LutheranLectionary.org

1 Year Lectionary – Third Sunday After Trinity – Sunday, July 3, 2022 | 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 according
0:29	to saint luke the 15th chapter [Music]
0:39	now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear jesus and the
0:44	pharisees and the scribes grumbled saying this man receives sinners and he eats with them so he told them this
0:52	parable what man of you having a hundred sheep if he has lost one of them does not leave the 99 in the open country and
0:59	go after the one that is lost until he finds it and when he has found it he lays it on his shoulders rejoicing and
1:05	when he comes home he calls together his friends and his neighbors saying to them rejoice with me for i have found my
1:12	sheep that was lost just so i tell you there will be more joy in heaven over
1:17	one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous persons who need no repentance
1:22	or what woman having ten silver coins if she loses one coin does not light a lamp
1:27	and sweep the house and seek diligently until she finds it and when she has found it she calls together her friends
1:34	and neighbors saying rejoice with me for i have found the coin that i had lost just so i tell you there is joy before
1:40	the angels of god over one sinner who repents this is the gospel of the lord
1:46	in the name of jesus amen so the experience of being saved by
1:51	jesus is one that is disconcerting if you think about it this way christ
1:56	has promised us and we we remember our gospel text from just a few weeks ago that send the holy spirit
2:04	who will convict us of our sin and our unbelief
2:09	and the experience of being convicted of your sin is one that is not
2:14	fun in fact it’s lamentable and quite necessary that we feel the guilt the
2:21	fear that we feel the sorrow for our sin this is the work of the holy spirit
2:27	but what the devil then does is he kind of leads us into two potential dishes if
2:33	you would you got to stay on the road you know and the idea here is that one of these ditches is the ditch where we
2:40	end up despairing we sit there being fully cognizant of our sin and go you
2:46	know what i’m just too messed up i’m too broken there’s no way that jesus could
2:53	really be taking me seriously i just need to forget this christianity thing
2:58	altogether i’m too far gone
3:04	it happens right and then when you look at your life in light of the ten commandments
3:09	and you think that you’re pulling it off you’re fooling yourself and you’ll note week after week after week
3:16	we do not stand up and do the joel osteen thing where we do these declaration it’s where we say i am
3:22	strong i am rich i am wealthy i am healthy i am wise right because he
3:28	believes that his faith-filled words create reality instead we do a very sober thing we actually
3:36	speak the truth about ourselves we confess that we are by nature sinful and unclean
3:41	we’ve sinned against god and thought word and deed you get the idea and so the devil comes along hearing the work
3:47	of the holy spirit in you and does this judo move now i initially said jujitsu
3:54	but i was corrected by somebody who knows a thing or two about martial arts it’s a judo move have you noticed those
3:59	judo guys little guys and a big burly guy comes after somebody who knows some judo is ready to throw a punch and next
4:06	thing you know that guy’s weight and his girth is used against him as a weapon and he finds
4:12	himself on his back on the floor looking at the clouds wondering what happened
4:17	that’s what the devil does when he causes us to despair this great strength of the holy spirit to convict us of our
4:24	sin and to keep us humble the devil likes to use a judo move to make us sit there and despair
4:30	that christ could ever really take us seriously and here’s where our epistle
4:35	text is so helpful let me read it out a portion of it paul
4:42	writing to young pastor timothy who was pastor of one of the congregations in the city of ephesus
4:48	and paul is getting ready to finish his life here this is a letter written from
4:53	prison apparently he didn’t understand that he was supposed to experience his best life now but he’s in prison for his
4:59	faith in christ about ready to be martyred for the christian faith by having his
5:04	his head lifted off of his shoulders by a roman sword and so he’s writing some
5:10	last letters and he says i thank him who has given me strength christ jesus our
5:15	lord because he judged me faithful appointing me to his service though formerly i was a blasphemer a persecutor
5:22	an insolent opponent but i received mercy because i’d acted ignorantly in unbelief and the grace of
5:28	our lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in christ jesus
5:35	overflowed what a beautiful picture now usually when we have overflows it’s not
5:40	a positive thing like when your toilet gets backed up and it overflows it means that you’re going to have to clean the carpet and stuff like this but
5:47	think of it this way paul is saying that the grace of our lord has overflowed for me salvation the
5:55	the mercy and grace of god won for us by christ suffering on the cross for our sins is
6:02	not god piecemealing out a little bit of grace to us instead
