Fifth Sunday after Trinity Service

Kongsvinger Lutheran Church

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Do you have any purpose to have something like that? I just, I did it because we were sharing that, that whatever, we were sharing that screen.

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It's fancy. Yeah, I'm just trying to make it look funny. That's my, that is my goal as well.

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Yeah. And the reason why is that the still image, or at least most people know that, so you can see why it takes me so long to edit.

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So one of the reasons is that my mom can make her a co -host.

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She'll actually, she'll be able to, she'll be able to do the stop part of the overcrowded room.

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Maybe, because I'll probably normally be able to sit in on the actual live streams.

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This window. Yeah. But that's, you need, you need to be able, you need to be able, you need to be able to do this stuff.

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Yeah, but I wouldn't have it. I know. Good. So you should start sharing.

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And I'll show you what I do now. Hi, how are you? Do you have fun flying?

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Yeah. Good. You can, you can either do that or you can try to team up.

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So now what you do, there you go.

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And now you're still, and because of you. These batteries are running low.

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Which means that if you want to do any of the host tours, you have to go to the floor or anything. At least here you still have access to my key.

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You have access to my name. I would like to welcome you to Kongsvinger Lutheran Church.

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Today is the fifth Sunday after Trinity. We'll be following the order of Divine Service Setting 3.

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And we're going to try something a little bit different today. So during the intro, by the way, the psalm tone for the intro is going to be

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C as in catastrophe. C as in catastrophe. And what we're going to be doing today, rather than chanting by half verse, we're going to do it, we're going to do it by whole verse.

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So the way it will work, since it's not bolded, I will chant verse 1 the whole verse myself.

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You will join me in verse 2. And then in verse 3 I will be by myself.

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You will join me in verse 4. You kind of get the idea here. So it's a little bit of an exotic attempt here today.

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And if we don't pull it off perfectly, always remember that the liturgy is a living, breathing thing.

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And so like all living, breathing things on this planet, not everything is perfect, at least the first time.

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So we're going to see if we can mix things up just a little bit today. All right, opening hymn is 826.

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If you're physically present at Kongsvinger, please rise. In the name of the

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Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Beloved in the Lord, let us draw near with a true heart and confess our sins.

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Unto God, our Father, beseeching him in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to grant us forgiveness.

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Our help is in the name of the Lord. I said I will confess my transgressions unto the

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Lord. Almighty God, merciful

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Father, I, a poor, miserable sinner, confess unto you all my sins and iniquities with which

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I have ever offended you and justly deserve your temporal and eternal punishment.

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But I am heartily sorry for them and sincerely repent of them, and I pray you of your boundless mercy and for the sake of the holy, innocent, bitter sufferings and death of your beloved

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Son, Jesus Christ, to be gracious and merciful to me, a poor, sinful being.

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Upon this, your confession, I, by virtue of my office as a called and ordained servant of the Word, I announce the grace of God unto all of you, and in the stead and by the command of my

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Lord Jesus Christ, I forgive you all of your sins, in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the

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Holy Spirit. Amen. Now, we're going to be doing this by whole verse today.

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Hear, O Lord, when I cry aloud. Be gracious to me and answer me.

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O you who have been my help. Forsake me not,

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O God of my salvation. The Lord is my light and my salvation.

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Whom shall I fear? Teach me your way,

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O Lord. And lead me on a level path because of my enemies.

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Give me not up to the will of my adversaries. For false witnesses have risen against me and they breathe out violence.

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Wait for the Lord. Be strong and let your heart take courage.

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Wait for the Lord. Glory be to the

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Father and to the Son and to the

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Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now and will be forever.

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Amen. Hear, O Lord, when I cry aloud.

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Be gracious to me and answer me. O you who have been my help.

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Forsake me not, O God of my salvation.

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Glory be to the Father and to the

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Son and as it was in the beginning.

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Glory be to God on high. The Lord be with you.

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Let us pray. O God, you have prepared for those who love you good things that surpass all understanding.

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Pour into our hearts such love toward you that we, loving you above all things, may obtain your promises which exceed all that we can desire.

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Through Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you in the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

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You may be seated. The Old Testament reading for this, the fifth

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Sunday after Trinity, is taken from 1 Kings 19. The Lord said,

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Go out and stand on the mount before the Lord. And behold, the Lord passed by. And a great and strong wind tore the mountains and broken pieces, the rocks, before the

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Lord. But the Lord was not in the wind. And after the wind, an earthquake. But the

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Lord was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake, a fire. But the Lord was not in the fire.

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And after the fire, the sound of a low whisper. And when

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Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloak, and he went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. And behold, there came a voice to him and said,

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What are you doing here, Elijah? He said, I have been very jealous for the

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God of hosts. For the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant. They've thrown down your altars.

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They've killed your prophets with the sword. And I, even I, only am left. And they seek my life to take it away.

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And the Lord said to him, Go. Return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus.

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And when you arrive, you shall anoint Hazael to be king over Syria. And Jehu, the son of Nimshi, you shall anoint to be king over Israel.

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And Elisha, the son of Shaphat, of Abel -Mehaloah, you shall anoint to be prophet in your place.

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And the one who escapes from the sword of Hazael shall Jehu put to death. And the one who escapes from the sword of Jehu shall

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Elisha put to death. Yet I will leave seven thousand in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him.

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So he departed from there and found Elisha, the son of Shaphat, who was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen in front of him.

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And he was with the twelve. Elisha passed by him and cast his cloak upon him.

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And he left the oxen and ran after Elisha and said, Let me kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow you.

