Series C – Ash Wednesday – Wednesday, February 10, 2016 | 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 | |
| 0:30 | our Old Testament reading is taken from psalm 51. | |
| 0:39 | have mercy on me o God according to your steadfast love | |
| 0:45 | according to your abundant Mercy blot out my transgressions Wash Me thoroughly | |
| 0:51 | for my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin for I know my transgressions and my sin | |
| 0:56 | is ever before me against you and you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight | |
| 1:04 | so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment behold | |
| 1:10 | I was brought forth in iniquity and incended my mother conceived me behold you Delight in truth and the | |
| 1:18 | inward being and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart me with hyssop | |
| 1:25 | and I shall be clean Wash Me and I shall be whiter than snow | |
| 1:33 | let me hear joy and gladness let the bones that you have broken rejoice | |
| 1:40 | hide your face from my sins blot out all of my iniquities | |
| 1:45 | created me a clean heart oh God and renew a right Spirit Within Me | |
| 1:51 | cast me not away from your presence and take not your Holy Spirit for me | |
| 1:57 | restore to me the joy of your salvation and uphold me with a willing spirit | |
| 2:04 | then I will teach transgressors your ways and sinners will return to you | |
| 2:10 | deliver me from blood guiltiness oh God oh God of my salvation and my tongue | |
| 2:16 | will sing aloud of your righteousness O Lord open my lips | |
| 2:22 | and my mouth will declare your praise for you will not Delight in sacrifice | |
| 2:29 | or I would give it you would not be pleased with the burnt offering the sacrifices of God | |
| 2:36 | are a broken Spirit a broken and can try it hard oh God you will not despise | |
| 2:43 | do good to Zion and your good pleasure build up the walls of Jerusalem then you will delight and write | |
| 2:49 | sacrifices and burnt offerings and in whole burnt offerings then bowls will be offered on your altar | |
| 2:56 | in the name of Jesus amen my sermon is taken from our Psalm today | |
| 3:02 | from our old testament’s text psalm 51. now we all know the historic context of | |
| 3:10 | this particular psalm this Psalm if you look in your Bible and the note right above where verse 1 | |
| 3:16 | begins notes the fact that this is the psalm that David wrote after Nathan the | |
| 3:23 | prophet confronted him with his sin and which sin would that be the sin of adultery of Bathsheba | |
| 3:31 | of murder of Uriah the hittite and I got to say this | |
| 3:37 | one of the things that I am a strong advocate of is rightly understanding how scripture | |
| 3:43 | points us to Christ the Psalms are slightly different | |
| 3:48 | and what I mean by that is is that rather than read yourself as David in | |
| 3:54 | the story of David and Goliath it is good for us as Christians to learn how to pray as David has prayed | |
| 4:01 | and so rather than focusing in on what David did I think this Lenten tide as we | |
| 4:09 | begin the season of Lent I admonish you to make this Psalm your | |
| 4:16 | prayer | |
| 4:22 | and the reason for that is because as your pastor I know that you are all like me | |
| 4:30 | sinners I know that many of you | |
| 4:36 | you struggle to obey God and you daily fall short | |
| 4:44 | I know that some of you come to church on Sunday and you hang on the very words of the absolution | |
| 4:52 | I forgive you all of your sins and it’s not because you are a hypothetical sinner | |
| 5:00 | because like me you are a real sinner you’ve committed real sins | |
| 5:07 | and there’s several stories in the Bible apart from the gospel | |
| 5:13 | that provides so much comfort for me because I look at those Sinners whom | |
| 5:19 | Christ has forgiven King David in particular and I say to myself | |
| 5:28 | if God can forgive David for that he can forgive you | |
| 5:35 | for that and see the thing is is that | |
| 5:40 | it’s kind of a cockeyed way of looking at things and the reason why it is is that James the half-brother of Jesus | |
| 5:46 | makes it so clear that if we have transgressed even one of | |
| 5:53 | God’s holy commands even one we’re guilty of breaking them all | |
| 6:01 | when Moses came down from Mount Sinai when the children of Israel | |
| 6:07 | decided they were going to rise and revel and play | |
| 6:13 | and they had Aaron fashion for them a golden calf when Moses came down the mountain | |
