here's the issue. You put two sinners together under the same roof and it's a problem.

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It is absolutely a problem. And here's the thing. We all know this because have you noticed it's the people that are supposed to love us?

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The ones who are supposed to care for us? The ones who are supposed to be by our side through thick and thin often times turn out to be the people who are not.

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In fact what they bring with them is not love and support and caring and cherishing.

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Instead they bring with them anger and abuse. You think of the husband who said

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I do to his wife and promised to be faithful to her and then after she has five kids and she no longer looks like the 18 year old swimsuit model that he married he decides he's going to trade her in on a new model and he's going to start all over again create a whole new family with a younger woman and here's what happens now you've got custody battles and divorce hearings and kids sitting there going why am

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I not good enough? Why did my father leave me in order to have these other kids?

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What do they have that I don't have? And then you think of like abusive parents who constantly run down their children and say things like you will never measure up.

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You are stupid. You are ignorant. You are just scum of the earth.

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Is this any way for a parent to talk to a child? Or worse when they talk that way to their own spouse and so you'll know the world we live in is full of pain and here's the thing who can you trust in the middle of that if you can't even trust your own blood relatives who can you trust and so here's the thing people go through life angry, upset alone broken, thinking they are worthless and so when somebody comes along and offers just a modicum of compassion, a little bit of love, some attention maybe a wee bit of empathy finally somebody who understands me and next thing you know you're being scammed by that person and you're out $10 ,000 because they were just being kind in order to get close enough to you to take your money who can you trust and if you think you can trust yourself don't even get me started on that, no you can't you cannot trust yourself because you'll know that over and again you are broken like me, you're a sinner like me and often times the decisions that we make in order to assuage or to comfort ourselves or make us feel a little less pain in our lives often times those decisions turn out to be sinful and as a result of it we add to the problem we are the problem, the problem has occurred to us we are abused, we abused we are screamed at, we scream at others we have been the victims of terrible things and what do we do, we turn around and we do terrible things what a great picture

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I should just end the sermon right here and say well there's no hope but here's the thing there is hope and it's important for us to recognize something and that is that the predicament that we find ourselves in is the result of sin but it's author is not

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God and in fact humanity is not the author of sin Satan is

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Satan chooses to undo God's good creation and rather than us living in the freedom of being the sons and children of God we instead are brought into the bondage of slavery to sin, to death to the devil, to the world and it's passions and our own sinful flesh,

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Satan is the arch enemy here and I would note in our gospel text we run into what

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I consider to be kind of the epitome of the problem have you ever ever experienced or like maybe you just experienced it second hand maybe through television or the news or something like this watching somebody experience something that you knew there was no recovery from none whatsoever maybe that it's the guy who's texting while driving down the highway and you can see it coming this guy's not paying attention and sure as certain every attempt to try to get his attention has failed and what happens?

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He plows into an oncoming truck dies, kills other people in the process and the thing is is that when you notice what was happening it was already too late

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I would note that when somebody is born deaf and unable to speak that's a great metaphor if you would of what it means to be dead in trespasses and sins because the person who is deaf cannot hear the word of God faith comes by hearing, hearing by the word of Christ and you'll note that those who are deaf they cannot speak have you noticed that in our day there's been great progress to teach the deaf how to speak but that's something that's come along in our lifetime at least those of us who are older right?

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have you ever looked at somebody who was born with a disability and felt uncomfortable

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I do every time I see it every time I see somebody who's blind somebody who is missing a limb somebody who's deaf because here's the thing we all were originally created in the image of God you and I were and in our creation we were noble we were perfect there was no death there were no disabilities in fact every parent every couple who decides to have children the reality is this they are rolling the

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DNA dice and praying it doesn't come up with a disability and what happens when somebody is born with down syndrome born without the limbs born with a cleft palate born with special needs now you have a family who for the rest of their lives are burdened with the difficulty of caring for a special needs child who turns into a special needs adult and what's the hope for that child once those parents are gone you know what

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I'm saying right we're all uncomfortable together and so you'll note this is all the consequences of our sin being born deaf means you can't hear the word of God faith comes by hearing by the word of Christ being mute means you cannot speak the language of the people that you are a part of you cannot sing the praises of God and so you'll note there's a little more to this gospel text than meets the eye if you would there is in a real way kind of a spiritual target here that we need to consider so our text in our gospel begins when

