Series A – Third Sunday After Pentecost – Sunday, June 18, 2023 | Pr. Chris Rosebrough
| Welcome to the Teaching Ministry of Kongsvinger Lutheran Church. Kongsvinger is a beacon for the Gospel of Jesus Christ and is located on the plains of Northwestern Minnesota. We proclaim Christ and Him crucified for our sins and salvation by grace through faith alone, and now, here’s a message from Pastor Chris Rosebrough: |
| Time Stamp | Transcript |
| 0:22 | The holy Gospel |
| 0:29 | According to Saint Matthew the 9th and 10th chapters [Music] |
| 0:39 | Jesus went throughout all the cities in The Villages teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of |
| 0:44 | the kingdom and healing every disease and every Affliction when he saw the crowds he had compassion for them |
| 0:51 | because they were harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd and then he said to his disciples the Harvest is |
| 0:57 | plentiful but the laborers are few therefore pray earnestly to the lord of the Harvest to send out laborers into |
| 1:02 | his Harvest and he called to him the twelve his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits to |
| 1:09 | cast them out and to heal every disease and every Affliction the names of The Twelve Apostles are these first Simon |
| 1:15 | who’s called Peter and Andrew his brother James the son of Zebedee and John his brother Philip and Bartholomew |
| 1:22 | Thomas and Matthew the tax collector James the son of alpheus and Thaddeus Simon the canaanian and Judas Iscariot |
| 1:30 | who betrayed him these 12 Jesus sent out instructing them go nowhere among the |
| 1:36 | Gentiles and enter no town of the Samaritans but go rather to the lost |
| 1:41 | and Proclaim as you go saying the Kingdom of Heaven as is at hand heal the |
| 1:46 | sick raise the dead cleanse the lepers cast out demons you received without paying give without pay this is the |
| 1:55 | gospel of the Lord in the name of Jesus have you all ever had the unfortunate |
| 2:02 | experience of biting off more than you can chew I I it’s a I’m not talking |
| 2:07 | about having a big burrito over at Paradiso that’s not what I’m talking about although those are spectacular on |
| 2:13 | particular nights especially when the Margaritas are like half off but that’s a that’s a whole other thing but I’m |
| 2:18 | talking about something that we men do we men when a problem faces us what do |
| 2:25 | we tend to do if we don’t know how to fix the problem we say these fateful words I’ll figure |
| 2:33 | it out these are stupid words stupid only more |
| 2:39 | by words like this hold my beer okay in both cases you know that a bad outcome |
| 2:46 | is about to come your way because despite the fact that we men like to think that we can figure things out the |
| 2:54 | reality is is that there are some things that are beyond our skill levels and |
| 3:00 | it’s really tough for us to admit that’s the case and so when we say I’ll figure |
| 3:05 | it out and then proceed to head down the road of fixing whatever it is that we’re supposed to fix it’s not too long before |
| 3:12 | the professionals are called in and the thing to fix is now more expensive to fix because in our attempts to fix it |
| 3:18 | we’ve made it worse right does this resonate with anybody I mean maybe it’s |
| 3:24 | just me but all of that being said when we consider our Old Testament text here there are |
| 3:32 | some faithful words spoken by the children of Israel these are people who |
| 3:38 | had just been set free from slavery in Egypt God had judged the false gods of |
| 3:44 | Egypt and Pharaoh himself who is also a false god king with the ten plagues they |
| 3:50 | have been victoriously marched out of Egypt they have crossed the Red Sea on |
| 3:56 | dry ground with water on the right water on the left this is where the inspiration for aquariums came from I |
| 4:02 | always like to point this out and then when pharaoh and his armies tried to do the same thing crossing the Red Sea on |
| 4:09 | the dry ground well God wouldn’t have that and so the entire Army of pharaoh was drowned in the Red Sea and the |
| 4:16 | children of Israel sang that song about how Yahweh has triumphed gloriously the horse and the rider he is cast into the |
| 4:23 | sea and then of course prior to this chapter that we’re reading in our Old Testament text they did have the |
| 4:29 | incident where they were thirsty and they grumbled against God and they needed food and they grumbled against |
