The Walking Dead

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 Tim. The Holy Gospel according to St. Matthew, chapter 16, verses 21 through 28.

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From that time, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.

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Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, Far be it from you, Lord, this shall never happen to you.

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But he turned and said to Peter, Get behind me, Satan, you are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.

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Then Jesus told his disciples, If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.

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For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his life?

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Or what shall a man give in return for his life? For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his

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Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done. Truly I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the

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Son of Man coming in his kingdom. In the name of Jesus. Amen.

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All right. A little bit of a preface here before we get into our sermon. You're going to note that, once again, the text that we'll be focusing most of our attention on today is filled with law.

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Law. Law. God's law tells us what we ought to do. And, well, we have this fancy Latin phrase that we

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Lutherans like to throw around. We talk about the law and we say, Lex Semper Accusa. Lex meaning lost.

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Semper always. Accusa. Accuses. It does. And so today, you've got to understand that when the law is preached, sometimes you will hear it and you'll sit there and go,

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Man, I'm inspired. I want to do that for my neighbor. Other times you're going to hear it and you're going to sit there and go,

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Oof -da. Yeah, I am not doing that. And when you hear that within yourself and the

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Holy Spirit convicting you, understand this. We will not leave you with just yourself to commiserate with.

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We'll leave you with the gospel. Because when the law always accuses, well, the only way to silence it is the cross.

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And we'll talk about that today. A little bit more of preface here. When I was a younger fellow and attended large evangelical -type churches,

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I always thought it was fascinating that when the pastor would preach certain law passages, that there was a strange behavior that sometimes people engaged in, especially if they were married.

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And it would be something to the effect of when one spouse heard something that their spouse needed to hear, they would do this.

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Are you listening? None of that today. None of that. None of that.

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And thankfully I'm up here so I can't get the elbow. I'm just saying. But the idea here is that when the law is speaking and God is speaking to us, telling us what we ought to do, showing us what a good work is, the message is for you.

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The message is for me. It's not for you to do this. With that, we're going to do a little bit of preliminary work before we get back into Romans 12.

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And there's something very important that we need to pick up, and we're going to pick it up from Titus 2.

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Think of it this way. When we think about Christ on the cross, when we look at the cross and we see Christ on the cross, what is it that we oftentimes think about?

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We think about what was happening to him at the time. And when we talk about the cross, oftentimes we say

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Christ was bleeding and dying for our sins. He was a penal substitutionary sacrifice, that he was drinking to the dregs the full fury of the wine of the wrath of God.

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And this is most certainly true. He was doing all of that. What we oftentimes do not always discuss very clearly is not what was happening on the cross, but what the cross ultimately accomplished.

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And that is a very long list. Scripture doesn't tell us that only one thing was accomplished on the cross.

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In fact, Scripture over and again describes what it is that Christ accomplished in many different pictures and descriptions.

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And we're going to pick that up from Titus today so that we can kind of get what's going on in Romans. Here's what it says,

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Titus 2 .11. For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self -controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great

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God and Savior, Jesus Christ. Hold on one second here. You're going to note that in these verses that we just read, the grace of God, which is exemplified in Christ's death on the cross, it trains us to renounce ungodliness.

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I seem to remember a passage in Scripture that says something to the effect of that it's God's kindness that leads us to repentance.

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Scripture explicitly says that. And so you'll note that God's grace is ultimately what trains us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions.

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The law tells us what those worldly passions are, tells us and identifies the ungodliness within our heart, convicts us of our deficiencies in these regards.

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However, it is God's grace and His mercy that trains us to renounce ungodliness. We bear fruit in keeping with repentance because we are forgiven.

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You'll also notice these amazing words that we are waiting for the blessed hope, the appearing in the glory of our, listen to this, great

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God and Savior, Jesus Christ. If you're ever looking for a verse that explicitly says that Jesus is

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God, this is one of them. Very clear that Jesus is our great

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God and Savior. And it says this, who gave himself for us to redeem us.

