pUtTiNg ThE pRoPEr eMpHaSiS oN tHe WrOnG SyLLaBLe!

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. John chapters 15 and 16.

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Jesus said, when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the

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Father, He will bear witness about me and you also will bear witness because you have been with me from the beginning.

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I have said all these things to you to keep you from falling away. They will put you out of the synagogues.

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Indeed the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God. And they will do these things because they have not known the

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Father nor me. But I have said these things to you that when their hour comes you may remember that I told them to you.

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This is the gospel of the Lord. In the name of Jesus. Now you've heard me say this phrase many a time probably if you've listened to me for any amount of time and that is the phrase putting the emphasis on the wrong syllable.

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Now I gotta be honest I first heard that from Dr. Rod Rosenblatt back in the days that I was attending

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Concordia University Irvine. In fact the students of Dr. Rosenblatt often called phrases like this

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Rosenblatt isms and what's really funny is that there's now people calling some of the phrases that I use

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Roseboro isms which just means that Dr. Rosenblatt and others have paid it forward and in the future when people steal these phrases of mine and make them their own may

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God curse them by having them named after them. But you get the idea. But the whole point behind that phrase is about mispronouncing the word emphasis and syllable because by doing that you mispronounce the word and thus you err.

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And so you're going to note when we talk about God the Holy Spirit we live in an era post

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Azusa Street that is well the church is heavily infected in all regards in all places and in all denominations heavily infected by false understandings of God the

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Holy Spirit that have as their source the aberrant theology of the Pentecostals and the charismatics and now today's new apostolic

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Reformation. They are always putting the emphasis on the Holy Spirit however listen carefully to the words of Christ this is the night that he is going to be betrayed this is the night that he is going to be put on trial and when he wakes in the morning he will be crucified he has less than 24 hours to go to live on this planet and he is giving instructions to comfort his disciples and he is promising to send the

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Holy Spirit. A few weeks back we looked at one of the aspects that Christ said that the Holy Spirit would come to fulfill the purpose of convicting us of our sin and our unbelief that's one of the important works of the

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Holy Spirit but now Christ gets kind of to the nubbins if you would the central core idea of why the

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Holy Spirit needs to come and when he says these words when the helper comes whom

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I will send to you from the Father the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father he will bear witness about me.

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So you'll note we're going to put the proper emphasis on the right syllables here and we're going to note that scripture instructs us to test the spirits even even spirits claiming to be the

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Holy Spirit to see if they pass muster to see if they actually are truly the

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Holy Spirit or at worst a demonic spirit. Listen carefully again to Christ's words when the helper comes let me ask you guys a question we're all familiar with having people who are helpers all right there are people who well they make enough money that they can afford professional helpers people who are helpers are they front and center are they the people that that everyone focuses in on?

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No. Helpers usually work in the background. Helpers make it possible for the person in the foreground to do the things that he is doing and so you'll note that the

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Holy Spirit Christ says is going to come as a helper helper to whom?

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Helper to the Apostles, helper to Christians and so that being the case the

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Holy Spirit comes as our helper and there's important things that the

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Holy Spirit is helping us to do because quite frankly we need good professional help when it comes to our lives and you'll note that a helper that is worth his weight in gold is a helper who knows even more than the person he's helping or she's he's she's helping that that they know that they know all the things that need to be taking place see oftentimes we don't even know what we don't know that we should know that we don't know but we don't know that we need to know it okay do you understand what

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I'm saying or you guys just completely confused you don't know what I'm talking about but the point is is that a good helper knows all the things that we're supposed to know that we don't know and then helps us to achieve those things by saying oh

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I don't know if you thought about this but there's this other thing that you need to take care of and so you'll note a good helper does those things and that's exactly how the

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Holy Spirit is described in Scripture we don't even know how to pray properly for the things that we ought to do so you know what the

