Broken Badly

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 Rosebrook. The Holy Gospel according to St. Matthew, the 11th chapter.

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At that time, Jesus declared, I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and have revealed them to little children.

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Yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my

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Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the

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Son chooses to reveal Him. Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

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Take my yoke upon you, learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

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This is the gospel of the Lord. In the name of Jesus. Hear the words of our Lord from our gospel text today.

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Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Boy, what a mess this world is.

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And I'm not talking about the world out there. I'm talking about y 'all here, and myself included.

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You'll note that in our Romans text, we get one of the most unflattering texts of all time.

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One that I like to remind people describes the normal Christian life. But if you've read theologians throughout the centuries, throughout the millennia, a lot of people have a hard time with this particular text.

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People like to sit there and go, well, as Christians, behold, the old is gone, the new has come.

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We are new creations, new creatures in Christ Jesus. Therefore, Paul must be describing his life before he became a

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Christian. Bah humbug. No way, Jose.

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This is exactly what Paul is describing, his life as a

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Christian, somebody who is a penitent believer in Jesus Christ. And Romans 7 is not written in past tense.

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It's written in the present tense. He's describing himself at the time in which he penned this, and this is nearing the end of his course, not the beginning of it as a

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Christian. And so we must consider these sobering words. In fact, let me give you a frame for this.

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I think several of you know this. I may have discussed it before, but my wife, you know, bad company corrupts good character.

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I think I keep making this point. She's introduced me to the TV show Breaking Bad. All right.

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And what an absolute train wreck this television show is.

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But as I ponder each episode that gets worse, I mean, it is a descent into complete and utter lawlessness, murder, drugs, and I think the name of the television show is wrongly named because here's the fundamental assumption.

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Fundamental assumption, main character, guy by the name of Walter White, and he's your garden variety, milk toast chemistry teacher at your local high school in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

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He's working hard for the little money that he makes. He happens to have lung cancer, and he's a good guy, but because of weird circumstances and the difficulties of life and how things just kind of don't work out.

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Have you ever noticed that we all have to toil at our work? Walter White has to toil, not at one job, but two jobs to make ends meet, and one of them happens to be a car wash.

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Can you imagine working at a car wash, right? And so through these series of events, weird things happen, and next thing you know, he becomes the best crystal meth cook in all of New Mexico, in fact, probably the

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United States. And everything that goes along with being a drug lord then begins to come into his life.

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And so people sit there and go, the way the world thinks, we're basically looking at good people who've made bad decisions, which turned them into bad people, hogwash, okay?

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Breaking bad is wrongly named, breaking, present active participle, bad, like somehow they're now in the process of breaking bad, wrong.

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This is not humanity. We are broken, past tense, badly.

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Good people don't become bad people in this life, except for Adam and Eve.

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Every one of us are bad people, and that's the point that the

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Apostle Paul is making. And here's the thing, the corruption infects us all.

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As I look back across the entirety of my life, I'm hitting that age where you're supposed to reflect, 55, right?

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It's an age where you're supposed to look back and kind of consider where you've been and maybe look at the short time that you have left to go and kind of make some decisions and ruminate and think about this.

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As I look back at the 55 years previous, there isn't a good one there as far as morally is concerned, right?

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And you sit there and go, well, pastor, this isn't a good way for you to be speaking about yourself. I mean, after all, you have been faithfully married to your wife for over 30 years.

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You married your high school sweetheart. You own a house, you pay your taxes, you have a truck, and you have a job as a pastor.

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I mean, as far as the American dream goes and how life is supposed to go in this life, you are the epitome of successful.

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You are a good person. You are looking at the wrong standard if you think this.

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The standard isn't the American dream. The standard is the holy law of God.

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And when I look at my life in comparison to that standard, there hasn't been a moment of my life or yours where I've measured up.

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And you know what? We're in good company because that's exactly what the

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Apostle Paul is talking about himself. He says, we know that the law is spiritual. I am of the flesh, sold under sin, present tense.

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Yes, it is true that when you were baptized, you were baptized and buried with Christ, you were raised with Christ.

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This is washing of regeneration. This is absolutely true. You've been filled with the Holy Spirit. That is also absolutely true.

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But the other reality is that you still have a sinful nature. And it is corrupted.

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And Jesus has no intention of taking your sinful, corrupted nature and then making that better and perfect.

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Instead, what he's going to do with your sinful nature, he's going to let you suffer the consequences, the wages of sin, which is death.

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And we're going to take your sinful flesh and we're going to put it in a box and we're going to bury it out here in the churchyard.