| 6:21 | which commandment was being broken so flagrantly the first you will have no other gods | |
| 6:29 | before me And yet when Moses threw the stones down | |
| 6:34 | all the Commandments were broken think of that | |
| 6:40 | if you have not yet learned how to pray and really truly cry out | |
| 6:47 | from the bottom of your heart in anguish and shame have mercy on me o God | |
| 6:55 | then you do not understand your guilt you do not get it yet | |
| 7:02 | you will not be able to stand before God and say yeah but I was a good person | |
| 7:09 | promise you that answer will land you in hell | |
| 7:14 | Christ didn’t come for good people he came for sinners | |
| 7:20 | and so tonight I encourage you to take up | |
| 7:27 | the words of this psalm and make them your own prayer | |
| 7:33 | the psalter is the prayer book of the Bible and the older I get | |
| 7:40 | the more the psalter becomes the go-to book for me in the scriptures | |
| 7:47 | when I was young and learning Theology and enjoying the headiness of it the | |
| 7:52 | Epistles and Romans and Galatians were my go-to book | |
| 7:58 | eventually I wanted to tackle and learn and really get to understand the Old Testament and it truly came alive in | |
| 8:05 | understanding that all the stories are about Christ and pointing us to him and what he would do for us | |
| 8:11 | but then when you get to the songs Psalms are a little bit of a different | |
| 8:16 | thing and I’m almost convinced you have to be an older man to be able to pray them or | |
| 8:21 | an older woman you have to have a little bit of life behind you and if you look at your life | |
| 8:28 | it’s a lot like mine look behind you there’s a wake of Destruction | |
| 8:38 | you’re not a victim you have victimized other people | |
| 8:44 | you have sinned against your brothers and sisters your neighbors your children your | |
| 8:51 | husbands your wives and you’ve sinned against God | |
| 8:59 | and it’s not going to stand up before God by saying yeah but I’d really tried really hard I meant well | |
| 9:06 | yeah it’s not that at all you see David committed adultery | |
| 9:12 | and he murdered Uriah the hittite this is most certainly true | |
| 9:19 | but I assure you that all of the sins that you have committed are equally as bad because if you’ve | |
| 9:25 | broken one of The Commandments you’re guilty of breaking them all | |
| 9:33 | so when you tell that little white lie to your neighbor and you justify it by saying it’s a | |
| 9:38 | white lie since when do lies become White | |
| 9:43 | lies well that’s the language of the devil that’s his native tongue | |
| 9:49 | I didn’t realize the devil was able to speak in light speak in white | |
| 9:55 | you justify it I say well it was just a little bit of a lie when you do that | |
| 10:02 | you are guilty of being an idolater a blasphemer a | |
| 10:08 | thief an adulterer a murderer a coveter name the list you’ve broken them all | |
| 10:16 | period and God’s law makes it clear that the | |
| 10:22 | wages of these transgression is not only temporal death | |
| 10:30 | this is my second Ash Wednesday it’s been a year and a day | |
| 10:36 | if you would since why was last here preaching on Ash Wednesday and you know what | |
| 10:42 | I looked in the mirror this morning I said Chris you’re looking you look a year older maybe two | |
| 10:49 | but I’m looking across and I’m saying the same thing none of you are any closer to 18 than you were last year | |
| 10:56 | you’re closer to the Grave you’re closer to joining them out in the graveyard | |
| 11:04 | and if you’re like me that thought actually jars you | |
| 11:10 | there have been nights when I’ve woken up in a cold sweat gasping for breath | |
| 11:18 | I’m gonna die someday and I don’t think my experience and my | |
| 11:24 | fear of death is unique to me I think you all have a sinful nature | |
| 11:29 | just like I do that doesn’t want to die | |
| 11:36 | I’ve heard people close to death crying and weeping saying that they | |
| 11:42 | didn’t want to die and there was nothing I could do to keep them from doing it | |
| 11:51 | so this Lenten tide | |
| 11:56 | think hard on your sins you say but Pastor that is really | |
| 12:02 | depressing it’s not going to make me feel good | |
| 12:08 | it’s not supposed to but there’s a method to God’s Madness | |
| 12:16 | there is you remember the story that Jesus tells | |
| 12:22 | about the one the two people who had big debts remember this story let me see if | |
