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So I'm here today to talk about John the Baptist and what Jesus says in this really long passage. So it's a long passage, so we don't have time to deep dive into everything. But I'd like to refer you back to a preaching series a few years ago done by our very own Dr. Phil on John the Baptist. So if you have any questions, go and get the recording for that.

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So have you ever misjudged someone? You've met someone and you've misjudged them? I have. There was one case I remembered. I went surfing in Japan. There's these islands about 100 kilometers off Tokyo.

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And I went in with some friends to a shop, and we noticed they had milkshakes. And milk is not something widely consumed in Asia because it's the Europeans that got the tolerance to that.

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And I thought, oh, I'll go get a milkshake. So I walk up to the front and there was a young Japanese guy there. So I was about to launch into Japanese to ask for this milkshake, and he said, g', day, mate.

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And I went, whoa, how come you speak Australian English? Because there's not a lot of people speaking Australian English in Japan. There's not a lot of people speaking Australian English in the world. It's only 25 million of us.

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And he had grown up in Australia.

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And then at the end, we got our milkshakes and he said, you know, have a great day. And someone said, asked him a question. He said, she'll be apples.

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And it was just like, it really blew my mind at the time.

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And that's kind of cute.

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I've misjudged people worse than that. But I thought, I can share that one with you.

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And social scientists have found that we actually make our first impressions of people in, like, microseconds when we meet them.

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And we base those judgments on highly reliable scientific factors such as personal prejudice, preconceived ideas, and personal bias.

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So it's not very complementary to us humans. So it's a good idea to stop, to be open to a change in your perception of somebody else.

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And at the time of Jesus, people were the same as they are today. Surprise, surprise. And there are all sorts of misconceptions out there about who Jesus was, who John the Baptist was, and in this case, who they were themselves.

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And so this section is basically Jesus straightening it out.

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This is who John the Baptist was. This is who you are in relation to his message, which is the kingdom of God.

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So today, three things I want to say who was John the Baptist? Secondly, John, the kingdom of God is much greater than everything before it, and there are people raiding it.

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And number three, who was that generation of that time?

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So who was John the Baptist before this section? Actually, last week, Jesus talked about who he was. John had sent his disciples and said, are you really the One? Are you really the Messiah? Why aren't you riding on a horse and defeating the Romans? Why aren't you taking over the world?

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And John, Jesus said, go back and talk about the miracles like there's never been before. Yes, I am the Messiah.

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But it's a different timeline than what you thought, something like that. So Jesus kind of says to them, go back and tell John this. And then he moves on as they're walking away. And he said, who was John the Baptist? And he explains that to them.

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And he does it by asking three rhetorical questions with a specific kind of logic behind them.

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The first thing he says is, who did you go out?

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What did you go out in the wilderness to see a reed swayed by the wind.

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Now, we all know that the desert is not the place to be seeing reeds. Reeds grow along riverbanks.

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They sway backwards and forwards. They're beautiful.

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Just seeing reeds swaying in the wind makes you feel cool. The desert is not a place of water or coolness. Desert is a dry, harsh place.

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And so Jesus is saying, you wouldn't go out into the desert to look at a reed, would you? You wouldn't expect to find a reed.

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And John was no reed. He was no sissy boy. He was no spoiled brat.

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John was a hard man. John had lived his whole life. Seems that he had one of those Nazarene, Nazarite vowels from childhood. He was a tough guy. Fasting. He was eating honey. He was eating locusts, which they eat in Japan too. And by the way, they're quite tasty.

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But yeah, the time of Jesus by the Jordan, in the Jordan Valley there, there were reeds that were five meters tall. So they all knew about reeds.

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And so Jesus is asking this question. If you go into the desert, you don't expect to find a weak person. You'd be shocked. You'd be silly to expect that. You go to find the survivalist. You know, I reckon John could have won alone. If you've ever seen alone.

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He could have survived out there for 100 days or more.

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And that's exactly who he was. Jesus continues on. He says, what did you go out to see then? Did you go out to see a man dressed in fine Clothes.

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No, those who wear fine clothes are in kings palaces. He's saying, you know, what did you expect John to be living out there in the desert?

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Did you really expect him to have a PhD and a little funny hat?

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Silly thing to expect when you go out into the desert. He was wearing rough camel hair clothes. He had a leather belt. He was no fashionista.