6:07	it is an overflow an abundance of grace and paul here is one to whom he is the
6:14	recipient of this overflow of god’s grace and then he says these words
6:19	the saying is trustworthy and it’s deserving of full acceptance christ jesus came into the world to save
6:26	sinners of whom i am the chief or the foremost now you’ll
6:33	note we have a tradition in our age where we take these words and we piously
6:38	say things like this i’ve done this many times i think this is the only error in scriptures paul says that he’s the chief
6:44	of sinners and well i must confess that i think that title belongs to me
6:50	and we do that and we think that that’s really the right way to handle this text
6:56	but you’re going to note that paul has very clearly said these words this is a
7:03	trustworthy saying and it’s deserving of full acceptance and here’s why it’s
7:08	important because when you think about christians who are saved you have people
7:14	who’ve committed very few sins who die early in life they have been saved by
7:19	christ and they don’t have this litany of terrible things that they’ve done or sins that they choose not to want to
7:25	recall to mind when they were 19 years old living at the university right instead you know you know so you got
7:32	people kind of down here not not too many sins but paul pegs the meter
7:38	and let me explain he says he’s the chief of sinners that’s the spectrum if you take it at
7:44	face value it’s very comforting and saves us from being tempted by the devil
7:49	to despair of our own salvation and here’s the reason why
7:55	paul i don’t think is speaking in hyperbole when we consider the conversion of the apostle paul and the
8:02	sins that he committed the number of people that he persecuted is probably not a huge number but as a
8:10	total percentage of the of those who were alive who actually held the christian faith
8:16	the percentage was really high not really low let me explain
8:24	we’ll walk through a few sample passages from the book of acts in acts chapter 6
8:29	we begin to hear the narrative of the very first christian martyr his name was stephen and
8:36	saul of tarsus who will become later the apostle paul was part of this plot to
8:42	have him killed and we know this from the later portion of the of the account it says that
8:47	steven full of grace and power was doing great wonders and signs among the people
8:52	some of those who belong to the synagogue of the freedmen as it was called and as of and of the cyrenes and
8:58	the alexandrians and those from silicia and asia they rose up and they disputed with stephen
9:03	but they could not withstand the wisdom and the spirit with which he was speaking so then they secretly
9:09	instigated men who said we have heard him speak blasphemous words against moses and against god ah false witnesses
9:18	in a religious context i mean all for for god you know we we need
9:24	people who are going to lie on behalf of god to save us from the scourge jesus right so they stirred up
9:31	all the people and the elders and the scribes and they came upon stephen and seized
9:36	him and brought him before the council and they set up false witnesses who said
9:41	this man never ceases to speak words against this holy place and the law
9:46	ah slander false charges now pay attention to those words you’re going to hear them again paul will be the
9:53	recipient of similar words later in his life for we have heard him say that this
9:58	jesus of nazareth will destroy this place and will change the customs of moses delivered to us and then gazing at
10:05	him all who sat in the council saw that his face was like that of an angel now i will not read stephen’s full defense but
10:12	this is a beautiful portion of scripture take the time to walk yourself through the history of salvation that stephen
10:20	lays out as his defense as he from memory just rehearses and rehashes and
10:27	gives a wonderful synopsis of the promises that were made by god to the people of israel and how they find their
10:34	fulfillment of jesus christ but afterwards when he had finished his defense it says in chapter 7 verse 54
10:41	now when they heard these things they were in raged have you noticed that some
10:49	people when they hear the truth about christ or they hear the
10:54	truth about themselves how’s the saying go nowadays they they become triggered right and they fly off
11:02	into a towering rage well when you read the words of stephen and his defense
11:08	nothing to be enraged about yet they were enraged and they ground their teeth at him but stephen full of the holy
11:14	spirit gazed into heaven and he saw the glory of god and jesus standing at the
11:20	right hand of god i recently pointed this out and i’ll point it out again we in the nicean creed confess that
11:26	christ ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of the father but here stephen as he’s getting ready
11:33	to have his life taken from him i recall the words of christ when he says that
11:38	everyone who believes in me will never die and i know that sounds like kind of a
11:44	highfalutin thing but it’s absolutely true they will not taste death so stephen is about ready to die and his
11:51	eyes are open he sees into heaven he sees jesus but jesus isn’t sitting
11:58	the very first christian martyr christ rises and stands to watch