| 4:34 | God and Moses and so God split the rock actually had Moses split the Rock and |
| 4:39 | out came water God began feeding them with Mana even gave him a little Quail to give him you know to up their protein |
| 4:46 | all of that being said they’ve seen some things and now they are at the base of Mount Sinai and they are about in the |
| 4:54 | next chapter to receive the Ten Commandments and Moses has gone up and |
| 4:59 | had a little conversation with god in anticipation of what’s coming next and here God makes |
| 5:07 | some interesting promises but watch the conditional statements God says to the |
| 5:13 | children of Israel you yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians how I bore You On Eagle’s |
| 5:20 | Wings and brought you to myself now therefore if you’ll indeed obey my voice |
| 5:26 | keep my Covenant you shall be my treasured possession among all the |
| 5:31 | peoples for all the Earth is mine you shall be to me a kingdom of priests hold |
| 5:37 | on to those words and you shall be to me a holy nation these are the words that |
| 5:43 | you shall speak to the people of Israel so if they obey that’s a big if by the way if they obey |
| 5:51 | they will be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation and so Moses called all the |
| 5:57 | Elders of the people of Israel and set before them set them all before them these words that the Lord had commanded |
| 6:04 | him think of it like a holy huddle if you would and all the people answered together these faithful words all that |
| 6:10 | Yahweh has spoken we will do |
| 6:16 | is is that how it went down you’ll note that um despite all of their |
| 6:24 | verbal ascent and commitment to keeping God’s commands and obeying his law the |
| 6:33 | children of Israel I mean 40 days from here are going to inaugurate Burning Man |
| 6:38 | one all right with a golden calf out in the wilderness in it just an Unholy |
| 6:44 | Pagan event and and a lot of them are going to end up dying because of their |
| 6:49 | their revelry and immorality shall we put it right is the story of Israel in the Old |
| 6:57 | Testament a story of obedience of of honoring God obeying his word |
| 7:05 | listening to his voice no in fact if you think of it really kind of honestly |
| 7:11 | um their story is a lot like hours how how well are you guys doing on your |
| 7:17 | obedience bits right um I heard you guys confessing sins today I I’m assuming that there was |
| 7:24 | necessary reasons for doing so you’ll note that we’ve got a problem |
| 7:30 | here and the problem is only Amplified when we get a new testament explanation |
| 7:35 | here’s the issue in Romans chapter 8 it says these words starting at verse six |
| 7:42 | to set the mind on the flesh we’re talking about the sinful flesh it’s passions its desires have you noticed |
| 7:50 | that the desire to do evil actually bubbles up from with inside of you that that’s where sin Begins for each of |
| 7:59 | us to set the mind on the flesh is death to set the mind on The Spirit Well that’s life and peace the mind that is |
| 8:07 | set on the flesh is hostile to God it does not submit to God’s law indeed |
| 8:13 | it cannot those who are in the flesh cannot please God |
| 8:24 | okay in this past week I watched a documentary needed to watch it if it’s |
| 8:31 | important to watch things like this because it impacts my work as a pastor and also as a pirate and the name of the |
| 8:38 | documentary you can find it on Amazon Prime is Shiny Happy People and uh this is a train wreck of a |
| 8:45 | documentary because it’s all about the Duggar family and also Bill Gothard and |
| 8:52 | his Institutes of basic life principles seminars which back in the day I in fact |
| 8:58 | this is going to sound really crazy but back in the day when my wife and I lived in Seattle we were invited to a Bill |
| 9:04 | Gothard seminar and he packed out you know a very large venue in Seattle for |
| 9:10 | this thing and and we ended up getting a book but I thought this stuff was just |
| 9:16 | super heavy-handed and I was a Nazarene at the time and and so for me to sit |
| 9:22 | there and go boy that sure does it seems like it’s super tightly wound what does that tell you but here’s the issue what |
| 9:29 | are we talking about here we talk about the Duggar family and their fall the we talk about Bill Gothard and their fall |
| 9:35 | and now this four-part docu-series which is just a train wreck to watch because |
