Sexagesima Service

Well, you have all day. Will they reschedule it?

No.

Really?

I don't know if this has ever happened before.

But this was day two of it, right?

Yeah.

But I don't know. I don't know.

Yeah.

That was last year. This weather's crazy.

Yeah.

If it's going to rain, it's going to pour for two minutes.

Yep.

And then that's the end of it.

That's right.

Well, that's the way it is. Probably not that chilly outside. I wouldn't guess. I wouldn't gather. It feels nice at the top. It's not bad.

For some reason, our sound is not coming in.

Oh, great.

And I don't know why. Maybe it's not on our end.

Oh, it's not on our end.

I don't believe. I did. I did.

I don't believe it's on our end.

I'd rather see the church than music.

Oh, yeah. We can do that.

I don't want to see the music.

Oh, yeah. Yeah.

I got to figure out how to swap it.

Actually, I figured out how to do that.

Can you show me?

Well, I don't know if I can.

Let's see. View options.

Okay.

Regional size. No, that's not it.

That's not it. Control.

Click on the picture. No, it's not going anywhere.

Let me see.

Yeah. Even stupid me figured that one out. But this is not my computer either.

I know.

But it's the same one, basically.

Yeah, it is.

It is. Gosh.

See how I did it.

How about trying that one?

This button.

Yeah. No.

It didn't do anything. Hold on.

First of all, I need to figure out why.

Speakers.

Did you tune on the speaker?

Barb, you are unmuted.

The Word of God and the Visible Church

I would like to welcome you all to Kongsvinger Lutheran Church. Today is Sexagissima, which is roughly translated 60th. We have about 60 days out now between here and Easter. And this is the second Sunday of three Sundays of pre-Lent.

So keep all of that in mind. Today we'll be following the order of divine service setting two. The psalm tone will be psalm tone F, as in Farfignügen, which if you remember the old Volkswagen commercials, they claimed that that was a German word for the joy of driving or something like that.

Farfignügen. So F as in Farfignügen. So opening hymn today is 583. And if you are physically present here at Kongsvinger, please rise for the opening hymn. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. Let us then confess our sins to God, our Father. Most merciful God, we confess that we are by nature sinful and unclean. We have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done and by what we have left undone.

We have not loved you with our whole heart. We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We justly deserve your present and eternal punishment for the sake of your Son, Jesus Christ. Have mercy on us.

Forgive us, renew us, and lead us so that we may delight in your will and walk in your ways. To the glory of your holy name. Amen. Almighty God, in his mercy, has given his Son to die for you, and for his sake he forgives you all of your sins.

As a called and ordained servant of Christ and by his authority, I therefore forgive you all of your sins. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Psalm tone F.

Awake, why are you sleeping, O Lord? For our soul is bowed down to the dust. O God, we have heard with our ears, our fathers have told us. You with your own hand drove out the nations, but them you planted.

But you have saved us from our foes. In God we boast continually. Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now and will be forever. Amen. Awake, why are you sleeping, O Lord?

For our soul is bound down to the dust. In peace let us pray to the Lord. For the peace from above and for our salvation, let us pray to the Lord. For the peace of the whole world, for the well-being of the Church of God and for the unity of all, let us pray to the Lord.

For this Holy House and for all who offer here their worship and praise, let us pray to the Lord. Help, save, comfort and defend us, gracious Lord. Glory to God in the highest and peace to His people on earth.

The Lord be with you. Let us pray. O God, the strength of all who put their trust in you, mercifully grant that by your power we may be defended against all adversity through Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you in the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

Amen. You may be seated. The Old Testament reading for Sexagissima is taken from the prophet Isaiah chapter 55. For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth.

It shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that for which I purpose and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it. For you shall go out in joy and be led forth in peace. The mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.

Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress, instead of the briar shall come up the myrtle, and it shall make a name for the Lord, an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off. This is the word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God. We'll speak the gradual together. Let your enemies know that you alone whose name is the Lord, oh my God, make them like whirling dust. Our epistle is taken from 2 Corinthians chapters 11 and 12.

For you gladly bear with fools being wise yourselves, for you bear it if someone makes slaves of you or devours you or takes advantage of you or puts on airs or strikes you in the face. To my shame, I must say that we were too weak for that.

But whatever anyone else dares to boast of, I'm speaking as a fool. I also dare to boast of that. Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they the offspring of Abraham? So am I. Are they servants of Christ?

