Why Repent?

Kongsvinger Lutheran Church

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Welcome to the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church. Kungsvinger is a beacon for the Gospel of Jesus Christ and is located on the plains of northwestern

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Minnesota. We proclaim Christ and Him crucified for our sins and salvation by grace through faith alone.

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And now, here's a message from Pastor Chris Roseberg. Our first reading is taken from the prophet

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Joel 2 .12 -19.

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Yet, even now, declares the Lord, return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning, and rend your hearts and not your garments.

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Return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love.

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He relents over disaster. Who knows whether He will not turn and relent and leave a blessing behind Him, a grain offering and a drink offering for the

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Lord your God. Blow the trumpet in Zion. Consecrate a fast. Call a solemn assembly.

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Gather the people. Consecrate the congregation. Assemble the elders. Gather the children, even the nursing infants.

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Let the bridegroom leave his room and the bride her chamber. Between the vestibule and the altar, let the priests, the ministers of the

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Lord, weep and say, spare your people, O Lord, and make not your heritage a reproach, a byword among the nations.

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Why should they say among the peoples, where is their God? Then the Lord became jealous for His land, and He had pity on His people.

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The Lord answered and said to His people, behold, I am sending to you grain, wine, and oil, and you will be satisfied, and I will no more make you a reproach among the nations.

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This is the word of the Lord. In the name of Jesus. So at the beginning of every year, we

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Americans have this tradition. And the tradition has to do with making New Year's resolutions.

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You look at yourself in the mirror, and you realize that gut is protruding, and maybe it's time to make a resolution to do more sit -ups.

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Or maybe spend a little bit more time on that treadmill that reminds me of the rats inside of the cage.

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We always have this tendency to look at our lives and see that it comes up short, that our lives come up short, our piety comes up short, our good works come up short, and it always seems that there is room for improvement.

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But I'm going to note something here. And that is that what we try to do at the beginning of the year is not the same thing as repentance.

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You see, over and again, the idea behind a New Year's resolution is if I just exert myself a wee bit, maybe

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I can recapture some of those glory days when

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I was younger and healthier or more disciplined in my life.

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I would argue that's not repentance. That's behavior modification for the purpose of everybody else noticing how well you've gotten your act together.

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That's not repentance. And that's not what this season is about. This season truly is about changing our minds regarding ourselves and saying we are not doing as we ought.

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Consider these words from the Lutheran Confessions. Martin Luther penned these words in the small -called articles.

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Here's what he says. This is what true repentance means. Here, a person needs to hear something like this.

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You are of no account, whether you are an obvious sinner or saint in your own opinion, you have to become different from what you are now.

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You must act differently than you are now acting, whether you are as great, as wise, as powerful and holy as you can be.

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Here in this earth, no one is truly godly.

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You have to remember over and again we human beings have this terrible habit. We always seem to measure ourselves against each other.

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It's a very interesting sin along those lines. But you have to remember, I'm not the standard.

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David Fagerlund is not the standard. Christ is the standard. And when we measure our lives according to Christ, the one who kept the law perfectly for us, we realize

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I am not as holy as I should be. I'm not as wise as I should be, powerful, pious or anything of the sort.

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Luther then goes on to say, but to this office of the law, the New Testament immediately adds the consoling promise of grace to the

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Gospel. This must be believed. As Christ declares, repent and believe the

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Gospel. That is, become different, act differently and believe my promise.

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John the Baptist, who preceded Christ, is called the preacher of repentance.

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But this is the forgiveness of sins. That is, John was to accuse all and convict them of being sinners.

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This is so that they can know what they are before God and acknowledge that they are lost.

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So that they can be prepared for the Lord to receive grace and to expect and accept from Him the forgiveness of sins.

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This is what Christ Himself says. Repentance and the forgiveness of sins are to be proclaimed in my name to all nations.

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So, think of it this way. At the very end of the Lenten season, every single church year, is the great celebration of the resurrection.

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But Lent steers us into a real -time reflection of the bitter sufferings and death of Jesus Christ on the cross.

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And in order to understand why He was there and what He was doing, requires us to yet again repent, to consider our lives in light of God's law and recognize our great need for a

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Savior. You do not have a small need for Jesus. You have a great need.

