He Has Delivered Us

Kongsvinger Lutheran Church

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Our scripture reading tonight is taken from the epistle to the Colossian Church, Colossians chapter 1, verse 1 through chapter 2, verse 7.

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We will be working our way through the book of Colossians this Advent season. Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God and Timothy, our brother, to the saints and the faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae, grace to you and peace from God, our father.

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We always thank God, the father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints because of the hope laid up for you in heaven.

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Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel, which has come to you as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and increasing as it also does among you.

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Since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God and truth, just as you learned it from Epaphras, our beloved fellow servant, he is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf and has made known to us your love in the spirit.

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And so from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will and all spiritual wisdom and understanding so as to walk in a manner worthy of the

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Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.

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May you be strengthened with all power according to his glorious might for all endurance and patience with joy, 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 and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved son in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of our sins.

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He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation, for by him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things were created through him and for him.

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He is before all things and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church.

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He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, then everything he might be preeminent for in Christ, in him, all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

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And you who were once alienated and hostile in mind doing evil deeds, he is now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him.

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If indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven and of which

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I, Paul, became a minister. Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake.

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And in my flesh, I am filling up what is lacking in Christ's affliction for the sake of his body.

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That is the church of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you to make the word of God fully known the mystery hidden for ages and generations, but now revealed to his saints.

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To them, God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is

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Christ in you, the hope of glory. Him we proclaim warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom that we may present everyone mature in Christ for this.

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I toil, struggling with all of his energy that he powerfully works within me. For I want you to know how great a struggle

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I have for you and for those at Laodicea and for all who have not seen me face to face, that their hearts may be encouraged being knit together in love to reach all the riches of the full assurance of the understanding of the knowledge of God's mystery, which is

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Christ in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. I say this in order that no one may delude you with plausible arguments for though I am absent in body, yet I am with you in spirit rejoicing to see your good order and the firmness of your faith in Christ.

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Therefore, as you receive Christ Jesus, the Lord, so walk in him rooted and built up in him and established in the faith just as you were taught abounding in thanksgiving.

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In the name of Jesus. Now for our advent meditations, we'll be working our way through the book of Colossians.

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And if you've noticed, this is quite a hefty passage. How do you pull this apart in 10 minutes?

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Well, it'll take me an hour. No, I'm joking too. No, it's really not.

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But we're not going to, we're not going to obviously work our way through all of this. We're going to have to tear this apart a little bit.

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And I chose the book of Colossians for two primary reasons. One, the book of Colossians is

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Christological. In this passage of scripture that we read tonight, we get what is considered one of the most magnificent Christ hymns in all of scripture.

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And when you read the commentators on it, there's a lot of ink spilled as to whether or not it's a legitimate hymn or if it just looks like one.

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If it just looks like one, a difference that makes no difference is no difference at all. But let us return back to our text and I'll read portions of it.

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And I want you to pay attention to how the verbs work. In fact, let me let me work through from the beginning.

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Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God and Timothy, our brother to the saints, the faithful brothers in Christ at Colossi.

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Grace to you and peace to God from God, our father. Now, in this section of this text,

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I mean, you could literally go on and tease out some of these themes. The fact that the apostle

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Paul was an apostle by the will of God. And as you're going to see later in the text, you are in Christ because of the will of God.

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God willed, chose you to be saved. And then it says to all the saints. And you'll notice that there are some, well, some

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Christian churches and denominations and large church bodies that they talk about sainthood as something that you aspire to.

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I'm no saint, but I hope to be one someday. Well, the apostle

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Paul clearly missed the memo on that because he's writing to all these lowly Christians at the

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Church of Colossi and he's calling them saints. He's not saying saint candidates. He's saying saints.

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You are saints. So grace to you and peace from God, our father. And when we see the word peace here, think of the word

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Shalom. It's fascinating how Paul uses Shalom peace. So we always thank God, the father of our

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Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints because of the hope laid up for you in heaven of this, you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel notice here in this text and your translations may render this just a little bit different than what

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I have here is that the gospel is considered to be the word of truth.

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And what is the gospel? If we were to have a little quiz tonight and I say, all right, somebody comes up to you.

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They're a pagan. They want to know what the gospel is. What do you tell them? Really quick, you're on the spot. What do you say?

