Christ Makes All Things Work Together for Good

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 the 13th chapter.

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Jesus said the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.

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Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls who on finding one pearl of great value went and sold all that he had and bought it.

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Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and gathered fish of every kind. When it was full, men drew it ashore and sat down and sorted the good into containers but threw away the bad.

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So it will be at the close of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace.

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In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Have you understood all these things?

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They said to him, yes. And he said to them, therefore, every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.

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This is the gospel of the Lord. In the name of Jesus. All right, have you ever noticed, maybe some of you don't know, you're too young, some of you.

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Newlyweds have a weird way of fighting sometimes. Newlyweds do. And what I mean by this is that if you've ever heard newlyweds fight, sometimes the fight goes something like this.

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You never blank. Fill in the blank. Or you always blank.

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Fill in the blank. And it's weird because what ends up happening is that you get these outrageous statements of like your spouse never takes out the trash.

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Well, maybe he missed it today or last week, but he does take out the trash. Or your wife never blank.

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And see, the never and the always, you learn as you get older in life and your marriage matures.

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This is kind of a dumb way to argue because that's just not true. But you're going to note that in our epistle text today, we get one of these statements that is all -inclusive.

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All -inclusive. Listen to what these words say. All things work together for good.

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All things. Suffering, persecution, famine, slander.

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All these things work together for good. All of them? It's a big statement if you think about it.

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But the thing is that Scripture tells us the truth. And so building off of last week's text, last week we looked forward to the hope that we have in Christ to get us through our suffering.

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And here's a little bit more of the aspect of the hope that we have in Christ. And that is that we know that what we are currently going through in our present situation, whether it's the turmoil of the world, the craziness that's going on in our own country, just seems like the whole world has lost its mind.

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I was in Chicago yesterday and seeing all of the restaurants closed.

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Seeing the flights. Being on a flight where it was half full.

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Everybody having to spread out. Everybody having to wear a mask. Everybody afraid. And then watching the news on television, seeing what's happening around the world.

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And of course, don't forget in the mix of all of this, that rioters are lopping off the heads of statues of Jesus.

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Saying that Jesus himself has got to go. Jesus is the problem. And so you'll note that in the midst of all of this, what do we do?

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People are slandering us. People are attacking us. People are persecuting us. And well, we've got to come back to this statement, this all -inclusive statement from the

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Apostle Paul. All things that work together for good for those who are called according to God's purposes.

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And brothers and sisters, you are. You have been brought from death to life.

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You have been forgiven of all of your sins. Christ has bled and died for each and every one of them.

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And you are part of the group here mentioned in verse 29. Those whom he foreknew, he also predestined.

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And that's you. You have been predestined to be in Christ. You have been predestined to be conformed to the image of his

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Son. So that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And so those whom he predestined, that's you, he also called.

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And you are called here. Those whom he called, he also justified. And there's that word, dikayo, to be forensically declared not guilty by God.

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The verdict has come down. You are completely innocent. The devil may slander you. He may be the accuser of the saints.

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He may say, yeah, but that person, and just go on and on and on.

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But the thing is, the gavel's already fallen. You've been declared innocent. Nothing can take that away from you.

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And those whom God justified, he is also glorified. We are already seated with Christ in heavenly places, the apostle

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Paul says. This is most certainly true. And although we cannot see it with our physical eyes, we have heard it with the eyes of faith found inside of our ears.

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And so we believe these things to be true. So Paul then asks us, what then shall we say to these things?

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If God is for us, who can be against us? I was listening to Molly Ziegler -Hemingway yesterday.

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She gave a great speech at the Issues Etc. conference. And she was talking about in answering a question, kind of the fear and the anxiety that everybody's facing nowadays.

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Knowing that if they speak out against the evil that is in the world, and say that that's not correct.

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As a Christian, I cannot affirm these things. That, well, the world's going to rail against us.

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They may dox us. They may do everything they can to hurt us. And she noted that recently she had written articles against a lot of the evil that's going on in the world.

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And what was the liberal news media's retaliation against her? You're a bigot, they said of her.

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And her response was, that's the best you got? Just to call me a bigot?

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That's all you got? You got nothing else? That didn't hurt. Really?

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Okay. And so the idea here is that you'll note that as Christians, we oftentimes fear going through suffering and persecution.

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We fear being slandered. Why? Because it does have a tendency to hurt. But at the end of the day, the devil, all he has are lies.