| 12:28 | I can do this from memory Jesus was visiting Simon | |
| 12:34 | the leper also a Pharisee I like to read that text and say well if Jesus was at | |
| 12:39 | his house for dinner he was Simon formerly known as the leper but he was also still a Pharisee right | |
| 12:45 | and as The Story Goes Jesus is there at Simon’s house | |
| 12:52 | and they don’t offer him anything to wash his feet or to care for his basic needs they’re quite rude to Jesus Simon | |
| 12:59 | is Simon the former leper right and she | |
| 13:05 | crashes the party we all know who she is she’s the town | |
| 13:13 | she’s the one with the loose morals she’s the one rumored to be making money on the side | |
| 13:20 | on her back everybody knows about her | |
| 13:25 | right she walked into Kong’s finger some of you might be tempted if she sat | |
| 13:32 | on this side you might have want to move over there because whatever she got you don’t want to you don’t want to get it right | |
| 13:40 | she crashes the party she crashes the party | |
| 13:45 | and she runs straight to Jesus | |
| 13:51 | and the text says that she washed his feet with her hair | |
| 14:01 | because she was weeping and we know what kind of weeping this is | |
| 14:08 | who of you have never weeped like this I have weeping is a terribly ugly thing to look | |
| 14:15 | at and it’s just darn awful to experience you can’t see anything | |
| 14:23 | and not only is water flowing from your eyes mucus is running out of your nose | |
| 14:32 | it’s just a mess and this is the days before Kleenex right | |
| 14:38 | so what does she do with her own tears she washes Jesus feet | |
| 14:44 | and then in what had to be ugliness upon ugliness | |
| 14:50 | she takes her hair and dries Jesus’s feet | |
| 14:56 | with her hair Simon inside of his heart is thinking | |
| 15:02 | this if Jesus knew who was touching him | |
| 15:07 | if only he knew who was touching him he would not be allowing this to happen | |
| 15:15 | Jesus knowing what’s going on inside of his heart says to Simon Simon | |
| 15:22 | there was a certain man who lent money out to two people | |
| 15:29 | one huge amount of money the other not so much | |
| 15:37 | and here’s the explosive sentence neither of them could pay | |
| 15:43 | neither of them could pay the debt back that’s the sentence that you can almost | |
| 15:49 | see Simon three days later washing his dishes wait whoa wait a second Jesus said none | |
| 15:57 | of neither of them could pay because clearly one of the people in this Parable was referencing her | |
| 16:05 | and the other was referencing him and Jesus asked the question so neither of them could pay so the man canceled the | |
| 16:12 | debts of both who do you think will love him more | |
| 16:19 | and Simon rightley Says the one who had the greater debt canceled | |
| 16:26 | right Jesus makes the point the one who is forgiven much | |
| 16:32 | loves much | |
| 16:39 | now I want you to think about this we don’t like penitential Seasons we | |
| 16:44 | just don’t they’re dreary they’re a drudgery they seem negative even the songs are all in these minor | |
| 16:51 | Keys good night how are we supposed to get through this Lenten tide I feel like | |
| 16:57 | we’re going on a March through a dirge right there’s a reason for this | |
| 17:04 | and the reason for this is quite simple because the one who is forgiven much | |
| 17:10 | loves much and the reality of the situation is this | |
| 17:16 | you have been forgiven much | |
| 17:22 | if you don’t love much it’s not because you haven’t been forgiven much it’s | |
| 17:27 | because you have yet to really understand the magnitude and the depth of your own sin and just how much you | |
| 17:33 | have been forgiven penitential seasons | |
| 17:40 | are times for us to get honest with ourselves and with God put down the pretense | |
| 17:48 | quit the pharisaical prayers I thank you God that I’m not like other people that I vote Republican | |
| 17:54 | right that I am against gay marriage | |
| 18:00 | there’s nothing wrong with that but when you hold up your righteousness up to God as if somehow that earns you brownie | |
| 18:06 | points you still have yet to understand the basics of the Christian faith | |
| 18:13 | so let’s make this prayer Our Own and work our way back through the text | |
| 18:19 | now psalm 51. have mercy on me o God | |
| 18:24 | according to your steadfast love according to your abundant Mercy | |
| 18:32 | blot out my transgressions Wash Me Wash Me thoroughly for my iniquity | |
