1 Year Lectionary – Seventeenth Sunday After Trinity – Sunday, October 9, 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 |
| 0:29 | According to Saint Luke the 14th chapter |
| 0:39 | one Sabbath when Jesus went to dine at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees they were watching him carefully and |
| 0:45 | behold there was a man before him who had dropsy and Jesus responded to the lawyers and the Pharisees saying is it |
| 0:51 | lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not but they remained silent then he took him and healed him and sent him away and |
| 0:58 | said to them which of you having a son or an ox that has fallen into a well on a Sabbath day will not immediately pull |
| 1:04 | him out and they could not reply to these things and now he told a parable to those who were invited when he |
| 1:11 | noticed how they chose the places of Honor saying to them when you were invited by someone to a wedding Feast Do |
| 1:17 | not sit in a place of honor lest someone more distinguished than you be invited by him and he who invited you both will |
| 1:24 | come and say to you give your place to this person and then you will begin with shame to take the lowest place but when |
| 1:30 | you are invited go and sit in the lowest place so that when your host comes he may say to you friend move up higher |
| 1:36 | then you’ll be honored in the presence of all who sit at the table with you for everyone who exalts himself will be |
| 1:42 | humbled and he who humbles himself will be exalted this is the gospel of the |
| 1:47 | Lord in the name of Jesus you guys remember widely coyote and the |
| 1:53 | Roadrunner like my favorite cartoon growing up and one of the things I remember distinctly as a kid thinking |
| 1:59 | how stupid does this coyote have to be to think that he’s actually going to catch the Roadrunner right and yet he |
| 2:06 | tries week after week after week to catch that Old Road Runner using his Acme products and it always ends up |
| 2:13 | terribly for him always and again his best efforts lead to him careening off of a cliff with that whistling sound |
| 2:22 | with a big Splat at the end I’m going to say this up front have you |
| 2:27 | ever stopped to think about how much you have in common with Wiley Coyote |
| 2:32 | let me kind of let me explain what I mean here the Pharisees in our text today are gospel text they are trying to |
| 2:40 | figure out how to trap Jesus this isn’t going to go well for them it never does |
| 2:48 | it’s really as stupid as you get now remember the Pharisees They Don’t Really |
| 2:53 | accept the word of God they think that they are the Masters over the word of God and they’ve added to God’s word |
| 2:58 | their oral to raw and this is the tradition of the elders and these people are legitimately trying to save |
| 3:05 | themselves by their works by their piety by their prayers by their offerings by |
| 3:12 | their good deeds and things of this sort and always and again when people head down this path they engage in delusional |
| 3:21 | thinking because along this line you’re going to then think that you are somehow |
| 3:26 | better than other people right you look at somebody you go well you know at |
| 3:31 | least I’m not a drug user there at least I pay my taxes I’m a pretty good person and what happens is that when you start |
| 3:37 | thinking this way you think of yourself as better than everybody else maybe not |
| 3:43 | everybody but mostly everybody I mean you are part of the elect you are part of the group of people that are super |
| 3:49 | special They glow in the dark and you get the idea right and that and after a |
| 3:55 | while you think it’s time for people to start buying your books so that they can be just as holy As You Are |
| 4:00 | it’s a mess it’s an absolute mess and people like this they don’t love God |
| 4:06 | they hate him in fact note that Jesus is God in human flesh he’s the very God |
| 4:12 | that they claim to be worshiping and serving in their prayers and their piety he’s among them and they don’t even |
| 4:18 | recognize him and we learn from the Gospel of John when we check the cross references here that already by this |
| 4:24 | point the Pharisees had determined Jesus has got to go and they don’t mean by |
| 4:29 | Jesus has got to go that means that we’re going to arrest him and ship him off to Malta no no no Jesus has to go |
| 4:36 | means Jesus needs to die the very God they claim to worship they want to kill him again note how silly |
| 4:44 | and stupid this is but sin makes us this dumb this delusional so the text goes |
| 4:49 | one Sabbath when Jesus went to dine at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees they were watching him carefully it’s |
