Living Sacrifices

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.

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Matthew chapter 16 verses 13 through 20. Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, who do people say that the

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Son of Man is? And they said, well some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, and others

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Jeremiah or one of the prophets. He said to them, but who do you say that I am?

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Simon Peter replied, you are the Christ, the Son of the Living God. And Jesus answered him, blessed are you

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Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are

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Peter and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

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I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven. Whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

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Then he strictly charged the disciples to tell no one that he was the Christ. This is the gospel of the

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Lord. In the name of Jesus. This morning I'm going to preach on our epistle text.

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I think it's quite important. I've recently preached on our gospel text regarding the confession of Peter. However, we as Lutherans, I must say this, we generally have a conundrum as Lutherans.

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We have rightly restored the gospel to the church and we make the proper biblical distinction between law and gospel.

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And I must say this, that for whatever strange reason, sometimes Lutherans have a difficult time preaching the back end of the epistles, where we are exhorted to good works.

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You see, we preach law and we preach gospel and we want to be very careful that we never, in our preaching of good works, undo salvation by grace through faith alone.

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Some fellows, their solution to making sure we don't do that is to kind of tread lightly on the exhortations and maybe not even get to them very often.

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So let's not do that. Let's embrace the full counsel of the Word of God and we can discuss good works without believing that we are saved by them.

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Can we not? If you can't, then maybe skip this sermon and come back next week.

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So let me read what our text says in Romans 12. I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

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You're going to note, this is priestly talk. Priestly talk. What do priests do? Priests offer sacrifices.

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Now, before we delve into a strong understanding of what Scripture teaches regarding the fact that each and every one of you are priests.

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Yes, you are, women and men included. But before we get there, let me tell you how not to preach this text because, unfortunately,

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I've sat under sermons where this text was preached in this way. See, you've got to offer your body as a living sacrifice.

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So that means no dancing, no television, no movies above rated

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G, no smoking, no chewing, none of that stuff, and definitely no drinking.

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Therefore, you got to do this. And oh, this is terrible because, over and again, living sacrifices have a really bad habit of squirming off the altar.

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Now, you're going to note something here and I want to make this clear, is that Scripture does call us to holiness.

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It really does. However, that when you preach good works in that manner, you preach them in a selfish way.

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And here's what I mean. The assumption behind that kind of preaching is that really it's up to you to make sure you make it into heaven.

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It's a form of preaching salvation by works. It's kind of tacitly implied.

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But as we work through this text, we're going to note that the emphasis of this text—notice

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I talk about it that way, don't put the emphasis on the wrong syllable. You don't want to do that. It screws everything up.

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But the emphasis of this text is not on you.

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The emphasis of this text is on you focusing on others.

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We'll kind of explain. With that, we've noted that we're dealing with a text that is dealing with the context of priestliness.

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Anyone here not think they're part of the priesthood of all believers? Good. You all are part of the priesthood of all believers.

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Christ has made us all priests. Now, in our day, for whatever strange reason, people equate the priesthood of all believers with pastors.

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Yeah, yeah, no, no, no, no. You want to know what priests look like? Go back into the Old Testament. Think of that army of Levites who had to serve at the tabernacle and then eventually at the temple.

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Did they have a lot of time for preaching? Yeah, no. It involved killing animals, sprinkling blood, keeping the fires going, and all—it was a—it was really an arduous set of duties that were done day after day after day after day, and preaching was not part of it.

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Praying was part of it, but preaching was not. So the idea is is that although we are all members of the priesthood of all believers, and we have been made so by Christ in the waters of our baptism—all of you baptized believers in Jesus, you are part of the priesthood of all believers—what's the job of the pastor?

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Pastor is servant of the priesthood, and my job—think of it this way. Have you ever been, like, to one of those really cool shops?

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Maybe you've traveled to the Rocky Mountains, and they have, they'll say, like, backpacking or going into the wilderness outfitters, and you walk into the outfitter shop, and it's got all the really cool stuff, like knives, and, you know, ropes, and backpacks, and hats, and walking sticks, and stuff like that.

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Maybe it's just me. I get excited about places like this, because we don't have—you know, what do people outfit themselves with here?