I am a better one. I'm talking like a madman. With far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless beatings and often near death. Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes lest one.

Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked. A night and a day I was adrift at sea on frequent journeys in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure.

And apart from the other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches. Who is weak? And I am not weak. Who is made to fall? And I am not indignant. If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness.

The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, He who is blessed forever, knows that I am not lying. At Damascus, the governor under King Eratos was guarding the city of Damascus in order to seize me, but I was let down in a basket through a window in the wall and escaped his hands.

I must go on boasting. Though there is nothing to be gained by it, I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord. I know a man in Christ who, fourteen years ago, was caught up to the third heaven, whether in the body or out of the body, I do not know.

God knows. And I know that this man was caught up into paradise, whether in the body or out of the body. I do not know. God knows. And he who heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter, on behalf of this man I will boast.

But on my own behalf, I will not boast, except of my weaknesses. Though, if I should wish to boast, I would not be a fool, for I would be speaking the truth. But I refrain from it, so that no one may think more of me than he sees in me or hears from me.

So to keep me from becoming too elated by the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming too elated. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me.

But he said to me, My grace is sufficient for you. My power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. This is the word of the Lord.

The Holy Gospel according to St. Luke, the eighth chapter. When a great crowd was gathering, and people from town after town came to Jesus, he said in a parable, A sower went out to sow his seed, and as he sowed, some fell along the path and was trampled underfoot, and the birds of the air devoured it.

And some fell on the rock, and it grew up. It withered away, because it had no moisture. Some fell among the thorns, and the thorns grew up with it and choked it. Some fell into good soil, and grew and yielded a hundredfold.

And as he said these things, he called out, He who has ears to hear, let him hear. And when his disciples asked him what this parable meant, he said, To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God.

For others they are in parables, so that seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand. Now the parable is this. The seed is the word of God. The ones along the path are those who have heard.

Then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. And the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy. But these have no root, and they believe for a while, and in time of testing they fall away.

As for what fell among the thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way, they are choked by the cares and the riches and the pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature. And as for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast, and in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience.

This is the Gospel of the Lord. Sermon Hymn is 823. You may be seated. Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. You may be seated. In the name of Jesus. Amen. The word of God.

The Word of God in the Church and in the Heart

Well, Christ likens it to seed, and that seed is, well, it's living and active, sharper than a double-edged sword. It does stuff. But you'll note that people, in the visible church of all places, are quite inattentive and oftentimes hostile to the word of God.

Notable historical examples I think would be helpful here, and we'll note that during the time of the Middle Ages, the Roman Catholic Church locked up the Bible in Latin. And unless you knew Latin, you weren't here in the word of God.

And I remember when I was growing up, my grandmother would take me to the Latin mass, and I would sit there and I would know what was going on because I didn't know a lick of Latin. Might as well have been speaking in tongues.

And then, of course, during the history of the Reformation, those who were translating the Scriptures into the vernacular of the people of the different nations, many of them faced persecution. Some of them actually martyred for doing what?

Making the word of God available in their own language? What heresy, right? And then you'll note that now that we have the Bible, that doesn't mean that it always has free reign in the visible church.

I would note, in notable places, it is oftentimes attacked. It is maligned. And I think about what's left of what you call the mainline churches, you know, the Episcopal Church,.

The ELCA,.

Some parts of the Presbyterian churches. These people, from the pulpit, attack the word of God. Right before Christmas on the Fighting for the Faith YouTube channel, I played a video of a fellow who from the pulpit, while wearing vestments and everything, this fellow attacked the virgin birth of Jesus Christ.

He says, we live in the 21st century, and we know how human procreation works, and this idea that Jesus was born of a virgin is preposterous. Of course, I sit there and go, do you not think that the people of the ancient world had no clue how human procreation worked?

Right? This is just nonsense. And so he postulated this idea that Jesus, the virgin born, was somehow some title, a legend to kind of show that Jesus was a very, very important fellow. Right. That's attacking the word of God.

But then you'll note that in other churches, oh, the word of God barely makes an appearance at all. Let me give you an example that I think we can all relate to now. Have you noticed that the bougie set, that they like these cups called Stanley cups?