| 4:56 | pretty clear What’s Happening Here one of the rulers the chief Mucky mucks of the Pharisees says let’s invite Jesus to |
| 5:03 | my house and we will set up the proverbial catch-22. we’re going to catch Jesus we’re going to put him into |
| 5:09 | a situation where he’s going to be damned if he does and damned if he doesn’t and we’re going to really enjoy |
| 5:16 | and relish the fact that we were so clever in Catching Jesus in his own words and the text goes on to say and |
| 5:22 | behold there was a man before him who had dropsy now this is not a word we use |
| 5:27 | nowadays in fact when I I know that this has something to do with congestive heart failure but I Googled it anyways |
| 5:34 | in my sermon preparation the first thing that came up with dropsy is a fish disease you know if you if you keep |
| 5:39 | aquariums and fish fish can get dropsy but that’s we’re not we’re talking about here we’re talking about well uh one of |
| 5:46 | the words that we use for something like this is something called edema this is the idea that your body all of a sudden |
| 5:52 | begins retaining water your ankles swell your knees swell your chest swells and |
| 6:00 | fluid starts building up inside of your uh your cardiac cavity in here it |
| 6:06 | becomes hard to breathe and well heart failure is imminent and back in the day |
| 6:11 | there was no way to treat dropsy it was a death sentence so here they’ve put a |
| 6:17 | fellow before him it happens to be a Saturday it’s the Sabbath and of course there’s there’s the rub this is the Trap |
| 6:24 | if Jesus heals on the Sabbath he’s breaking the Sabbath if Jesus doesn’t |
| 6:30 | heal this fellow well then Jesus really isn’t caring and loving and kind and |
| 6:35 | merciful and maybe even not even powerful enough to heal somebody with something as terrible as dropsy |
| 6:42 | and so here is this fellow and Jesus begins first with a question to the |
| 6:49 | lawyers and to the Pharisees always attorneys and Pharisees they seem to go together it’s only the self-righteous |
| 6:55 | who can hardly afford lawyers and attorneys like this so Jesus said so let me ask you guys a question is it lawful |
| 7:01 | to heal on the Sabbath or not what’s your expert opinion right and they say nothing |
| 7:09 | we’re not going to help you out here Jesus it’s up to you to decide whether or not it is lawful to heal on the |
| 7:17 | Sabbath or not so Jesus took him healed him and sent him away |
| 7:23 | note Christ saves lives Jesus truly cares for people and always and again in |
| 7:29 | legalistic systems you’ll note that humans suffering really kind of kind of shows up low on the things that need to |
| 7:37 | be addressed instead all they really care about they don’t care how much you’re suffering how poor you are how |
| 7:42 | naked you are how hungry you are they don’t care about any of that as long as you obey their rules right as long as |
| 7:49 | you do what you’re told make sure you don’t dance drink smoke or chew and and you know that’s all we care about obey |
| 7:57 | us and note here that in setting up a system like this what these people are |
| 8:03 | doing is putting themselves in the position of God they have exalted themselves way up high |
| 8:09 | so Jesus heals him sends him away and then Jesus since they were being |
| 8:14 | silenced goes ahead and fills the Silence with his own words and so he asks another question of them so which |
| 8:21 | of you having a son or an ox that has fallen into a well on the Sabbath day |
| 8:26 | will not immediately pull him out and they could not reply to these things |
| 8:34 | so their trap has now exploded in their face and they go careening off the cliff |
| 8:41 | Splat right but note here that Jesus came to seek and save the Lost |
| 8:48 | that includes the Pharisees Jesus does not will for them to perish he truly |
| 8:54 | Wills that they would repent and see the delusion of their ways that they would |
| 8:59 | see how sinful and wicked they truly are and how much like the devil they are so |
| 9:05 | Jesus then proposes to them a parable that sounds a lot like what we read in our Old Testament text from Proverbs 25 |
| 9:12 | and he says when you are invited by someone to a wedding Feast Do not sit down in a place of honor lest someone |
| 9:19 | more distinguished than you be invited by him and he who invited you will come and say to you give your place to this |
| 9:25 | person and then you will begin with shame to take the lowest place you see what is this getting at this is |
| 9:32 | getting at human selfish ambition uh that sinful satanic desire to be noticed |
| 9:39 | by everybody to have everybody make it clear that you are important to do or |