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Holy Spirit does the Holy Spirit says let me help you out here and the Holy Spirit helps us prays for us and things of this nature so Christ tells us that the helper is going to come in the charismatic and Pentecostal churches and in the new apostolic

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Reformation the Holy Spirit is not the helper the Holy Spirit is the focus the

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Holy Spirit is the one that everybody is focusing in on to the point where you wonder is that really the

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Holy Spirit because this Holy Spirit seems to be all about garnering attention and glory for himself yet Christ says that the helper when he comes he's going to be a helper he proceeds from the father and he will bear witness about who

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Christ so you back in the day when I was in seminary and I also remember hearing this when

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I was in Concordia University a proper understanding of the Holy Spirit is a good way to think about it not only is he a helper but he's obsessed with telling you about Jesus bearing witness about Christ and you'll note that we are as Christ's disciples called to also bear witness about Christ to speak the truth in fact the

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Holy Spirit is described as what the spirit of truth here have you noticed that the charismatic

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Pentecostal churches are not really known for trafficking in truth they are known for trafficking in bald face lies huge misunderstandings of scripture and flat -out rank scripture twisting

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I would note that I've got a sermon review coming up on fighting for the faith where I'm going to be covering a sermon by Bill Johnson of Bethel Church in Redding California where he legitimately argues that if you do not perform miracles you are disobeying

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Christ and Christ will say to you on the last day depart from me I never knew you now that's that's that that's not to put pressure on you but I assure you

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I have never once performed a single miracle and this doesn't count as miraculous as that is it doesn't count

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I've never performed a miracle should I assume that I am therefore doomed Del that doesn't sound like the spirit of truth to me so what

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I thought I would do you'll note that at the beginning of chapter 16 Jesus says these words

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I have said these things to you to keep you from falling away Christ knows full well what the Apostles are going to be facing after his ascension into heaven so they will put you out of the synagogues indeed the hours coming when whoever kills you will think that he's offering a service to God and they will do these things because they have not known the father nor have they known me but I said these things to you so that when their hour comes you may remember that I told them to you

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Christ prepares them he says in this text I'm sending the Holy Spirit he's going to be helper he's a spirit of truth he's going to bear witness about me and by the way all of this

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I'm telling you so that you don't fall away and I would note when you look at the immediate fulfillment of Christ's prophecy here that he gave on Monday Thursday it's actually quite stunning and helps us put the proper emphasis on the correct syllable if you will just bear with me a little bit here you'll know that we don't have

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Sunday school so I thought maybe we can work our way through a couple of chapters of Acts today what do you think all right

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I cheat Rose was always cheating got to get some more word in there in the in the book of Acts chapter 3 you'll know next

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Sunday Pentecost Sunday we're going to have a focus on Acts chapter 2 but let's look at the immediate aftermath of the day of Pentecost and at the very tail end of Acts chapter 2 it says this after everyone's baptized after Peter preaches that great sermon that leads to a whole bunch of people repenting and trusting in Christ and it says this of the brand -new baptized

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Christians they devoted themselves to the Apostles teaching to the fellowship and to the breaking of bread and to the prayers hmm that sounds like the divine service to me because you'll note the divine service here we are devoted to the

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Apostles teaching our fellowship together the breaking of bread and the prayers is that interesting it doesn't matter if you have a nice building or not or even if you own hymnals if you have the

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Apostles teaching the fellowship the breaking of bread and the prayers well you got church right and this is a very portable inexpensive model

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I want to make that clear and it says this all came upon every soul and listen to the next words and many wonders and signs were being done through the

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Apostles that's going to be re -emphasized in Acts chapter 5 by the way but you're going to note here who was primarily performing the miracles in the earliest church it was the

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Apostles and you'll note when you read the book of Acts it's pretty rare to see an ordinary garden variety disciple of Jesus performing signs and wonders and so the text makes it clear here that it's the

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Apostles who were primarily performing the signs and wonders who's doing that work

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Christ is through the Spirit whom he sent to validate his there that his message of the gospel in the mouths of his