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And he said to him, Go back again, for what have I done to you? And he returned from following him and took the yoke of oxen and sacrificed them and boiled their flesh with the yokes of the oxen and gave it to the people and they ate.

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And then he arose and went after Elisha and assisted him. This is the word of the Lord.

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Thanks be to God. Let's speak the gradual together. Behold our shield,

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O God. Look on the face of your anointed. O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer.

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Give ear, O God of Jacob. Our epistle is taken from 1 Corinthians 1.

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For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

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For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart. Where is the one who is wise?

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Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of the sage? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?

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For since in the wisdom of God the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.

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For Jews demand signs, Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles.

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But to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

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This is the word of the Lord. The Holy Gospel according to St.

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Luke, the fifth chapter. On one occasion while the crowd was pressing in on Jesus to hear the word of God, he was standing by the lake of Gennesaret, and he saw two boats by the lake, but the fishermen had gone out of them, and they were washing their nets.

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Getting into one of the boats, which was Simon's, he asked him to put out a little from the land, and he sat down, and he taught the people from the boat.

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And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, Put out into the deep and let your nets down for a catch. And Simon answered,

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Master, we toiled all night and took nothing, but at your word I will let down the nets.

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When they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking. They signaled to their partners on the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink.

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But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, Depart from me, for I am a sinful man,

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O Lord. For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish that they had taken.

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And so also were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, Do not be afraid.

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From now on you will be catching men. And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him.

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This is the gospel of the Lord. Let me speak to thee,

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O Christ. Now I have a question for y 'all.

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This is a fifth Sunday in the month of June. Would you all be opposed to reciting the

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Athanasian Creed found on page 319 in your hymnal? I think

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I should have warned you guys about that. For those of you online, I apologize that I didn't put it into the bulletin.

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But we will quote the Athanasian Creed together. Page 319, fifth Sunday, you know.

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Whoever desires to be saved must above all hold the Catholic faith.

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Whoever does not keep it whole and undefiled will without doubt perish eternally.

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And the Catholic faith is this, that we worship one God in Trinity and Trinity in unity, neither confusing the persons nor dividing the substance.

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For the Father is one person, the Son is another, and the Holy Spirit is another.

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But the Godhead of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit is one.

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The glory equal, the majesty co -eternal. Such as the

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Father is, such is the Son, and such is the Holy Spirit. The Father uncreated, the

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Son uncreated, the Holy Spirit uncreated. The Father infinite, the

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Son infinite, the Holy Spirit infinite, the Father eternal, the

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Son eternal, the Holy Spirit eternal. And yet there are not three eternals, but one eternal, just as there are not three uncreated or three infinites, but one uncreated and one infinite.

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In the same way, the Father is almighty, the Son almighty, the

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Holy Spirit almighty, and yet there are not three almighties, but one almighty.

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So the Father is God, the Son is God, the Holy Spirit is

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God, and yet there are not three gods, but one God. So the

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Father is Lord, the Son is Lord, the Holy Spirit is Lord, and yet there are not three

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Lords, but one Lord. Just as we are compelled by the Christian truth to acknowledge each distinct person as God and Lord, so also are we prohibited by the

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Catholic religion to say that there are three gods or lords. The Father is not made nor created nor begotten by anyone.

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The Son is neither made nor created, but begotten of the Father alone.

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The Holy Spirit is of the Father and of the Son, neither made nor created, nor begotten, but proceeding.

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Thus there is one Father, not three Fathers, one Son, not three

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Sons, one Holy Spirit, not three Holy Spirits. And in this

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Trinity, none is before or after another, none is greater or less than another, but the whole three persons are co -eternal with each other and co -equal, so that in all things, as has been stated above, the

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Trinity in unity and unity in Trinity is to be worshipped.

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Therefore, whoever desires to be saved must think thus about the Trinity, but it is also necessary for everlasting salvation that one faithfully believe the

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Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, it is the right faith that we believe and confess that our

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Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is at the same time both God and man.

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He is God, begotten from the substance of the Father before all ages, and He is man, born from the substance of His mother in this age, perfect God and perfect man, composed of a rational soul and human flesh, equal to the

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Father with respect to His divinity, less than the Father with respect to His humanity, although He is

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God and man, He is not two, but one Christ, one, however, not by the conversion of the divinity into flesh, but by the assumption of the humanity into God, one altogether, not by confusion of substance, but by unity of person.

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For as the rational soul and flesh is one man, so God and man is one

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Christ, who suffered for our salvation, descended into hell, rose again the third day from the dead, ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of the

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Father, God Almighty, from whence He will come to judge the living and the dead.

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At His coming, all people will rise again with their bodies and give an account concerning their own deeds, and those who have done good will enter into eternal life, and those who have done evil into eternal fire.

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This is the Catholic faith. Whoever does not believe it faithfully and firmly cannot be saved.

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You may be seated. The sermon hymn is 688. In the name of Jesus.

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Amen. All right. So you'll note that the theme of our text today is heavily emphasizing, well, evangelism.

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Now, I can tell you, I've heard some terrible sermons about evangelism, and I assure you, today we will not be sharing with each other whether or not we've shared the gospel with our quota for the week of people that we need to be sharing it with.

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I would note there's a lot of manipulation that goes along with the topic of, well, preaching the gospel and sharing the gospel.

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I would instead just encourage you to note that sharing the gospel with somebody else is number one, the most easiest thing to do in the whole world, and at the same time, one of the most stress -inducing things to do in the whole world.

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It's not easy from a point of view emotionally to do it, yet at the same time, the content itself is super simple.