| 9:45 | the most important person ever that you are better than everybody else to basically have the praise of other |
| 9:51 | people in fact Jesus gives us a very lengthy |
| 9:56 | list of the symptoms of this real problem that affects us all not just the |
| 10:03 | Pharisees temps each of us daily and Matthew chapter 23 a very lengthy |
| 10:09 | chapter Jesus goes after the Pharisees hard |
| 10:16 | and he rebukes them in the strongest of language and details their sin in |
| 10:24 | minutia in great detail in fact I’m going to read this out even though it’s |
| 10:29 | long I think it’s helpful here and as I’m reading this out don’t think merely about them Pharisees note here your |
| 10:37 | sinful nature your old Adam is a Pharisee of Pharisees this is what we |
| 10:43 | are all like because of our fall into sin and as Jesus says people are born |
| 10:48 | Children of the devil because of our fallen to sin you’ll note that this list sounds a lot like how the devil operates |
| 10:55 | but this same thing operates in you and operates in me and we need to be saved |
| 11:01 | from this so it says in Matthew 23 Jesus said to the crowds and to his |
| 11:07 | disciples the scribes and the Pharisees they sit on Moses’s seat so do and |
| 11:13 | observe what they tell you but not the works they do for they preach but they |
| 11:19 | don’t practice and let me explain what’s happening here what’s the Moses seat if you were to Google that and look at |
| 11:26 | ancient archaeological sites in the you know from you know from Judea from the |
| 11:31 | time of Christ each of the synagogues had what was called a Moses seat and |
| 11:36 | this was something if technically that is established by God in the Old Testament God had ordained that the |
| 11:44 | Levites the tribe of Levi that not only would they serve in the temple and do |
| 11:49 | the sacrifices and the things required by the Torah when it comes to the sacrifices but they would also be |
| 11:55 | charged with the task of teaching Israel teaching Israel the word of God and so |
| 12:02 | Sabbath after Sabbath after Sabbath the people would take a day day off from their labor and they would rest in the |
| 12:09 | synagogue and hear the word of God taught to them by the Levites now the Pharisees weren’t necessarily Levites |
| 12:16 | but they came in and they sat on Moses’s seat which is the teaching seat in the |
| 12:21 | synagogue and so Jesus here recognizes that the Moses seat is a legitimate office think of it like the Pastoral |
| 12:28 | office right and you’ll note that some pastors dispense the duties of the Pastoral office correctly others they |
| 12:36 | don’t other people some pastors serve their congregations others ride them |
| 12:41 | hard and make their congregations serve them keep that in mind so Jesus notes |
| 12:47 | the Moses seat is legit so do and observe whatever they tell you as long as they’re preaching the word but the works they do don’t do those |
| 12:54 | they they preach but they don’t practice they tie up heavy burdens that are hard |
| 12:59 | to Bear they laid them on people’s shoulders but they themselves they’re not willing to move them with their finger they do all their deeds to be |
| 13:08 | seen by others for they make their flackataries broad their fringes long |
| 13:14 | and they love the place of honor at the feasts and the best seats in the |
| 13:19 | synagogue greetings in the marketplaces and being called Rabbi by others but you |
| 13:25 | are not to be called rabbi for you have one teacher and you are all |
| 13:31 | Brothers think of it this way have you ever had the unfortunate experience of steering |
| 13:36 | into a social media account put out by a so-called Christian influencer these accounts are really weird and I |
| 13:44 | mean this they’re great on photography and marketing they’re thin on biblical theology imagine if you would this this |
| 13:51 | was a an old analog Bible note the gold leaf and stuff like this and so the Christian influencers they would make |
| 13:57 | sure to have it opened to just the right passage check the light check the |
| 14:03 | shallow depth of field on their camera make sure that’s looking good oh and strategically place a good cup of |
| 14:08 | chamomile or some kind of coffee over here and make sure that there’s a pencil a pen and two different colored |
| 14:15 | highlighters they’re in the shot oh set this up and then what do they do |
| 14:21 | click right make sure that they can be seen in a selfie in front of all of it |
| 14:26 | right and they’ll say something I was so blessed this morning so blessed I was |