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And then Christ is going to raise it from the dead. Christianity is not about taking your sinful nature in this life and resuscitating it and making it bright and shiny.

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That's like polishing a dog turd. That ain't going to work. Instead, he's got different things.

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So here's what Paul is describing. He says, I don't even understand my own actions. I do not do what

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I want, but I do the very thing I hate. I should go all Pentecostal on us at this point. Can I get a witness?

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Can I get an amen? Does this not sound like your daily existence? I don't understand my own actions.

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I don't do what I want. There I am in the morning before I wake up thinking about all the things that I'm going to accomplish.

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But no, no, no, no, no. Other things distract me, and often to the procrastination weeds

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I wander, right? And the good that I intended to do is not the good that I accomplished.

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In fact, it's some pretty bad things. So you'll note, I don't do what I want. I do the very things I hate.

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Now, if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law that it's good. Yep, the law is telling me I should be doing certain things and not doing others.

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And do I listen to the law? Sometimes. So now it is no longer

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I who do it. But listen to what he says. It is sin that dwells within me. Sin is a corruption of our nature.

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And you and I cannot cure it. It's impossible to cure.

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I think about one of the most profound moments of my pastoral ministry, and that was preparing

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Arlen Stengram for his death. And if you don't know the details, Arlen Stengram really had a bad, raging case of skin cancer.

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And I got the phone call, the text message from his daughter that the doctors had given him less than a couple of days to live, that he was on his way out.

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So we went to visit him in his nursing facility, and yeah, he looked terrible.

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He absolutely looked terrible. And he knew that the reason why we were there was to prepare him for death.

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But bravely, Arlen Stengram said, I'm going to beat this thing.

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I'm going to fix this all up. You'll see. And I looked at Arlen, and I said,

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Arlen, in the next 24 to 48 hours, you're going to be with Jesus, and you're going to be with Judy.

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There's no beating this thing. It's the same with sin. There is no beating it in this life.

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You and I are sinful beyond measure. It's worse than you can possibly imagine.

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It's terminal. You're going to die from this. So am

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I. That's how bad it is. That's what Paul is describing here. He says, I know that nothing good dwells in me that's in my flesh.

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I have the desire to do what's right. I don't have the ability to carry it out. I do not do the good that I want, but the evil

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I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do not do what I want, it is no longer

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I who do it, but it's sin that dwells within me. Just like Arlen Stengram. What killed him?

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Skin cancer, right? That corruption of his body brought him to an end. Think of sin like skin cancer.

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We've all got it. And at times we get really super symptomatic and things look really dire and eventually they will end in our demise.

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So I find it to be a law, Paul says, that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand.

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And here's where I need to point this out. When you want to do right, evil lies close at hand.

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Paul is not talking about the person in the blue state next to us, right?

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He's not talking about the people who are celebrating the LGBTQXYZLMLP people in the major city closest to us.

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He's talking about your sinful nature, your sinful flesh. So I find it to be a law.

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When I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. It's as close as this for each of us.

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For I delight in the law of God in my inner being. This is what the new man in Christ does. But I see in my members another law, waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.

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Oh, wretched man that I am, present tense. Paul does not say, oh, wretched man that I was.

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But Christ has given me victory. I've experienced breakthrough. It came upon me suddenly.

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And now I go from glory to glory to glory to glory. The people who think this way are completely self -deceived.

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You've heard of gaslighting, right? It's a very popular phrase nowadays when somebody sees a person doing something terribly wrong and they say, you're doing that thing.

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And they say, no, I'm not doing that thing. You're crazy. I didn't, I, what are you talking about? There's something wrong with you, isn't there?

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Right? Gaslighting, right? But when you think about it, people who think that they are good people are not gaslighting others, they're gaslighting themselves.

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They have the law of God written on their hearts. And when they sin, they know they're doing wrong.

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And what the law of God written on their heart says, you just sinned. You broke God's law. What you did is evil. I did not.

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I'm a good person. What are you talking about here? Right? And in fact, a good way to think about it,

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I was talking with a friend of mine in the pastoral ministry, listened to his sermon from last week.

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In fact, he had a good way of putting it. He says, we human beings need to get this through our heads.

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It is impossible for us to break God's law. God's law cannot be broken.

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Instead, we break ourselves when we refuse to obey its commands.

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It's a good way to put it. And here's the thing, we all do this because we have the sinful corruption in us going all the way back to Adam and Eve.

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Some of the most tragic words written in all of the scriptures, you remember in the beginning it says that Adam was created in the image of God, but then later in the book of Genesis, it says that Adam's children were born in his image, not the image of God.