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Apostles in fact the Apostle Paul in 2nd Corinthians makes it clear he says to the church in Corinth who was challenging his apostleship that he performed the signs of an

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Apostle in their presence these are the signs of the Apostles validating the fact that they were sent by Christ and it is not true that ordinary grassroots garden variety

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Christians are expected by Christ to do the same if he expected us to do the same then the

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Holy Spirit will be working that in us and well miracles would be as common as fish in the sea right and so we know miracles are actually kind of rare and rightfully so in our days so here's where the text goes and listen carefully to our theme again the

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Spirit of truth who's the helper who's bearing witness about Christ see if you can see what's happening here because this is the

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Holy Spirit working in the background Acts chapter 3 Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer the ninth hour and a man who was lame from birth was being carried whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple that is called the beautiful gate to ask alms of those entering the temple at the conclusion of this of this portion of the text we're going to hear that this fellow was more than 40 years old now it's a little bit annoying to say that because one of the things

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I've noticed in Scripture especially in the New Testament when it talks about people over 40 years old it talks about them in such terms as if somehow they're really old and ancient well

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I just turned 56 I mean I wonder if I should start looking at a nursing home at this point according to the biblical way that describes age but that's that's a whole other point but you'll note he's more than 40 years old and that being the case he was laid daily at the beautiful gate of the temple which means this

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Jesus saw this guy every time he went into the temple and you know what

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Jesus never healed him until until this takes place keep this in mind so he was late at the at the at the beautiful gate to ask for alms of those entering the temple seeing

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Peter and John about to go into the temple he asked to receive alms Peter directed his gaze at him as did

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John and said look at us and he fixed his attention on them expecting to receive something from them but Peter said

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I have no silver and gold but what I do have I give you in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk and he took him by the right hand raised him up and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong you'll note that throughout the scriptures apostolic quality healings are well undeniable we'll talk a little bit more about this in a minute everybody knew that a miracle had taken place this fellow who was lame from birth was able to rise up and walk and Peter took him by the right hand and raised him up his feet were and ankles were made strong and then leaping up he stood and began to walk and he entered the temple with them walking and leaping and praising

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God and you'll note that this is quite the strategic miracle if you think about it because this is a fellow who everybody going into the temple would have seen and would have been familiar with and they had to go into the temple with some regularity as required by the

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Mosaic Covenant and so everybody knew who this fellow was they could they could recognize his face they knew that he was lame and there he was leaping and walking and praising

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God and all the people saw him walking and praising God they recognized him as the one who sat at the beautiful gate of the temple asking for alms and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what happened to him and all the

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Pentecostals at this point are going to put the emphasis on this syllable oh look at this power this this is what needs to be happening in the church today and they will berate churches like our churches oh that Kongsvinger Lutheran Church it's a dead church they don't even have the spirit how do we know because they don't have the lame walking and leaping and stuff like that in their church to which

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I say you don't have it either the miracles that you claim are happening in your church are nothing but cheap tawdry parlor tricks it's completely deniable that you're even experiencing the miraculous

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I do find it fascinating that Bill Johnson at least is honest enough to say that he's not good at this yeah but that's a whole other story so is this where we should put the emphasis on this syllable no because you'll note that the

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Holy Spirit is the one who worked for the purpose of this man's healing why to draw attention to the

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Apostles and the message that they are going to speak and what who is Peter going to preach about is he going to sit there and go did you see that miracle would you like to have miracles in your life you can have your best life now the

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Holy Spirit's looking for people who are willing to invite him in be baptized in the Holy Spirit so that they too can experience perfect health is that his message nope what's he going to be preaching

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Christ and him crucified for our sins and I would note here in the next chapter we're going to see very clearly a little aside in the text that makes it clear to us how

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Peter is able to preach with such boldness the message that he preaches and if you think it has something to do with the

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Holy Spirit you'd be right so listen to what follows next and this is where we put the emphasis while he and this man now formerly lame clung to Peter and John all the people were utterly astounded they ran together to them to the portico called