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Someone he wasn't someone you would find in the palaces of kings, in government houses, in parliament. Because you don't dress up like that to do that. You dress up like that to survive a harsh environment.

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So don't go into the desert to that. The desert itself will destroy fine clothes. It will fade the fabric.

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John was fit for the desert.

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Now what is really interesting is there was at that time somebody who was represented by the symbol of the reed.

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And there were several of these coins. There's about four or five different coins. One of them had the reed as its symbol and that's Herod Antipas.

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So that wasn't John the Baptist. That was the guy who had captured John the Baptist and put him in prison.

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And this is one of Herod Antipas coins. So it seems like Jesus is saying John is no Herod Antipas here. Those two are the opposite. One is a reed, the other one is a hard man and who lived in luxurious palaces and wall fine clothes. At that time, Herod Antipas Flavius Josephus was a Jewish historian for the Romans. He fought against the Romans and then he was captured and he ended up writing history of the Jews, a lot of history. And he talks a lot about John the Baptist and he confirms everything you see in the Bible. But he adds one point and that is that it was this place, Machaerus, in the Dead Sea, where they held John the Baptist before they killed him.

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And so it's in the middle of the Judean desert, but it's got all sorts of luxuries in it. It had baths, it had palm trees, it had a grapevine, it had everything for a luxurious lifestyle. But John was in the dungeon. So Jesus is like saying, you're silly if you expect John to be like the person who persecuted him.

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So what did you go out to see? You see how Jesus logic, it's kind of marching on because John is sounding a lot like a prophet. And that's exactly what he was. Now for us we go, yeah, yeah, John the Baptist, he was a prophet. We know that. Yeah, because we were told that.

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But they weren't told that. And they hadn't had a prophet for 400 years. So to have a prophet was a big deal. There's a prophet again in Israel.

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This is a big deal.

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And so Jesus is saying, yes, he looked like a prophet, he ate like a prophet, he dressed like a prophet.

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He was a prophet. And we know he was a prophet. In Luke 3, he called the whole of Israel to repentance, to come back to the Lord.

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He was a prophet like Elijah. Elijah killed 700 prophets of Baal, priests of Baal, and turned the whole kind of direction that Israel was on. Well, John the Baptist was like that. It says that the whole of the Judean countryside went out to hear John and were repenting and being baptized.

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He was a prophet. And he was a great. He was a great prophet. We kind of go, oh, yeah, he was. Okay, because Jesus is great.

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But actually, if you didn't know Jesus was coming, you would go, God is doing something. This guy John the Baptist, and he's calling, not just calling the whole of Israel to repentance.

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He personally challenged Herod Antipas and said, what you have done by divorcing your wife and marrying your brother's wife is wrong.

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And being a prophet, he got treated like a prophet and got his head chopped off. So the reward of a prophet often is persecution. So, yeah, Jesus is going, if you think he was a prophet, you're right. He was a prophet.

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But then Jesus goes on, but he was more than a prophet. He wasn't just a great prophet. He was the prophet.

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So who is the prophet? They were all waiting for the prophet.

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A prophet that would be different to every other one, because he would be a messenger to prepare the way before you.

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And that person that is being prepared for is the Messiah, the Mashiach, the anointed one, the Son of David, who would establish the kingdom of God on earth.

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They were waiting for something big.

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They got something bigger than they expected, but not what they expected.

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So after 400 year, silent. Well, it wasn't exactly silent, but the lack of prophets, a great prophet came along. And this one wasn't just any old prophet. In a sense, he's kind of like the last of the Old Testament prophets.

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And he prepared the way for Jesus.

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He announced the king, the kingdom of God is here and now.

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So Jesus has said that. And we don't have time to get into what he means by it, but he says he is the Elijah that was to come.

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He came in the spirit of Elijah. He came to call everyone back to God. He came to prepare the way. And Jesus shifts here to talk about the kingdom of God.

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So he said, all the prophets in the law prophesied until John.

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Until John. It's kind of like, okay, the Old Testament here is right up to John. And if you're willing to accept it, he is the Elijah who was to come.

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Whoever has ears, let them hear. He's saying, you need to think about this, what it means. He's not Elijah who was taken up into the heavens, coming back down. He's not that Elijah. That Elijah actually shows up on a mountain of transfiguration later, he's saying, he's not that he's not. He's John. He's not Elijah, but he's come in the spirit of Elijah to prepare the way.