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And if you are tempted to say, well, I'm not that sinful, I would argue that you have not yet fully looked into the mirror of God's law and seen the wretched reflection that that law reflects back at you.

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Lent teaches us to bravely look into the mirror and say, that reflection is awful.

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I've got nothing to offer God. And when you come to that realization, then you are ready.

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You are ready to believe that Christ has bled and died for your sins. As part of our reflection,

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I would actually like for you to turn back with me into the prophet Joel. Consider this, if you would.

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Joel is among the prophets quite honored. And what

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I mean is this, on the great day of Pentecost, Peter preached an amazing sermon.

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And it was the prophet Joel whose text he preached on the great day of Pentecost.

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Think of it that way. He has this prime spot in the beginning of the church. And I want you to consider what's going on in this prophecy.

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And we're going to go back into chapter 1. And I want you to hear these words. It was fun preparing this sermon because there's a lot of talk amongst the scholars as to what on earth

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Joel is referring to in the opening part of his book. And I've come to the conclusion that it doesn't matter.

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And I'll explain why in a minute. Hear these words then from the prophet Joel. Hear this, you elders. Give ear, all inhabitants of the land.

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Has such a thing happened in your days or in the days of your fathers?

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Tell your children of it. Let your children tell their children and their children to another generation.

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What the cutting locust left, the swarming locust has eaten. What the swarming locust left, the hopping locust has eaten.

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And what the hopping locust left, the destroying locust has eaten.

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Now, here's where the scholars debate. Is Joel referring to an actual locust infestation that wiped out the agriculture of Israel?

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Or is this a metaphor for the Assyrians coming in and attacking the land of Israel?

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Answer, nobody knows. To which I would say, it doesn't matter.

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Because back in those days, they didn't have grocery stores. They didn't have Walmart super centers.

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There was no Hugo's. And this type of disaster would have meant that people were going to starve and die.

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That's what it means. For those of you who are farmers out here in Minnesota, if you were to lose your entire crop to an infestation of locusts, your livelihood is on the brink.

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And without financial assistance, there's a good chance you're gonna lose everything that you have and declare bankruptcy.

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And so you're gonna note that in the opening portion, he's describing a disaster that is incalculable.

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And in doing so, he's now going to very shortly connect this to the ultimate disaster that is coming on humanity, the great day of the

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Lord. So he then goes on, verse five. Wake, you drunkards, weep.

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Wail, all you drinkers of wine, because of the sweet wine, for it is cut off from your mouth.

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For a nation has come up against my land, powerful and beyond number. Its teeth are lion's teeth, and it has the fangs of a lioness.

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It has laid waste my vine and splintered my fig tree. It has stripped off their bark, thrown it down.

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Their branches are made white. Lament like a virgin wearing sackcloth for the bridegroom of her youth.

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The grain offering and the drink offering are cut off from the house of Yahweh. The priests mourn.

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The ministers of the Lord, the fields are destroyed. The ground mourns because the grain is destroyed.

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The wine dries up. The oil languishes. And see, all of this, this destruction, is the result of sin, of impenitent sin.

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The very creation itself groans, waiting for the revealing of the sons of God.

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The creation itself wears out like a garment. And it is because of our sin that there are natural disasters, that there are tsunamis, that there are major crop failures, that there are locust infestations, and that there are armies who march through lands burning, destroying, raping, and pillaging.

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Be ashamed, O tillers of the soil. Wail, O vine dressers, for the wheat and the barley because the harvest of the field has perished.

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The vine dries up. The fig tree languishes. Pomegranate, palm, and apple, all the trees of the field are dried up.

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And gladness dries up from the children of man. And what is the solution for this type of disaster?

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I remember speaking to my grandparents who went through the Great Depression. And one of the things that my grandparents impressed upon my heart and made it very clear to me was that there were so many people who saw the

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Great Depression as an act of God, and that the solution for the Great Depression was a return to God and a repentance of sins.

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There are many people who spoke of it in those terms. And what's interesting is that that's a good biblical way of speaking.

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And unfortunately, it's been a while since we've had a good disaster here in the United States. I remember when people went to church after 9 -11, they showed up for a few weeks and stopped going altogether.