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I cannot overemphasize, and I love reiterating, redemption is a slaving term.

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Redemption. Back when we lived in Southern California, we had these things when I was a kid called blue -chip stamps.

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Now, I don't think they had them here. Maybe they had green stamps or other things like that.

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But in California, we had blue -chip stamps. And I remember the booklets very vividly.

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There was a blue beaver character that was the mascot for blue -chip stamps.

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And I wasn't exactly sure how my mother would get these, but I would note that she would get them from time to time at the store or at different venues that she was at.

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And she would collect blue -chip stamps. And you would fill these booklets up with blue -chip stamps.

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And then when you were done collecting them, if you collected so many they were worth different things, you would take them to a blue -chip stamp collection or redemption center, and you can exchange those booklets for, well, toasters and blenders and transistor radios and things like that.

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And so think of it this way. The cheap Chinese electronics, Japanese electronics, they were being held hostage until you redeemed them.

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And I remember very distinctly we had this red transistor radio that we would take to the beach that my mom got at the blue -chip stamp redemption center.

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Loved listening to Vin Scully calling the play -by -plays while on the beach. Anyway, I'm sorry

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I've gone off in a different direction. Coming back, coming back. So here's the idea. Christ has given himself to redeem us.

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And listen to what it says. Redeem us from all lawlessness. Sin is slavery.

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Lawlessness is slavery. Christ has redeemed us from lawlessness.

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And to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are, watch these words, zealous for good works.

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Zealous for good works? Maybe this is some weird Baptist thing that they've stuck into the text.

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This doesn't sound very Lutheran. We Lutherans are very stoic. I'm surprised there's so many people sitting near the front of the church today.

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Yeah? Yeah, yeah. But zealous for good works. Hmm. And so then

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Paul says to Pastor Timothy, declare these things. Exhort and rebuke with all authority.

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Let no one disregard you. Remind them, the people in your congregation, to be submissive to rulers and authorities.

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That's why we pay our taxes. To be obedient. To be ready for every good work. It's as if the picture here for all

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Christians is that we are like, well, like house slaves waiting in the wings, waiting, anticipating, zealously waiting for that big order that comes in.

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What do you want me to do next, boss? Go do that. Yes, I get to go do something, right? Ready to do every good work.

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To speak evil of no one. To avoid quarreling. To be gentle. To show perfect courtesy towards all people.

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Now it's starting to step on toes. Mine included. And then it says this. For we ourselves, we were once foolish.

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Notice the past tense. Disobedient. We were once led astray. And here's the important word.

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We were once slaves to various passions and pleasures. Yeah, see, sin is never slavery.

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It's always, I mean, it's never freedom. It's always slavery. You want to know what freedom looks like, you have to get into our epistle text.

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Slaves to various passions. Passing our days in malice, envy, hated by others, hating one another.

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In other words, just a typical day on Facebook. You want to see what humanity is really like? Just watch social media.

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It's worse than the Wild West. And then it says this. But when the goodness and the loving kindness of God, our

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Savior, appeared. And notice the heavy emphasis on God's mercy, His grace, His love, His kindness.

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He saved us. Not because of works done by us in righteousness.

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Yeah, that's right. We are not saved by our works, but He saved us. But according to His own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the

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Holy Spirit, which is a direct reference to baptism. He saved us through washing of regeneration, whom

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He poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ, our Savior, so that being justified, declared righteous by His grace, so that we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

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So the saying is trustworthy. And I want you to insist on these things, so that those who have believed in God may be careful to, watch the words, devote themselves to good works.

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Clearly, clearly the Baptists have been tampering with these biblical texts. No, they haven't.

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You see, the cross is what teaches us to renounce ungodliness. It's God's mercy.

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And because we are justified, that we are then devoted to good works.

