We Need a Hero

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 in 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. Luke, the 11th chapter.

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Now Jesus was casting out a demon that was mute. When the demon had gone out, the mute man spoke and the people marveled.

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But some of them said, he casts out demons by Beelzebul, the prince of demons, while others, to test him, kept seeking from him a sign from heaven.

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But he, knowing their thoughts, said to them, Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and a divided household falls.

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If Satan is also divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? For you say that I cast out demons by Beelzebul, and if I cast out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons cast them out?

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Therefore they will be your judges. But if it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.

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When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are safe. But when one stronger than he attacks him and overcomes him, he takes away his armor in which he trusted and divides his spoils.

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Whoever is not with me is against me, whoever does not gather with me scatters. And when the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places, seeking rest, and finding none, it says,

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I will return to my house from which I came. And when it comes, it finds the house swept and put in order, and then it goes and brings seven other spirits, more evil than itself, and they enter and they dwell there.

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And the last day to that person is worse than the first. As he said these things, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to him,

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Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breast which nursed you. But he said, Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it.

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This is the gospel of the Lord. In the name of Jesus. Amen. All right, there's

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Jesus and he's casting out a demon. This is what Jesus does. He's come to set us free from the dominion of darkness.

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Here are the words of the Apostle Paul in some of the opening paragraphs of the book of Colossians, giving thanks to the father who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.

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He has delivered us from the dominion of darkness. He has transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved son in whom we have redemption and the forgiveness of our sins.

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Brothers and sisters, sin is not something you are capable of releasing yourself from. I'm not capable of releasing myself from it either.

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In fact, the devil is stronger than we are and there is no hope whatsoever if we want to go mano a mano with the devil of us coming out the victors.

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It just doesn't work that way. In fact, if we don't have a hero, I seem to remember that song from, was it the 80s?

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I Need a Hero, right? Yeah, we all need a hero. We most definitely do because the devil is stronger, more powerful.

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We have been put under his dominion and he isn't about to let us go. But here's where the story gets interesting.

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Note that in our Old Testament text, there's Moses and Aaron sent by God for what purpose?

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To set the people of Israel free from slavery to a false god king.

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That's what pharaohs were. And this particular god king happened to have a uniform where he wore a snake hat, looked like a cobra.

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Guess who he is a stand in for? The devil, right? And you'll note that in this account, we have

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Moses and Aaron being told by God to stretch out their staff and strike the dust of the earth so that gnats come all over the land of Egypt.

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And when they did so, the magicians of Pharaoh tried to do that as well.

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You'll note that the first few plagues, when Moses turned the water of the

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Nile into blood, apparently the magicians of Pharaoh could pull off something similar to that and Pharaoh's heart was hardened.

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And so these guys get dutifully to work trying to figure out, all right, how do we get gnats to come out of the...

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And they couldn't do it. They couldn't do it. And so they said to Pharaoh, this is the finger of God.

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This is the finger of God. And what's the implication? Dude, you're outmatched. You're actually going against God.

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You need to back down. You need to change direction. You need to change course. But Pharaoh's heart was hardened and he would not listen to them.

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Note the hard -hearted Pharaoh guy. Now in our gospel text, let's kind of rework a couple of things.

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Jesus will talk about the finger of God. Who's the one who is the hard -hearted one in this account?

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It's going to be those religious leaders. And we know from the cross references that the religious leaders, they were...

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How do I put this? They were Pharisees. And Pharisees are not people who are into sound doctrine.

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If you've ever heard anyone say, you know, it's really Pharisaical of you to say that so -and -so is a false teacher.

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That's just nonsense. Pharisees were false teachers. That's exactly what they were. They didn't follow the

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Bible alone. They added to the Bible the so -called oral Torah, right? And they created a whole bunch of new commandments and claimed if you kept their commandments, you would never break

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God's commandments, so let's focus on these. And they took people out of God's word. And well, so now

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Jesus is casting out a demon. And we learn also from the cross reference in Matthew 24 that this fellow was also blind.

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And if he's mute, good chance he's deaf as well. This is a fellow who is unable to see

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Christ. He's unable to hear Christ. He's unable to speak the glory of God. This guy has really, really been shut off.

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This is the devil's prey. And here's the thing. He's kind of a stand -in for all of us, if you think about it.

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We are born under the dominion of darkness. We are born dead in trespasses and sins.

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Is it any wonder that Christ asks questions like, do you not have eyes to see or ears to hear, right?