| 14:32 | reading through the book of Ephesians and the Lord just really spoke to my heart I could feel the anointing in the |
| 14:37 | room today this is how they talk this is how they write you’ll note that people when they do |
| 14:43 | that they’re not really interested in reading the scriptures are they they’re interested in you thinking |
| 14:50 | they’re reading the scriptures and with perfect social media presence |
| 14:56 | they project this pietistic image of themselves where everyone just says oh |
| 15:02 | you are so holy you are so tight with Jesus no you’re not you are a child of |
| 15:08 | the devil right but we’re all tempted along these lines let me give you another example |
| 15:16 | this doesn’t only happen when it comes to piety this also comes in the world of |
| 15:22 | dating right you discover her or you discover him and you want to figure out |
| 15:27 | how to get the inside track so that you can get that person’s attention and what do you find out you find out that this |
| 15:34 | person that you’re really interested in is really into existential philosophers like satra and others so what do you do |
| 15:42 | well you order some books by satra so that you can read them no no instead |
| 15:47 | what you do is you just take those books by satra and you strategically place them in your house so that when they |
| 15:52 | come over to your house on a date they go oh you read satra of course I do ah it’s the best ever really what’s your |
| 15:59 | favorite passage oh look the cookies are about to burn we better get to uh-huh right putting on pretenses to impress |
| 16:07 | people it’s all deception and it’s wicked beyond all belief and so |
| 16:14 | Christ is having none of it in his rebuke of the Pharisees he says you are |
| 16:20 | not to be called Rabbi for you have one teacher and you are all Brothers in |
| 16:26 | other words in the Kingdom of Christ we’re all this we’re all family right |
| 16:31 | and in in families none is greater than the other we’re all children of God and |
| 16:38 | call no one your father here on Earth for you have one father who is in heaven and neither be called instructors for |
| 16:44 | you have one instructor the Christ the Messiah Jesus so the greatest among you and listen to the words the greatest |
| 16:49 | among you shall be your slave the greatest among you shall be your |
| 16:55 | slave but the world that we live in the greatest Among Us are they the slaves |
| 17:01 | I want to think about this I think some of the hardest working people in all of |
| 17:06 | Grand Forks are the people who pick up my trash every single week these people |
| 17:13 | without fail work in hot and in frigid cold and they’re out there doing an |
| 17:20 | important work but when was the last time you really thought you know what those Trash Guys they are literally the |
| 17:25 | best Among Us mm-hmm you get a trash guy you know who |
| 17:31 | goes out on a date or maybe puts on his social media you know what do you do for a living I uh well I pick up trash |
| 17:38 | how how many girls are gonna swipe right on that right this is not how we operate this is not |
| 17:45 | how the world operates the trash guys they’re at the bottom but Jesus says of them the greatest among you shall be |
| 17:52 | your servant whoever exalts himself will be humbled whoever humbles himself will be exalted and now Jesus really tears |
| 18:00 | into the Pharisees but woe to you scribes and Pharisees you’re hypocrites you you shut the Kingdom of Heaven in |
| 18:07 | people’s faces for you neither enter it yourselves nor do you allow those who |
| 18:12 | would enter to go in and I want you to note here Pharisees are religious leaders and Jesus has |
| 18:18 | basically said you go into hell and not only are you going to hell but anybody |
| 18:24 | who comes to you seeking to actually enter into eternal life you are making sure that they don’t that’s how Wicked |
| 18:31 | and deceived they are woe to you scribes and Pharisees you Hypocrites you travel across sea and |
| 18:38 | land in order to make a single proselyte and when he becomes a proselyte you make him twice as much a child of hell as |
| 18:44 | yourselves and we we hear this in our modern day and age and you sit there and |
| 18:50 | go did Jesus really just say that yeah he he did you’ll note that he’d |
| 18:56 | probably get kicked off of tick tock if he put out a tick tock with this kind of language in there for the grave sin of |
| 19:03 | extremism and yet Jesus makes it very clear who these people are really about where |
| 19:10 | their end and Eternity is and he’s not speaking kind words by any polite |
| 19:15 | standards woe to you blind guides who say well if anyone swears by the temple |