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That's all he has. He's got nothing. So what should we say then? If God's for us, who can be against us? And then note here, referring back to the cross, he who did not spare his own son but gave himself up for us.

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And note the comparison here. That God the Father has given his son to bleed and to die for your sins and for mine.

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To bear our guilt and our shame, our iniquity, and to suffer the consequences of our sin on the cross.

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And God did not spare his own precious son. So in the midst of all of that, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?

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He's already given us the most precious thing ever. The Son of God. So how will he not then give us all things?

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And this then frames our mentality. So who shall bring any charge against God's elect?

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It's God who justifies. So they're going to slander you before the world. You're a bigot.

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You're a close -minded fill -in -the -blank, right? You're just a hater.

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Don't worry. God is the one who justifies, and he has declared you forgiven.

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Pardoned. And says that he loves you. So then who's to condemn us?

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Who's going to condemn us? Christ is the one who died. More than that, he was the one who was raised. He's at the right hand of God, who is indeed interceding for us.

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That's where he is presently. So you sit there and you stop looking at everything around you and say, anxiety, anxiety.

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Instead say, wait a second. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who sits at the right hand of the

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Father, he's there interceding right now for me. This is the reality that we hang on to.

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Not the fear of being slandered or losing our jobs or being doxxed or being persecuted.

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Forget it. Forget it. Christ is interceding for you. So who shall separate us from the love of Christ?

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Do you think the devil slanders can separate you from the love of Christ? Do you think that the liberal media telling you that you're a bigot and you're close -minded and you're a bunch of racist because you were born white, well, do you think that can separate you from the love of Christ?

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Of course not. Who can separate us from the love of Christ? Nobody can. All right?

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Shall tribulation? No. Distress? No. Persecution?

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Famine? Nakedness? Nope. Danger? Sword? No. Not at all.

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And then we come back to this reality, the one we talked about last week. Note then as Christians, you see, for your sake we are being killed all the day long, the scripture says, and we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.

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Christ doesn't save us from the curse, he saves us through it. And so we recognize then, yeah, you know, things are pretty dicey for us in this life.

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And right now, it's getting dicier. So, nothing can separate us from the love of Christ.

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Tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger, sword, not even death itself can separate us from the love of Christ.

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And so, you'll note then, Paul then says, we, in these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

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In the midst of persecution and tribulation and slander and nakedness, danger, sword, in all of these things we're more than conquerors.

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How do we conquer? Christ has already done the conquering for us.

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And you'll note that the Apostle Paul knows a thing or two about all of this. This is not some kind of an abstract concept for him.

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Let me explain, let me read to you just one of the travails that the Apostle Paul went through as a proclaimer of the forgiveness of sins, a proclaimer that Jesus Christ is the promised

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Messiah of the Old Testament, that he is the one who bled and died for our sins, and that salvation is by grace through faith alone.

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Consider what happens to the Apostle Paul in Acts chapter 14. It says this, starting at verse 1.

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At Iconium, they entered together into the Jewish synagogue. This is Paul and Barnabas. They spoke in such a way that a great number of both

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Jews and Greeks believed. Amen. The word of God, the gospel has gone forth in Iconium, and Jews and Greeks are believing and trusting in Jesus Christ, being baptized in the name of the

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Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit. But what happens, listen to what verse 2 says. But the unbelieving

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Jews, they stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brothers. What?

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Salvation has come to Iconium and there's people poisoning other people's minds? Yeah, that's how it works.

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Apostle Paul knew firsthand what this meant. So, it's what it says, they remained for a long time.

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So in the midst of the persecution, they didn't sit there and go, oh, what are we going to do? They're slandering us.

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They're poisoning minds against us. No, they stood their ground and they remained for a long time.

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And they continued to speak boldly for the Lord, who bore witness to the word of His grace, granting signs and wonders to be done by their hands.

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You know God is the one who did it. So in the midst of persecution, they stood their ground, stayed for a long time, boldly by the power of God and the

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Holy Spirit, boldly proclaimed Christ, and God even granted signs and wonders to be performed by their hands.

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But the people of the city were divided. This became the dividing line.

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Do you believe in Jesus? Yeah, I believe in Jesus. And I believe that He's died for my sins.

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Well, we don't believe that. That Apostle Paul, he's a terrible person. Don't you know that he's the man of lawlessness?