I don't understand the rage on the Stanley cups. And those things are ginormous. You see a woman walking around with a hot pink or Barbie pink Stanley cup, and you sit and you're going, how much water are you drinking in a day?

If I were drinking out of a Stanley cup every day, I'd have to just set my office up in my bathroom. But the whole point is that those Stanley cups, they hold a lot of liquid, right? It's a big deal. But at churches today, many churches, they don't get the word of God in Stanley cup proportions.

When it comes to getting the word of God, they pull out one of those old thimbles, you know, that grandma used to use, and they get a water dropper and they take a couple of drops, here you go, here's some word of God for you, right?

And God's word barely makes an appearance. But then again, also, you'll note that our old Adam is not keen on listening to the word of God, or reading the word of God. The idea of, you know, reading your Bible, that dusty old thing that's sitting on your nightstand, that your old sinful Adam isn't really interested in that.

Nowadays, we live in a world where within the visible church, the word of God is like not trusted. In fact, you go to some churches and you start taking the Bible seriously. You know, you actually read the thing and you sit there and go, whoa, the Bible says this, but my church body says that.

Something's wrong here. And you start to ask questions. And the first thing they do is they say to you, you know, you know, you need to stop taking that Bible so seriously. I'm a little concerned for you, brother, because don't you understand that head knowledge makes you arrogant?

And, you know, we have heart knowledge here, and so we're just not interested in all your Bible knowledge. You need to keep that stuff to yourself.

Right?

Hmm.

It's a terrible thing. But again, we ignore the word of God to our own detriment. The apostle Paul prophesied our days and prophesied what would be the state of the church in the last days. Listen to what he prophesied in 2 Timothy 3.

Paul writes, understand this, that in the last days, there will come times of difficulty. People will be lovers of self. This was before they coined the term narcissist. If they had that phrase back then, he would have used it because that's what he's describing here.

Have you ever read the book, The Narcissism Epidemic? You think COVID was that bad, right? The Narcissism Epidemic is just running amok, and I feared that it's some kind of an airborne disease through casual contact with social media and things like this.

You'll know how many people are all about taking those selfies and posting them up there, and their main goal in life isn't serving their neighbor in a godly vocation. Their main goal is to become an influencer.

The Narcissism Epidemic is running amok, and it's in the church, too. So people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.

I'm not describing the pagan world, I'm describing the state of the church. That's what Paul's doing here. This is the state of the church in our day. We might want to pay attention, because Paul said that this is what it would be like in the last days.

In other words, if you're paying attention to the Word of God, then you'll note that we're not that far away from the return of Christ. I couldn't tell you how long it's going to be. I only work in marketing, management team, and the Trinity, they never tell me what's going on as far as dates and stuff like that.

The point is this, we ought to pay attention to God's Word, because it is screaming at us right now that things are going exactly the way God prophesied through the apostles that it would be going. It's happening in our days.

We should be paying attention. And so Paul then says to Christians, avoid such people. Are you attending a church where you've got a narcissist leading you? Where they're lovers of money and proud and arrogant and disobedient to their parents and all these kind of other things?

Avoid such people. Get to a good church. Among them, and listen to this description, talk about salient in our day, among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women. Now that's right, it's actually perverse pastors.

They're creepers.

And in our day, you'll note that a big scandal has been brewing south of us in Kansas City, International House of Prayer. And just this past week, their church released a report done by an independent third party and claimed that Mike Bickle, not with one, but now two verified women, basically said things like, God told me that my wife Diana was going to die.

And so it's okay for the two of us to be together and eventually we'll be married and there were sexual things going on and stuff like that. And I sit there and go, wow, the apostle Paul, a true apostle of Jesus Christ who had the ability through the Holy Spirit to prophesy the future, he nailed it.

Among those who are creeping to households, capture weak women, burdened with sins, led astray by various passions, and then listen to their description. Always learning, never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth.

But the right question is, what are they learning? Okay, in those churches where God's word barely makes an appearance, do you know how long the sermons are?

They're not.

Four minutes long. Well, here's three sentences from five different texts, and good luck figuring out what the rest of that is. No, their sermons go on for an hour. What are they talking about? I have no idea.

Okay, but the one thing I can tell you, they're not talking about what God's word says. Always learning, never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth, and then here comes the point. Paul then uses a metaphor, just as Janus and Jambres opposed Moses.