| 19:21 | it’s nothing but if anyone swears by the gold that’s in the temple well then he’s |
| 19:26 | Bound by his oath and here you can see that their delusional false religion has |
| 19:33 | led them to not properly weight things when it comes to those things that are important as opposed to those things |
| 19:38 | that are not they’re not able to make the proper distinction between the sacred and the secular and as a result |
| 19:45 | of it like the greedy people that they are they don’t care anything about God’s |
| 19:50 | Temple what’s the thing they care about the gold right and so if anyone swears by the |
| 19:57 | temple well that’s nothing but if anyone swears by the gold that’s in the temple and boy do we love gold he’s Bound by |
| 20:03 | his oath you blind fools Jesus says for which is greater the gold |
| 20:10 | or the temple that has made the gold sacred and you say if anyone swears by |
| 20:16 | the altar well that’s nothing but if anyone swears by the gift that is on the altar well then he’s Bound by his oath |
| 20:23 | the altar is nothing right the altar is no big deal but the money the gift that’s on the altar right |
| 20:32 | you’ll note that with self-righteousness and this kind of delusional way of thinking |
| 20:37 | It’s All About Me Myself and I money power control so Jesus says you blind men which is |
| 20:44 | greater the gift on the altar that makes the gifts or or the gift what makes |
| 20:49 | which is greater the gift on the altar that makes the gift sacred so whoever swears by the altar swears by it and |
| 20:55 | everything on it whoever swears by the temple swears by it in him who dwells in it and whoever swears by Heaven swears |
| 21:01 | by The Throne of God and by him who sits upon it woe to you scribes and Pharisees |
| 21:06 | you hypocrites you tithe mint and Dill and cumin yeah that’s right these guys |
| 21:13 | literally tithe all the way down to the herbs in their Garden right mint dill |
| 21:18 | and cumin but you’ve neglected the weightier matters of the law Justice |
| 21:24 | Mercy faithfulness they didn’t care about Justice at all |
| 21:29 | because they were well these are the same guys who had Jesus crucified they |
| 21:35 | manipulated the justice system in their favor in order to get rid of those who they considered to be dangerous or |
| 21:41 | Rivals people who would threaten their power and their Prestige and as far as Mercy is concerned there’s not a hint |
| 21:48 | that the Pharisees had even one ounce of Mercy inside of them and note here I’m |
| 21:55 | not merely talking about Pharisees I’m talking about you I’m talking about me |
| 22:00 | I’m talking about our sinful Natures right Jesus says to them these you ought |
| 22:05 | to have done without neglecting the others and you blind guides you strain out a gnat and swallow a camel woe to |
| 22:12 | you scribes and Pharisees you Hypocrites you clean the outside of the cup and the plate but inside they’re full of greed |
| 22:18 | and self-indulgence you blind Pharisees first clean the inside of the cup and |
| 22:24 | the plate so the outside may be clean woe to you scribes and Pharisees you Hypocrites for you are like white washed |
| 22:31 | tombs which outwardly appear beautiful but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness this is the |
| 22:39 | the false facade that is put forward by the self-righteous always trying to make |
| 22:45 | people convinced that they have got their act together that they’ve legitimately Are Holy and all this |
| 22:51 | Christ says you are nothing but whitewashed tombs a lot of good whitewash does on a tomb right because |
| 22:58 | the inside of those tombs it’s just disgusting and so you also outwardly |
| 23:06 | you appear righteous to others but within you are full of hypocrisy |
| 23:12 | you are full of lawlessness woe to you scribes and Pharisees you Hypocrites for you build the tombs of |
| 23:18 | the prophets decorate the monuments of the righteous saying well if we had lived in the days of our fathers we |
| 23:24 | would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets thus you witness against yourselves that |
| 23:31 | you are the sons of those who murdered the prophets Philip then the measure of your fathers you serpents you brood of |
| 23:37 | vipers how are you to escape being sentenced to hell listen again to that phrase you serpents |
| 23:45 | you brood of vipers your mother is a snake is what Jesus is saying of these people and it’s a hint that takes us |
| 23:52 | back to the Garden of Eden to the serpent who plunged us into the misery that we find ourselves in through the |
| 23:57 | Temptation that he spoke to our first parents and saying if you eat of the fruit of this tree you will be like God |