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So Jesus now pivots to the kingdom of God in a funny way that I think we need to think about.

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And he says this.

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John was the greatest prophet you could ever expect.

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He was the Elijah. He prepared the way.

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In fact, he's the greatest person among those born of a woman.

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So he is the greatest person who ever existed.

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But that is nothing like what's coming, the kingdom of heaven.

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And it's a funny thing to say. And you read this and you go, what are you talking about? Jesus, he's great, but he's not great.

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Anyone in the kingdom of God is greater than this guy.

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What is that all about?

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And basically, I think John definitely was great. If you think about it, if your one job was to prepare the way for the Messiah, that is the highest possible calling you could possibly have. I'm going to announce, this is the Messiah. This is the one, the Lamb of God.

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You're the first person who's seen that. John was the first to recognize. Well, there was Simeon, and there was Anna, and there was the Magi and all of the shepherds. But he was the first to announce it with power as a prophetic person to the whole of Israel. And he didn't just do that because he called people to repentance. He opened people's hearts in readiness for Jesus to come. And you wonder, you know, why were there so many miracles? The demons coming out of people and people getting healed. Well, the whole of Israel had just been repenting, confessing their sins. Things happen when we do that, when we get real about our sin. The power of God does follow through. I found that myself. If you feel blocked in your life, start trying to forgive your enemies and confess your sins.

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It's called personal revival. Starts to happen when we do that.

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And that's what John had done. And he prepared the way for Jesus.

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But what does this mean? Whoever is the least in the kingdom of God, in the kingdom of heaven is greater than John the Baptist.

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It's not something that diminishes John. What it does is it exalts this kingdom of God that we are in.

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And I think it's worth thinking about.

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So here's a couple of ways that I thought the kingdom of heaven is greater.

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One, we no longer need the blood of animals to access forgiveness.

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That's how it was. That's how God had set it up. But we have the perfect blood of the Son of God. The one time sacrifice for all. John didn't have that.

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When we confess our sins, we are assured of of forgiveness because of the one who has paid the price. If we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

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It's because of the value of the person who took it on himself that that is possible. John didn't have that. No one in the Old Testament had that. They had almost like a looking forward to that when they were killing the animals.

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So we are blessed.

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In the Old Testament only kings or prophets could be filled with the Spirit.

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Like Samson, whose life was not very godly in so many ways. And he paid the price. But the Spirit of God would come on him and they'd say where does he get his strength? He doesn't look like a macho man.

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And he was killing.

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The power was incredible.

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And the Spirit would come on people. But now all of us can be baptized in the Holy Spirit and move in the power of the Holy Spirit. John didn't have that in the way we have it.

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And the Holy Spirit, the New Testament says especially is for enabling our character to change and become more like Jesus through the fruit of the Spirit. That's not by us trying to, that's by him. His grace and power at work in our lives.

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And we also can have spiritual gifts which include prophecy.

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And more is available to us if we want it.

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So that's another way. Another way is God's Spirit just doesn't descend on us and leave us like it did in the Old Testament.

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God has sent his Spirit to dwell in us. Jesus says he will remain with you and in you.

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So that's pretty special as well.

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And not only are we forgiven, which is amazing, but the New Testament says we're made into the very children of God. We can call God Abba, Father, the veil is torn.

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We can have this intimacy with God which wasn't available.

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God is returning us to the garden. That's why I like what Rodney said. He's going back to the Garden of Eden where Adam and Eve could walk with God and talk with God. That's what God has done. It wasn't possible before because God in his holiness would burn us all up just by drawing close.

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But because of Jesus, we're forgiven. Without forgiveness, we could not receive the Holy Spirit. He would burn us up.

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But the blood of the Lamb covers all of that sin so that we can have intimacy with God.

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Now, if that's a bit challenging, that's a good thing because I think we're kind of sitting on something that's even more powerful than sometimes I think we know or have experienced. There's more in the kingdom of God for us to access than we may have before. That's good news.

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So that's why even the least in the kingdom of God is greater than John the Baptist. It's not that the least person is better than John. No, John was the greatest you could get.

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But what we have access to in the kingdom of God is way beyond what he had access to.

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So that's exciting stuff. And then Jesus goes and says something that confused me for a long time.