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You know, overalls? Flannel? You know, it's not quite as sexy.

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I'm just saying. So you go to an outfitter shop, and the job of the people in the outfitter shop is to outfit you for the expedition that you're on.

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Think of it this way. My job as pastor is I'm a specialty guy in outfitting you for being good priests.

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That's my job. So I prepare you for the works of ministry that you do. But priestliness is kind of an important thing, and this text shows us what it means to be priests, now that we have been made priests.

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But let's do a little bit of cross -reference work to let the Scripture interpret the Scripture, so we have a fuller idea of what we're looking at here.

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So let's turn to Revelation chapter 1, and I'm going to start in verse 4 and work through verse 6, and we're going to note some very interesting words along the way as it relates to, well, us all being priests.

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Here's what the Apostle John writes, grace to you and peace from him who is, who was, who is to come, from the seven spirits who are before his throne, and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, the ruler of the kings of the earth.

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Notice he's presently ruling. Jesus isn't up there twiddling his thumbs at the right hand of the

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Father going, dad, when do I get to rule? No, he's presently ruling. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins.

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Boy, you can almost preach a whole sermon just on that part of this sentence. He has freed us from our sins.

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Notice over and again, Scripture says sin is slavery, sin is bondage, sin is not freedom, sin is awful.

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He has freed us from our sins by his blood. He's made us a kingdom. Oh, there's that kingdom stuff here, important part of Scripture.

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And priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever.

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Now we see it. So we are a kingdom together by the blood of Christ, and all of us are priests together by the blood of Christ.

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Priests, what do priests do? Hmm, well,

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I seem to recall that priests in the Old Testament offered sacrifices and they prayed.

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Those are their primary functions, sacrifices and prayer. Sacrifices, prayer.

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Keep that in mind. Let's take a look at another cross -reference, Hebrews 7. We're gonna start at verse 23 and work our way through the first three verses of chapter 8, and we're going to note this is a

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Christological passage. This is talking about Jesus Christ as our High Priest, but in discussing

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Jesus Christ as our High Priest, remember we're priests under our High Priest Jesus, it does mention a few things regarding priests themselves.

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Hebrews 7, 23, the former priests were many in number because they were prevented by death from continuing in the office, but he,

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Christ, holds his priesthood permanently because he continues forever. Consequently, he is able to save to the utmost those who draw near to God through him since he always lives to make intercession for them.

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Now let's pick up this gospel right here while we can. You're gonna note here that Jesus is able to save to the uttermost, and if you're ever tempted to think, yeah, but man, my sins,

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I don't think God can forgive them. No, the uttermost is like well beyond your sins.

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If your sins, as awful as they are, come to here, well, Jesus' uttermost saving just keeps going on into the graveyard, down the road, past the dirt, into town, beyond town, into South Dakota, maybe into, you know,

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Iowa and Missouri and down into the Gulf Coast. It just keeps going. So your sin does not outstrip

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Christ's forgiveness. Christ saves to the uttermost, and this is good news.

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And we draw near to God because of Christ and his mercy and his grace. Remember, it's

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God's kindness that leads us to repentance. And since he always lives to make intercession for them, that's us, for it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest.

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He's holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens.

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He is the spotless Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for the sins of the people, since he did this once and for all when he offered up himself.

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For the law appoints men in their weakness as high priests, but the word of the oath, which came later than the law, appoints a son who has been made perfect forever.

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And so you'll note that the priests of the Old Testament, there was a lot of blood involved.

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They had to offer sacrifices first for their own sins to make them holy so that they can then offer sacrifices on behalf of the people in order for them to be forgiven and made holy, and it was one messy, bloody affair.

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But Jesus, he had no sins to atone for, at least for himself, so he was already perfect, spotless, and holy for us, and he is the one who makes us holy.

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Now, the point in what we are saying is this. We have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the

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Majesty in heaven, a minister in the holy places, in the true tent that the Lord has set up, not man.

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For every high priest is appointed to, listen to these words, offer gifts and sacrifices.