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Solomon's and when Peter sought he addressed the people here's where the real miracle takes place men of Israel why do you wonder at this or why do you stare at us as though by our own power or piety we have made him walk

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Peter makes it very clear it's not by his own power or by his piety that this man received the miracle instead he gives the proper credit where the credit is due the

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God of Abraham the God of Isaac the God of Jacob the God of our fathers he's glorified his servant

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Jesus whom you delivered over and denied in the presence of Pilate when he had decided to release him but you you denied the

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Holy One the Righteous One and asked for a murderer to be granted to you and you killed the author of life well that doesn't make me feel very good about myself

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I could see this if Peter were preaching this today Oh social media would be a buzz and people would be criticizing him on this ground look at what he is doing there are people in the crowd there they weren't even there on Friday morning when

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Jesus was on trial and he's making them guilty of murdering Jesus how arbitrary how capricious how unjust he's making slanderous false charges against these people and putting

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Jesus's blood on them when they weren't even there they were sleeping in on Friday you know

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I'm right okay so because that's how social media works they always look for that tiny little thing where they can undo the preaching of truth but let me ask you this since this is written for us in Scripture and Scripture all

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Scripture according to the Apostle Paul who wrote under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit he says all Scripture is they a new stuff it's

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God -breathed why would God the Holy Spirit give words like this to Peter that are then recorded here in the

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Scriptures where Peter is just arbitrarily accusing everybody of being guilty of killing

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Jesus because by implication if what he's saying is true that would mean I'm guilty of murdering the author of life that's the point by his arbitrary very broad brush that he is painting with you'll note then that when you go back into the

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Good Friday texts and you read of the crowd calling for the release of Barabbas and them saying crucify

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Christ and Pilate saying why what evil has he done and they saying crucify him and he said well his blood be on you and they responded with his blood be on us and on our children that that crowd is our representative in the same way that Adam was our representative what they spoke they spoke for us that means that I as well as you we rightfully can be condemned as those who have killed the author of life we are the ones who asked for a murderer to be released we are the one who denied the

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Holy and the righteous one we are the ones who asked for a murderer to be granted to us instead now a little bit of a note here that would mean that we're all guilty of the greatest murder in all of human history and we are your sins and my sins were laid on Christ but you're going to note there's something different about the blood of Jesus it's not quite like the blood of faithful Abel Abel was was murdered by his brother

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Cain and Abel's blood cried to God from the ground and Jesus's blood similarly cries to God from well the base of Golgotha from the foot of the cross but his blood does more to then just call out our guilt and the point is this is that Peter is not going to merely say that they are guilty of murdering

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Jesus the author of life and therefore they should just expect the wrath of God he knows full well that Jesus's blood is kind of like a double -edged sword it cuts in two different directions if you would

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Jesus's blood truly does condemn those who persist in sin and unbelief and every human being is guilty of the murder of Christ indeed

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Christ's blood does condemn but for those who through the power of the

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Holy Spirit through the gospel preached to them are granted repentance and faith from the

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Holy Spirit Christ's blood no longer condemns them it is

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Christ's blood that washes away their iniquity and their guilt and their sin your sin and my sin has been washed away by the blood of Christ and it is his blood that is the active detergent that is take our taken our filthy clothes and made them white in his blood and so you'll note that Peter here in preaching starts off with some pretty heavy law so heavy that it crushes and it's designed to do that crushes any inkling of self -righteousness crushes any pretense of innocence and instead makes everybody guilty of murdering the author of life but then he says these words but God raised him from the dead to this we are witnesses and his name by faith in his name in Jesus he has made this man strong whom you see and know and faith that is through Jesus has given this man this perfect health in the presence of you all and now brothers

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I know that you acted at ignorance as did also your rulers but what

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God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets that his Christ would suffer he thus fulfilled so repent therefore turn back so that your sins may be blotted out that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the