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And I fear that it's gonna take a great disaster to make us realize that we need to repent.

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So God says then here in Joel, put on sackcloth, lament,

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O priests, wail, O ministers of the altar. Go in, pass the night in sackcloth,

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O ministers of my God, because grain offering and drink offering are withheld from the house of your

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God. Consecrate a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land to the house of the

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Lord your God, and cry out to the Lord. I hope you saw it.

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I tried to put emphasis on it when I was reading our gospel text this evening. Jesus said, when you fast, he did not say if.

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When you fast, do not make it so everybody knows what you are doing.

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When, not if, this is a good season for fasting.

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I will always be the advocate for it here, and I love how every single year how I bring it up, people stare off into space or give me the deer in the headlights look or that look that says, yeah, right, pastor, over my dead body.

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But see, that's the point. Your body is dying. Fasting is a very vital thing. So put on sackcloth, lament, consecrate a fast, call a solemn assembly, go to the house of the

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Lord and cry out to the Lord. Alas, for the day, for the day of the

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Lord is near, and now you can see it. As he begins to make the turn, you can see how he takes the disaster described at the opening portion of the chapter and now just squishes it together with the coming disaster, the great and terrible day of the

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Lord when Jesus returns in glory to judge the living and the dead. Brothers and sisters, may

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I posit this thought that the reason why we are to repent and to amend our lives and the reason why we are to say we are to do better and to strive to do better and do better is because we will all stand before God.

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We will all see Christ in His glory. This salvation thing is how the kids say it nowadays.

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It's legit. Sin is a real problem.

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It's not some kind of a surface issue. It's not like some kind of a rash.

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It's killing you. It's killing me. We will all die because of our sin.

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We will stand before the Lord. Repentance is necessary, not so the people can say, you know, that person, he or she has got her act together.

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Repentance says, yeah, God, I believe You at Your Word. Your Word says that sin is deadly, that sin is an enemy, that sin is a terrible taskmaster and sadly,

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Lord, all too many times I have offered myself to it to be its slave and I have done things that I am ashamed of.

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Lord, have mercy on me. And see, that then makes you ready to hear the absolution that you are forgiven.

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Alas, for the day of the Lord, the day of the Lord is near and as destruction from the

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Almighty, it comes. Is not the food cut off before your eyes, joy and gladness from the house of our

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God? The seed shrivels under the clods. The storehouses are desolate. The granaries are torn down because the grain is dried up.

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How the beasts groan. The herds of cattle are perplexed because there is no pasture for them and even the flocks of the sheep suffer.

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To you, O Lord, I call. For fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness.

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The flame has burned all of the trees of the field. Even the beasts of the field pant for you because the water brooks are dried up.

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Fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness. Thus, sin, running its course, even destroys creation itself and even the animals suffer because of our sin.

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So blow a trumpet in Zion. Sound an alarm on my holy mountain. Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble for the day of the

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Lord is coming near. It is a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness.

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Like blackness, there is spread upon the mountains a great and powerful people. Their like has never been before nor will be again after them through the years of all the generations.

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A veiled reference to the angelic armies of God who come on the day of judgment to gather up the people and separate them.

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Fire devours before them and behind them a flame burns. The land is like the

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Garden of Eden before them but behind them a desolate wilderness and nothing escapes them.

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Their appearance is like the appearance of horses and like war horses they run.

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As with the rumbling of chariots, they leap on the tops of the mountains like the crackling of a flame of fire, devouring the stubble like a powerful army drawn up for battle.

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What a horrifying picture of utter destruction. Before them, peoples are in anguish.

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All faces grow pale. Like warriors, they charge. Like soldiers, they scale the wall.

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They march each on his way. They do not swerve from their paths. I guarantee you when these angel armies arrive on the great day of the

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Lord, there will be nobody taking a selfie with this army behind them. They do not jostle one another.

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Each marches in his path. They burst through the weapons. They are not halted.

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They leap onto the city. They run upon the walls. They climb up into the houses.

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They enter through the windows like a thief. Hmm, sounds a lot like that thief in the night thing.

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And there's a reason for that. The earth quakes before them. The heavens tremble.

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The sun and the moon are darkened. The stars withdraw their shining.