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Thus, it is necessary for this priest also to have something to offer. So you're going to note that a requirement of priests is that they offer sacrifices.

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So when we get to Romans chapter 12, when it says to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, are those, is the sacrifice of your body for the forgiveness of your sins?

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Nope, not at all. You have already been sprinkled with the blood of Christ, you are already forgiven, you are already holy, so that is taken care of.

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So then, who are you offering these sacrifices for?

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It ain't for you, it's for everybody else, and that's the point.

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So we return then to our Epistle text, Romans 11 33, and we'll start reading.

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Oh the depth of the riches and the wisdom and the knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments!

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How inscrutable his ways! Who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor, or who has given him a gift that he might be repaid?

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For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever and ever.

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Amen. So I appeal to you therefore, brothers. Now note,

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Romans chapter 12 begins with the words, I appeal to you therefore, brothers. Is this assuming that you is already a

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Christian or that you was gonna be one? You is already a Christian, so you are already forgiven.

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And if you're not sure about this, go back and read the first 11 chapters of Romans, which you'll note that the major focus of Romans 1 through 11 is what?

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Salvation by grace through faith alone as a gift by God given to you and apprehended through faith.

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It's wonderful. It's wonderful. So everything he's writing here cannot undo what's already been written there.

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This is then the therefore of the gospel. So I appeal to you, brothers, by the mercies of God, by the mercies of God is shorthand for all that gospel stuff in the first 11 chapters.

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Here you go. Present your bodies as a living sacrifice. You're a priest.

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Your body is now a sacrifice, not for your sins. It is a sacrifice for your neighbors.

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And this sacrifice, your bodies are already holy and acceptable to God. And this is your spiritual worship as priests.

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And so what does this then look like? What does it look like to present your bodies as a living sacrifice?

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Number one, do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.

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You think of it this way. Having your mind renewed, there's a word for it that we all are very familiar with.

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It's repent. Repentance. The Greek word for it is metanoia, and it means to change your mind.

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So you'll note here that as priests, part of our priestly spiritual worship is the continual, daily repenting of our sins and having our minds renewed by the

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Word of God. So that we might, that by testing, we might be able to discern what the will of God is, what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

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So priests who present their bodies as living sacrifices live daily in repentance.

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Part one. For by the grace given to me, I say to everyone among you, to not think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.

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Part two of what it looks like to live as a priest is to think of others more highly than yourself.

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A good cross -reference for what we just read here is found in Philippians chapter 2, and it says this in verse 3, do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit.

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Selfish ambitions and conceit is extremely me -focused. Do nothing, not some things, do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit.

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But in humility, count others as more significant than yourselves.

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Well wait, how am I supposed to be the king of the universe if I'm treating everybody else like they're better than me?

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Right. When you hear it said, you get it. Count others as more significant than yourselves.

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Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Say, what?

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Am I my brother's keeper? I think this is saying yes, you are. That's what it looks like to be a priest.

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Have this mind among yourselves, and watch the example. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ.

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Who, though he was in the very nature of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped.

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He emptied himself by taking on the form of a servant. Being born in the likeness of man and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

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Others greater than ourselves. Well, I would argue, and Scripture kind of makes the case here, that there is none greater than Jesus.

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None. And yet, he humbled himself and became the servant of all.

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And he has gone to the cross and bled and died for our sins. Notice, his life as sacrifice for us.

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Now then informs us as to how we are to live as priests. Our lives, our bodies, as sacrifice for others.

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Not for our salvation, but because we are already holy and acceptable.

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You'll notice the great love that God has, and that love is outward focused, not inward focused.

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Let me remind you of what the Ten Commandments say, and the second table of the law.

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Second table of the law begins with commandment four. Honor your father and your mother.

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Who's the focus there? You or them? Them. Honor them.

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You shall not murder. Who's the focus there? You or your neighbor? Your neighbor. It's a bad thing to murder your neighbor.

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Don't do it. You do not show love to them by gunning them down in cold blood for no good reason.

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You shall not commit adultery. Who's that focused on? Your spouse.

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To love your spouse is to be faithful to your spouse. To honor your marriage vows.