| 9:41 | there are people who grew up in this movement who’ve pretty much abandoned |
| 9:46 | the faith all together if they were even taught it at all and their stories are |
| 9:52 | nothing but law law more law a little bit law on top of that with a big dollop |
| 9:58 | of law on top of that and they couldn’t live up to the standards and here’s the thing Bill Gothard didn’t either |
| 10:05 | uh Bill Gothard the head of that institute’s of basic life principles or organization uh there there are now |
| 10:13 | women who when they were girls were claiming that he was inappropriately |
| 10:18 | making advances on them when they were minors |
| 10:25 | and this is supposed to be the premiere Christian organization to teach people |
| 10:31 | how to live victoriously in fact in Bill gothard’s way of thinking he would say things like this it was all about |
| 10:37 | Authority and being sure that you were under the authority that you were supposed to be under you have the |
| 10:43 | authority of Christ like a big umbrella then you have father’s Authority you have Mom’s Authority and then the |
| 10:48 | children are all under that and as long as you stay under the all the authority you’re never going to have any problems with sinning and living victoriously in |
| 10:56 | fact he taught kind of a version of the uh the Prosperity Gospel basically telling people do good things |
| 11:04 | do good things and obey and God will bless you |
| 11:11 | now you sit there and go are you saying that God’s law is bad not at all but the purpose of God’s law is not for |
| 11:19 | us to receive God’s blessings the reason why is because you and I are |
| 11:24 | sickness and sin is way way worse than you can possibly imagine so they’re the |
| 11:30 | children of Israel at the base of Mount Sinai they Proclaim everything Yahweh |
| 11:36 | has said we will do we will obey and they didn’t they got in over their heads |
| 11:42 | they bit off more than they can chew this was a project that they were not |
| 11:48 | qualified for at all and then when we read in the scriptures in Romans chapter |
| 11:54 | 3 well if the law doesn’t make us righteous if our intent to keep it and |
| 12:00 | our desire to seek after and do the right thing doesn’t make us right with God then what’s the purpose of the law |
| 12:06 | in the first place the law was never given to save you |
| 12:11 | nor was it given to save me the law was given so that we would see that we are |
| 12:18 | sinners and that we would see something about ourselves that we desperately all need |
| 12:27 | to see and that is is that none is righteous |
| 12:32 | not me not you not anyone in fact our |
| 12:38 | epistle text begins with these words while we were still weak |
| 12:45 | at the right time Christ died for the ungodly |
| 12:52 | let that sink in for a minute Christ died for the ungodly isn’t it |
| 12:58 | true scripture teaches us that Christ died for the sins of the whole world |
| 13:04 | if that’s the case then here’s the uh in that inescapable conclusion the |
| 13:11 | inescapable conclusion is is that every single one of us we are ungodly |
| 13:19 | and we are fooling ourselves deceiving ourselves and deceiving others poorly I |
| 13:26 | would note here when we claim that we are righteous that we are sinless that |
| 13:32 | we’re pulling it off that we are going from Victory to Victory and earning God’s blessing by how good we are how |
| 13:40 | obedient we are balag na again that’s the proper way of saying it that you are |
| 13:47 | not good you are not righteous each and every one of us we are all ungodly and |
| 13:54 | at the end of our epistle text it explains why in Romans 5 12 it says sin |
| 14:01 | came into the world through one man and death through sin and so death |
| 14:06 | spread to all men because all have sinned sin indeed was in the world before the law was given but sin is not |
| 14:12 | counted where there is no Allah yet death Reign from Adam to Moses even over those whose sinning was not like the |
| 14:18 | transgression of Adam but was a type of the one who was to come in Adam we have all Fallen |
| 14:24 | and there’s no escaping it in this lifetime even though you are baptized |
| 14:30 | you are forgiven filled with the Holy Spirit you still have a sinful nature to |
| 14:35 | wrestle with and as a result of that your sanctification is always going to |
| 14:44 | be imperfect in this lifetime it’s a terrible thing to come to grips |