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So what we're gonna do today, we're gonna meander through our text. I don't think you guys mind that we do that. We're gonna meander through our text because they're all so insanely good, and I'll even throw in a little bit of extra from the book of Acts just because I can because it's also that good.

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So you'll note, I wanna point something out. When we look at our Old Testament text, did you see the type and shadow connections in the last part of our

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Old Testament text with what we read in our gospel? If not, no worries. I'll point it out to you.

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I think it's absolutely fascinating. Recently, I taught on Elijah ascending into heaven in a chariot of fire, and that's a type and shadow of Christ's ascension on Ascension Day.

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And you'll note Elijah's cloak coming down, and Elisha receiving that cloak was a sign of what?

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Well, him receiving the same spirit that it was on Elijah. What was the spirit that was on Elijah? Well, you know, the

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Holy Spirit. So that being the case, you'll note that when Christ ascends into heaven, after he gets there, what does he do?

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He sends the Holy Spirit, so you can kinda see the connections. In our Old Testament text, there's something similar going on here, and the similarity is absolutely fascinating.

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So there's Elijah. He had just done the thing at Mount Carmel, and you'll note that Elijah is a fellow who is not one who enjoys conflict.

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You'll note he didn't do an end zone dance after the victory at Mount Carmel. He ended up putting to death all of the prophets of Baal, and Jezebel was not keen on that, and she threatened to murder him.

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And so Elijah decides he's gonna skedaddle and leave town, and he goes on Israel's most wanted list yet again.

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But you're gonna note, when he leaves town, he tells God, this is enough. I wanna die. I'm done,

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Lord. Just kill me now. I'm finished, is kind of his attitude. So what does he do?

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He travels all the way back to Mount Sinai, which is an odd thing to be doing, by the way.

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It's an odd thing to be doing, and when he gets there, he finds a cave at Mount Sinai.

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He stays there for a little bit, and God shows up and says, what are you doing here,

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Elijah? You can't go back to Mount Sinai. It doesn't make any liturgical sense, if you know what

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I mean. It's just one of these weird things. And so, of course, he gives his complaint to God. I'm the only prophet left.

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Everybody's bowed the knee to Baal, and Jezebel's trying to kill me. You get the idea. And God says, listen, all right, so here's the deal.

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I want you to go back, and I want you to anoint Hazael, Jehu, and Elisha and don't worry,

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I'm gonna keep a remnant of people who haven't bowed the knee to Baal. And so he pats Elijah on the back, sends him back to Israel.

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When he gets back, it says he departed from there. He found Elisha, the son of Shaphat, who was plowing with 12 yoke of oxen in front of him, and he was with the 12.

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Hmm. Hmm. Coincidence? I don't think so. God doesn't play with dice.

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How many patriarchs were there? There were 12. How many apostles were there? 12. You'll note the number 12 here seems to have that kind of significance with it.

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So Elijah passed by Elisha, cast his cloak on him, which is a, again, kind of a symbolic act representing him receiving the

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Holy Spirit. All right? That's the idea here. And then he left, and then, so Elisha left the oxen, ran after Elijah, and said, let me kiss my father and my mother, and then

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I will follow you. And he said to him, go back. What have I done to you? And so he returned from following him and took the yoke of oxen, sacrificed them, boiled their flesh with the yokes of the oxen, and gave it to the people, and they ate.

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Well, you're going to note here, Elisha left everything behind, and he's left himself no ability to go back to being a farmer.

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I don't know what the equivalent of this would be nowadays. Elisha shows up, there's a farmer, he's out in his combine, and what does the guy do?

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He sells his combine to the next -door neighbor or something like that, basically ensuring that he's got nowhere else to go except for to go ahead.

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But here's the thing. Bad preaching on text like this and our gospel text will then go something like this.

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So what have you sacrificed to follow the Lord today? Hmm? Have you given up sugar yet?

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I haven't. Right? What have you given up? What is it God calling you to sacrifice?

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What do you need to sacrifice so you can follow God? And every time I hear a sermon like this,

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I go, blech! Talk about confusion of law and gospel.

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I would note that this is a historical account, and God isn't calling you to leave anything. You don't need to sacrifice your oxen.

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You don't even own any. And if you do, I apologize. But you get the idea here.

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This is not a call for you to sacrifice your oxen. Sufficient is the note that in this historical narrative that Elisha did leave everything in order to follow

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Elijah. Note that. So in our gospel text today then, similar thing is going on.

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Old Testament type and shadow. You can see the fulfillment now. And it says in our gospel text, on one occasion while the crowd was pressing in on Jesus, where's

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Jesus? He's on the Sea of Galilee, probably Capernaum. And pressing in on him, they were wanting to hear the word of God, and he was standing by the

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Lake of Gennesaret. That's the Sea of Galilee. Now, a little bit of a note. I've never been to Israel, but I continue to travel there regularly using other people's vacation photos and 3D photos and things like this in my

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VR headset. It's very fascinating. I'm becoming very familiar with Jerusalem and all the different sites. And it's a lot safer to travel that way there right now.

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I just want to say. But all that being said, I've seen this place in VR.

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I've stood at this place in VR. And when you read the story about this particular site, it's very fascinating.

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They believe that this is the actual place where it took place. We know where this is. If you go on a tour of Israel and you go on one of those bus tours, this will be one of the stops.

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And one of the fascinating bits about it is it's a little cove. And it just happens to be a perfect little amphitheater.

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And Jesus, at this point, because the crowd is pressing in on him, gets into a boat.

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We'll talk about the details of that. But where he ends up acoustically is like the perfect spot to be in so that his voice can carry and the people can hear what he had to say.