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You shall not steal. Who's that focused on? Your neighbor. It's a bad thing to take your neighbor's stuff, even if your neighbor is

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Walmart. You don't walk into Walmart and engage in what's known as the five -finger discount.

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This is bad, because that's about you, and so Scripture tells us, God tells us, to love your neighbor, including

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Hugos and Walmart or Hortenbacher's or wherever you go when you shop.

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You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.

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See, this is murder by words, by the way. Murder by words. I want to make myself look good.

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I want to make myself look like I'm in the right. So what I'm going to do, now that I'm in conflict with one of you, is

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I'm gonna get on the phone and get on social media, all over the internet, and tell everybody what a lousy, worthless scumbag you are, so that everyone will say, oh,

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Rose, bro, he's not a scumbag, but that person is. When you do that, who are you focusing in on?

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Yourself. But love says it's my job to protect your character.

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You shall not covet your neighbor's house. That's all right. My house is really cool anyway, so I'm joking, but you get the point.

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The grass is always greener where? Mm -hmm. And you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, manservant, maidservant, ox, donkey, combine, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.

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So note that all of the commandments have us focused not here, but out here.

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You see, to sin, and this is what sin is, it is to be bent in on yourself so much that the only words you can say are me, my, my, mine, mine, mine, mine, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, the first words that come out of your kids' mouths when they first learn to talk right after dada, it's mine.

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And see, to be a priest, to be a forgiven sinner, to be a member of the priesthood of all believers is to not focus on yourself.

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It is in action, thought, word, deed, focused on the people that God has put in your life for you to love them, especially the people who are here right now.

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Especially the people who are here right now. And that's the next part of our text. Here's what it says, for as in one body we have many members, and the members do not have, all have the same function, so we though many are one body in Christ and individually members one of another.

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Wow, this is talking about spiritual gifts. What does it mean to be a priest? It means to use the gifts that God the

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Holy Spirit has given you for the purpose of building up everybody here.

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Think of it this way, okay, now I may have said this before, but I'm an Olympic junkie.

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When the Olympics come on, I stop shaving, body odor levels go way up, television sitting, couch potato time really gets long.

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And that's just because I'm an Olympic junkie. And there's these sports in the Olympics, have you ever seen like the rowing teams, the guys on the skulls, you know, doing the, you know, the rowing?

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It's fascinating to watch, but see, here at Kongsvinger, have you ever stopped to think that we are an

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Olympic rowing team? That being the case, we're all dependent on each other.

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If you don't come and do your part with the gift that you have been given, we're not getting nowhere.

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Because I am dependent on Dawn and Scott and Faith. I'm dependent on the

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Rose family, on Isla. I'm dependent on all of the Newlands and I'm dependent on Janet and you are all dependent upon me.

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We need each other. We have been given gifts by God to serve and love each other.

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What does it look like to be a priest, to offer your body as a living sacrifice?

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It's to love each other and serve them and build them up in the gifts that God has given you.

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For as in one body, we have many members and the members do not all have the same function.

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So we though many are one body in Christ. Individually we're members of one another. So having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them.

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If prophecy, prophecy in proportion to our faith, if service in our serving, the one who teaches in his teaching, the one who exhorts in his exhortation, the one who contributes in generosity, the one who leads with zeal, and I would even throw in here the one who has the gift of spreadsheets, may he spreadsheet well, the one who does acts of mercy with cheerfulness.

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You see, the focus of this text in offering ourselves, our bodies as living sacrifices, it really kind of comes down to the mundane love for each other, meeting each other's needs, building each other up in the faith, meeting each other's physical needs as we are able, and the focus is on you, not on me.

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Now flip that. The focus is not on you, it's on me, right? You see that how it all works? This great interdependent body that we are.

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And this, by the way, is exactly what 1 Corinthians 12 talks about when it talks about the spiritual gifts.

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Here's what it says. 1 Corinthians 12, there are varieties of gifts, but the same

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Spirit. There are varieties of service, but the same Lord. There are varieties of activities, but it is the same

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God who empowers them all in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the

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Spirit, listen to this, for the common good. You see,

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God gave you gifts. God, the Holy Spirit, has given you gifts for the common good.