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And this is not contrary to the proper distinction of law and gospel. It is a very epitome of what it means to rightly distinguish between God's law and His gospel.

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So, devote themselves to good works. So these things are excellent and profitable for people.

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But, avoid foolish controversies. Yeah, there's a lot of those running around right now. Genealogies, dissensions, quarrels about the law, for they are unprofitable and worthless.

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And as for a person who stirs up division, this is a gossip. This is somebody who likes to tell lies, who isn't interested in actually calling anybody to repentance, but to just stir up division and cause fights between brothers.

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After warning him once, and then twice, have nothing more to do with him.

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Notice that this is kind of a shorthand reference to Matthew 18, which we'll actually be talking about next week.

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Warn him once, warn him twice, and then have nothing to do with him, knowing that such a person is warped and sinful, he is self -condemned.

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So you'll note here, in very short format, kind of compressed, we see law and gospel.

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We see that at one time we were slaves to sin, and now we have been set free by what Christ has done, and that God's love,

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His mercy, and His kindness towards you, towards me, then informs us, then, how we are to behave towards others.

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This is why Paul says that love is the fulfilling of the law. So with that, let's return then to our text in Romans 12.

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In Romans 12, remember the context from last week, the important words at the beginning of chapter 12, verse 1, in light of God's mercy, which is shorthand for reminding us that we are saved by grace through faith alone, apart from works.

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But that does not mean that good works are not necessary. They are necessary because we is Christians.

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That's the idea. So therefore, your priestly act, because you are now a member of the priesthood of all believers, is to offer your own bodies as a living sacrifice, not for the forgiveness of your sins, that's what

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Christ has done, but following in the example of Christ, who gave Himself for us. Now you offer your bodies as living sacrifices for your neighbor.

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And your good works are for your neighbor. They're not for you. Continuing then with that theme,

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Paul writes, let love be genuine. Now note, slaves to sin, they really love themselves.

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And of course, they love feigning love for other people, but that's just feigning.

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I mean, when push comes to shove, on the one hand, they'll say, Oh, I love you, brother. Love you, love you, love you.

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And then the brother gets in need and actually needs a good work. Oh, yeah.

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I got to go fishing. They disappear. They're never there in real time of need.

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They're only feigning love. But Scripture tells us to let our love for each other to be genuine. Abhor what is evil.

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Hold fast to what is good. Slaves to sin, which is what we all were before we were brought to faith in Christ, they love what is evil, and they murderously abhor what is good.

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I don't know if you were paying attention this week. There was a statement released, an evangelical statement called the

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Nashville Statement. If you haven't seen it, it's worth looking up. The Nashville Statement.

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I ended up signing on to it because I thought it was a good statement. And if you think about it, if you read through the

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Nashville Statement, it's really not rocket surgery. What it does is just affirm what

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God's Word reveals regarding the fact that God has created us male and female.

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It condemns, as Scripture condemns, homosexuality, homosexual passions, transgenderism, as well as heterosexual sexual sins outside of marriage.

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It just openly condemns these things and just says the same thing as Scripture says regarding these things and affirms that Christ has bled and died for these sins and that people can receive

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God's mercy and forgiveness through faith in Christ. Hmm. It seemed like a pretty basic statement.

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Well, this is to say the liberal world blew up.

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I just heard that North Korea exploded a nuclear bomb, a hydrogen bomb that caused an earthquake, but the earthquake that was heard around the world after the

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Nashville Statement really was a lot bigger than Kim Jong -un's little escapades with hydrogen bombs.

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And the liberals have gone crazy. In fact, Nadia Bowles -Weber of the ELCA, she was so incensed that she wrote her own statement, the

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Denver Statement, because she's in Denver. And the Denver Statement basically tries to say that you narrow -minded, bigoted people who signed on to the

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Nashville Statement, God is so much bigger and better than what you think and that we are not bound by this idea that God has created people male and female.