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He attacks the Bible and the Old Testament. He denies that the law can save you.

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And so there's division going on, right? So some sided with the Jews, some with the

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Apostles. Division. And then it says this, when an attempt was made by both

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Gentiles and Jews with their rulers to mistreat them and to stone them. Now it's going to get personal to the point where it's time to kill them.

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By the way, stoning is not the same thing that happens in Colorado today. If you get stoned in Colorado, it's a different thing.

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Stoning usually results in you ending your life and you're not breathing anymore. So they actually wanted to murder the

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Apostle Paul and stone him to death. And so they came up with a way to mistreat them to the point of killing them.

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And what did they do? Well, they learned of it, and so they fled. They fled to Lystra and to Derbe, cities of Laconia, and to the surrounding country.

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And there they continued to preach the gospel. And you know, having stayed for a long time, they had time to catechize the new believers, to instruct them in the word of God, to set up the church, and they didn't need to be there anymore.

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So it was fine for them to go ahead and leave, and so they did. And so the Apostle Paul knows persecution all too well.

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But the story continues. Now at Lystra there was a man sitting who could not use his feet.

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He was crippled from birth and had never walked. He listened to Paul speaking, and Paul looking intently at him, seeing that he had faith to be made well.

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He said in a loud voice, Stand upright on your feet. And he sprang up and began walking. And you'll note, a miracle has taken place.

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When the crowd saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voice in the Laconian language, and they said, The gods, plural, have come down to us in the likeness of men.

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Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul Hermes, because he was the chief speaker. And the priest of Zeus, whose temple was at the entrance of the city, brought oxen and garlands to the gates, and they wanted to offer sacrifices with the crowds.

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But when the Apostles Barnabas and Saul heard of it, they tore their garments and rushed out into the crowd, crying,

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Men, why are you doing these things? We also are men of like nature with you, and we bring you good news, that you should turn from these vain things.

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Turn to the living God, who made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them. In the past generations, he allowed all the nations to walk in their own ways.

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Yet he did not leave himself without witness, for he did good by giving you rains from heaven and fruit in season, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness.

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And even with these words, they scarcely restrained the people from offering sacrifice to them. But you'll note, what started off with such a joyous occasion, a man who's been crippled from birth is now walking, he's been healed by God's grace, and mercy, now the situation turns dicey.

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But Jews came from Antioch and Iconium. Oh great, these are quite the people, they're like termites, man, they just never give up.

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When they found out that Paul was in Lystra, they decided to strike out and go visit themselves, and what did they do?

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They persuaded the crowds, These guys are evil! They're deceiving you!

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Forget the fact that that guy can walk, you might want to kill him too, so we don't want any witnesses. Dead men tell no tales, you know.

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But what do they do? They stone Paul. Now he got the stoning that he was set up for in Iconium.

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They stone Paul, and they drag him out of the city, supposing that he was dead. What kind of condition do you think his body was in that they thought he was dead?

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So, there's Paul's corpse, lying outside the city, and the disciples gathered around him.

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But he rose up, entered the city, and the next day he went on with Barnabas to Derby. Moving right along.

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Footloose and fancy free. Sorry, Muppet movie. So you'll note here, the

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Apostle Paul is no stranger to persecution, to slander, to trouble, to distress, and considering what happened to him at Iconium, what happened in Lystra, you'll note that in Lystra he was stoned to the point where they thought he was dead.

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How many times did this guy lay down his life? This was like martyrdom that didn't succeed, but later it would succeed.

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And he never shirked away from this, because he understood what our texts tell us today.

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That nothing can separate us from the love of God. Nothing.

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If God's for us, who can be against us? Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ. Tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, slander, nakedness, danger, sword.

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You see, in all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. Why? Because he's already conquered the grave.

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He's already bled and died for our sins. So note then, brothers, what Paul says.

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He says, I am certain that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor heights, nor depth, including death itself, or anything else in all of creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.

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So what are you worried about? All the devil has is slander, persecution, threats, and murder.

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But nothing's going to separate you from the love of Christ. So rejoice that you are bled for, died for, predestined, and glorified and justified in him.

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All as a gift because of the great love and mercy of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.

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In Jesus' name. 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 NW, Oslo, MN 56744 And again that address is

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Kungsvinger Lutheran Church, 15950 470th

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Avenue NW, Oslo, MN 56744. We thank you for your support.

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