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And they prove it over and over again. I've seen videos of people on tours where somebody's standing out at that spot where Jesus was apparently.

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And everybody can hear him, not only on the shore, but all the way up the hill that is right there next to it.

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It's a fascinating spot. All that being said, here the people are pressing in and Jesus just, well, he helped himself to Peter's boat.

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He just went and sat down in it. And then he asked him, put out a little from the land.

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Okay. I mean, could you imagine somebody just getting in your car and said, I need you to take me to Walmart. Okay. And I'm not talking about your spouse.

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I'm talking about like some random person, right? It's like, so what does Peter do?

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Okay, fine. I'll put out a little bit from the land. And so Jesus sat down and he taught the people from the boat.

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Jesus finishes his sermon, his lesson. And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, go ahead and put out into the deep and let your nets down for a catch.

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Could you imagine you farmers here in Kongsvinger if I gave you advice on where to plant crops and stuff, how well would that go over, right?

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And despite all of my time flying flight simulators on my computer, do you think for a second that Jeff Kenny would let me fly?

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No. Would you let me land the plane?

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No. Okay. There we go. Right. You know, Jesus is a little out of his league here.

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He's the son of a carpenter. And I need to remind you when the word that's used for carpenter is it relates to Joseph, who's not

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Jesus's biological father, but his legal father. The word actually is probably better translated day laborer construction guy.

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Okay. Day laborer construction guys are not known for their fishing prowess.

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Right. And Peter, who is in business, he's in the fishing business with the

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Zebedee boys. He's in business with them on the Sea of Galilee.

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He knows a thing or two about fishing. So Jesus says, put out into the deep and let your nets down for a catch.

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This ain't the time for catching fish, Jesus. We do that at night. So Simon says,

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Master, we toiled all night and we took nothing. Now, I don't know what

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Jesus did at this point, if he just had a smirk on his face or he just kept looking him in the eyes and basically,

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I don't know, but Peter just completely folds and goes, all right, but at your word, I'll let down the nets.

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And you can just see him at this point going, this is the ridiculous thing ever, takes his net, maybe has to take off his shirt in order to get ready to cast this thing.

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He gets ready, gets the current, throws the net out. And he enclosed a large number of fish, so much so that their nets were breaking.

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So what does he do? He signaled to his partners in the other boat to come and help him.

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Now, this is a wonderful little detail that good commentators will point out that shows the veracity, the historical veracity of this text because the reason being is this, is that in the time of Jesus and Peter, fishing was a competitive business.

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And you'll note, it doesn't say that Peter then whistled and said, hey, get over here and help.

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I've got this thing of huge fish over here. No, you don't want your competitors to get in on it and steal your fish.

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And so he signals to the Zebedee boys, right?

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He signals to them. The fact that he doesn't vocalize it actually adds to the historical veracity of it because he would have never whistled or vocalized it because you don't wanna alert your competitors.

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So they take their boat and they go out there and they fill both boats with the fish, so much so that both the boats begin to sink.

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Now, a little bit of a note here. If Jesus wanted to go into the fishing business with a power like this,

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Jesus would have had a monopoly. He would have been the wealthiest fisherman on the

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Sea of Galilee, and that's kind of the point. Could you imagine like, you know, somebody coming to you and say, hey, what are this week's lottery numbers gonna be?

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And you give it to them and they win the lottery. It's like, why didn't you do that for yourself,

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Jesus? Well, you're gonna know, Jesus isn't into catching fish. He's got a bigger fish to fry, pun intended, all right?

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And so this really sits hard in Peter's conscience because seeing that Jesus has this power, seeing that Jesus could have been the wealthiest man in all of the

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Sea of Galilee, he recognizes just how wicked he is. And so he says to Jesus, well, falling down at his knees, depart from me,

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I am a sinful man, oh Lord. For he and all who were with him, they were astonished at the catch of fish that they had taken.

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And so also were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. So Jesus said to Simon, do not be afraid, from now on you will be catching men.

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Other translations say, do not fear, you will now be a fisher of men, right? You ever heard that?

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And when they had brought their boats to the land, what did they do with that big haul of fish? Nothing, they left it.

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How much money did they leave in those boats? My competitors, you can have it.

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We're out of here, and now we're following Jesus. They left everything.

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And so you can see the connection between Elisha now and the apostles. And again, you're not being told that you have to leave everything.

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You don't need to quit your job, you don't need to leave your wife or your husband, you don't need to kick your kids out of the house, at least until they're 18, right?

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None of that is required here. What is sufficient is to know that these men did leave everything to follow

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Jesus, which tells us that the accounts that we have in the gospels, that they are written by men who were not only eyewitnesses, but they sacrificed and left everything in order to follow this

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Jesus. Their actions speak to the veracity of the testimony that they give.

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But fishers of men, now here's the thing. I would note, not everyone in the body of Christ is called to be an evangelist.

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And so you do not need to feel guilty that you're not out there street preaching every other week.

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You don't need to feel guilty about that. And you'll note that pastors are given the job of making their living by preaching the gospel.

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So if you were to kind of think of it this way, when we talk about fishermen, there are fishermen who are pros, and there are fishermen who are hobbyists, right?

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Okay, I assure you, you will never see me on an episode of Greatest Catch, okay?

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I ain't that kind of fisherman. But when it comes to preaching the gospel, it is true, I make my living from it.

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That means I'm a professional at it. And you don't need to feel guilty that you are not. And if you are called into the pastoral office, praise

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God, I assure you, it's a harrowingly fun and dangerous vocation being a pastor.