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Oh, wretched man that I am indeed. Who will deliver me from this body of death?

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I know a guy. I know a guy. Do you know anybody in your life like this?

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Somebody who like seems to know everybody? Okay. Whatever the problem is, they know a person who can actually fix the problem.

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You call them up on the phone, you say, listen, my dishwasher ain't working right. Something's wrong with it.

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It's got this clanging sound. And he says, put your phone in there and let me hear it. So you put your phone in the dishwasher and he hears the sound and he says,

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I know a guy who can fix this. And 10 minutes later, there's a guy showing up at your house and the guy's crawling into your dishwasher and he finds the problem really quick, fixes it, and you say, how much do

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I owe you? He says, it's on me. He knew a guy. Right? Well, when it comes to who will deliver me from this body of death,

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I know a guy. And there's only one guy and it's Jesus Christ.

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And is that not the whole point of our gospel text where he says, come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest because you'll know, we all know that something's terribly wrong with us.

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In fact, one of the most tragic bits of breaking bad is watching all these people descend further and further into evil.

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And there is not a single absolution. There isn't a single confession of sin. They have to live every day with the guilt of what they did the day before and looking forward to doing even worse in the present day.

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And so we all know that what we have deserved because of our sin is the eternal wrath of God.

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In fact, our Zechariah text wonderfully describes hell as the waterless pit.

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I would note that a lake of fire would rightly be described as a waterless pit. That's a nice way of talking about it.

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And you'll note, this is what we all deserve and we know it because the law of God in our hearts is screaming at us that we're guilty.

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And so what do we do? We want to fix the problem. While the problem is sin, I know if the problem is that I'm sin,

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I just need to make myself holy. So we go out and we apply ourselves to the latest self -help programs.

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We find out how to get our mental health properly balanced and make sure that we're buying the latest mushroom nootropics so that we can have a steady state in our mind and be productive and get things done.

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We can look back and say, hey, look, I used to weigh 260 pounds, but look at me now.

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I weigh 180, right? Oh, wow. Look at the improvement. I'm holier now than I was.

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No, you're not. No, you're not. Try that out on the day of judgment.

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Just try it out. Okay. Well, Jesus, what do you mean I'm not good? You're not good.

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You've broken my commandments. Well, don't you remember back in the year 2023,

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I really applied myself and I lost 60, 80 pounds? And how much more productive

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I was at work? Try that out on Jesus and see how far that's going to get you. Because we sin against God in thought, word, deed, by what we've done, by what we've left undone.

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Oh, it's just absolute, a complete train wreck morally for each and every one of us. And by the way,

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I can just hear somebody saying, well, Pastor Roseborough, you're making concession for sin. No, I'm not.

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I'm exegeting a text that explains why you keep sinning. So I know a guy who can fix all of this and that happens to be

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Jesus Christ, which is the reason why Paul then in our text goes on to say, who will deliver me from this body of death?

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Question mark. Well, thanks be to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Thanks be to God?

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My life feels like I'm at war with myself every single day of my existence, every single minute and second of my existence.

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Thanks be to God. That's right. Thanks be to God. Because Jesus is the solution to all of this. So then

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I myself, I serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh, I serve the law of sin. But there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

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And here's where the big turn is. If you think that God is sitting up in heaven, that Christ is sitting up there looking at his

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Apple watch going, hmm, just a few more hours before I get down there and I'm going to really swing hard and finally once and for all deal with this sin,

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I can't wait to find those folks from Kongsvinger Lutheran Church because they got something coming to them.

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Right? That's not what Christ is like at all.

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In fact, that's really the point of our Old Testament text, a text that we're familiar with because we've already heard it twice in the last 12 months.

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We heard it Advent 1. We heard it Palm Sunday. Hear it again, but here's some of the extra details.

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Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion. Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem.

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Behold, your King is coming to you. And here's where you're tempted to have some anxiety.

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The King is coming. Jesus is coming. Hey, Jesus is coming. You better look busy.

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Make sure that you're washing the dishes when he shows up. That's not the point of this. He's righteous and having salvation is he.

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He is humble and mounted on a donkey on a colt, the foal of a donkey. Jesus in his first Advent and in his coming and fulfilling this prophecy, he rides into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, heading to his crucifixion because he will be bearing your sin and mine in his body and he will suffer the wrath of God in your place.

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And rather than somebody who is ambitious, who is seeking power, somebody who is deciding to take over,

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Jesus is the opposite of that. In fact, there was a son of David who was ambitious and his name was

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Absalom. He didn't ride around on a donkey. What did he ride around on?