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Jesus returned from the region of Tyre and he went through Sidon to the sea of Galilee in the region of the

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Decapolis you've heard me say it before I'll keep saying it, geography matters and in this particular case the setup here, the geography screams a theology let me explain,

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Tyre and Sidon is that inside of Israel? No, not at all that's pagan territory right and Jesus coming back from Tyre and Sidon doesn't head back to Capernaum, he heads to a place called the

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Decapolis which in Greek just means the ten cities and these ten cities are not

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Jewish settlements they are not places where you would expect sound doctrine to be taught and preached from the synagogues the

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Decapolis, these were cities of idolatry, of the worship of the false gods of Rome that being the case, what's

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Jesus doing there? Well, you'll remember God told Abram that through his offspring the entire world would be blessed

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Christ is not merely the king of the Jews, he's the king of the world and he is our king, and he did not come merely to set

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Israel free, but also to set those who are Gentiles free and then make them citizens of the new

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Israel that he is making of himself with his people, and so this is a foretaste of that but you'll note then that when

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Christ, the light of the world comes into the Decapolis, the Decapolis is a place of darkness, it's a place of paganism you remember when

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God called the Apostle Paul, and he was knocked him down blinded him on the road to Damascus he made it very clear that Paul was to be sent to the

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Gentiles to call them out of darkness into the light of Christ that being the case, here the light of Christ is, well, shining in the darkness of the

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Gentile paganism and their world and so these words then come in they, we don't know who they is who's they?

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They this group, this they is more than one, it could have been two it could have been five, they brought to him a man who was deaf and had a speech impediment and they begged him to lay his hand on him what a beautiful sentence, but if you slow down and think about it there's a lot going on here who are they, how did they know that Jesus would be helpful, that he would be willing to help this man who was deaf and I would note, speech impediment is just a lame, just a lame translation alright, better way to put it is that he was mute, he was unable to speak, because he's deaf so that being the case how did they know that Jesus would be the guy to help them, because you'll note the religious leaders of Jesus' day weren't interested in helping anybody with anything, the only thing they cared about is making you their disciple and making sure that they got properly paid for it and that you gave them the proper honor and things like this, and if you run into a problem in your life, maybe you come down with an illness that's going to last you for decades oh, that's on you, because you didn't have enough faith you weren't obedient enough, it's because of your sin, it's all your fault and of course, when they come down with those types of diseases, they always have an excuse, don't they so how did they know that Jesus was the fellow that would help them they knew something about Christ and they knew that he was merciful they knew that he was kind but more than that,

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Jesus is fulfilling prophecy, and I'm doing so left and right, let me give you an example

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Psalm 68 Psalm of David, and you'll note David knows a thing or two about family problems, remember he married a gal by the name of Michal, Michal who was she, she was the daughter of Saul, so David had a father -in -law named

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Saul, who happened to be the king, and how well did Saul treat

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David right dysfunctional family, shall we say, tried to murder him on many occasions, pin him to a wall with a spear, never seemed to hit him though, that spear was intended for Christ, not for David but listen to this psalm the prophet,

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King David, writing God shall arise his enemies shall be scattered and those who hate him shall flee before him as smoke is driven away so shall you drive them away, as wax melts before fire, so the wicked shall perish before God but the righteous shall be glad they shall exult before God, they shall be jubilant with joy sing to God, sing praises to his name, lift up a song to him who rides through the deserts his name is

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Yahweh exult before him, and listen to these next words, he is father of the fatherless the protector of widows is

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God in his holy habitation he settles the solitary in a home, he leads out the prisoners to prosperity but the rebellious, they dwell in a parched land note here,

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God says he's father of the fatherless but the Pharisees say, if you're fatherless, it's your fault you sinned so when dad leaves, doesn't have anything to do with you, off with another woman making babies with her and completely neglecting those he made with his first wife you'll note that rather than giving you the line well, you just weren't good enough

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God comes in and says I will be your father because I am I am your heavenly father and when widows, widows are the poorest of the poor in the ancient world before women can own property everything depended upon the health of their husbands and wives would want to die before their husbands did because if they became widows at a young age there was like no hope for them it was a sure and certain formula for them being destitute for the rest of their lives and what does

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God say? I am the protector of widows those who have been driven out, the homeless the solitary,

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God leads home and gives them a home to the prisoners you know, the people who really messed up the ones who got caught committing crimes

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I had to put the emphasis on the word caught because how many people commit crimes and never get caught each and every one of us when we sin against God we're guilty of criminal behavior whether you agree with it or not, that's true we are all prisoners, slaves to sin and God is the one who leads us out to prosperity to those who have been well brought to dereliction by sin who started off so well who jumped into this world thinking that oh everything's going to be just peachy keen I mean after all, you can be all that you can be in fact you can be anything you want to be that's what they tell you, right?