| 14:50 | with there will never be a day until Christ returns or when you join him upon |
| 14:56 | your death where you will not need to pray forgive us our trespasses as we |
| 15:02 | forgive those who trespass against us which then leads to a very important |
| 15:08 | thing for us to consider here and that is is that Christians |
| 15:14 | they live a life where they have peace with God not because of their obedience |
| 15:19 | but because The Obedience of Christ but the experience of being a Christian is not an easy one the reason being is |
| 15:27 | because each and every one of us the more days we live on this Earth the |
| 15:33 | larger the pile of sin is that’s right behind us and so when I look back across my life I |
| 15:41 | think about my childhood I think about when I was a teenager I think about when hormones kicked in and I discovered |
| 15:47 | girls and then I think about my 20s as a young married man with small kids then I |
| 15:52 | think about my 30s and my 40s another set 50s it’s annoying to have to |
| 16:00 | say those words right and in my 50s I can legitimately say looking across the |
| 16:05 | entirety of my life there has never been a point in my life where I can say I had |
| 16:10 | it put all together this was the high water mark I really achieved |
| 16:16 | righteousness instead when I look back across my life you know what I see sin |
| 16:22 | and if you’re honest so do you and that’s really the point is it any |
| 16:29 | wonder that the Israelites never really got to be God’s precious possession they |
| 16:34 | were never really a holy nation that they were never truly a kingdom of priests the reason being is because sin |
| 16:42 | impacts us all and their commitment to obeying God’s law these were Hollow |
| 16:48 | words they may have intended to do so but the |
| 16:54 | reality is is that we still war with our sinful nature and it’s just a horrible |
| 16:59 | conflict so as Christians then we need to not |
| 17:04 | despair because the experience of recognizing |
| 17:10 | our sin and guilt is real but we cannot put it away by our good |
| 17:15 | works and here’s where a lot of people go off the rails they try to take that |
| 17:21 | big pile of sin that’s increasingly growing day by day behind them and find |
| 17:26 | a way to build a facade around it to make to distract people to find a way to |
| 17:32 | pretend that it’s not there and the whole time the stench is just |
| 17:38 | offending everybody within width of the pile of sin and have you noticed then |
| 17:45 | that those who really act like they’re pulling it off are legitimately the most annoying and like fake people to ever be |
| 17:52 | around right but as Christians then it’s easy for us to Despair and say you know I |
| 18:00 | think God made a mistake I mean clearly I don’t deserve salvation |
| 18:07 | I I think that when I look at my life there had to be some kind of a clerical |
| 18:13 | error how is it that I am among the group of people who are forgiven pardon |
| 18:20 | reconciled to God and are bound for the new Earth rather than hell like I |
| 18:26 | deserve and so when that happens when those doubts come up and they do |
| 18:32 | you cannot look inside yourself to solve the problem the reality is this is that Christ died |
| 18:39 | for the ungodly that’s you and that’s me and there are no other types of people |
| 18:44 | on planet Earth except for Jesus and he was the one who was righteous and so it |
| 18:49 | goes on to say this that God God is the one who sent Christ to bleed and die for |
| 18:56 | each and every one of us and that this is the great demonstration of God’s love |
| 19:01 | so Paul notes one will scarcely die for a righteous person perhaps for a good |
| 19:09 | person one might even dare to die and it’s true you think about people in our |
| 19:15 | time you know who’ve laid down their lives so that others can live you know most notably we think of soldiers |
| 19:21 | fighting in the battlefield a guy is taking one for the team so that their platoon can carry on and fight another |
| 19:28 | day although they have given up their life on the battlefield these are these are stories that we’re familiar with but |
| 19:34 | here’s the thing God demonstrates God shows his love for |
| 19:41 | us and these are important words because when we talk about love words are kind of cheap if you think about it God |
| 19:47 | didn’t send us a Cheesy poem with the Precious Moments figurine you know depicted on the front of it you know you |