Now, if you don't know who those two fellows are, think back to the book of Exodus when Moses was finally sent by God to have a chat with Pharaoh. Yahweh says, let my people go. Pharaoh goes, who's this Yahweh guy that I should obey him, right?

And so Moses performed signs and wonders, and the earlier signs and wonders, Janus and Jambres were able to mimic using the dark arts of sorcery and things like this, like turning water into blood and stuff like this, but eventually their magic tricks ran out and the signs and judgments of God kept going, but no, Janus and Jambres then are held up as examples of people who not only oppose Moses, but they are an example to us of those men who oppose.

The truth.

Don't you be bringing God's word to this church. We don't want to hear it, sir, right? Those who oppose the truth, and that's in so many different capacities, so many different examples throughout the visible church nowadays.

It's a mess. So pay attention. Those who oppose the truth of God's word, we're not interested in hearing it, or only selectively kind of smorgasbording it together, you know, kind of picking, well, we'll take a little bit of this, a little bit of that, but one thing for sure, we're not going to listen to it.

I thought, man, recently, just the other day, I saw a woman preacher, you know, she was filling in at one of these ELCA congregations, and she was a guest pastrix, and she gets up into the pulpit, and she says, hi, my name is El, and my pronouns are she, them, right?

And then, no sooner does she say that, she says, now, I understand that many of you are alarmed by what we read. Now, understand, we followed the lectionary here, and what Paul said about women not being pastors and not able to do stuff like that, he was just a meany, poopy head, and that he was part of the evil patriarchy, but we listen to Jesus, we don't listen to Paul.

That's what she said. And just gasping, right? Holy smokes. Talk about opposing the truth. Paul nailed it. These people oppose the truth, but they will not get very far. Their folly will be plain to all, as was that of those two men.

But you, however, Paul, now writing to young Pastor Timothy, you, however, have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, and my persecutions and sufferings that happened to me at Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra, which persecutions I endured, yet from them all the Lord rescued me.

Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. Notice it didn't say some. It's kind of a bummer, right? It's like, well, you know, you're getting it, but I'm not getting it.

No, all, everyone who desires to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. And we'll note here, that's legitimately the case. We're already experiencing soft forms of persecution within the visible church.

Just wait until it breaks out in the world. And evil people and imposters will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. And understand this, your sinful nature is an evil person. Your sinful nature is an imposter.

And your sinful nature desires to steer you back into the vomit of sin, like a pig wallowing in vomit, right? But as for you, you continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings.

Paul's last letter. Peter's last letter have a lot in common. This is Paul's last letter before he's going to have his head taken off his shoulders by a Roman soldier's gladius. He is pointing young pastor Timothy to the sacred writings, to the scripture.

And he says, they are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. Again, the word of God is living and active. It is breathed out by God. That's what he says here. He says all scripture is breathed out by God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction and training in righteousness.

It is breathed out by God. You're going to note here at the lectern when we read the word of God as a congregation, I say these words, this is the word of the Lord and you say thanks be to God. But if I were to get up on a Sunday morning and say, you know, I really feel like the Lord is telling me right now that we're entering into a new season of breakthrough and stuff like this.

If I were to say this is the word of the Lord, you guys take me outside and rock me, right? Yeah, okay, I got confirmation from the elders, good. Because is that the word of the Lord? No, it's not. But how many people are chasing after words that are not from God?

But all scripture, it is breathed out by God. And I love that word, theanoustos.

It's just this idea that just,.

It all comes from the very mouth of God. In one of our Bible studies yesterday, there was a great question. Wonderful question. Because what we did in the Bible study, looking at next week's text, we looked at the anointing of David with the prophet Samuel.

And that text is just brewing with like tie-ins to Christ. And it's so messianic, it's fun. So we spent time looking at all the connections between the anointing of David and Jesus Christ. And it was a fun, fun, fun, fun Bible study.

But then somebody asked the question, you know, I've got some friends who get really nervous when we do things like this because they say, the authors never intended us to look for Christ in the Old Testament.

Bah humbug. Bah humbug. Are you not familiar with what Peter writes in 2 Peter? No prophet wrote according to his own will what he wanted to write. But they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. So the Holy Spirit is the common author of all of the Scriptures.

And do you think the Holy Spirit didn't intend for us to find Jesus in the Old Testament?

Of course he did, right?