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Lord and that he may send the Christ appointed for you Jesus whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring of all things about which

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God spoke by the mouth of the holy prophets long ago and there it is the call to repent the call to turn from your sins and the promise that their sins would be blotted out for the sake of the one that they murdered for the sake of Jesus Christ who bled and died in their place on the cross so that times of refreshing may come from God God does not wish for you to experience the torment of hell everybody who ends up in hell ends up there by their own will keep that in mind

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God does not will for anybody to be in hell instead he in he wills that times of refreshing may come through the gospel the good news that we've been reconciled to God that the hostilities are over and that Christ himself has made peace with God through his blood so that the times of refreshing may come beginning with the times of forgiveness mercy and grace and peace that comes from the gospel and culminating in the consummation of time when we will experience the refreshing Sabbath rest of the new earth in a world without end all of this from God who's

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Peter preaching about again Christ and the

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Holy Spirit is empowering him to do so giving him the strength to do it he then continues

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Moses said the Lord will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers and you shall listen to him in whatever he tells you and it shall be that every soul who does not listen to that prophet shall be destroyed from the people and all the prophets have spoken from Samuel and those who came after him also proclaim these days you'll note that the words of revelation come ringing in here the revelation says the spirit of the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy and here the

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Apostle Peter affirms that from Moses all the way through all the Old Testament prophets they were prophesying about who

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Christ and who was it that empowered them to to prophesy about the future coming

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Messiah it was none other than the Holy Spirit who inspired their words and carried them along and gave them those words and so he says then you are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant that God made with your father saying to Abraham and to your offspring shall the families of the earth be blessed so God having raised up his servant sent him first to you to bless you by turning every one of you from your wickedness zing what a sermon and a little bit of a note here

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I am a sermonator I know what it means to put a together I'm not didn't say terminator okay

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I'm a sermonator I do this for a living and I can tell you a lot of prep goes into a sermon you have to study the text you have to translate the text you have to ask yourself the question what does my odd what does the audience what does the congregation need to hear how am

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I going to weave the gospel into this what is this text saying how do I make sure I rightly handle it and there's a lot of prep that goes into this

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Peter off -the -cuff with no sermon prep at all it's a grand slam home run and I look at this as a sermonator and go dang how'd he do that right the answer is he did it through the helper the

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Holy Spirit was helping him that's how he was able to nail that landing and score the perfect ten hit the grand slam with that home with that home run you get the idea well remember this

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Christ prophesied in the gospel text for today he said this he says

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I have said these two things to you to keep you from falling away they will put you out of the synagogue indeed the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think that he's offering a service to God and they will do these things because they have not known the father nor have they known me so chapter 4 then no good deed going unpunished begins with these words as they were speaking to the people the priests and the captain of the temple and the

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Sadducees came upon them greatly annoyed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead do you see that cognitive dissonance at this point you'll note

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I used the metaphor last week that we are all snake bit in the venom of the serpent runs through us in fact it's the venom of the serpent that's running through these people that are causing them to be so blind to what's really going on here

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I mean just step back for a second a guy lame from birth over 40 which means he's ancient he has just been healed and leaping and praising

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God and all the people are praising God and you're annoyed because this this healing took place in the name of Jesus and they were preaching

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Christ in him crucified the forgiveness of sins and promising people to be raised from the dead on the last day by belief in Jesus you're annoyed by this the miracle speaks for itself doesn't it right but they were greatly annoyed the text says so they arrested them and the them here is going to include

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Peter and John and the fellow who was healed no no no enough of this all of your you three in prison for you for the night does any of that make any sense to you and my question is where did churchmen get this authority to arrest people okay how can there be such a confusing of the right and the left hand kingdom right we don't have a brig here at Kong's finger you know you know just just saying okay not for children and not for adults we have to make that clear you know but all right so they put them in custody until the next day for was already evening but many of those listen to this many of those who had heard the word believed and the number of men came to about 5 ,000 that little note in verse 4 of chapter 4 is not a little note faith comes by hearing hearing by the word of Christ God the