| 18:40 | and cleanse me from my sin | |
| 18:46 | and that’s what we all need for I know my transgressions | |
| 18:52 | and my sin is ever before me it’s a constant companion | |
| 18:58 | and know this that at the end of the day regardless of who you’ve sinned against what David says here is true against you | |
| 19:06 | God and you only have I sinned and done what | |
| 19:11 | is evil in your sight | |
| 19:16 | so that you might be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment | |
| 19:22 | those are important words how many of us when we approach God’s | |
| 19:27 | law somehow try to blame our faults on God | |
| 19:34 | this might be a little simplistic but God if you hadn’t have made your law so difficult to keep I’d actually be a | |
| 19:42 | pretty good person I don’t know if you’ve ever thought that thought I hope you haven’t unfortunately | |
| 19:48 | I have but against you and you only have I sin | |
| 19:54 | Lord and you are justified in your words and you are blameless in your judgments I’m the one who’s at fault | |
| 20:02 | and you know that part that we confess in our corporate confession the words are | |
| 20:09 | I confess that I am by Nature sinful and unclean | |
| 20:16 | we get that idea from these words Behold I was brought forth in iniquity | |
| 20:23 | and in sin did my mother conceive me David was not saying that his mother was | |
| 20:29 | a woman of loose morals that’s not what he’s saying what he’s saying is that when he was | |
| 20:38 | conceived in his mother’s womb he was conceived a sinner | |
| 20:43 | and that’s all of us by the way all of us we have inherited Adam’s sin | |
| 20:51 | the reason why we sin is because we are sinners in sin | |
| 20:57 | did your mother bring you forth did my mom bring me forth | |
| 21:03 | behold God you Delight in truth in the inward being | |
| 21:08 | and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart and he does that here every week when we | |
| 21:15 | come to hear the Lord’s words and so he says Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean wash me and I shall be | |
| 21:22 | whiter than snow who’s doing the washing in this washing | |
| 21:28 | are you washing yourself are you scrubbing yourself | |
| 21:33 | this isn’t a shower this is a bath | |
| 21:39 | these are the Waters of your baptism and God is the one doing the washing | |
| 21:45 | right let me hear joy and gladness let the bones that you have broken rejoice | |
| 21:54 | and that’s the idea is that God breaks our bones with the law | |
| 22:01 | so that we will rejoice because what a terrible fate it is for the person who never feels the guilt | |
| 22:09 | associated with the law of God who goes about their life thinking that | |
| 22:15 | good is evil and that evil is good and goes | |
| 22:21 | blissfully on to their grave never having God’s law break their bones and crush them and show them their need for | |
| 22:26 | the savior that’s not a blessing that is a curse | |
| 22:32 | hide your face from my sins God blot out all of my iniquities | |
| 22:38 | and then we sing this we’ve sung this many times here since I’ve come created me a clean heart oh God | |
| 22:46 | renew a right Spirit Within Me notice that David is right in his prayer | |
| 22:51 | David doesn’t look inside of himself and say I’m just going to try harder God this time I’m going to clean up my ACT | |
| 22:58 | God this time I’ve I really mean it Jesus | |
| 23:03 | it’s not what he says he pleads with God | |
| 23:09 | Lord created me a clean heart because David knows if God is not the one who creates that clean heart within you you | |
| 23:15 | are incapable of doing it yourself creating me a clean heart o God and | |
| 23:21 | renew a right Spirit Within Me cast me not away from your presence and take not | |
| 23:26 | your Holy Spirit from me restore to me the joy of your salvation | |
| 23:34 | and uphold me with a willing spirit and see that’s the idea when God creates | |
| 23:40 | a clean heart in you and he does this he circumcises your heart in the waters of baptism when God creates a clean heart | |
| 23:47 | in you through his word through his body and blood received in the Lord’s Supper | |
| 23:53 | through the absolution he restores within you a willing spirit | |
| 24:00 | a spirit that does good works because it has been | |
| 24:06 | created and renewed by God it is a gift given | |
| 24:11 | not something to be striven for as if something how you earn it | |
| 24:17 | and then he says this after God has done all of these things then I will teach transgressors your | |