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But I am not gonna harangue you for not being me or preaching the gospel to the same level that I do.

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But you're gonna note then, that even non -professional fishermen occasionally pull out the fishing pole and head down to the river, or head out to the lake, or head out to the ocean, in order to pull in a fish.

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So think of it this way. As Christians, all of us have the privilege and that's what it is, the opportunity to share the gospel of Jesus Christ.

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In fact, Peter puts it in very wonderful words. And he reminds us of this.

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He says to all of us who are Christians, y 'all are a chosen race.

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Y 'all are a royal priesthood. Y 'all are a holy nation and a people for God's own possession.

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What wonderful words, by the way. A chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation.

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In fact, that's absolutely true. And you'll note that Christ has taken people from all the nations of the earth, whether they be

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Norwegian, or German, or Polish, or African, or Aussie, or Chinese, or Japanese.

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It doesn't matter. Christ has taken people from all of the nations of the earth and made them into one holy nation.

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One chosen race. A people for his own possession.

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And then the next words are these. So that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

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You'll note that preaching and telling people of the excellencies of Jesus, the one who rescued us from the dominion of darkness, brought us into the kingdom of his light.

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Well, we all have that privilege then to share that good news and proclaim the excellencies of Christ.

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And I would note, like I said at the beginning of the sermon, it is the easiest thing to do and the most anxiety -inducing thing to do.

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And the reason being as to why there's anxiety behind it is exactly what Paul gets at in our epistle text.

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Here's the thing. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians, the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God.

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You'll note that Paul here is talking about the word of the cross. The word of the cross is what? The good news that Christ has bled and died for your sins, for my sins, for the sins of the whole world.

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This message of the cross is folly to those who are perishing. You tell some people, listen,

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I gotta tell you the best news ever. Jesus bled and died for your sins. And the next thing they do is they call

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HR. We've got a religious fanatic here in our company and we need to do something about this.

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There's something wrong with that person, right? There are some people who do that, okay?

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And you know there's a danger in preaching the gospel because there is, right? For those who are perishing, they hear the gospel and they just blah, right?

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Recently I was having a Twitter exchange with an atheist and of course we were talking about Nazism but that's a whole other story.

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But in the midst of it, this guy was yelling at me just as an atheist going, I don't even know why you're talking about Christian nationalism because Christianity's bunk.

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It isn't even real. Jesus and blah, blah, blah. And he just went on and on and on and on. And of course, I've learned very well from the scriptures that there's no such thing as an atheist.

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Did you know that God doesn't believe in atheists? It's true. God in his word in Romans 1 makes it clear that everybody already knows that God exists.

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Well, having that little insight is like having an evangelism hack, okay? Everyone's looking for hacks.

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I wish I could find a hack to lose like 40 pounds like by next week but that's a different thing altogether. Okay, if you know that hack, let me know.

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But as it stands, there are hacks. So it's a hack to know that when you are dealing with an atheist, they already know that God exists.

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So I just went off on this guy. I said, well, listen, okay? I don't need to prove that God exists to you because I already know and you already know that God exists.

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So let me deliver a message to you. I have a message to deliver to you. And he went, what, what? And I said, here's the message.

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Are you ready? God loves you so much that he sent his only son to suffer and bleed and die for your sins.

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And this rebellion that you're engaged in, in denying that even God exists,

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Christ has already bled and died for that too. And he's calling you to repent. He loves you so much that he wants you to repent and be forgiven and pardon and spend eternity with him in a new heaven and a new earth.

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And he disappeared, right? But see, that's the thing.

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Remember what Paul says in Romans 1. The gospel is the power of God unto salvation.

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The gospel is. So when you are preaching the gospel, all you're doing is sharing the good news that Christ has bled and died for somebody's sins and that he's risen from the grave.

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It's real simple. You'll note that God did not give us the assignment of going out and preaching a theological treatise.

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He did not require us to write a dissertation. He's instead given us good news to share with people.

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And I would note, y 'all are already good at this. How do I know? I know because I hear the conversations that are taking place when you have good news to share.

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Who's the first person you call? My wife, right? And I hear my wife downstairs going, oh, that's the best thing ever.

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Okay, what happened? Well, so -and -so went to the doctor and the doctor said that they could potentially have cancer.

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They went and got the test and found out it's not that. And so they called me to let me know that they didn't have cancer and that it's just gonna be a simple thing to solve their problem.

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And I go, that's great news. And she goes, I know. And she's just, you know how over the top she is, right?

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Okay, so I already know y 'all are good at sharing good news. And you'll note that the kingdom of God grows by the sharing of good news.

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And the good news is the power of God unto salvation for all who believe.

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And so you'll note, it is true that when you preach it, people are gonna sit there and go, there is something wrong with you.

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What a stupid thing. You believe that Jesus died for everybody? Come on, okay?

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Do you believe in the Easter bunny too? This is how they'll act. But Paul warned us, the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God.

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I recently had a conversation with somebody who only started coming to Kongsvinger online.

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They live over in Western Europe. Had a wonderful conversation with this person. And they found

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Kongsvinger through the Fighting for the Faith YouTube channel. And they wanted to meet with me and talk with me. And this person had gone back through our sermons on the

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Kongsvinger YouTube channel. And they said this, when you preach the sermon about the prodigal son, it just undid me, the person said.

01:00:09

And they said, to think that God would forgive somebody as sinful as me and do so with such joy and love and mercy.

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I want to keep hearing that over and over and over again. And so here you can see it.