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Because spiritually, each and every one of us is, well, in darkness, blind, mute.

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You get the point. So Jesus casts out the demon, and here come the slanderers, all right?

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Some of them say, well, he casts out demons by Beelzebul, the prince of demons. Really?

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Really? Where'd you get that from? Right? Serious? That's your explanation here, a legitimate demonic casting out.

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And these people, they also saw Jesus heal other people of diseases, cleanse lepers and things like this.

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And so their explanation, well, definitely a miracle took place here. There's no denying that. I mean, this mute fellow is now praising

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God, but no, this wasn't by the hand of God. This had to be by Beelzebul. I always note that those who are able to speak the devil's language fluently are not to be listened to.

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What's the language of the devil? Lies. The devil is really good at lies, false narratives, and all this kind of stuff, and Jesus is going to have none of it.

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And others, they were saying, well, we need to see a sign from you from heaven, Jesus. Well, what was that that you just saw?

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All right? You saw a demon being cast out of this fellow and you want to see another sign?

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So Jesus now takes on the slander, takes on this false narrative, and he says, every kingdom that is divided against itself is laid waste, a divided house falls.

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Just think of the devastation that occurred in the United States during the civil war. Think of Syria right now, not a nice neighborhood to live in, right?

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Civil wars have a tendency to tear countries apart. That's kind of his point. And if this is really by the hand of the devil, by Beelzebul, then, well,

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Lucifer and Beelzebul are going toe to toe now, and there's a civil war in the dominion of darkness.

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That doesn't make any sense. If Satan is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? For you say that I cast out demons by Beelzebul.

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If I cast demons out by Beelzebul, who do your sons cast them out by? And the point of that question is, listen, when your sons cast out demons, you say, praise

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God, it's the Lord at work. I cast them out, demons, right? This doesn't make any sense.

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The hypocrisy is palpable, and that's what Christ is pointing out. But here's the thing, the true gospel of Jesus Christ suffers all kinds of persecution.

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You confess Jesus in some parts of the world, you're dead. You confess Jesus in churches that have abandoned the word of God, they will absolutely put you out and accuse you of all kinds of mischief and evil, all right?

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So you'll note, that's kind of the lot of all of us Christ himself had to suffer by being slandered, but he just takes it right on.

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So he says, well, since you're hypocrites, your own sons are going to be your judges. But now here comes the kind of the nubbins, but if it's by the finger of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.

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Hmm, that kind of invokes Exodus 8 there. And that's really the point.

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This is the finger of God, and that's the problem. Those under the dominion of darkness have hardened, stoned hearts, and they will not listen to this, they will not see this, and they're not interested in any of this.

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Like Pharaoh, they have hardened their hearts, but Christ has pointed out, the kingdom of God has come upon you.

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And then he says, when a strong man, fully armed, guards his palace, his goods are safe. But when one stronger than he attacks him and overcomes him, he takes away his armor in which he trusted and divides his spoils.

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This is worth kind of unpacking here, because you'll note the strong man is a reference to the devil, the one whom we are incapable of overcoming.

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But that's then the point, because Jesus is the one who is stronger. And by Jesus coming to earth, being born of the

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Virgin Mary, he has now come to attack and to overcome the strong man,

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Satan. In other words, Jesus is the stronger man. And this is good news for us, because we who are enslaved and harassed, persecuted and made to suffer because of Satan, Christ has come into our world, and we can say we are saved.

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One stronger than the devil has come, the one who was promised who would crush the head of the serpent, he has arrived, and he has come to take and divide the spoils of Satan's kingdom.

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But do you think Jesus came to divide spoils like gold and silver and diamonds and jewels?

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No. The spoils are you and I. We are the spoils of war.

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And Christ has now brought us into his kingdom. And Satan, he ain't gonna be able to overcome

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Jesus, because, well, Satan's not even close to as strong as Christ. And so this is why

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Christ then says, whoever is not with me is against me. Right. You see the works that I'm doing and you attribute it to the devil?

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You sit there and go, well, salvation really can't be by grace through faith apart from works.

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That's just silly talk. Everybody knows that you've got to earn Jesus's forgiveness by being intentional and trying harder and doing gooder and stuff.

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You can't trust what Jesus has done for you. Whoever is not with me is against me.

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Whoever doesn't bring this doctrine brings doctrines of demons. Whoever does not gather with me scatters.