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He's created all these other genders along the way, which is just a perfect example, literally, of just how backwards things are because of our sinful nature.

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We are told to abhor what is evil. That requires us to know what evil is. And we do not determine what is evil by what we feel in our innards.

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Evil has been defined for us by God in His Word. And as Christians, we have to listen to His voice, not the voice of our innards or somebody else's innards or a collection of people who all have the same thing coming out of their innards.

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We believe in sola scriptura, not sola feelings. Love one another with brotherly affection.

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Now, we've all heard the statement, blood is thicker than water, and we know what that supposedly means. When somebody in your family who shares your

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DNA, who has your same last name or maybe had your same last name but married into another family, blood is thicker than water, which means that when things are down, their chips are down for that person in your family, you've got to help them out.

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As for Joe Schmo, who lives in town, who cares about him? Blood is thicker than water. At least the saying goes.

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But notice what Scripture says. Love one another with brotherly affection, which means we all, as Christians, we are blood, regardless of what your last name is, because of the blood of Christ.

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So blood truly is indeed thicker than water. Love one another with a brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.

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Any of you guys watch any of the late -night comedy shows? Late -night comedy shows seem to be in a competition, a competition to see who can most wittingly dishonor the most people.

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Is that not what our comedy is about? And we reward them with wealth and ratings and fame.

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The person who is most adept at dishonoring in a comedic way and making us laugh along the way, we honor them for their dishonor.

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Such is the nature of our sin. Do not be slothful in zeal. Be fervent in spirit.

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Serve the Lord. Hang on a second here. I gotta press the snooze button on that one.

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I'll get back to that one in a little bit. Don't be slothful in zeal.

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Be fervent in spirit. Rejoice in hope. Be patient in tribulation.

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Now this theme is gonna come up several times in this list. Be patient in tribulation. Be constant in prayer.

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Always fascinates me when people think of prayer as the thing of last resort. We gotta pray for this person.

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Oh, has it really come to that? It's come to, we gotta pray? Oh my goodness, it's the end of the world.

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Now, constant in prayer. It's the first thing you should do, right? Contribute to the needs of the saints.

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Seek to show hospitality. And here we go again. Bless those who persecute you.

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Bless, do not curse them. And I can hear already some of you going, what? What about personal boundaries?

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Are we doormats? What about revenge? What about getting back to those who are mistreating us?

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Maybe just a little. Let them know that they don't get to do that kind of stuff to me.

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Rejoice with those who rejoice. Weep with those who weep. Have you ever noticed that if you've ever been in mourning, you've lost somebody close to you, they've died, that the person who comes and says kind of awkward words doesn't help very much.

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But the person who comes and just sits and cries with you, they really are help.

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Live in harmony with one another. This is quite the list.

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Don't be haughty. Associate with the lowly. Now wait a second. This is going way too far.

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I've got a public image I need to maintain and grow. I can't be seen in public with the lowly.

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How am I supposed to name drop and let everyone know how important and well -connected and influential

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I am if I associate with the lowly? Is that not how the world thinks?

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How many homeless people do people invite to their Christmas parties? I've never seen it happen.

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Never be wise in your own sight. No nudging, please. This is the person who says,

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I know the solutions to all the world's problems. I mean, after all, common sense isn't as common as it used to be.

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And since I am just a deep well of common sense, if people would just listen to me and take my advice, well, the world would be a much better place.

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Run from that person. And here we go again. Repay no one evil for evil. But give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all.

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Now, in our Sunday School lesson today, and this is just clearly Providence, we are going to really delve deep into this particular concept as we look at the story of David again.

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So just a little bit of a teaser. Sunday School's gonna really pay close attention to this concept. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.

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As long as it depends on you, be at peace with everybody you can and understand there are some people who just won't be at peace with you.

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That's their problem, not yours. But you can be at peace with them. Beloved, and here we go again, never avenge yourselves.