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Where do you go? What do you do? Well, you would take a look at first Corinthians chapter 15, where Paul says, let me remind you, let me remind you of the gospel that I preach for.

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I proclaim to you what was a first of importance that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures.

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They was buried and raised again on the third day in accordance with the scriptures. That's the gospel in a nutshell.

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It has to do with the death of Christ for your sins and mine and his resurrection from the grave.

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And then Paul in the book of Ephesians kind of ties Jesus's resurrection to our justification.

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So Jesus isn't just dead. He's raised from the grave. All of this is for us. So Paul says that the gospel, the gospel itself is the word of truth, which has come to you as indeed in the whole world, it is bearing fruit and increasing as it also does among you.

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And I can say to you, saints of Kongsvinger, not saint candidates, but saints that the gospel has come to you and it is bearing fruit even in your life right now.

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We continue a little bit ahead. And so from the day that we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will and all spiritual wisdom and understanding so as to walk in a manner worthy of the

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Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.

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May you be strengthened with all power according to his glorious might for all endurance and patience with joy.

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And so from this portion of the text, we learned something kind of important. And that is, is that, well,

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God wills for you to walk in a manner worthy of the gospel. He is saying, because you are in Christ, because you are forgiven, because you have heard the gospel, the word of truth, because you know what the forgiveness of your sins and you trust in him, that now this then leads to you walking in freedom and walking in a way that is pleasing to the

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Lord. There's no such thing as a Christian who doesn't do good works. That does that animal doesn't exist.

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And it's like saying, I've got a dog that never barks. I've got a cat that never meows. In fact, it moves that that animal does not exist.

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Although I've seen parrots be able to do strange things, but that's a different story. Right? So may you be strengthened with all power according to his glorious might for all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to the father who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.

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Major, major idea here. You do not qualify yourself for heaven.

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In fact, if you are trying to do that, give it up right now, knock that nonsense off. You'll never be able to do it.

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Instead, receive the good news that that you have been qualified by God himself, by what

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Christ has done for you. And it says this, he, God has delivered us.

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That's including you and me from the domain of darkness. And he has transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved son in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of our sins.

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And so God is the one who qualifies you. God is the one who transfers you from the dominion of darkness.

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God is the one who redeems you. He is the one who forgives you. He is the one who saves you.

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You do not do these things. They are done for you by God. They are received as a gift.

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And this is very good news. This is very good news because if you are like me, well, when you're out away from Kongsvinger, this embassy of the kingdom of God, and you're out, well, in the, in the world, at home, dealing with your sinful flesh, living with other sinners, right?

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Okay. Being tempted by your own sinful flesh, the devil, the world, and all of its temptations.

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You and I both know that we don't measure up. And see, that's the thing. You can either do some, you can do this crazy thing with the law, which the

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Lord's word does not allow you to do. You can sit there and say, well, it doesn't really matter if I keep

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God's law perfectly. God knows that I'm trying. It's the heart that matters.

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Oofta. Wrong. That's not how that works because Jesus says it's out of the heart comes all kinds of wickedness and sinful thoughts.

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Murder, theft, adultery, all of these things go and come from the

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And so when you sin, you are demonstrating that you have an impure and sinful heart.

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And so if we, if it were left up to us to save ourselves, to qualify ourselves by our good works, to qualify ourselves by our effort, to qualify ourselves by really giving a good college try at the 10 commandments, we'll understand this.

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This is one of those tests. You know, you know, I'm talking about, this is one of those tests.

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It's either pass or fail. It's not graded on the curve. It's either pass or fail.

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You either get a hundred or you get zero. Well, we've got to leave.

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I got a zero today. How about you? How about yesterday? Anyone get a hundred yesterday?

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No, no. All right. Sunday, that was a holy day. And no. Okay. Yep.

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Me either. But see, this text tells us something very important. God has qualified you.

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He has qualified you through what Christ has done for you. And that's what we're really kind of celebrating here.

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And if you think about it, we have Christmas coming. It's just a few weeks away. We've got all the decorations out.

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It looks like we're ready for a party, right? Break out the eggnog, you know, get out the

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Christmas DVDs. It's that time of the year. Cuddle up in front of the fire and watch the snow fall and get ready for that great day.

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We all remember when our kids were really small and they would get super excited about Christmas. Don't you kind of miss that?