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you can use your words to attract to yourself fame, fortune influence, power wealth a solid financial foundation and yet how many of you work and labor week after week and sometimes you wonder how you're going to make ends meet how you're going to pay all the bills right?

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so you're going to note here God the one true God is siding with the losers

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God is siding with and coming to the aid not of those people who have their acts together who have won the lottery in life in one form or another instead he is there for those who have been left for dead because of the consequences of sin we are not here gathered at Kongsvinger for the purpose of singing our praises and me telling you, you know you're just this close to living your dream all you have to do is apply these ten easy steps and you too can be influential and powerful like me because I ain't by the way so God is the father of the fatherless protector of widows he settles the solitary in a home he leads out prisoners to prosperity that's the

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God who is in human flesh in our gospel story and so as the word has gotten out they, they have heard or maybe they have seen for themselves,

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Jesus isn't like the other religious leaders he's not here to condemn us and to basically take our nose and smash it into the dung of our sin and tell us to stop messing up the house he's here for a different reason and so they knew full well that Christ was the one that this man who is deaf and mute could be brought to and that Jesus would do something about it that he wouldn't complain that he wouldn't scold them, that he wouldn't just say, alright, well here's the tithe coffer, just make sure to put your tithe in before I give you this miracle or blessing nothing of the sort so they begged him, please

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Jesus, lay your hands on him, they knew that Christ wasn't a charlatan he wasn't a scammer, he wasn't there for himself he was truly there for others and taking him aside from the crowd, privately

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Jesus is not putting on a miracle show here, right? How many people today who claim to operate in signs and wonders the signs and wonders only occur when the cameras are on and the video is streaming across the internet right?

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Jesus took him aside privately he put his fingers in his ears and after spitting he touched his tongue you'll note, this is such an interesting thing, it doesn't happen very often

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God is capable of healing with the word, Christ is capable of healing with the word, he can command this man to hear and he would hear

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I mean, didn't God in the very beginning in Genesis speak into the void the nothingness and said let there be light and there was light but I would note here when

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I see Jesus doing something like this taking his fingers, putting them in his ears, you know what

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I see I see kind of a reenacting of some of the details of what must have taken place when

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Christ fashioned the body of Adam right? There he is in the garden of Eden and he takes together the dust of the earth and he starts to put it together and you can see

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Jesus, the carpenter of Nazareth, now the anatomy carpenter, he's putting together the body of Adam and going alright, let's put this here we'll give him six pack abs, tell him to stay away from carbs otherwise he'll ruin that things like this and working out his hair, putting in his eyes putting his ears together, making sure that everything's in place it just has that feel of creation to it, right?

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Jesus going back, I don't know, was he wearing a lab coat at the time or was he wearing an apron? I don't know, it doesn't say, but there's here's this picture,

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Jesus taking his own saliva touching his tongue with it and I know if you're like under the age of eleven, you're going eww eww it's okay,

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I would note that don't be grossed out because when you finally get to the kissy phase of your life, you'll be swapping spit,

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I'm just saying okay then they're done I just feel like that's going to become the alternate title for the sermon, the kissy phase alright and then note here, he looks up to heaven, and this is not theatrics on the part of Christ I would note he looks up to heaven for very specific reasons because all good things come from God and God's abode is in heaven above and so Christ looks up to heaven, a reminder that what is to take place comes from God himself and that this is a blessing from heaven and then he sighed it's kind of a breathy thing to do, isn't it?

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kind of a spirity thing to do to sigh sigh and then he said to him ephetha, another breathy word, the whole word just breathes a breath it's the windiest word out there ephetha and that means be opened and his ears were opened his tongue was released and he spoke plainly and I would note you have to think of this there's a dimension to this miracle that we often times miss so let me ask you this question y 'all seem to speak

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English pretty well where'd you learn it? where did you learn how to speak

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English so well? think about it, right? well those of you who've raised kids, you have a pretty good idea where you got the ability to speak

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English because when they first start saying words what are they doing?