12:04	it’s quite notable stunning if you consider it and so stephen said behold
12:10	i see the heavens opened the son of man standing at the right hand of god so they cried out with a loud voice they
12:16	stopped their ears and they rushed together at him and then they cast him out of the city and they stoned him and
12:22	then the witnesses lay down their garments at the feet of a young man named saul in other words saul was a
12:28	part of this the entire time and by them laying their coats at their garments at
12:34	the feet of saul he was instrumental in this whole affair
12:39	saul has the blood of stephen on his hands and as they were stoning stephen he
12:45	called out lord jesus receive my spirit and falling to his knees he cried out with a loud voice lord do not hold the
12:51	sin against them and when he had said this he fell asleep how amazing the forgiven sinner stephen
12:58	even when he is being murdered is crying out that god would forgive those who
13:04	were sinning against him and christ heard his prayer and answered
13:09	it and so we’ll note saul approved of his execution of course he did he was
13:15	instrumental in it and then there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in
13:21	jerusalem they were all scattered throughout the regions of judea samaria except for the
13:26	apostles devout men buried stephen and great lamentation over him but saul was
13:31	ravaging the church entering house after house he dragged off men and women and
13:37	committed them to prison so as a total percentage of all who believe in christ
13:44	how many were the recipients of paul’s
13:49	rage and his ravaging of the church 50 seems low
13:55	based on this account 60 70 80. that’s feasible
14:01	who in our day can say that they have successfully persecuted 80 percent of
14:06	those who confess christ we must take paul’s words seriously
14:13	and the reason is this is because christ showing mercy to paul
14:18	the chief of sinners gives us hope for our own salvation and those times when we would despair about
14:25	our own sin in acts chapter 9 we hear the account of
14:30	saul’s conversion it says this saul was still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the lord who
14:37	went to the high priest and they asked him for letters to the synagogues at damascus so that if he found any
14:42	belonging to the way men or women he might bring them bound to jerusalem as he went on his way he approached
14:49	damascus and then suddenly a light from heaven shone around him and falling to the ground he heard a voice saying to
14:55	him saul saul why are you persecuting me
15:00	and he said who are you lord he said i am jesus whom you are persecuting
15:07	and it’s at this point you’ll note that saul is blinded but at the same time his
15:12	eyes are opened and now he has to think hard and long
15:18	about all of the effort that he has put into snuffing out christianity and getting rid of the name of jesus because
15:25	he has realized that he is in the wrong but the lord says to him rise and enter
15:30	the city and you will be told what you are to do even with those words christ is showing mercy an answer to stephen’s
15:38	prayer that christ not hold these sins against them saul’s sins have not been held against
15:44	him and christ is now showing mercy to the chief persecutor of the christian faith
15:50	the men who were traveling with him stood speechless hearing the voice but seeing no one saul rose from the ground
15:56	and although his eyes were open he saw nothing so they led him by the hand and brought him into damascus and for three
16:02	days he was without sight and neither ate nor drank a little time to consider his life’s
16:08	decisions and ponder what exactly had gone wrong now there was a disciple at damascus
16:14	named ananias and the lord said to him in a vision ananias and he said here i am lord look at that i mean ananias
16:21	recognized the voice of the lord and he didn’t even have to pay 300 bucks to jennifer leclaire for prophetic activation who knew right
16:29	when christ speaks people know who’s talking right so the lord said to him rise and go to the street called
16:35	straight and at the house of judas look for a man of tarsus named saul for behold he’s praying and he is seen in a
16:41	vision a man named ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight
16:47	ananias answered lord i have heard from many about this man how much evil he has done to your saints at jerusalem
16:54	and here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on your name but the lord said to him go
17:01	he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the gentiles and kings and the children of israel and i
17:08	will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name it’s as if jesus at the time
17:15	took a look at all of the humanity and said who’s the worst
17:21	who’s the who’s the most far-gone i want that guy and not only am i going
17:26	to bring him into the christian faith i’m going to make him one of my apostles that’s what i’m gonna do so looking into
17:32	the rubbish heap he found some terrible orange that was fungus filled and just
17:38	not good for anything i mean couldn’t even compost it was so disgusting and smelly and running with yuck he said