| 19:54 | know how just I can’t even think about the sappy things that I’ve said Violet roses |
| 20:01 | are red violets are blue I think I love you so much and God is true you know it’s just none of this nonsense it just |
| 20:08 | never works out right God actually doesn’t cover us with platitudes he doesn’t |
| 20:14 | speak to us in Flowery language God himself second person of the Trinity |
| 20:20 | took on human flesh as we confessed in the Creed that he was born of the Virgin Mary that he suffered under Pontius |
| 20:27 | Pilate and all of this was God demonstrating his love for us and he |
| 20:34 | does this not when we were at our best as if there’s any point in your life you can point to and say there’s the time I |
| 20:40 | really got it together right instead God demonstrates his love for us and while |
| 20:46 | we were still Sinners that’s when Christ died for us when we were all dead in |
| 20:53 | trespasses and sins and since therefore we have now been Justified declared |
| 20:58 | righteous by the blood of Christ we as Christians need to take comfort in this fact if God went through all of that to |
| 21:06 | save us while we were at our worst now that we are saved we need to take |
| 21:13 | comfort and confidence in the fact that we are truly going to be saved not |
| 21:19 | because of what we’ve done but because of what God has done in Christ and continues to do for us having been |
| 21:25 | justified by his blood how much more now shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God for if while we were enemies we |
| 21:33 | were reconciled to God and indeed we were by the death of his son how much more now that we are reconciled shall we |
| 21:40 | be saved by Christ’s Life by his resurrection from the dead and as a |
| 21:45 | result of this then we rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ through |
| 21:50 | whom we have received received as a gift reconciliation and pardon with God |
| 21:57 | is it any Wonder then that in First Peter Peter then picks up some of these words |
| 22:05 | that we heard from Exodus 19 and he doesn’t apply them to genetic Israel to |
| 22:12 | the people of Israel instead Peter applies words that we hear in Exodus 19 |
| 22:18 | that Israel never fulfilled they never fulfilled the Covenant and we hear them |
| 22:23 | applied to Christians for the sake of Christ and so it says in First Peter |
| 22:29 | chapter 2. it says as you come to him a living |
| 22:35 | Stone that’s Jesus rejected by men but in the sight of God Chosen and precious |
| 22:42 | Jesus is the one who is precious right you remember when Christ was baptized he |
| 22:47 | comes out of the water and the voice of the father is heard from Heaven this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased |
| 22:53 | where Israel failed where they were disobedient did not keep God’s law Jesus |
| 22:59 | succeeded gloriously and over and again we are admonished in scripture to think |
| 23:05 | of Jesus as all of Israel squished down into one human being |
| 23:11 | where they failed Jesus succeeds so he is chosen he is precious before the |
| 23:20 | father but you yourselves each and every one of us we are like living stones we’re being now built up as a spiritual |
| 23:27 | house to be a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices that are acceptable |
| 23:34 | to God through Jesus Christ for it stands in scripture behold I am laying as in Zion a stone a Cornerstone Chosen |
| 23:41 | and precious whoever believes in him will not be put to shame listen again to the words whoever believes in Jesus will |
| 23:50 | not be put to shame what shame are we talking about here we’re talking about |
| 23:56 | the shame of Eternal condemnation of hearing the voice of Christ on the day |
| 24:01 | of judgment saying to you depart from me I never knew you |
| 24:07 | that’s the Eternal shame that we do not face why because we’re so obedient no |
| 24:13 | we’re not but because we believe we believe in Jesus Christ the one who died |
| 24:20 | for the ungodly and we recognize that we fit in that category so the honor then |
| 24:26 | is for you who believe but for those who don’t believe the stone the builders rejected that’s |
| 24:32 | become the Cornerstone a stone of stumbling a rock of offense and they |
| 24:37 | stumble because they disobey the word as they were destined to do but now listen to the words |