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The word of the cross, for us who are being saved, it's the biggest thing ever.

01:00:35

Have you guys figured it out? I'm a one hit wonder. If I were a theological band,

01:00:40

I'd be the knack, okay? I have one song, my Sharona, right?

01:00:46

And that's it. You come here week after week after week, you know what you're gonna hear?

01:00:52

The gospel. But the gospel is the power of God into salvation. Not only that, because it's foolish to people,

01:01:00

God has specifically chose the gospel to destroy the wisdom of the world. Paul says, it is written,

01:01:07

I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, the discernment of the discerning I will thwart. So where is the one who's wise?

01:01:13

Where's the scribe? Where's the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?

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Answer, yes, he has. And I would note, I happen to have lived long enough to see that the wisdom of the world changes.

01:01:28

It doesn't stay the same. When I was growing up in the 70s and the 80s, modernist liberalism was all the sway within America.

01:01:41

This belief that miracles don't happen and it's stupid to believe that Jesus rose from the dead and he definitely didn't walk on the water.

01:01:48

All that's just legend and myth and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Think of Bishop Shelby Spong. There wasn't a cardinal doctrine of the

01:01:55

Christian faith that that man didn't deny and attack. And he was a true modernist liberal.

01:02:03

Well, somewhere in the late 90s and early 2000s, the wisdom of the world shifted.

01:02:11

It shifted from modernism to post -modernism. And now if you are a modernist,

01:02:17

I mean, you might as well be wearing like, you know, plaid bell -bottoms with ties this wide and stuff.

01:02:24

You just really look out of sorts, okay? You're no longer relevant. So keep this in mind. The wisdom of the world changes.

01:02:30

But the gospel doesn't. And God has chosen the gospel to show the foolishness of the wisdom of the world.

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Since in the wisdom of God, the world didn't know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.

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So understand this. We're told in Scripture, you preach the gospel, there's a bunch of people gonna think that's the stupidest thing ever.

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But note, God has specifically chosen the foolishness of the gospel in order to save people.

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So knowing that some people are gonna respond by saying that is so dumb, we can sit there and go, well,

01:03:05

Scripture said you would act like that. Right? So we don't need to take it personally, okay?

01:03:11

It pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. Jews demand signs,

01:03:17

Greeks, they seek wisdom. But we preach Christ and him crucified. That's a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles.

01:03:24

But to those who are called both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, the weakness of God is stronger than men.

01:03:35

Amen to what Paul has to say here. Now I would note, the Apostle Paul practiced what he preached.

01:03:43

He absolutely practiced what he preached. And there is a hilarious section of the book of Acts that I want to share with you.

01:03:52

It is so good. Now let me set the scene for you. Paul has traveled to Jerusalem. The crowd saw that he was there.

01:04:00

They arrested him. Actually, they tried to kill him. He was then arrested by the

01:04:05

Romans. And then he stayed in custody for a really, really, really, really, really long time.

01:04:13

In fact, the governor has changed. When Paul was arrested, Felix was the governor.

01:04:20

And since then, Felix has left office and a new guy has come into power, and his name is Festus. And the regional governor there then is not the

01:04:29

Herod's, it's King Agrippa and his wife, Queen Bernice. And so things have changed.

01:04:35

And you're gonna note, Paul having been incarcerated now without being formally charged for a really long time, don't you think that if you were given an opportunity to plead your case, that the thing you would do was talk about how unjust this is.

01:04:55

You'd have an attorney saying you need to file charges or you need to let this guy go, all of that stuff, right?

01:05:02

Paul is not going to do that. The story itself is absolutely a scream because Paul, having been put into incarceration, is no longer able to go fishing with a net.

01:05:14

He can only preach the gospel to small groups of people at a time, one or two at a time.

01:05:20

But Paul is about to be given an opportunity to cast a big net.

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And rather than focus on himself and the injustice that he is enduring, you know what he does?

01:05:32

He preaches the gospel, and it is a scream when you consider the details. Here's the text.

01:05:39

We're in Acts 25, verse 13. Now, when some days had passed, Agrippa the king and Bernice arrived at Caesarea.

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This is Caesarea of Maritima, which is a really high -rent district right on the Mediterranean Sea. And they greeted

01:05:52

Festus. And as they stayed there many days, Festus laid Paul's case before the king, saying, you know, there's a man left prisoner by Felix.

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And when I was at Jerusalem, the chief priests and the elders of the Jews laid out their case against him, asking for a sentence of condemnation against him.

01:06:10

They wanted Felix to put him to death. Condemnation here is talking about him being killed.

01:06:17

So I answered them that it was not the custom of the Romans to give up anyone before the accused met the accuser face -to -face and had opportunity to make his defense concerning the charge laid against him.

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So when they came together, I made no delay, but on the next day took my seat on the tribunal and ordered the man to be brought.

01:06:36

When the accuser stood up, they brought no charge in his case of such evils as I had supposed.

01:06:43

Rather, they had certain points of dispute with him about their own religion and about a certain

01:06:49

Jesus who was dead, but whom Paul asserted to be alive. And so you can see poor

01:06:55

Felix, he's like, I don't know what's going on here. Jesus gets brought up and the

01:07:00

Jews are all, he's dead! And Paul's all, nope, he's alive. I've seen him myself.

01:07:05

I've had a conversation or two with him, right? And so Felix just doesn't know what to make of this.

01:07:11

Why are they saying this guy needs to die? And what's the deal with this Jesus fellow? And so being at a loss,

01:07:19

Felix continues, at a loss as how to investigate these questions, I asked whether he wanted to go to Jerusalem and be tried there regarding them.