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they're mimicking the words that we are speaking and you'll note it takes a long time to master a language it really does and so you'll note that if you have a child who's in elementary school often times what are you doing?

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you're correcting their language when they speak because they'll say things like I think

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I speak gooder than you do and then you sit there and go no no no you don't say gooder no you gotta correct them and so it's a constant back and forth of learning vocabulary learning how to put sentences together helping them make them sound educated and stuff like this but a man who has no ability to hear how good do you think he's going to be at speaking

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Koine Greek? how good do you think he's going to be at being able to speak

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Hebrew to get along with the Jews in his region or Aramaic or any of the other languages including

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Latin how well do you think he would do at that? I would note that when

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I first learned modern Hebrew I used the Pimsleur method because it's a great way to do it it requires you to listen and then repeat listen and repeat very good how are you today?

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and so you say it back and forth this is how you learned as a child but here we have a fellow who's deaf and then with one word epithet, be opened he now speaks plainly he speaks perfect whatever the language is of that region be it

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Koine Greek or Latin or Aramaic he's speaking it perfectly and here's the thing like I said there's a spiritual dimension to this think with me back to Psalm 51 beautiful Psalm the

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Psalm that David wrote after he had committed adultery and murdered adultery with Bathsheba murdered her husband

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Uriah the Hittite and then was called out on him verse 15 we use these words at the beginning of Vespers O Lord open my lips and my mouth will declare your praise what a prayer right but isn't that exactly what we see going on here in the physical realm we see the reality of something that's true for all of us if God had not opened our mouths opened our lips we would not be here today to sing his praises it is not because we are such great people we're not we were born dead in trespasses and sins and dead means that you're mute dead also means that you're death and dead people just don't do anything they're boring to hang around they do not even carry on conversations right, don't even get me started on Wilson the volleyball but that's a whole other thing but all that being said the

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Lord is the one who opens our lips and in opening our lips we declare his praise he is the one that forgives us listen to the

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Psalm in its context David praying Lord have mercy on me according to your steadfast love according to your abundant mercy please blot out my transgressions wash me thoroughly from my iniquity cleanse me from my sin if that isn't a baptismal reference

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I don't know what is for I know my transgressions my sin is ever before me against you and you only have

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I sinned and done what is evil in your sight so that you may be justified in your words, blameless in your judgment behold

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I was brought forth in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me behold you delight in truth in the inward being and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean wash me and I shall be whiter than snow note the petitions here are not that wait a second

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Lord let me go take a shower I'll clean myself up and then I'll come into your presence after I've made myself sparkly and clean instead

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David comes to God with the muck of his sin still on his being in his soul and he prays please wash me and I shall be whiter than snow let me hear joy and gladness let the bones that you have broken let them rejoice hide your face from my sins blot out all of my iniquities please

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God create in me a clean heart and renew a right spirit within me self righteous religion has this completely backwards you need to make yourself right with God you need to clean up your act you need to get your act you need to be intentional you need to put that stuff away you need to you need to you need to you need to David caught flat footed he doesn't say give me a minute

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God while I clean up myself I'm going to wash my heart he says please

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God blot out my transgressions create in me a clean heart renew a right spirit within me the things that he's asking for no human being is capable of doing not me not you not the most moral person who's ever lived among us none of us are able to do this

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God if he doesn't create in us a clean heart if he doesn't renew a right spirit within us we are doomed but why should we believe that God would treat such sinners as us undeserving sinners as us worthy of his wrath why would he even go out of his way to create in us a clean heart because he's the father of the fatherless what kind of dad has the devil been for you by the way abusive tyrannical does he ever care for you at all when we were conceived we were born children of the devil that meant you may as well be children without a dad because you know who the devil cares about the devil the devil cares nothing about you you exist only for his purposes and his way of thinking right so we come to God broken fatherless abused guilty of our own egregious sins and we pray create in us a clean heart oh

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God renew a right spirit within me cast me not away from your presence as I deserve and don't take your holy spirit from me restore to me the joy of your salvation uphold me with a willing spirit then and only then if you do these things

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God then will I teach transgressors your ways and sinners will return to you deliver me because I cannot deliver myself from blood guiltiness oh

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God oh God of my salvation and then my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness oh