17:44	yeah this is this is a good candidate this is the one right
17:50	i have chosen him as an instrument of mine to carry my name before the gentiles and kings and the children of
17:56	israel i will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name so ananias departed entered the house
18:03	and laying his hands on him he said brother saul the lord jesus who appeared to you on
18:09	the road by which you came has sent me so that you may regain your sight and you may be filled with the holy spirit
18:16	and immediately something like scales fell from his eyes and he regained his sight and then he rose and he was
18:22	baptized and taking food he was strengthened and for some days he was with the disciples at damascus and
18:29	you’ll note that paul the apostle paul received the same baptism you’ve received baptized in the
18:36	name of the father the son and the holy spirit had his sins washed away was united with christ in his death and his
18:42	resurrection and he too was filled with the holy spirit as you are
18:47	and when you kind of consider what happens next paul goes on well a
18:52	different kind of rampage from city to city town to town from trip to trip he
18:58	goes all over the roman empire entering synagogues and pagan towns and
19:04	proclaiming christ jesus risen from the dead and that forgiveness and life are in him saying that he is the one
19:10	promised by god in all of the old testament and in him there is forgiveness and life and calling people
19:17	to repent and believe in jesus it’s a wonderful book and it’s an amazing turnaround the only thing i could
19:23	compare it to if paul’s conversion would be had adolf hitler decided near the end of his life that he was going to convert
19:30	to judaism that’s how big the conversion was right now a little bit of a note i said pay
19:37	attention to the words that stephen was falsely accused of those words kind of
19:42	come full circle later in the book of acts acts chapter 21 paul has made a journey to jerusalem
19:49	and was in the actual temple complex and it says when seven days were almost completed the jews from asia seeing paul
19:56	in the temple they stirred up the whole crowd laid hands on him crying out men
20:01	of israel help this is the man who is teaching everyone everywhere against the people and the
20:07	law in this place moreover he’s even brought greeks into the temple and has defiled this holy place
20:13	false charges false charges but you know the charges leveled against him at the time by the
20:18	crowd were eerily identical to the very charges that were trumped up
20:24	against stephen and so we note then paul in our epistle text says this
20:30	saying is trustworthy it’s deserving of full acceptance
20:36	christ jesus came into the world to save sinners by the way you qualify
20:42	i do too he came into the world to save sinners and paul says of whom i am the
20:49	foremost god the holy spirit inspired paul to write these words so that we would not
20:55	despair of our own salvation a good way to think of it is this is if christ can
21:01	forgive the apostle paul the chief of sinners i think there’s a good chance he can
21:07	forgive me and he does and that’s why he says this the very
21:13	reason why christ chose him is given by paul in our text i receive mercy for
21:18	this reason so that in me as the chief of sinners jesus might display his perfect patience
21:26	as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life
21:32	that’s the whole point he is the chief of sinners you are not
21:38	and christ has taken the worst from among us the most active in persecuting the
21:44	church the one who has done the most damage percentage-wise and any other person in human history and he’s
21:50	forgiven him and pardoned him and he now stands as an example of the forgiveness
21:56	that is available to each and every one of us it’s in this in this in this vein then
22:02	we consider a portion of our gospel text i mentioned that there are two ditches that we can fall into one is despair
22:09	this is where the devil takes the work of the holy spirit in convicting us of our sin and we despair of ever being
22:16	forgiven that’s one ditch the other ditch is just like completely being
22:21	blind to the fact that we’re even sinners at all john puts it this way if we say we have
22:27	no sin we deceive ourselves have a conversation with the average
22:33	unbeliever out there are you a good person oh yes i’m a good person really
22:38	how do you know well i pay my taxes and i’ve never been to prison uh-huh
22:45	that’s not the sign reviewing the ten commandments would be
22:51	helpful at that point but you’ll note in our gospel text the pharisees and the scribes they had fallen into that exact
22:58	ditch in the gospel of luke it says the tax collectors and the sinners were all drawing near to hear jesus this is a
23:05	good thing and by the way i said you are a sinner you would qualify to be in this
23:10	group so do i but the pharisees and the scribes they grumbled saying well this man received
23:16	sinners and he eats with them of course jesus would have to eat by himself
23:23	if he didn’t eat with sinners you imagine poor jesus you know junior high kid you know during school lunch break and
23:30	off he goes to sit by himself where are you going jesus well i can’t eat with sinners yeah