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I miss that, right? But we really ought to be excited because we're celebrating the birth of the one who has qualified us.

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We're celebrating the birth of the one who has delivered us from the dominion of darkness. We're celebrating the one of the birth of the one who has transferred us to the kingdom of light.

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And I love the interplay between light and darkness in this passage. Our sin, the dominion of the devil, and our rebellion against God is all likened as darkness.

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In fact, you think about John chapter 1 where it says of Jesus that light came into the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.

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Christ came to his own, but his own did not receive him. But to all who have received him, who do receive him, he's given the right to be sons of God.

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And so God is the one who has delivered us. He is the one who has transferred us from the kingdom of darkness and the dominion of darkness into the kingdom of light of his beloved son in whom, in Jesus, we have redemption and the forgiveness of our sins.

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And here's the great Christological passage that we'll kind of end on for tonight. He, Jesus, he's the image of the invisible

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God. You want to know what God is like? You look at Jesus. He's the firstborn of all creation.

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Now a lot of ink has been spilled on this passage. Firstborn of all creation doesn't mean that Jesus was the first thing created.

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The firstborn is the one who has preeminence over everything. And when you read the

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Greek translation of the Old Testament called the Septuagint, you have Moses saying to Pharaoh, Yahweh says, release

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Israel. Israel is my firstborn. Right? You're saying, Israel is my firstborn. Well, same word in the

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Septuagint. Firstborn doesn't mean that Israel was the first thing created.

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No, it means he's the preeminent one. So all of you older brothers out there, you've got a passage.

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I just want to make that clear. So being firstborn, I have to invoke this from time to time. So he's the firstborn of all creation for by Jesus, all things were created.

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That's right. It says by Jesus, all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things were created through him and for him.

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He is the first. He is before all things. And in him, all things hold together.

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He's the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent for in him, all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

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What a great, great thing to consider. Truly, Jesus is the alpha and the omega.

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Truly, he is the beginning of the end. He is the one. Now we learn from this passage when

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God said, let there be light. It was Jesus's voice who was speaking, let the earth produce plant bearing our seed bearing vegetation.

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And it was so right. That was Jesus speaking. All things were created by him and through him.

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He is truly our God. He is truly our king. He is truly our redeemer. And we see this, that he has come.

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We know this now that his birth by the Virgin was to make peace, make peace by the blood of his cross.

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Because each and every one of us, we needed, we needed to be reconciled to God.

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You think about family relationships. Family relationships have a tendency to go squirrelly. And so from time to time, you get family members who are kind of at each other's throats.

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It always makes Christmas and Thanksgiving a little bit awkward, which is one of the reasons why a lot of families have those rules that say, ah, you're coming to Thanksgiving.

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Here's the rules. Sign the card. No politics, no religion, right? That's how that goes.

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Because if people talk about politics and religions on Thanksgiving, well, what ends up happening is, well, there's generally weeping and gnashing of teeth and yelling and things like that.

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And that doesn't go well. And so when that happens and things go squirrelly in family relationships, you have people who are estranged, people who are in conflict, people who need to be reconciled to each other.

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And beloved, that was us. We were born enemies of God. We were born in the dominion of darkness.

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We were born in league with the devil. But this says that God has qualified us.

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He's transferred us. And he has reconciled us to himself by the blood of his cross.

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What a great and precious gift. He made peace when we were at war. What an amazing thing for us to consider.

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So as we walk through now the season of Advent, let us remember these words.

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And you, that's you and I, who were once alienated and hostile in mind, we who are the ones who are doing evil deeds,

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Christ has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him.

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And if you say, me? Holy? Me? Blameless?

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Me? Yes, you, holy.

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You, blameless. Because he has reconciled us to himself. He has made peace.

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He clothes you in his perfect righteousness. He forgives you. He qualifies you.

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He saves you. He redeems you. And for all of that, it just seems woefully inadequate to say thank you, does it not?

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Because in reality, we owe everything to him. We owe our life, our breath, our salvation, and our peace with God.

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What a great and amazing Jesus. We look forward to celebrating his birth by the

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Virgin Mary because he is the one who has taken us, who were alienated and hostile in mind, and he's reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, and he now presents us holy and blameless and above reproach before him.

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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. We thank you for your support.

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