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Holy Spirit promises to be active with the preaching of the gospel and the gospel is the good news that Christ bled and died for our sins and he will forgive everyone who believes in him so note here the

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Holy Spirit was quite active by that day so that now the number of people at church and there's only one congregation at this point has more than 5 ,000 men how many women how many children are part of this this is like a ginormous mega church right which is going to have problems of its own but that's for other chapters and so on the next day their rulers and their elders and their scribes gathered together in Jerusalem another impromptu church council meeting okay and so with Annas the high priest and Caiaphas and John and Alexander and all who are the high priestly family and when they set themselves in the midst they inquired and here's the first question out of their mouths for this interrogation by what power or what name did you do this what a question we're now referring to the healing of a lame man as this it's not a safe question is it but listen to the next words the opening of verse 8 then

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Peter filled with the Holy Spirit if you listen to today's modern charismatics when you hear the words filled with the

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Holy Spirit the next word should be then fell on the ground slain in the spirit started barking like a dog you know you know meowing like a cat and behaving like a chicken and all the people were amazed at how drunk he was in the spirit he began speaking in gibberish and you can hear him crying at the top of his lungs could have bought a

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Hyundai should have bought a Kia right that's what happens when people are filled with the spirit right no

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Jesus said when the helper comes he the spirit of truth will bear witness about me so let's see what

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Peter does with this immediate filling of the Holy Spirit Peter filled with the

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Spirit said to them rulers of the people and elders if we're being examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man by what means this man has been healed well then let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth whom you crucified whom

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God raised from the dead by him this man is standing before you well zing

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Wow total on he's unafraid he's this is courage and boldness that is like rare in humanity these are the people who can put

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Peter to death these are the people that Peter was afraid of right on the night that Jesus was betrayed so much so that a girl a servant girl aren't you also with the

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Nazarene I never knew the man never knew him now what are you talking about right this same

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Peter filled with the Holy Spirit is now preaching with such boldness that he has let properly laid the murder of Christ at the feet of those who conspired to kill him and says whom you crucified he's it's by his name this man has been healed but God raised him from the dead and by Jesus this man is standing before you well this

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Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you the builders which has become the cornerstone and there is salvation in no one else for there is no other name under heaven given a man among men by which we must be saved

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I mean this puts Martin Luther's here

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I stand speech to shame I'll be blunt you know as wonderful as that was this one is way above that and listen to these words

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Peter filled with the Holy Spirit the scripture says is the Holy Spirit pointing people to the

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Holy Spirit the Holy Spirit is pointing people to Jesus and on top of that he makes this very bold and politically incorrect statement there is salvation in no one else for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved and I can hear all the blue -haired feminist woke types sitting there going are you saying that that my

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Buddhist neighbor and my Muslim friends they're not going to heaven unless they believe in Jesus no

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I didn't say that God the Holy Spirit said it through Peter and he's right he's the spirit of truth so your

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Buddhist neighbor and your Muslim friend need to repent and believe in Jesus how dare you you close -minded bigot right this is an offensive statement but Jesus said the

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Holy Spirit is the spirit of truth these words are true there is salvation in no one else there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved

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Buddha will not save you Allah cannot save you Shiva and Vishnu are demonic delusions

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Athena Zeus Dionysus especially

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Dionysus and all the false gods of Egypt are not just that they're false gods they cannot and will not save you and belief and trust in them will be in vain there is salvation only in Christ well don't you think in the 21st century we can be a little bit more open -minded and just seek to coexist no the

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Holy Spirit is the spirit of truth and Peter here was speaking by the power of the Holy Spirit now when they saw the boldness of Peter and you're going to note what

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Peter is preaching here it hits with the people he is speaking to when they saw the boldness of Peter and John and perceive that they were uneducated common men they were astonished a good way to think about it as Galilean were kind of like the ancient world's version of rednecks all right just I might as well call