23:36	all by him his lonesome right but the sad bit here is that the pharisees and scribes are so
23:43	self-deceived they don’t even see themselves as being in that category
23:49	despair and self-righteousness are the two things we must must get away from both of them are
23:55	forms of idolatry breaking of the first commandment you shall have no other gods let me explain when you despair
24:02	you are saying your sins are greater than christ and his mercy and his shed
24:07	blood on the cross that is to basically make your sins to be unconquerable
24:14	to be like god and on the other hand self-righteousness well that’s idolatry too that’s idolatry
24:21	of self where you think that you’re the bee’s knees and you’ve got your act all together and you do not understand the proper function of the law to drive us
24:28	to our knees and despair of our own righteousness in fact
24:33	jesus has the apostle john write a letter to the church at laodicea in revelation chapter 3 kind of gets at
24:40	that same issue the laodicean church sounds like something like you’d hear from mike
24:45	joel osteen’s houston texas kind of church let me explain jesus in revelation 3 says to the angel of the
24:52	church at laodicea write the words of the amen the faithful the true witness the beginning of god’s creation
24:58	i know your works and you’re neither cold nor hot oh would that you were either cold or hot but because you are
25:05	lukewarm neither hot nor cold i’m going to spit you out of my mouth for you say
25:10	and listen to this proclamation i am rich i have prospered i need nothing
25:18	huh the only thing missing is the southern accent right hmm that sounds like joel osteen’s
25:25	lakewood i am rich i have prospered i need nothing but here’s jesus’s
25:31	judgment on them he says you don’t realize that you are in fact
25:37	wretched pitiable poor blind and naked
25:43	that’s reality christ is speaking truth here there is no deception like self-deception self-righteousness is the
25:49	ultimate form of self-deception so christ counsels the church at laodicea i counsel you to buy gold from
25:55	me refined by fire so that you may be rich and white garments so that you may clothe yourself in the shame of your
26:02	nakedness may not be seen and saved to anoint your eyes so that you may finally be able to see
26:08	scathing words from christ if you consider it so again we want to not despair of
26:13	christ’s mercy and we do want to despair of our own self-righteousness this is what scripture teaches us to do and so
26:20	jesus in his kind rebuke is a beautiful rebuke of the scribes and the pharisees and their self-righteousness and their
26:26	grumbling that he receives sinners and eats with them he tells them this parable so what man of you having a
26:32	hundred sheep if he has lost one of them does not leave the 99 in the open country and then go after the one that
26:38	is lost until he finds it and here’s the best bit of all of this christ is describing what he has done for each and
26:44	every one of us you were once a lost sheep and christ has searched and found
26:50	you he has had the gospel preached to you the good news that he has bled and died
26:55	on the cross for all of your sins he has washed away the sin and filth and muck
27:01	that you had put on yourself by your rebellion against god and he has rejoicingly laid you on his shoulders
27:08	and brought you back into the fold in fact that’s the whole point of this parable when he had found the sheep he
27:15	lays it on his shoulders rejoicing the scripture says that for the joy set before him christ endured the cross
27:22	despising the shame the joy of being reconciled to you the joy of finding you
27:28	his lost sheep and when he jesus comes home he calls together his friends the angels if you would and his neighbors
27:35	saying rejoice with me for i have found my sheep that was lost what a sad thing
27:41	that the pharisees were not rejoicing at the fact that sinners were coming to hear christ and having their sins
27:47	forgiven but they took offense that christ would even eat with them or hang out with them do they not realize that
27:53	there was a big party going on in heaven at the time for each and every one of those sinners brought to repentance by
27:59	christ how sad that they were blind to this reality and it’s in this regard then we consider
28:06	our old testament texts i said before the service that’s like each and every one of these texts is just dripping with
28:12	the gospel listen to the words the prophet micah and should you be tempted
28:18	to despair and think i just don’t have my act together enough to really truly be a christian that’s exactly the
28:24	qualifications that you need to have in order to be one you are a sinner great christ died for
28:31	sinners you’re in that group micah says this
28:37	who is a god like you pardoning iniquity passing over transgression for the
28:43	remnant of his inheritance god does not retain his anger forever because he delights in steadfast love he
28:51	will again have compassion on us and here’s the here’s the false idea that we
28:56	often have about god and it comes by only focusing in on the law and the the law tells us that we have sinned that we
29:03	have transgressed that we are guilty and that we do not measure up and the experience is quite awful if you think