| 24:43 | you who are in Christ you who are forgiven pardon and reconciled you who |
| 24:49 | are well and were ungodly in your trespasses and sins and have been |
| 24:55 | forgiven totally completely by the shed blood of Christ you are a chosen race |
| 25:01 | you are a royal priesthood you are a holy nation and you are a people for |
| 25:07 | God’s Own possession so that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of Darkness Into His |
| 25:15 | Marvelous Light where Israel failed in their Disobedience to obey the commands of God |
| 25:22 | Christ has succeeded for you he is the one who obeyed all of God’s commands |
| 25:29 | perfectly for you and he God laid on Jesus the iniquity of us all all of our |
| 25:37 | ungodliness and all of our sin and Christ bore that in his body and then |
| 25:42 | went to the Cross was nailed to the cross and suffered bled and died so that |
| 25:48 | you can be forgiven pardoned and reconciled to God and he did this for you and Jesus then on the third day Rose |
| 25:56 | victoriously bodily from the grave for you and now what Israel could not attain |
| 26:03 | the project that was too hard for them the one that they had bitten off way more than they can chew and the one that |
| 26:09 | they said that they could figure it out and they never did Christ succeeds for us |
| 26:15 | and as a result of that we now are the ones who are the holy nation We Are The |
| 26:21 | Chosen race we are a people for God’s Own possession not because of our obedience but because of Christ and |
| 26:28 | because we believe and trust in him we will not be put to shame and as a result |
| 26:33 | of that then Peter says these words that each and of every one of us now can |
| 26:39 | proclaim the excellencies of God who is called each and every one of us out of |
| 26:45 | Darkness Into His Marvelous Light I would note here a little side note we |
| 26:52 | all have the privilege of proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ of unburdening |
| 27:00 | people from the false belief that they have to save themselves by being good by being obedient we can Proclaim to them |
| 27:07 | the good news that Christ is bled and died for their sins and that in Jesus there is full forgiveness and pardon and |
| 27:14 | Grace in fact in Our Gospel text Jesus says the Harvest is plentiful |
| 27:20 | the laborers are few therefore pray earnestly to the lord of the Harvest to |
| 27:26 | send out laborers into his Harvest today is the ninth anniversary of my |
| 27:32 | installation here at Kong’s finger this is the gospel text that Dr Curtis Lyons |
| 27:37 | preached on at my installation service and his call then and his Earnest prayer |
| 27:43 | and ours too is that God would continue to send laborers into the Harvest field |
| 27:49 | I can tell you as a pastor we are severely short-handed |
| 27:55 | not only in the Pastoral office but short-handed when it comes to faithful lay people who know the gospel and share |
| 28:04 | that freely share that gospel with others note this labor that that Christ |
| 28:09 | is calling us to is not merely for pastors we each and every one of us have the privilege and the responsibility of |
| 28:16 | proclaiming the excellencies of him who called us out of Darkness Into His Marvelous Light |
| 28:22 | so let us pray then as the world is confused and so many people have have their lives ruined by false forms of |
| 28:30 | Christianity that Focus only on the law but do not focus on both law and gospel |
| 28:35 | that have made promises of blessing for obedience but then all the while they hide their Disobedience and shame and as |
| 28:42 | a result of it documentaries have to be put together to warn people of the Damage Done by those who do not know how |
| 28:49 | to rightly handle God’s word let us recognize that we are saved not because we’re good we are saved because God sent |
| 28:58 | Christ who bled and died for us when we were at our worst rather than giving us what we deserved |
| 29:04 | he gave us Mercy forgiveness pardon Grace and the gift of Salvation and |
| 29:10 | eternal life all for the sake of Jesus because of God’s great love and let us |
| 29:16 | pray also the God would send more laborers into the Harvest field even as the day gets |
| 29:22 | long and the imminent return of Christ draws closer and closer let us continue to work while it’s still day because |
| 29:29 | today is the day of salvation in the name of Jesus Amen |
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