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Grace, peace, and
mercy to you from

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our Lord and
Savior, Jesus Christ.

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Today is the day in
the church here that we

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remember the feast,
the minor festival of

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Saint Jerome, the
translator of Holy Scripture.

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Saint Jerome was a
scholar in the late 300s

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who translated the
Hebrew Bible into Latin

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so that the greater
world would have

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the Bible in the
popular language.

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We call this
translation the Vulgate.

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As I was preparing for
this sermon and reading

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some of the writings
of Saint Jerome, one

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that stood out to me
was this, that ignorance

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of Scripture is
ignorance of Christ.

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Saint Jerome wanted
the Bible to be the light

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of the world, to make
it readable so that

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more people would know Christ.

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One of the most
fascinating things to me,

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though, about Saint
Jerome was how he chose

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to spend his life and where
he chose to spend his life.

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He moved from
Rome to Palestine,

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where he lived for
more than 30 years.

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He chose to live in
the city of Bethlehem,

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and Saint Jerome
lived directly next to the

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known birth site
of Christ, where the

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future Church of
the Nativity was built.

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So if you go to Israel
and you visit the Church of

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the Nativity, you'll also
be in the approximation

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of where Saint Jerome

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translated the
Bible into Latin.

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Our New Testament
lesson for today is from

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Romans chapter 15,
one through seven, and

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it's a continuation of
Romans chapter 14,

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where Saint Paul talks
about the importance

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of those who are
strong in the faith to

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make the weak and the
humble not to stumble.

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In times of Saint
Paul, there were lots of

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debates going on
about the dietary laws of

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the Gentiles that were
becoming Christians

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in the Church, and
which aspects of the Old

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Testament
ceremonial law should

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or should they not follow.

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But for us today, in 21st
century America, there

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is very little confusion
about if Lutherans

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should eat sausage or not.

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But the debate about
doctrine and about how

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we live out our Christian
life and the culture

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that we live, those debates
continue on to today.

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And the evil work of
the devil, it continues,

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trying to bring confusion
into the Church,

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trying to confuse the
doctrine of salvation

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alone and Christ alone
through faith alone.

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And because of this,
I would like to make a

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homiletical move here
in applying this text.

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You see, the devil
loves confusion, the devil

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loves division, and the
devil wants to separate

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people from the
Lord of this universe.

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For us today, and
especially over this last

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century, we can see
that the devil's lies

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have been entering
the Church in different

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ways to confuse the
people across America.

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The devil loves to
have people question if

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the Bible is for all
people, if the Bible

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is for all times, if
the Bible is for all

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places, if the Bible
is for all cultures.

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And sadly, many dear
Christians have had their

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Church bodies officially
deny the inerrancy

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of Scripture, deny
the deity of Christ, and

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they have denied the
substitutionary atonement,

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and they have denied
the resurrection of Christ.

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And Church leaders have,
in some sense, sometimes

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falsely taught that Jesus
was only an example

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to us of kindness, or
that Jesus' only purpose

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was to serve as an
example of love, or that

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Jesus came to be an
example of generosity to us.

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And many of our dear
friends in other denominations

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have been led astray
by these false teachings,

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false pastors,
and false prophets.

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And the theology of
the cross of Christ has

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been reduced by them
to a lawless and sinless

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theology of glory
that humanity tries to

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replace the atonement
of Christ with good

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works to live some
kind of a victorious life.

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So how do we navigate
these controversies

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that harden the
weak-hearted in our culture

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today?

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First, we need to
continue to preach the life,

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death, and resurrection
of Jesus Christ for

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the forgiveness of sins.

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Because Jesus is the
power of salvation, and

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apart from Jesus,
there is no other name in

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which people are saved and
can be saved from their sin.

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And then secondly, we
need to maintain a biblical

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balance and not to
overreact to the heresies

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and the controversies
of our times.

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The Church today
has the same tendency

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of the times of
Martin Luther.