That's kind of the point. So all Scripture is breathed out by God. It's profitable for teaching, the next two are negative, for reproof and for correction. Oh, that sounds so negative, right? Remember when Joel Osteen came on the scene and everybody noticed that he never preaches sin or repentance or anything like that.

The guy is like the tyranny of the positive thinker, right? And somebody asked him about that. He says, well, you know, the Lord has called me to stay in my lane. And so I have a special calling to encourage people.

No, you don't. No pastor has a special calling to not reprove, to not rebuke. But those are negative. You might hurt somebody's self-esteem if you did that. That's.

A good point. So.

If I say that what you are doing is sinful, that it's wrong, it's selfish, it is myopic, it's not loving God or loving neighbor, you sit there and go, I'm offended. You hurt my self-esteem. My answer is good.

Buck up, buttercup.

It's about time your self-esteem had the hot air popped and dispersed into the atmosphere.

Like a big fart that it is, right? That's.

What we call a strong rebuke. But the point is this. You don't have a right to not be offended. You don't have a right to rule over God's word with your self-esteem. If your self-esteem is in conflict with the word of God, your self-esteem is in error and needs to repent.

That's the point.

Reprove, rebuke,.

Exhort. These are the things that we're called to do. For the word of God is profitable for training and righteousness so that the man or the woman of God may be complete and equipped.

For every good.

Work. There is no good work that God is going to call you to that the word of God will not prepare you for. So then he goes on to say this to young Pastor Timothy. And note how firm, how stern this charge is.

I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus who is to judge the living and the dead and by his appearing in his kingdom.

Preach the word.

Jesus is coming back. He'll be here in five minutes. You know what you need to be doing during those five minutes? Preach.

The word. Reprove,.

Rebuke, exhort with complete patience and teaching for the time is coming when people will not endure sound doctrine. They will hate the word but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions and they will turn away from listening to the truth and they will wander off into myths.

Yep. And that's the thing. Our sinful nature doesn't want to hear this. Our sinful nature wants free reign to follow after our sins. I've heard more than one person say over the decades that the reason why that person is opposed to what that text says is because that text contradicts and confronts their favorite sin.

And the problem is we all have favorite sins. And when God's word convicts us we're stuck. We don't like to hear that we're guilty. We don't like to hear that we have despised his word, cast his word behind our backs and despised it.

And so we like to put on airs that somehow we've got our acts together. No, we do not. And if you don't believe me then well, when we start off the divine service next week, don't confess your sins with the rest of us.

Right?

So people will turn away from listening to the truth, wander off into myths. As for you, be sober minded, endure suffering, do the work of the evangelist, fulfill your ministry. So pastors are to be about the business of preaching the word.

And note it says in season and out of season. A little bit of a note here. Every time I read this text it is a call back to my childhood. It's the weirdest thing. But you guys remember Bugs Bunny? Okay.

As a Gen Xer I grew up on Bugs Bunny. It was part of my socializing catechism, right? And I learned snarkiness from Bugs Bunny. But one of my favorite episodes, my favorite episodes was when Elmer Fudd's out doing his hunting with his shotgun.

And there's a debate between Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck as to whether or not it's rabbit season or duck season. And so they get into this verbal back and forth. Rabbit season, duck season, rabbit season, duck season, rabbit season, rabbit season, duck season.

And as soon as Daffy Duck says duck season he says fire and blammo! Blows the face off of Daffy Duck and his bill goes... It's just the funniest thing ever, right? But here's the thing.

There would be people.

Today, and there have been people for a long time throughout the history of the church, who would tell us this is not Bible season. We don't need to be hearing.

That Bible stuff.

No, no, no, no. We need to rethink Christianity. We need to reimagine it. It's time for us to forge on ahead and recognize that the people who wrote the scriptures they had some important things to say but we can just ignore those things.

So the Bible, it's no longer Bible season, it's some other kind of season. And what's a pastor to do when their church body says no more Bible season? It's something else. You know what he's supposed to do?

He's supposed to break the rules. And he's supposed to preach the word even when people are screeching, no, no, no, it's not the time.

For that! Oh, it is always.

The time for that. In season, out of season, that's what we are to do. But you're going to note then, here, this first part of the sermon has pointed out the multitudinous ways in which we, all of us, Christians, have fought against God's word, refused to hear God's word, have not gladly heard it, have not hold it sacred, have turned away from it.