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Then a little bit of a side. I love it when the texts don't give me those really tidy three -point little things that I can do.

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Then you have this last bit at the end. What do we do with this? So while Jesus said these things, there's this woman, she cries out in the crowd and she raises her voice, blasters a womb that bore you in the breasts at which you nursed.

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Ah, first hint of Mariology, right? Mariola tree. Now it's absolutely true that what

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Mary says when she gives the Magnificat, all generations will call her blessed.

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But here's the important bit. Mary's good works don't save you.

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Mary needed to be saved the same way that you and I are saved.

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She just happened to be saved by her son. We are saved by the fruit of her womb.

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She truly bore God in her womb. This is most certainly true. But the focus on Mary is to miss the whole point.

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And you're going to note then in this regard, there isn't a single biblical text that tells us to worship

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Mary, to pray to Mary, nor is there a single biblical text that says that Mary persisted and continued to be a virgin the rest of her life.

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That's nonsense. It's contrary to the idea that a man will leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife and the two will become one flesh.

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You see, Mary had a normal marriage just like everybody else. So when you focus in on Mary, you kind of miss the whole point.

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And so Jesus just nips that right in the butt and says, yeah, no, blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and guard it and keep it.

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And the word of God calls us all to repent. The word of God tells us, listen, sin isn't really kind of a small thing.

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It's far worse than you can possibly imagine. In fact, your state before God as a result of being in the dominion of darkness is not a minor thing.

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It's mortal. You are powerless. You cannot save yourself. You are not your own hero.

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You are a participant in the works of darkness, and you have earned the same punishment as the devil himself has.

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And if Christ were to come and exercise judgment over you in that state, well, then you'll suffer the same fate as the devil.

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The word of God tells us that God is merciful and kind, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love, and it's not his will that any should perish, even you.

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And so hearing the word of God calls us to recognize and to confess our powerlessness in saving ourselves, our inability to conquer the devil, and to call out to the stronger of the strong men,

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Jesus, who conquers the devil, takes his spoils, plunders his kingdom, and pray to him that he would do the same for you, because he has.

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He has transferred you from the dominion of darkness, all by his mercy and grace. He is the one who has qualified you to receive an inheritance in the kingdom of light.

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And so it's then, in that regard then, that we hear the apostle Paul say, because we have been saved, because we have been, well, taken captive by Jesus, we've been despoiled, is that a word, when it comes to the spoils of the devil and brought into the kingdom of his light, that we then, in repentance, walk as children of the light.

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Because we are. Because the stronger of the strong men has made us so. So indeed, blessed are those who hear the word of God, who keep it, confess their sins, and cry out to God to grant the

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Holy Spirit its power to mortify our sinful flesh, so that we might walk as the children of light that we already are.

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It's good stuff. Now regarding that sign, oh, those guys wanted signs, right? Jesus kind of gives a little bit of a final shot.

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It's not in our gospel text, but it's right here, so I might as well just throw it in. It's a bonus.

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I won't even charge extra for it. So here's what Christ says to those who want a sign.

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He says, it's an evil and adulterous generation that seeks for a sign. Evil and adulterous.

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That no sign will be given to it except for the sign of Jonah. Sign of Jonah. For as Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh, so will the

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Son of Man be a sign to this generation. And how was Jonah a sign for the people of Nineveh?

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Well, if you remember, Jonah was three days inside the belly of a fish.

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Right? Three days, three nights. That just had to be awful, just saying. And just like Jonah was spit up, kind of foreshadowing

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Christ's resurrection, well, death itself could not hold Jesus. In fact, a good way to think of it is that when

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Christ was swallowed up by death after he was crucified for our sins, poor death suffered a bellyache.

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Couldn't stand it. Couldn't, didn't feel, I can't keep, I can't keep Jesus down, and then just burped him right up.

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Right? That's kind of the point. Right? That's the sign. And so that's the sign that that generation has received, it's the sign that we all received.

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The fact that Christ not only despoiled the devil, was stronger than him, took away those who were under his control, and smashed him to pieces on the cross,

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Jesus even conquered death and death couldn't even keep him down. Stronger than the devil, stronger than death, stronger than our sin, this

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Jesus is amazing. Trust in him, he loves you, he cares for you, and the sign of his resurrection is proof that he is who he claimed to be, and that he is the hero that we've all longed for and waited for, and we are truly saved.

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In the name of Jesus, Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

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Amen. Amen. Amen.

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Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.