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Martin Luther said that
what was happening

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in his time with
pastors and theologians,

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it was often like a
drunk peasant that was

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walking in his field on
a berm, and he would

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fall off and stumble
off to one side of his

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field, then he would
get back on the berm

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and then fall to the
other side of the berm.

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That's what
happens today often.

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We need to continue
to teach Jesus'

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words to love our
neighbor as ourself.

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The Lutheran Confessions
and the Confessional

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Lutherans, as Confessional
Lutherans, we love

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our neighbor as ourself
because it's an outgrowth

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of the gospel message
that's in our lives.

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You love others because
Jesus first loved you.

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In just a few minutes,
I'm going to be driving

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away to the airport,
and I'm going to be flying

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to Florida and then to
Georgia and then North

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Carolina as I meet
with pastors and district

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leaders to develop a
strategic plan, how we

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as Lutherans can help
out thousands of people

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that have had their
homes and their

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lives destroyed by
last week's hurricane.

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We as Lutherans, we
show mercy to the weak

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and the humble because
of this new nature

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that we have in Christ.

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For us, Mercy Worker,
Disaster Response Worker,

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any kind of Christian
charity is not the gospel

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itself, but often it serves
as a form of pre-evangelism.

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It's building relationships
often with those

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who are people that
are hurting, who have

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never wandered into
a Christian church.

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For us as Lutherans,
we often show mercy and

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compassion because
this compassion breaks

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down barriers that have
been falsely put up by

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those across Hollywood
in the news organizations

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that Christianity has somehow
become a hate religion.

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As we clean out flooded
houses, as we remove

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trees that have fallen
on people's yards,

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often people, homeowners
and people affected

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by these tragedies
will say, why do you as

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Christians, why do you
as Lutherans do this?

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Then we have the
opportunity to have a gospel

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conversation about
how God has changed us

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so much that it's just
normal or it's something

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that we normally do is
we just help out other

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people just as
God has helped us.

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Then we can have
a conversation

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whichever way that leads.

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So today, as we
remember Saint Jerome, the

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translator of scripture
and his love of Christ

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and Jerome's love of the
word of God, we remember

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that we have a God who
loves us and who wants

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to bear us with the
weak or wants us

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to bear with the
weak in this world.

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As you go into
ministry, you'll find that

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there are people that
are doctrinally weak

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that have been lied to
by progressive pastors,

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by progressive churches
that deny the inerrancy

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of scripture, deny
the deity of Christ and

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they have denied the
gospel itself and they've

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replaced it with
something else.

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Secondly, you'll find
those people who have

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been weakened and
ravished by the trials and

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tribulations of this world.

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This world is broken
and cruel and often unjust

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and all around us are
people who have been

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weakened and are full
of disappointments with

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their jobs, their careers,
their family members.

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All around us are people
that have been weakened

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in their disappointments
with their own health

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as their bodies often
betray themselves.

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All around us are people
who have been weakened

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by the disappointments
of this world as the

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storms of this life destroy
all their earthly possessions.

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But God has called
you, God has called

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you to be the
light of the world.

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God has called you to
be the salt of the earth,

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to speak the comforting
words of the gospel,

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to be a person who
brings the mercy

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of Christ to every
place that you go.

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And lastly, remember
that the mercy that you

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share is a reflection
of the mercy that you

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have been given
through the person and

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work of our Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ.

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Jesus came to you
in your sin and in your

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confusion and He gave
you the gospel and gave

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you hope.

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God came to you while
you were still His enemy

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and God chose to give
you forgiveness and

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everlasting life.

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God has saved
you from your sin.

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God has saved
you from the devil.

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God has saved you from
the brokenness of this world.

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And God has given
you a new heart.

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God has given you a new life.

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God has given you a
love that you can now

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worship Him and you
can serve and love your

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neighbor as yourself.

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Now may this grace
which surpasses all of

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our human understanding,
may it guard your

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hearts, may it guard
your minds in Jesus Christ

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who is this world's only
Lord and only Savior.

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Amen.