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He rode around in a chariot with horses and 50 men going before him saying, bend the knee,

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Absalom, the son of the King, Prince Absalom is here, right? And then his ambition brought him to the point where he attempted a coup against his father and tried to kill him in order to seize the throne.

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Jesus isn't anything like Absalom. He comes into Jerusalem to shouts of hosannas, palms and cloaks being strewn before him and people crying to God, hosanna in the highest, blessed is he who comes in the name of the

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Lord. And Jesus doesn't come on a war horse. He comes humble because he's come to lay down his life, because he doesn't desire your damnation or mine.

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In fact, scripture says it's not God's will that any should perish. Now it's true that people do perish.

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It's not the will for them. God's gracious will is that they would repent, that they would be forgiven and Christ is born the load of their sin and has propitiated the wrath of God by being nailed to the cross.

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And so it says then in Zechariah that I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim, the war horse from Jerusalem, the battle bow shall be cut off and he shall speak peace to the nations.

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You'll note that the way you get things done in this planet, military action, right?

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Your military goes out and conquers and takes control. We lose peace for a little while during a time of war and open conflict and hostility to achieve our objectives so that we can continue to prosper.

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And you'll note oftentimes our prosperity is at the destruction at somebody else's nation.

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All of that will come to a close. In the world that Christ is bringing when he returns, there will be no more war.

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We will take our weapons and beat them into plowshares, which means I get to become a farmer of some type or another looking forward to it.

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I keep pointing this out. When Jesus comes back, I'm out of a job, right? What good is a preacher of Christ and the word when you can look at him and ask him questions directly, right?

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You just cut the middleman out and that's the point. But you'll note the war comes to an end.

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In the world that Christ is bringing, it'll no longer be a world of ambition, a world of taking and seizing control, a world of destroying, a world of putting people under your boot and subjecting them to your policies.

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No, it'll be a place of peace because that's what Christ brings to all forgiven sinners.

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Peace, the end of hostilities. And Christ's rule, this rule of peace will be from sea to sea, from the river to the ends of the earth.

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In fact, it will cover the entire earth. It will not be a plot of land or a jetty or an island or even anywhere where it is not the kingdom of Christ.

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But then listen to these words, as for you also, this peace that Christ brings, our humble king who's bled and died in our place, this peace that he brings, it's also for you.

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It's for me. It says this, because of the blood of my covenant with you,

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I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit. What a beautiful sentence.

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Because of the blood of the covenant with you, I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit.

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When I hear those words, the blood of my covenant, I hear the words of Christ in the words of institution, right?

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On the same night also, he took the cup after supper and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them saying, drink of it all of you.

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This cup is the new covenant in my blood which is shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.

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And that's the point. The waterless pit is hell, but because of the blood of the covenant, the shed blood of Christ, the humble king who humbles himself, becomes obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross for you and for me, it is because of his blood that we, the prisoners of hell, the prisoners of the waterless pit, that we hear these amazing words, unexpected words, words that give us hope and joy.

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I will set you free. And indeed, we are set free in Christ. So return to your stronghold, oh prisoners of hope, huh, what a great title.

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Right now, I'm a prisoner, prisoner. Sin still dwells in my body and sin is slavery, but I'm a prisoner of hope and so are you.

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A hope of being finally released from sin, death, and the devil permanently in a world without end, all given to me as a gift because of the great love, kindness, and mercy of Jesus Christ.

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I don't even have to work for it, neither do you, and that's the point. So are you tired of trying to make yourself good before God?

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Trying to earn his favor and those brownie points so that you can exceed, do well on the day of judgment?

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Put it all away because you're just wearing yourself out.

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Jesus says, these words come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, I will give you rest. And indeed, he does.

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Take my yoke upon you, learn from me, for I am gentle and I am lowly in heart and you will find rest for your souls.

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I cannot wait. And in the meantime, we have his yoke, which is easy.

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The yoke of his word, law and gospel, sin and grace, repentance and the forgiveness of sins.

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But aside from that, we also have the great promise that we are indwelt now by the Holy Spirit who gives us the strength to daily rise and do our good works and to mortify our sinful flesh.

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We'll talk more about that next week. So are you tired? Are you heavy laden?

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Do you desire rest? Christ gives it to you in abundance. And note, this is his ambition, our humble king, his ambition to forgive you, to bring to you peace, to give you rest, and all of this because of his great love, his mercy and his shed blood on the cross, the blood of the covenant that sets you and I free from the waterless pit.

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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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