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Peter Bubba all right yeah but at this point that's kind of the point how where where are they getting this information where is he able to preach like this and to preach with such boldness it stood out as miraculous right but they had recognized that they had been with Jesus but seeing the man who was healed standing beside them they had nothing to say in opposition but when they had commanded them to leave the council they conferred with one another saying what shall we do with these men for a notable sign has been performed through them it is evident to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem and we cannot deny it now let's talk about apostolic quality healings shall we today's modern new apostolic

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Reformation claims over and over again healings for people you know what they never produce is evidence and I mean any kind of evidence you're just expected to take their word for it because they believe in the

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Holy Spirit and a great example of this was last year last year there was a conference put on by James River Church in Joplin Missouri and one of the guest attendees and speakers was

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Bill Johnson of Bethel Church in Redding California and this conference was all about modern -day signs and wonders and healings and miracles and during after like one of their major speaker sessions they had a session where everybody in the audience can come together and pray for each other pray for healing and things like this and one particular lady was there who a while back had had her toes shot off by her ex -husband with a shotgun and so on one of her feet three of her toes were missing and so what did they do they prayed for this woman and her toes and the claim is at James River Church that God caused a miracle to happen that night and in the course of 30 minutes after she was prayed for her toes had completely grown back had now had toenails on them and she had received a complete healing by God the

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Holy Spirit James Lindell being one of the pastors there at James River Church Bill Johnson they all communicated these things

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Bill Johnson told the story at Bethel Church in Redding California however you're going to note something here no evidence was provided to support the claim that this woman's toes had grown back

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I always like to point out we have these things in our pockets nowadays this particular thing that I have

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I keep in my pocket is capable of 4k 60 video recording okay

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I can take photographs at 47 megapixels in raw format okay and you're going to note

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I have yet to see a human being running around the planet that is over the age of 18 who doesn't have their face in one of these things at least half the day and yet nobody thought to pull out their 4k video recording device and record or take a photograph of it so atheists seeing this story and this claim that this woman's toes had been had grown back they put up a website called show us the toes calm okay and this got some big media attention and there were some major media outlets that covered the story basically saying hey

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James River Church show us the toes to which pastor Lindell said oh these people are so cynical and skeptical no amount of evidence is good enough for them so we're not going to show them any right well the show us the toes website sat dormant for about the past year maybe a little bit more until this past week when a new post showed up guess who got a photograph of this woman's toes the show us the toes website had they grown back had

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God miraculously grown those toes back were they there now do they now have toenails on them nope there is no difference between the before and the after photo none whatsoever so I have to ask the question if we're going to put the emphasis on the proper side level why is it that the

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Holy Spirit of the Pentecostal movement traffics in lies and the miracles that it claims that it's operating in are not only cannot be validated but are easily debunked why is it that the

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Holy Spirit of the Pentecostal Church constantly is drawing attention to itself when Christ said that the helper that's the

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Holy Spirit would testify about him why is it that the Apostles never preached about the

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Holy Spirit the way the Pentecostals do but given every opportunity to preach every time they would open their mouth the only person that they were focused on preaching was

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Jesus Christ makes you wonder I can think of a different spirit one that was created by God a spirit who's a fallen spirit who is all about trafficking in lies

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Jesus speaks of the spirit and says that when he lies he speaks his native language and this particular spirit also is obsessed with drawing attention to himself and he couldn't heal a runny nose with a box of Kleenex and a

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Yeti and one of those Yeti pots right he couldn't do it himself that being the case

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I would note something it's a neti pot I would note this I believe that the the spirit that is operating in the

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Pentecostal churches is not the Holy Spirit I believe it's a different spirit a diabolical one at that you'll note that the miracle that was performed by God through the

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Apostle Peter here even the opponents of Christianity couldn't deny that it had taken place yet the miracles that take place in the