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Jesus has a way of saying things.

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You go, lord, could you? Just made it easier. But he was not talking to us. He was talking to people in Israel at the time of, you know, 2,000 years ago.

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But Jesus says, from the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been subject, subjected to violence and violent people have been raiding it.

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You go, okay, that's as clear as mud.

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What are you doing? What do you mean violent? We know that Jesus message was not violent.

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There was a lot of violence at the time of Jesus. There was crucifixions. It was Romans doing whatever they pleased.

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And Jesus came along and said, turn the other cheek, go the extra mile. It was a non violent way. He taught.

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So how can you use violence to get into the kingdom of heaven if it's a non violent way of living?

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And not only didn't he be violent or forceful, he gave his life for other people instead of forcing other people.

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And the equivalent passage in Luke is really good for helping you understand what he's talking about.

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And in Luke 16:16, the law and the prophets were proclaimed until John. Since that time, the good news of the kingdom of God is being preached and everyone is forcing their way into it. Okay, well that makes more sense.

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People are pushing into the kingdom of heaven, but you still go, what does that mean?

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And I think it's worth spending a few minutes on this because it's worth it.

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We've got to think from the point of view of the Jews of the time of Jesus.

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Until that time, there was no violence involved in entering the kingdom of God. You followed the steps. You could enter the kingdom of God.

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You were born. If you were born related to Abraham, then you're on your way. If you're a male, you get circumcised on the eighth day to show the covenant. And then you're taught the law of Moses, and you practice the law of Moses and the sacrifices that Moses showed them.

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And then you would be in the kingdom of heaven, which was called Israel.

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The kingdom of God at the time of Jesus was among the Jews.

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And they actually, before the time of Jesus, they forcefully took over the Jews, forcefully took over Edom and converted them all.

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And that's Herod the Great's mother was an Edomite.

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And they were converted. So you could be converted into that. And you'd have a ritual bath we call baptism, they called mikveh, and they would be circumcised and taught the law and everything like that. So there isn't any violence other than circumcision, but there isn't any. There's nothing really forceful about it. You just follow the steps.

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But then John came along and things started to change, and it seemed violent to them.

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They didn't like it.

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They really got upset with what was happening.

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So tax collectors, John, traitors to the kingdom of God were getting right with God, repenting of their sins, giving away their money.

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That wasn't okay.

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That's starting to feel violent to them. Why are these scum, these traitors, coming into our congregations now?

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We don't accept them. We throw them out. We cast them out for prostitutes, those who shouldn't be mentioned, they're being forgiven.

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Can you imagine the people around Jesus? They weren't the ones the Pharisees wanted to hang around with or touch or eat with.

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That was violent.

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Imagine people coming into your church, lots and lots of people that are from.

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What would you call it, demographics, that you don't like.

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It feels violent. Feels like you're being taken over.

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People who didn't follow the Mishnah, the oral law, they were being healed.

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They were being declared righteous just by being touched by Jesus. And then lepers, former lepers are coming in. Here you go. Ooh, can I touch this person? I'll lose my pure status. I won't be able to worship God and demon Possessed mad people, violent people coming to their senses and following Jesus. This would have felt like really, really violent to the Pharisees especially.

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And who was Jesus anyway? They hadn't taught him. He hadn't been taught by them.

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He had been ordained, recognized by John the Baptist, but nobody else.

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So who was he bringing in all of these people?

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So that's why I think you can understand from a Jewish perspective, at the time of Jesus, it seemed that it was scandalous, it was violent, it was improper. It was not according to what should have been done. According to them, they hadn't allowed it, and so they didn't like it.

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But there's something about it.

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Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention. It wasn't just that it was Gentiles as well.

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Hang on a second.

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The Roman oppressors were coming into the kingdom of God. That's not okay. That's draw the line. These people crucified thousands of people in Galilee just before the time of Jesus.

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They're going too far. Samaritan, sinful, heretical women who had been married five times, Syrophoenician, Canaanite women were coming into the kingdom of God. This was shocking for them, and they didn't like it.

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But there's something really important about this. If people are pushing their way to Jesus into the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of heaven must be here.

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The door must be open. People are coming into it. So it's here from the time of John because John declared the same message as Jesus. The kingdom of God is here.

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And people were coming into it. The door is wide open.

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So you go, wow, you know, John was a big deal.