| 24:05:00 | so what don’t you want to be like God well of course I do I’m I mean after all I’m super important right and Jesus says |
| 24:13:00 | you are your brood of vipers and he asked the question how are you to escape the sentence of hell |
| 24:19:00 | that’s the question that all of us need to answer because you’ll note that in |
| 24:24:00 | Jesus ripping into the Pharisees there’s things that we all have in common with them and it’s actually frightening and |
| 24:31:00 | terrifying in so many ways we also are full of selfish ambition we are full of |
| 24:38:00 | vain conceit we are full of the delusion that somehow we can attain salvation by |
| 24:46:00 | our good works by our piety and all of this Jesus says is nothing more than a |
| 24:52:00 | good wash of paint on an em on a tomb full of dead people’s bones so how then |
| 24:58:00 | are we to escape being sentenced to hell how has anybody to escape that sentence |
| 25:03:00 | you’ll know Jesus makes it very clear the one who exalts himself will be humbled but the one who humbles himself |
| 25:10:00 | will be exalted and the key there then the gospel is found in that last bit the |
| 25:16:00 | one who humbles himself will be exalted think of it this way each and every one |
| 25:21:00 | of us we are all guilty of exalting ourselves in the most ridiculous stupid and well sinful ways that you could |
| 25:28:00 | possibly imagine our hope is not in our pious and if it is you need to change |
| 25:34:00 | your hope altogether but our hope is in the one who actually humbled himself perfectly and he did so for you he did |
| 25:42:00 | so for me in fact Paul says it this way in Philippians chapter 2. if there’s any |
| 25:49:00 | encouragement in Christ there’s any comfort from love any participation in |
| 25:54:00 | the spirit any affection and sympathy complete my Joy by being of the same mind having the same love being in full |
| 26:01:00 | accordion of one mind do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit do nothing |
| 26:09:00 | and it’s important to note that Christians need to hear this admonishment because we are still have a |
| 26:15:00 | sinful nature and our sinful nature does many things from selfish ambition and from vain conceit and so it is only then |
| 26:22:00 | through the power of the holy spirit that we can obey this command of the Holy Spirit to do nothing out of selfish |
| 26:29:00 | ambition or conceit instead we are to do things in humility and we are to count |
| 26:35:00 | others as more significant than ourselves every single person that you come in |
| 26:43:00 | contact with as a Christian the right frame of mind is to count every one of |
| 26:49:00 | them as more significant than you and if you were to think of it this way if you were to really adopt this command |
| 26:57:00 | if you were to really have this mind that we are called to have in Christ to |
| 27:03:00 | count others as more significant than ourselves then you’ll note this that every single invitation you receive |
| 27:10:00 | whether the person be great by the world standards or the least by the world standards as long as you consider that |
| 27:18:00 | person to be greater than yourself then everybody that you are with it would be |
| 27:23:00 | an honor to be with them it would be an honor to serve them it would be an honor to love them and to |
| 27:30:00 | care for them and that’s the mentality that comes only through the cross look then not only to your own interests but |
| 27:37:00 | also to the interests of others and if your sinful Adams says yeah but if I look after the interest of other people |
| 27:43:00 | when am I supposed to take care of my own interests just search the internet do a social media search do it on Tick |
| 27:51:00 | Tock or an Instagram or even on Facebook or Twitter do a search for it’s time to love me |
| 27:57:00 | right and all the Articles and resources that are out there telling you you |
| 28:02:00 | deserve to have some me time to love yourself and To Love Yourself well you |
| 28:08:00 | deserve do you deserve the best that life has to give right it’s all satanic it’s all a form of |
| 28:15:00 | selfish ambition instead we are to look to the interests of others and so with |
| 28:20:00 | this then Paul then steers us directly into the mystery of the Incarnation the gospel itself |
| 28:27:00 | have this mind among yourselves which is yours in Christ Jesus who though he was the by Nature God he did not count |
| 28:33:00 | equality with God a thing to be grasped instead he emptied himself by taking on the form of a servant a slave being born |
| 28:40:00 | in the likeness of men and being found in human form he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death |