01:07:26

But when Paul had appealed to be kept in custody for the decision of the emperor, I ordered him to be held until I could send him to Caesar.

01:07:34

So then Agrippa said to Festus, I would like to hear the man myself. Tomorrow, he said, you will hear him.

01:07:40

So on the next day, Agrippa and Bernice came with great pomp, pomp and circumstance.

01:07:47

Now listen to who's coming to this particular hearing. You got the king,

01:07:52

Agrippa. You got Bernice. They come in with royal pomp and circumstance. They enter the audience hall with the military tribunes, which are all the heads of the military, and the prominent men of the city.

01:08:06

Oh man, it's been a while since Paul's been able to preach the gospel to such a group, right? So then at the command of Festus, Paul was brought in.

01:08:16

Festus said, King Agrippa and all who are present with us, you see this man about whom the whole Jewish people petitioned me, both in Jerusalem and here, shouting that he ought not to live any longer.

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But I found that he had not done anything deserving death, and as he himself appealed to the emperor,

01:08:32

I decided to go ahead and send him. But I have nothing definite to write to my lord about him. Therefore, I have brought him before you all, and especially before you,

01:08:41

King Agrippa, so that after we have examined him, I may have something to write.

01:08:46

So this is the assignment. I need to send him to the emperor, but I don't even know what the charges are, so I need some help here.

01:08:53

So it seems to me unreasonable in sending a prisoner not to indicate the charges against him.

01:09:00

So Agrippa, the king, said to Paul, you have permission to speak for yourself.

01:09:07

Oh, what a wonderful opportunity now has arisen. Okay, and here's the thing,

01:09:13

Paul's already incarcerated, so what does he have to lose, right? So he's gonna go for it.

01:09:19

So Paul stretched out his hand, made his defense. I consider myself fortunate that it is before you,

01:09:27

King Agrippa, that I am going to make my defense today against all the accusations of the Jews, especially because you are familiar with all the customs and controversies of the

01:09:36

Jews. Therefore, I beg you to listen to me patiently. I'm going to need a few minutes.

01:09:42

Relax. So he goes on. My manner of life from my youth, spent from the beginning among my own nation and in Jerusalem, is known by all the

01:09:53

Jews. What does his childhood have to do with anything, right? He says, they have known for a long time, if they're willing to testify, that according to the strictest party of our religion,

01:10:03

I have lived as a Pharisee. And now I stand here on trial because of my hope in the promise made by God to our fathers.

01:10:15

Oh, you can see where this is going. How much do you want to bet he's gonna be talking about the forgiveness of sins before this is all over, right?

01:10:24

Okay, so I stand before you on trial because of my hope in the promise made by God to our fathers, to which our 12 tribes hope to attain as they earnestly worship day and night.

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And for this hope, I am accused by Jews, oh king. And then here it comes.

01:10:42

Why is it thought incredible by any of you that God raises the dead? Could you imagine him arguing this in front of the

01:10:50

Supreme Court? No one would know what to do with this. It's like, wait, wait, wait, wait.

01:10:57

Object, I object. What does this have to do with anything? No, just let him keep going, right? He says, I myself,

01:11:02

I was convinced that I ought to do many things in opposing the name of Jesus of Nazareth. And I did so in Jerusalem.

01:11:09

I not only locked up many of the saints in prison after receiving authority from the chief priests, but when they were put to death,

01:11:16

I cast my vote against them. And I punished them all in synagogues and tried to make them blaspheme in enraging fury against them.

01:11:26

I persecuted them even to foreign cities. And in this connection, I journeyed to Damascus with the authority and the commission of the chief priests.

01:11:36

I used to work for that guy, right, for Annas. At midday, O King, I saw on the way a light from heaven, brighter than the sun that shone around me and those who journeyed with me.

01:11:48

And when we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew language,

01:11:54

Shaul, Shaul, that's his name in Hebrew, why are you persecuting me? It is hard for you to kick against the goats.

01:12:01

And I said, who are you, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom you are persecuting, but rise and stand upon your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as a servant and a witness to the things in which you have seen me and those in which

01:12:17

I will appear to you, delivering you from your people and from the Gentiles to whom

01:12:23

I am sending you to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.

01:12:40

Oh, there it is. The gospel is the power of God and salvation, and the Holy Spirit promises that when you preach the gospel, he will be active.

01:12:51

And so now Paul has laid it out. Jesus appeared to me, and I want you to go and tell people this message so that they may turn from the power of Satan to God and may receive the forgiveness of their sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.

01:13:08

And we hear these words, and we hang on them. The reason why we are here today is to hear the words of Christ, to take comfort in the good news that Christ has bled and died for our sins.

01:13:21

Today we will feast on the very body and blood of Jesus, is given in shed for the forgiveness of our sins.

01:13:27

You'll note that the gospel is everything to us. And here

01:13:32

Paul has preached the gospel, mentioned the forgiveness of sins, but he continues.

01:13:38

Therefore, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision, but declared first to those in Damascus, then in Jerusalem and throughout all the region of Judea, and also to the

01:13:51

Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds in keeping with their repentance.

01:13:56

For this reasons, the Jews have seized me in the temple and tried to kill me. To this day I have had the help that comes from God, and so I stand here testifying both to small and to great, saying nothing but what the prophets and what

01:14:09

Moses said would come to pass, that the Christ must suffer, and that by being the first to rise from the dead, he would proclaim light both to our people and to the

01:14:21

Gentiles. No attorney, no need to defend himself, talk about the injustice of things and all the things he's suffering.