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Leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, vengeance is mine and I will repay, says the Lord. Now, my innards are going like this, kind of like what

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Jonah did. I don't know, God. You always seem to be so kind.

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And you're patient. And you describe yourself, God, as long -suffering, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love, forgiving transgressions.

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I'm pretty sure that if I leave this vengeance thing up to you, God, then you just might forgive this person rather than give them what they deserve.

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And I want justice. Is that not the subtext of the whole story of Jonah?

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Yes, it is. And we kind of feel that same way too. But keep in mind, God didn't give you what you deserve.

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He gave you mercy and grace. And so because of that, it's that mercy and grace that teaches us to renounce ungodliness, and it's ungodly to avenge yourselves.

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So, says this, to the contrary, if your enemy's hungry, notice it doesn't say your friend.

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It doesn't say if somebody at church. It doesn't say the homeless. It says your enemy, that guy who hates your guts.

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And if he had just a moment to be with you alone, he would gun you down in cold blood. That guy.

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If he's hungry, feed him. If he's thirsty, give him something to drink.

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For by doing so, you will heap burning coals on his head. Because it's kindness that leads us to repentance.

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And this, last of all, do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

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And brothers and sisters, this is exactly what Jesus did. It's exactly what he did.

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Jesus did not overcome evil with evil. Keep in mind, Jesus laid down his life willingly.

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The Romans were not in charge. The Pharisees were not in charge. The chief priests were not in charge.

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Christ was in charge of his own death. And when he was done suffering and bleeding for your sins and mine, he said, it is finished.

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He overcame evil with the ultimate good. Because God demonstrates his love for us in that while we were yet sinners,

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Christ died for our sins. And so with that, let's return then to our gospel text where we'll pick up the gospel.

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Because you'll note, so far the sermon has been very heavy on God's law. Indeed, it is.

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Matthew 16, 21. From that time, from the time of Peter's confession that Jesus is the

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Christ, the Son of the living God, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem.

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This was not an option. Saving us required this. That he must go to Jerusalem and he must suffer many things from the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and he must be killed and on the third day be raised.

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And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. Now remember,

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Peter just confessed that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. In other words, he recognizes that Jesus is none other than the

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Messiah and God in human flesh. And it says, Peter rebuked Jesus. Okay, in the corporate world, in the corporate world, those of you who've worked in the corporate world, if a mid -level manager rebukes the

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CEO of the corporation, there's a phrase we use in the corporate world for that. That's called a career limiting move.

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Generally, the guy who does that gets invited to play on some other corporation's team, which is a polite way of saying.

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And they don't give a severance package when you do something stupid like that. And Peter is doing this to the

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King of Kings and Lord of Lords, the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. There's nobody higher.

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And this is who he's rebuked. He's lucky he wasn't turned into a crispy critter at that moment.

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So Peter took Jesus' side and rebuked him, saying, far be it from you, Lord. This shall never happen to you.

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Because he's kind of all figured out. Me and Jesus, we're tight, right? We're tight.

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I'm part of the inner circle of the 12. In fact, Peter gets invited. Peter, James, and John, they go up to the

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Mount of Transfiguration. Peter is part of the inner circle. So he's thinking, when Jesus is

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King in Jerusalem, I'm going to be the Grand Vizier Puba of the region of whatever, right?

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Sloburbia. He's already kind of worked it all out in his mind. He's going to have a posh job.

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He'll never be hungry again. But he's thinking like the world thinks.

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And that's the problem, which is the exact opposite of how we're taught to think.

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By Scripture. We don't think of ourselves. We're to think of others.

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Let God vindicate us. So far be it from you,

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Lord. This shall never happen to you. And then he turned to Peter and said, get behind me, Satan. Because, well,

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Peter right there sounded a lot like Satan. Yeah.

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And see, that's where we learn this all from. You're a hindrance to me, for you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.

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Selfish, sinful, bent in on yourself, mankind. So then Jesus told his disciples, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself.