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Pentecostal churches I always scratched my head and said did a miracle really happen there is that was that person really healed is there really any evidence that can substantiate this answer nope we're dealing with a false spirit but we're telling the story here of these fellows so what shall we do the great miracle has happened and we cannot deny it but the next word in verse 17 is the word but you'll note with the words these words what shall we do with these men a notable sign has been performed through them it's evident and we cannot deny it the next words should be we need to repent we need to let these men go and we need to start sitting under their teaching so that we can learn the truth that should be what happens next but again listen to what

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Jesus said in prophesying the what would take place they will put you out of the synagogues indeed the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he's offering a service to God and they will do these things because they have not known the father nor me these people are blinded by their sins still under the influence of the venom of Satan so the next word is after they say we can't deny that a miracle took place their next words are but in order that this may spread no further wait what this is a bad thing how is it a bad thing so this may spread no further we are going to warn them to speak no more to anyone in Jesus's name that's not going to work right so they called them and they charged them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus but Peter and John answered well whether it's right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God you must judge for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and what we have heard and when they had further threatened them they let them go finding no way to punish them because the people for all were praising

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God for what had happened for the man on whom the sign of healing was performed was more than 40 years old what an annoying text right there

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I am greatly annoyed but we continue now in the face of these threats you cannot ever preach in the name of Jesus anymore this must come to a stop the disciples know full well they are in mortal danger these are the same people who crucified

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Christ so what happens next also is a fulfillment of what Christ says in our gospel text and we should pay attention because watch where the

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Holy Spirit shows up and what the Holy Spirit does so when they were released they went to their friends they reported what the chief priests and the elders had said to them and when they heard it they lifted up their voice together to God and so they pray and you're going to note here they don't decree they don't declare today's modern

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NAR types would say something like this we decree and declare against the spirit of Leviathan that has somehow taken over the synagogues and we tear you down Satan COVID -19 this is how they would talk right but here listen to this prayer it's a wonderful one so they lifted up their voices together to God and they said sovereign

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Lord who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them who through the mouth of our father

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David your servant said by the Holy Spirit why did the nation's rage in the people's plot in vain the kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers were gathered together against the

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Lord and against his Messiah for truly in the city there were gathered together against your holy servant

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Jesus whom you anointed both Herod and Pontius Pilate along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place and now

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Lord look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness they ask

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God please grant that we can continue to speak your word with all boldness while you

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God stretch out your hand to heal and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant

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Jesus and when they had prayed the place in which they were gathered together was shaken and they were all filled with the

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Holy Spirit and they continued to speak the Word of God with boldness and now we can see it we can put the proper emphasis on the correct syllable we do not need to err the

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Holy Spirit is our helper he helps us he's the one who bears the fruit of the

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Spirit within us he is the one who empowers us to speak the gospel with boldness he is the one who gives us the strength to proclaim

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Christ in him crucified for our sins he is the one who is active when all when his word is properly handled and Christ is exalted and glorified so brothers and sisters let us repent of not having a proper focus and putting the wrong emphasis on the work of the

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Holy Spirit may we see and embrace what Christ has done he is properly and truly sent to us his spirit the

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Holy Spirit who now indwells each and every one of us who gives us strength comforts us with the gospel convicts us of our sin and even prays for us in ways that we don't even know that we need to be praying for ourselves and let us thank

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God that he's not the Spirit who causes us to fall over drunk but instead the

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Holy Spirit is the one who gives us a sober -minded understanding of our own sin and the great mercy that we have in Christ he is not the one who causes us to speak gibberish but instead speak with boldness and confidence the sound words of sound doctrine and the good news that Christ has bled and died for our sins let us thank

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Jesus for this great gift of this helper and let us not be afraid of the true

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Holy Spirit but let us ever be thankful for the great gift that Christ has given us in sending him the one who proceeds from the father as well as the

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Son 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 Northwest Oslo Minnesota 56744 and again that address is

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Kungsvinger Lutheran Church 15950 470th