01:14:33

He cast the net, and the gospel is the power of God unto salvation.

01:14:41

And as he was saying these things in his defense, Festus said with a loud voice,

01:14:46

Paul, you're out of your mind. Your great learning is driving you out of your mind.

01:14:53

Why would he say that? Could it be that the Holy Spirit was even convicting him?

01:15:01

I have to wonder, on the day that we die, or when

01:15:07

Christ returns, whichever comes first, will we see Festus, Agrippa, and Bernice among the saints, praising

01:15:18

Christ? It doesn't say whether they ended up believing or not, but man, the gospel was preached here.

01:15:24

You're out of your mind, Paul. But Paul said, I am not out of my mind, most excellent

01:15:29

Festus, but I am speaking true and rational words.

01:15:36

For the king knows about these things, and to him I speak boldly. For I am persuaded that none of these things has escaped his notice, for this has not been done in a corner.

01:15:45

King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets? I know that you believe them.

01:15:54

Calls him out. And King Agrippa said to Paul, in such a short time, would you persuade me to be a

01:16:01

Christian? Who's running this show?

01:16:09

And Paul said, whether short or long, oh, I would to God, not only you, but also all who hear me this day might become such as I am, except for these chains.

01:16:26

The king arose, and the governor and Bernice and those who were sitting with him, and when they had withdrawn, they said to one another, this man is doing nothing to deserve death or imprisonment.

01:16:36

They know he's innocent. And Agrippa said to Festus, this man could have been set free if he had not appealed to Caesar.

01:16:43

Brothers and sisters, I would note, Paul did practice what he preached. And let us take courage from his example.

01:16:54

He could have easily, easily defended himself, talked about how he hadn't done anything wrong, given a bare bones account of the thing, pointed out

01:17:04

Roman law and what was not being done right here. He could have done all of that. But he took the opportunity with all of these people, the king, the queen, the governor, the tribunes, all the leading men of the city, he took the opportunity to love them enough to preach the good news that Christ has bled and died for our sins.

01:17:28

So let us take courage. Paul had nothing to lose except for his life. And he did not care about his life so much that he had to defend himself.

01:17:39

He took the opportunity to preach the gospel. Let us ask God then to give us that kind of boldness.

01:17:47

Knowing that the gospel is foolishness to those who are perishing, let us ask God to give us boldness that we, like Paul, when given the opportunity, would cast the net ourselves.

01:18:00

And let us ask the Holy Spirit to accompany those times when we have the opportunity to share the gospel with others, that the

01:18:06

Holy Spirit would convict them of their sins, give them new life, regenerate them, and bring them to faith in Jesus through the preaching of that word.

01:18:15

Because that's how the kingdom grows. And you'll note it's not God's will that any should perish. And so we all, whether we're professional fishermen or hobbyists at it, we all have the privilege and the opportunities to share the good news.

01:18:30

And may God grant us the boldness to do so. In the name of Jesus, amen.

01:18:39

We rise for the offertory. Let us pray for the whole

01:19:50

Church of God in Christ Jesus and for all people according to their needs. Lord God of hosts, cast the cloak of ministry upon a new generation of pastors in our midst, that we may continue to hear your word and receive your gifts, and that other lost souls may be caught up in the gracious nets of the gospel.

01:20:08

Lord, in your mercy. Hear our prayer. Lord God of hosts, you speak to us in the low whisper of your word.

01:20:15

Do not let us despise it, but make us hear it gladly with reverent and holy awe. Lord, in your mercy.

01:20:22

Hear our prayer. Lord God of hosts, prepare us in our daily vocations always to make a defense to anyone who asks us for the reason for the hope of Christ that is in us.

01:20:31

Lord, in your mercy. Hear our prayer. Lord God of hosts, bless all who suffer for righteousness' sake and keep them in Christ from fearing or being troubled by those who persecute them.

01:20:42

Lord, in your mercy. Hear our prayer. Lord God of hosts, we ask that you would bless

01:20:47

Elizabeth, Carol, Susan, Sheila, Jana, Luca, Brianna, Gideon, Pat, Kim, Patricia, David, Roger, Robin, and Bonnie, Pat and Heather, Nia, Jonathan, Jeff, Wendy, Renee, Luis, Deborah, Rachel, and Gloria, and all who suffer in body or mind in our midst.

01:21:11

Since Christ is at their right hand, they cannot be shaken. Make their flesh dwell securely and give them peace in the promise that you will not abandon their souls to Sheol.

01:21:20

Lord, in your mercy. Hear our prayer. Lord God of hosts, your son is our chosen portion and our cup.

01:21:27

Forgiving and nourishing us with his body and his blood, grant that we may receive him humbly and in faith and that you may hold our lot secure in Christ.

01:21:36

Lord, in your mercy. Hear our prayer. Lord God of hosts, you have caused the lions to fall in pleasant places for us and given us a beautiful inheritance through your son.

01:21:46

Keep us faithful that we may enjoy its fullness with all the saints who now rest in your presence.

01:21:51

Lord, in your mercy. Hear our prayer. Oh, Lord, heavenly father, we gratefully remember the sufferings and death of your dear son,

01:21:58

Jesus Christ, for our salvation. Rejoicing in his victorious resurrection from the dead, we draw strength from his ascension before you where he ever stands for us as our own high priest.

01:22:09

Gather us together from the ends of the earth to celebrate with all the faithful the marriage feast of the lamb and his kingdom, which has no end.

01:22:16

Graciously receive our prayers, deliver and preserve us. For you alone we give all glory, honor, and worship,