29:10	about it like one of my favorite movies a christmas story there’s an interesting account in the christmas story where
29:16	ralphie actually takes on his bully scud farkas who has yellow eyes and beats the
29:22	snot out of him okay it’s a great it’s it’s a great little turnaround okay this scud farkas kid who’s like you know two
29:29	heads taller than poor ralphie and ralphie’s had enough of his bullying and
29:34	he just lets him have it in the nose in the face gets the best of him gets on
29:40	top of him and he’s just wailing on scud farkas and then
29:46	and then well out comes this river of profanities from his mouth while he’s wailing on
29:53	scud farkas and all the kids are standing by going ah right quite uncomfortable and somebody
29:59	has enough sense to go get ralphie’s mother and ralphie’s mother shows up and ralphie sees his mom there and all of a
30:05	sudden he realizes what’s going on and out come the tears
30:11	and so they head home and there’s tension in the house and ralphie’s little brother is so terrified about
30:17	what’s coming next because wait till father gets home right i remember when i
30:23	was growing up there was an actual cartoon on ktla channel 11 when it called wait till your father gets home
30:29	terrifying words right and so ralphie’s kid brother he’s under the kitchen sink he’s hiding and his mom opens up the
30:35	door what’s wrong he says dad’s going to kill ralphie right
30:41	that’s what we think is hap going to happen to us we know how far we’ve transgressed we
30:47	know how much we don’t measure up and our expectation is that jesus’s
30:53	return is like wait till your father gets home now if you want to know what happens to
30:58	ralphie just go watch the movie right all right his mother showed him grace
31:05	and that’s one of the beautiful parts of the movie itself she showed him grace and didn’t even
31:10	mention what had happened or what she’d seen or heard in fact kind of talked ralphie up a little bit to kind of
31:17	well help his deflated ego and his fear but note then our god pardons iniquity he passes over
31:26	our transgressions all for the sake of christ christ has borne your sins in his
31:31	body on the tree god has laid on jesus your iniquity and mind because he
31:37	delights in steadfast love and because of this he has compassion on us and as
31:43	micah says he will tread our iniquities under foot ah that’s a picture of christ
31:48	crushing the head of satan and it’s a beautiful picture and he casts all of
31:53	our sins into the depths of the sea a baptismal reference if you would
31:58	all of our sins being cast into the depths of the sea sinking down down down down gone
32:06	forever and christ puts a no fishing sign up you don’t need to recall them god does not and our psalm today which
32:13	we did not read is psalm 103 verses 1-13 listen to these words
32:18	bless the lord o my soul and all that is within me bless his holy name
32:24	bless yahweh o my soul and forget not all of his benefits who forgives
32:30	all your iniquity who heals all your diseases who redeems your life from the
32:36	pit and that’s exactly what christ has done he’s redeemed you from the pit of hell so that you do not have to spend
32:42	eternity there but can have be spent you can spend eternity with him in the new earth he is the one who crowns you with
32:49	steadfast love and with mercy who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagles i can’t
32:56	wait for that to happen it’s taking too long yahweh works righteousness his justice for all who are oppressed he
33:03	made known his ways to moses his acts to the people of israel and the lord is merciful and gracious he is slow to
33:12	anger and abounding in steadfast love and he will not always chide nor will
33:17	his he keep his anger forever he does not deal with us according to our sins
33:23	nor does he repay us according to our iniquities again the right liturgical response here is from napoleon dynamite
33:31	yes right it’s absolutely good right and salutary god does not deal with us
33:36	according to our sins he does not repay us according to our iniquities and as far as the heavens are above the earth
33:43	so great is god’s steadfast love towards those who fear him and listen to these
33:49	words as far as the east is from the west so far does he remove our transgressions
33:57	from us now the temptation again is to say i’m
34:03	too far gone i haven’t got my act together enough but i would note this
34:10	psalm says your sins are too far gone for them to be counted against you
34:16	christ has removed them from you placed him on himself bled and died for them on
34:21	a friday afternoon on a cross outside the gates of jerusalem he removed your
34:27	transgressions from you and now having been forgiven he’s cast them as far as
34:32	the east is from the west you are not too far gone your sins are
34:38	and this is the good news of the cross so do not despair
34:45	repent trust christ he has forgiven you your transgressions will bother you no
34:52	more nowhere they be recalled to the mind of our lord and savior now may the peace of god which passes all
34:58	understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus amen

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