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Which is another polite way of talking about repentance. God, you're right,

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I'm wrong. You're right, I think only about myself. So Christ calls us to deny ourselves.

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Take up our cross and follow him. You see, the people who carried their crosses and who were paraded through the streets, they were the walking dead.

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And Jesus says to us, who've been brought to repentance, to deny ourselves, pick up our crosses, and follow

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Jesus in the parade of the walking dead. Wow.

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And by the way, you don't get to pick your cross. It's not like you go to the cross store and say, you know, I really like this one over here.

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It's pink, it's kind of dazzled, you know, it looks so cool. You know, I look good carrying that cross.

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You know, crosses are given to you by God, and they hurt, and they have splinters, and they're heavy, and they're really tough to bear.

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And they show our weakness. For whoever would save his life will lose it.

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Whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?

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Or what shall a man give in return for his soul? There's nothing you can offer for your own soul.

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You see, that was purchased for you by God. For the

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Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done.

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What a frightening sentence. Christ is going to repay every one of us according to what we have done?

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Quick, scramble, get busy. Jesus is coming back. He's about to repay you.

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What are you going to do? You'll note when we hear these words, the first thing that kind of comes up is anxiety and fear and judgment and stuff like that.

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Yeah, stop it. Because remember, he said he had to go to the cross. He had to die.

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You see, what did he die for? All of your sins. And over and again,

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I keep reiterating this fact. On the day of judgment when Jesus returns, there's books. There are books.

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Scripture says there's books. Somebody up there is writing right now. And you sit there and go, but I know it was written in that book.

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Yeah, I know. Me too. I've got whole pages. In fact, a large portion of the book.

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Stuff I never ever want to see again. But see, Colossians 2 assures us of this, that the record of debt that stood against us, this is what

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Colossians 2 said, Christ has nailed it to the cross. He's canceled the debt by bleeding and dying.

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You see, he has to go to the cross. See, he's thinking the way God thinks, love, mercy, kindness, forgiveness, pardon.

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And so all of the pages in your book that have to do with the things you've done wrong, that record has been canceled.

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And the Scripture says very clearly, it has been nailed to the cross. So when the books are open, and Christ is going to repay you according to what you have done, what's the only thing left in your book?

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Every good work. From the smallest to the greatest. And Jesus says he's going to repay you for every one of them.

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Wow. We have nothing to fear. And I can't even begin to imagine what this repayment looks like, because I don't do math.

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But I think it's going to be ginormous. It'll be bigger than a bazillion dollars.

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I know those impressive words here. Yeah, showing off my math skills. But Christ is going to repay us according to what we've done.

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And then Jesus says this, I say to you there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the

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Son of Man coming in His kingdom. Referring to Peter, James, and John who go to the Mount of Transfiguration and see Christ in His glory.

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But unless Christ returns in our lifetime, brothers and sisters, we will taste death. But the thing is that we will taste death, but like Peter, James, and John, we will also see

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Christ coming in His glory in His kingdom because of what He has done for us.

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So let us take heart and be comforted in this, that although God's law has shown us once again of just how much we have fallen short, the

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Gospel tells us that because Christ had to go to Jerusalem and suffer many things, that we are bled for, that we are died for, and that the record of debt that stood against us has been canceled and nailed to the cross.

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Therefore, when Jesus returns, we have nothing to fear. We have everything to hope for, for that great day when

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He returns, we will see Him in His glory, and He will repay us for all of our good works.

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So as our Epistle text says then, the grace of God teaches us then to renounce ungodliness, and teaches us to devote ourselves to good works, and to be ready at a moment's notice to serve each other, because this is how

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God is, and this is freedom, whereas living for ourselves is nothing but slavery.

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In the name of Jesus, Amen. 567 -44

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And again that address is Kungsvinger Lutheran Church 15950 470th

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Avenue NW Oslo, MN 567 -44 We thank you for your support.

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