| 24:23 | ways and sinners will return to you indeed the one who knows the gospel | |
| 24:31 | and the wonderfulness of the Forgiveness of sins can’t help but go and tell | |
| 24:37 | everybody in Christ there is forgiveness it in God there is Mercy | |
| 24:45 | and by doing this transgressors and sinners return to God | |
| 24:50 | why scripture is clear that it’s God’s kindness | |
| 24:57 | his Mercy forgiveness his love that leads us to repentance | |
| 25:04 | so deliver me God from blood guiltiness o God of my salvation and my tongue will | |
| 25:11 | sing aloud of your righteousness O Lord you open my lips | |
| 25:16 | and then my mouth will declare your praise for you will not Delight in sacrifice or | |
| 25:22 | I would give it you will not be pleased with a burnt offering but listen to this | |
| 25:28 | the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit | |
| 25:33 | a broken and contrite heart o God you will not despise | |
| 25:40 | that’s the spirit of Lent the whole purpose | |
| 25:46 | is that together we look into God’s law and it’s crushing | |
| 25:53 | work breaks us knowing this that the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit and a broken and | |
| 25:59 | contrite heart God does not despise these things no this is exactly what it means to humble | |
| 26:06 | yourself so do good in Zion and your good pleasure build up the | |
| 26:11 | walls of Jerusalem and you will Delight in right sacrifices now let me end with the traditional Old | |
| 26:18 | Testament texts for Ash Wednesday Joel chapter 2 | |
| 26:23 | starting at verse 12. yet even now declares the Lord | |
| 26:29 | return to me with all of your heart return to me with fasting return to me | |
| 26:37 | with weeping and return to me with mourning rent your hearts not your | |
| 26:43 | clothes return to the Lord your God | |
| 26:50 | for he is gracious and he is merciful he is slow to anger | |
| 26:56 | and he’s abounding in steadfast love he relents over disaster who knows | |
| 27:02 | whether he will not turn and relent and leave a blessing behind him a grain offering and a drink offering for the | |
| 27:08 | Lord your God so blow the trumpet in Zion consecrate a fast call a solemn | |
| 27:14 | assembly gather the people consecrate the congregation assemble the elders gather the children even the | |
| 27:21 | nursing infants let the bridegroom leave his room and the bride her chamber between the vestibule and the altar let | |
| 27:28 | the priests the Ministers of the Lord weep | |
| 27:33 | let them weep and say spare your people O Lord | |
| 27:39 | and make not your heritage or reproach and a byword among the Nations why | |
| 27:45 | should they say among the peoples where is their God then the Lord became jealous for his | |
| 27:50 | land and had pity on his people the Lord answered and said to his people behold I am sending you grain wine and oil and | |
| 27:58 | you will be satisfied and I will no more make you a pro reproach among the | |
| 28:03 | Nations so let us this Lenten tide Rend our hearts not our garments | |
| 28:10 | let us with the people of Israel of old | |
| 28:16 | with the congregation weep and say spare your people O Lord | |
| 28:22 | spare us and make not your heritage make not your | |
| 28:29 | people of Kong’s Winger reproach or a byword among the Nations | |
| 28:34 | have mercy on us O Lord and with God | |
| 28:40 | we hear these words again return to the Lord your God | |
| 28:47 | return for he is gracious he’s merciful | |
| 28:52 | he’s slow to anger he’s abounding in steadfast love and he relents over disaster and you | |
| 29:00 | want to know what the disaster he even relents over the very fires of hell that our own sin has earned each and every | |
| 29:07 | one of us me included twice he relents over disaster why | |
| 29:15 | because Jesus is going to the cross he’s going to the Cross to bleed and to | |
| 29:22 | die for your sins to suffer in your place | |
| 29:27 | so that you might live so that you might be made the righteousness of God or as our epistle | |
| 29:35 | text said God made him Christ to be sin who knew no sin so that you | |
| 29:42 | you yes you Janet yes you Robin yes you Don yes you Dwayne | |
| 29:50 | yes figurines yes you Renee even you Arlene | |
| 29:56 | so that you can be the righteousness of God | |
| 30:02 | with him there is Mercy therefore he is feared in the name of | |
| 30:08 | Jesus amen | |
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