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The kingdom of God is here.

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This is a big deal.

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So how were the people responding to it?

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This is a picture of Jesus running for his life.

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And Jesus gives. He turns it on the people so they reflect on themselves not to judge them. Jesus said, I didn't come to judge the world, but to help them understand, to teach them. Because he was a rabbi, he was a teacher, and he tells a little story so he doesn't get himself crucified and so they can think about it.

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And he said, well, okay, what is this generation like? There's all of these people pushing their way into the kingdom of God.

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What is this generation like?

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And he said, well, they're like children in a marketplace calling out, dance, dance for us. We're playing the pipe dance.

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And then they say, oh, we're singing a dirge. You should mourn.

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Mourn for us. Mourn.

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John came neither eating or drinking, and they say he has a demon.

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The Son of Man came, eating and drinking, and they say he's a glutton, he's a drunkard, he's a friend of tax collectors and sinners.

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But wisdom is proved right by her deeds.

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So basically, Jesus is saying, you people, you want.

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You're fickle.

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You're fickle people.

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You want John to be less austere. You want John to have parties.

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You want John to tone it down a little bit, have some fun, stop all of the fasting, stop the locusts, put on some nice clothes.

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And he didn't do it. So you say, he's got a demon, he's not from God, he's not a prophet.

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And they rejected him because they wanted him to act in a certain way.

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And then Jesus, well, they did the opposite with Jesus.

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They said, jesus, we want you to be more austere. You should be more like John the Baptist.

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You should fast. You should live in the desert, have some more gravitas and dignity.

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Be careful about who you're hanging out with. Jesus, you're too friendly, you're too nice, you're too sociable. You're hanging out with the wrong people.

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So they said, he's a glutton and a drunkard.

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He hangs out with low lives.

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And they rejected him as well. So the bottom line is they're going to reject whoever for different reasons.

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The thing is, they thought they were calling the shots.

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They said, jesus, you should have done what we wanted.

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Don't you know we have to approve of you for you to be from God?

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But it doesn't work like that. Can you imagine telling God what to do and then being disappointed when he didn't do it?

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I can, because I've done that.

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God, can you do this for me?

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And he doesn't. He doesn't always do it for you because he loves you and he cares for you.

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But this was a big mistake they made. But Jesus says something interesting. He says, wisdom is proved right by her deeds.

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And what he's saying there is, well, let's just see what the fruit of. This is the fruit of John and the fruit of Jesus, you can judge by that. So we have 2,000 years of fruit to judge. Was John the Baptist of God?

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Well, the whole of Israel went out and repented of their sins.

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And what about Jesus?

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Well, 2.5 billion people now call him their Lord.

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Civilizations have been affected by the teachings of Jesus.

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Welfare systems, hospitals, orphanages.

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It's kind of. What would you even call that? It's epic.

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The Effect of Jesus Christ. The wisdom has been proved right by her deeds. So Jesus is basically saying, I don't care if you guys don't like it, this is what's happening. And get on board if you want a piece of it.

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And I think 2,000 years later you can look back and there's some incredible books now on the effects of Christianity on civilization.

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Dominion is Tom Holland's written that. And it's an amazing book about how even what we take for granted, individualism comes from Christianity. If you go to the rest of the world, the non Christian world, it's collectivism most of the time.

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Individualism comes from this. God loves you, each one of you. You're created in his image and we are responsible for our lives and we have to give an account.

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And that has become what we take and understand as individualism.

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And we could go on and on and on, but I won't because time's coming to an end.

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So we've seen Jesus explaining really clearly who John the Baptist was and explaining the kingdom of God is here. And you might not like who's coming into it, but they're coming into it.

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And finally there are people who won't like it and they don't want it and they reject it and they misjudge. Like I misjudged that Japanese guy.

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They've misjudged John and they've misjudged Jesus.

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So what can we do about that?

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It's always good to read the Bible. And then you say, well, I believe in John and I believe in Jesus, I'm in the kingdom of God.

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What can I do about it?

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Well, I think there's just two things I want to say about that.

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The kingdom of God is here. The doors are wide open, anybody can come in. All they have to do is say, I believe in Jesus Christ, he's the Son of God and I'm going to follow him.

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That's what it is.

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If you want in the kingdom of heaven so we can tell people about it.