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Lord open my lips and my mouth will declare your praise you see it all works together this gospel text points to that song and here this fellow miraculously able to speak plainly despite being deaf has now been released and he can sing and speak the praises of God oh

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Lord open my lips and my mouth will declare your praise so Jesus who's not interested in drawing too much attention to himself because it legitimately impedes his ability to minister he charged them to tell no one please keep this on the

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DL but here's the thing a man who was deaf and mute who can now speak the praises of Christ plainly what do you think somebody who's gone an entire lifetime unable to speak is going to do as soon as you give him a tongue to speak

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I gotta tell you about Jesus right and so the text says the more they charged him the more zealously they proclaimed him what a great thing oh

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Lord open my lips and my mouth will declare your praise and don't even tell me not to because I can't help but to that's how good

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Jesus is and so the text ends with these wonderful words they were astonished beyond measure they've never seen anything like this but I would note it's not merely the miracle they have never seen love like this they have never seen kindness like this they've never seen selflessness like this this is so much different than what we get from the other religious leaders this is so different than what we get from our own parents this is different than we get from our aunts and our uncles and our family members and people who are close family relatives and friends this is love without strings attached this is selflessness with no expectation of payment this is the one who is at work delivering captives opening the ears of the deaf those who are born blind and deaf and unable to speak opening their ears opening their mouths, opening their eyes just as he has done for us he has done all things well he even makes the deaf to hear and the mute to speak that's you and that's me so let us sing the praises of the kind one who is the father of the fatherless the one who sets the prisoners free and leads them into prosperity the one who doesn't look for the people who have their act together but takes the broken, the losers like you and I and he bleeds and he dies for us opens our ears, gives us speech so that we can sing his praises and let us ever focus on him and let us never shut up even if the world tells us to stop telling us about Jesus may we say it all the more in the name of Jesus Amen we rise for the operatory

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Lord, you are our help and our deliverer we bring to you the prayers and the petitions of your people that you may grant us all things needful and guard us against all things harmful

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Lord, in your mercy hear our prayer oh God, open the ears of unbelievers to the word of our salvation loose their lips to praise you were right and their mouths to confess that Jesus is

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Lord Lord, in your mercy bless all pastors and give them boldness to speak the truth in love and compassion that they would not break the bruised reed but lovingly care for all sinners in need of God's mercy

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Lord, in your mercy hear our prayer oh Lord, grant your blessing to all who are imprisoned and send to them visitors bringing your gospel of peace

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Lord, in your mercy hear our prayer bless all in authority by whose service you provide the gift of order including parents and family our government, our police and our firemen our military and our schools give them strength and endurance to carry out their duties for the good of those entrusted to their care

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Lord, in your mercy hear our prayer Lord God, you sent your son Jesus as the great physician of the body and the soul by his touch he banished the fear of his disciples comfort those who are in need especially today do we pray for Catherine, Cricket Elizabeth, Carol Susan, Sheila, Jana and Luca.

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We lift before you Maya, Brent, Pat Kim, Patricia, David Roger, Robin and Bonnie we pray for Marilyn, Angela Mara, Naya, Jonathan, Jeff Wendy, Renee, Louise Deborah, Rachel and Gloria as well as Jonathan Pat and Heather and Gilman.

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We also pray for those who are still blinded and deaf and unable to hear your word and those who are deceived we pray for Renee, Christine Terry, JP, Cory Ryan, Jess, Gabriel, Karen and Tara as well as those who are being persecuted for refusing to stop speaking the praises of our

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Christ. We pray especially for our Christian brothers and sisters in Tehran as well as Marie and Charles We ask with peace in the midst of our fear and wholeness of body and soul that Lord that you would grant our petitions on their behalf.

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Lord in your mercy. Hear our prayer Bless all who will partake this day of Christ's most precious body and blood in the sacrament of the altar.

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Give them discernment of his body that they would come to his table in humility and faith to receive the forgiveness of sins and salvation.

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Lord in your mercy. Hear our prayer Oh Lord Heavenly Father we gratefully remember the sufferings and death of your dear son

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Jesus Christ for our salvation rejoicing in his victorious resurrection from the dead we draw strength from his ascension before you where he ever stands for us as our own high priest.

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Gather us together from the ends of the earth to celebrate with all the faithful the marriage feast of the lamb and his kingdom which has no end graciously receive our prayers deliver and preserve us for to you alone we give all glory honor and worship