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The Lord utters his voice before his army, for his camp is exceedingly great.

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He who executes his word is powerful, for the day of the Lord is great, very awesome.

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Who can endure it? And who can? Who can? I mean, this picture is of these angelic armies marching through the earth and leaving a wake of total destruction in their path.

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And of every human being being unable to resist what it is that they have been sent to do.

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When we know from the Gospels that they have been sent to separate the wheat from the chaff.

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One group over there, the other group over there. And of course, because of my sinful nature and the fact that I know that I deserve

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God's wrath, my question is, how are they gonna make sure that the angel who's been sent to collect me up doesn't put me in the wrong group?

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Verse 12, yet even now, declares the Lord, return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning.

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Rend your hearts, not your garments. Return to the Lord your

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God, and listen to these words. Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and he relents over disaster.

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And if you remember the sermon from Sunday, that's the glory of the Lord. Those were the words of God while his glory passed by Moses, who was hidden in the rock.

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Brothers and sisters, in light of the fact that the disaster that is spoken of here in this prophecy is a disaster that is still in our front, it is ahead of us, not behind us.

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It is a day that we are still anticipating. It is a day of great terror. It is awesome, and no one can endure it.

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We must heed the words of this prophet and repent. Return to the

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Lord your God. Return with your whole heart. Do so with fasting, with weeping, and mourning over your own sins, knowing that Christ himself said that blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

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Because the Lord your God, he is gracious, and he is merciful. He is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

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He relents over disaster, and he promises you who are in Christ, who are trusting in him for the forgiveness of your sins, that this disaster will not overtake you, that this great and awesome day of the

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Lord will not result in eternal shame and punishment, but instead will result in you being with Christ forever.

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So he goes on, so who knows whether God will not turn and relent. And he has promised to turn and relent on behalf of Christ.

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So, and then he would leave a blessing behind him, a grain offering, a drink offering for the

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Lord your God. So blow the trumpet in Zion, consecrate a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the people, consecrate the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children, even the nursing infants, they're included as well.

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Let the bridegroom leave his room, the bride her chamber, between the vestibule and the altar, let the priests and the ministers of the

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Lord weep. Let them weep and say, please,

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Lord, spare your people. Please do not make your heritage a reproach and a byword among the nations.

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Oh Lord, spare Kongsvinger and do not let your people here be a reproach.

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Why should they say among the peoples, where is their God? And then the

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Lord became jealous for his land and he had pity on his people. The Lord answered and said to his people, behold,

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I am sending you to grain, wine and oil and you will be satisfied and I will no more make you a reproach among the nations.

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And so in this text, we see the great collision between law and gospel, the law to convict us of our sins, disaster even being a form of God's law, us getting the just deserts that we deserve because of our sin and rebellion against God.

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And yet the promise of the gospel that Christ forgives is there for us now.

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This Lenten tide, let us not remember, let us not forget these great themes of Scripture.

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This is why Paul writes in our epistle, we are ambassadors for Christ and God is making his appeal through us.

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Think of it this way, as your pastor, God is making his appeal through me tonight and he is imploring you on behalf of Christ to be reconciled to God, to consider your lives in light of God's law, to repent, to put away your sin, to bear fruit in keeping with repentance because you are forgiven.

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For our sake, God made Christ to be sin, he who knew no sin, so that in Christ all of us might become the righteousness of God.

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So working together with God, then we, I appeal to you, do not receive the grace of God in vain.

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For he says, in a favorable time, I listened to you and in a day of salvation,

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I have helped you. Brothers and sisters, behold now is the favorable time.

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Now, today is the day of salvation. Ash Wednesday, 2018, this is the day of salvation.

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Repent, be forgiven, bear fruit in keeping with repentance. Rend your hearts, not your clothes.

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Pray, fast, weep. This is the order of the day. In the name of Jesus, amen.

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If you would like to support the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church, you can do so by sending a tax -free donation to Kungsvinger Lutheran Church, 15950 470th

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Avenue Northwest, Oslo, Minnesota, 56744. And again, that address is

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Kungsvinger Lutheran Church, 15950 470th

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Avenue Northwest, Oslo, Minnesota, 56744. We thank you for your support.

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