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For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same

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Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of languages, to another the interpretation of those languages.

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All these are empowered by the one in the same Spirit who apportions to each one individually as He wills.

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For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body though many are one body, so it is with Christ.

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For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, Jews or Greeks, slaves or free, all were made to drink of the same one

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Spirit. For the body does not consist of one member, but of many. If the foot should say, because well

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I'm not a hand, I don't belong to the body, that would not make it any less a part of the body.

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If the ear should say, well because I'm not an eye, I don't belong to the body, that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be?

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If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But as it is, God has arranged the members in one body, each one of them as He chose.

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If we are all, if we were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet there are one body.

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So the eye cannot say to the hand, well I have no need of you, nor again the head to the feet, well I have no need of you.

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On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable, we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require.

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But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another.

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If one member suffers, all suffer together. If one member is honored, all rejoice together.

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And see, that's the point. He's given us these gifts so that we will care for each other.

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I need you, you need me, we all need each other, and we are poorly cared for when we focus on ourselves rather than on offering our bodies as living sacrifices for each other.

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That's the point. Having said all of this, I think it is wise to note that what we just read in this text is law.

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It tells us what we ought to do. It tells us and informs us what a good work is.

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So I must ask this question, how y 'all doing at this?

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Scott's big thumbs up, right? See Scott, he has steps on how you can...

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I'm kidding, right? The reality is, is that if you are like me, you see this and it pinches, it hurts.

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You sit there and go, yeah, and the reason for that is quite simple, because when you see this, you sit there and go kind of like Homer Simpson style, no,

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I'm not doing this. Right. Now remember point one, daily repentance.

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And what is repentance? Repentance, again, is that change of mind. Repentance is this attitude towards God when he speaks to us through his word and his law convicts us and we sit there and go,

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God, you're right, I'm wrong.

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And isn't it always like that? Like every day. How come he's never wrong? That's the nature of this relationship.

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He's holy, not so much. So you'll note then this, that here and now, in this lifetime, in the now and the not yet, you have two conflicting wills fighting with each other.

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You are renewed and regenerated in Christ. You are truly a new person. Behold, the old is past, the new has come.

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And your new man or woman wants to do the will of God and sees the needs of neighbor and wants to get right to it and help them.

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But there's this other thing, our old Adam. And our old Adam is the one who, when the alarm clock goes off, says,

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I don't want to get up. I just want to stay here. I'm gonna roll out of bed, grab some coffee and just lay on front of the television and do nothing today.

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And then your wife comes up to you and says, are you gonna get up and do anything or are you just gonna lay there like a lump? See, that's your sinful nature.

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Your sinful nature serves only yourself. And so here in the now and the not yet, we have these two wills just doing this all the time.

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And it's for the birds. I can't stand it. But the reality of the matter is that this is what we are all given to.

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And so texts like this assume that you are a Christian, assume that you have a regenerate will, and assume that you still have a sinful nature.

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So we as priests, we mortify our sinful flesh and we make it do the things it doesn't want to do, which is serve others rather than itself.

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And it's gonna be like this, this struggle that you have, that I have.

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It's gonna be like this until you die or Jesus returns, whichever comes first. But there's a new day coming when you will be resurrected from the grave and made new with a new body that will be just like Christ.

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And this conflict will finally resolve all in favor of doing good works all the time, perfectly without sin.

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I cannot wait for that day to come, neither can my wife. So in the meantime, we pray,

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Lord have mercy upon us. Forgive us again. Lord you're right, we're wrong.

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We are sorry for what we have done. Have mercy on us and forgive us. We want to do better.

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Give us the strength that we may do that. Teach us, Lord, how. And give us the strength to, because in our sinful weakness we cannot do this.

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Show us how to daily embrace the priesthood that you have put us into by your shed blood, so that we may offer our bodies as living sacrifices for the sake of our neighbor, and that you will be glorified in the midst of it.

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In the name of Jesus, amen. If you would like to support the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church, you can do so by sending a tax -free donation to Kungsvinger Lutheran Church, 15950 470th

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Avenue, 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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