| 28:46:00 | even death on a cross you’ll note that each and every one of us we are guilty of exalting ourselves the one who exalts |
| 28:53:00 | himself will be humbled but Christ is the one who perfectly humbled himself he |
| 28:59:00 | is God of God light of light very God of very God begotten not made as we confessed and then I see in Creed and |
| 29:06:00 | Christ who is the highest came to Earth as the lowest in order that we might be |
| 29:13:00 | saved he humbled himself becoming obedient to the point of death even |
| 29:18:00 | death on a cross and that’s what it took to redeem and to reconcile us to God we |
| 29:26:00 | who have exalted it ourselves above God even himself let alone others we who |
| 29:31:00 | have engaged in this delusional idea that somehow we are better than other |
| 29:37:00 | people than have engaged in the selfish ambition of climbing over people’s backs |
| 29:43:00 | to exalt ourselves over other people Christ did the opposite he bore even the |
| 29:49:00 | sin and the iniquity and the guilt that you have incurred by that demonic and |
| 29:55:00 | satanic way of thinking and acting and he bled and died on the cross an |
| 30:01:00 | ignominious death so that you and I can actually be forgiven |
| 30:06:00 | he became obedient to the point of death even death on a cross and you’ll note then the gospel here in this context is |
| 30:14:00 | not only good news but also frames then how we are to live our lives and what |
| 30:20:00 | remains of our time here on this cursed creation we too are to Humble ourselves |
| 30:27:00 | consider others as more important than we are to serve God to serve others in |
| 30:34:00 | humility this is what Christ has done for us and so the one who humbled himself now it says therefore God has |
| 30:42:00 | highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name so that the name of Jesus every knee shall |
| 30:49:00 | bow in heaven on Earth and under the Earth and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God |
| 30:55:00 | the Father so brothers and sisters it’s time to come to grips with the fact |
| 31:02:00 | you and I have too much Pharisee in US I have too much Pharisee in me |
| 31:08:00 | and so do you and that therefore we need to confess all the different ways in which we have |
| 31:15:00 | been delusional in thinking that we can somehow buy into this false |
| 31:21:00 | sick way of looking at the world and other people and even God and repent of |
| 31:27:00 | it and ask Christ to forgive us and the good news is that he does and being |
| 31:34:00 | forgiven and washed having all of our sins washed in the waters of baptism Christ now through the Holy Spirit |
| 31:41:00 | produces in us the fruit of the spirit have you ever heard sanctification being referred to as having your mind |
| 31:48:00 | transformed and be more like the mind of Christ that’s a good way to think of |
| 31:54:00 | sanctification but you’ll note then if that’s truly what sanctification is and |
| 31:59:00 | it is that it has a lot less to do with not dancing drinking smoking or chewing than it does with humbly loving and |
| 32:08:00 | serving others that’s true Holiness isn’t any Wonder then that Paul in her |
| 32:13:00 | epistle text admonishes us to live a walk a life to walk in a manner that is |
| 32:18:00 | worthy of the calling to which we have been called doing so with all humility gentleness patience in fact bearing with |
| 32:27:00 | one another in love and eager to maintain the unity of the spirit in the bond of Peace this is only attainable |
| 32:34:00 | through the power of the Holy Spirit to those who formerly had exalted |
| 32:40:00 | themselves who have been humbled by the preaching of the law and have hope that there is forgiveness of sins in Christ |
| 32:47:00 | because of the good news of the Gospel we then in order to walk in a way that |
| 32:52:00 | is worthy of the calling to which we have been called the way of Christ is the way of |
| 32:57:00 | humbleness gentleness patience goodness kindness and love |
| 33:03:00 | only attainable for those who recognize that their self-righteousness gets them nowhere with God in fact |
| 33:10:00 | self-righteousness will get them to Hell rather than to heaven so let us take heart brothers and |
| 33:17:00 | sisters Christ has humbled himself and God has exalted him we are forgiven in him and so let us cast aside vain |
| 33:25:00 | glorious ways of living and thinking and instead humbly telling the truth about who we are let us consider everybody as |
| 33:32:00 | better than ourselves and in so doing fulfill the law of Christ in the name of Jesus Amen |
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