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I don't say to people, the kingdom of God is here. Yea, come unto Christ, because I don't think you're a nut job.

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You know, I talk about Jesus bringing a different way of living.

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He's brought a different way to live where we can have reconciliation with our heavenly Father. And he gives us the power to live and to work in our daily lives, extra grace, power to live a different way, a different life, a good life.

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And some people are interested in that.

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I'm having some really interesting conversations These days with people, there's a hunger because we've had a whole. We've had the new atheists, we've had almost a generation of people reject Christianity.

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And now there's a lot of young people who go, but does it work?

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Will it help me with my mental illness?

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Will it help me with my anxiety, my depression? Oh, yeah, I can tell you it helps. It. It helps to know you're loved by an eternal creator who's never going to let you go, who's going to help you, who's with you. That helps.

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So, yeah, get out there and in natural ways, each one in our own ways, each one in our own circumstances, not by our own might and strength, but God will empower you to do it.

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The second thing, now, that's pretty obvious Baptist message there.

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So I like that. It's good we remember that. But this is one I think we can miss.

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We are in the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is anywhere where God's will is done.

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So if you're doing God's will, you are in the kingdom of God.

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Now, that can take a little bit of time to get used to.

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And that's why nature is the kingdom of God, because it says, you know, the animals are out there doing what God wills you read in his Psalms.

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But we are in the kingdom of God, so why not enjoy it? Why not maximize it? Why not get everything we can out of that? First thing would be our sins are forgiven.

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So why not accept that? Why not embrace that? Why not thank God for that? We confess our sins. He guarantees I'll be forgiven.

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You just have to admit we have failed in this area and this area, and then we can receive his forgiveness.

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Now, some people get nervous with that and they say, oh, isn't that a license for sin? No, that's a license for forgiveness.

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We're forgiven so that we have intimacy with God.

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So accept your forgiveness and spend time with God. Don't think God is angry at you when the Son has already taken on himself. The price of it's missing. It's actually believing that Jesus isn't good enough. His sacrifice isn't enough to cover my sins, but it is. And we can accept it. And it can feel a bit funny at first, but it's like, accept your forgiveness, and if you sin again, which we do, confess again and accept his forgiveness and push into intimacy with God.

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Secondly, we can walk in this new reality that we are the children of God.

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God is not an angry father.

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The anger.

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He's not an angry father.

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He's not angry at us.

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He's given us the greatest gift you could possibly get, His Holy Spirit.

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There isn't any better gift. And we're given that it's part of who he is.

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So let's spend time with God in his word, in prayer, and trust him and believe what he said.

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And then finally we can live not by our own strength. And I think this is a big one, especially.

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I know so many people in this church are servants. They have a servant heart. And they give, give, give, give, serve, serve, serve, serve. And that is a wonderful thing. And it's like God, but we can learn more and more to do it by his strength, with his strength.

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And that's something the grace is.

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Grace isn't just for forgiveness of sins, but it's for power to walk by his strength in us.

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And that's a wonderful thing as well. I think when we walk in the kingdom of God, the signs of the kingdom of God is that when you do something or say something, the effects are way beyond, beyond what you could have done.

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That's a sign. That's the kind of sign of the kingdom of God that Jesus had and the New Testament church had. And we have too. And I think sometimes we just forget it or we don't focus on it. And that's why when coming together and sharing what happens in our lives and the little miracles that aren't that little when you think about them, that's what we can do.

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So today I've talked about these things, and I hope it's encouraging to you that yep, John was a prophet. He was the prophet, he was the greatest prophet. But we're sitting on dynamite.

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The kingdom of heaven is greater than even the greatest person who lived had access to.

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So let's get a bit of it into us and enjoy it.

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So let's pray.

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Lord Jesus, I thank you that you're so clear.

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John was a prophet, the prophet.

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He was the one who prepared the whole nation for you.

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And you are the Messiah. And you've brought in your kingdom, the kingdom of God.

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The doors are wide open through you, Lord Jesus. I just pray you would speak to each one of us by your spirit from your word and help us know what is it that you're saying to us today.

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Thank you for your grace, your forgiveness, your love, the spirit you've given us and that you have called us your children, not because we have earned it or deserve it, but because of your love, forgiveness and your grace.

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And we just thank you so much, God, for your generosity. And we give the honour and the glory to Jesus our Lord. And it says, in his name we pray, Amen.