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Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God

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our Father and Jesus Christ, Our Lord.

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Amen.

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The holy gospel

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you've just heard is the basis of today's sermon.

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Please be seated.

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You hear this, probably same story told the number of different ways.

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And even if it's not exactly the same person, you kind of realize that

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the evangelists are telling the same story. The paralytic on a mat.

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And whether it's Luke telling the story about how they broke through

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the ceiling of a house in order to lower the guy on the mat down in to

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see Jesus. Or here, Jesus getting out of the boat

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and running into the paralytic, who's there on a mat. And all the

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people around saying in their hearts, who is this guy

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who dares to forgive sins?

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It's the same story.

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It's a story you find recurring throughout history, throughout our

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world throughout our lives.

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After all, I was in the parish for 27 years.

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I constantly had to fight the battle especially with those who are

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coming from

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more of reformed traditions or Baptist traditions.

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Say, who is this guy who stands up in front of the service and dares

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to forgive sins?

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It's just the way that our world works.

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But what we see in there

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isn't merely the Forgiveness of sins.

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It's the Savior.

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And when he's delivered, the Forgiveness of sins comes with him.

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And there is the most important thing that I'm going to say today. As

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the savior is delivered

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the forgiveness of sins comes with him and with that is life and

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salvation.

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They bring the man on the mat to Jesus.

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And it says something interesting, that a lot of people have trouble

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with.

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When he saw their faith, he said Son your sins are forgiven.

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Same thing in Luke when he tells the story.

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Same thing in Mark. When he sees their faith or seeing their faith or

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seeing his faith, depending on which evangelists you're following.

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Which leads me to an interesting thought that

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struck me like a brick across the head

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the first time I thought about it.

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You see, every time I read those stories prior to this.

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I thought that guy really wants to be healed.

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He wants to be able to walk his friends, brought him there in order to

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be able to walk.

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But all three of the Evangelist, who record the story say when he saw

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their faith, or when he saw his faith.

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Maybe what he had come there for was really to get the Forgiveness of

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sins.

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Because Faith, which receives, Jesus receives

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first and foremost that, which is eternal.

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Receives, first and foremost, that, which can never be taken away.

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If Jesus heals the man and tells him to stand up and go about his

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business.

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Not only does he go about his business, but he's going to get sick and

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die again.

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The forgiveness, the Christ brings him is the one eternal thing that

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he'll have in his life.

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And the one thing that faith is ultimately going to receive and have

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forever.

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And as we who deliver good things to God's, people should know, beyond

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all else. If we make it our mission to bring them something

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other than the forgiveness of sins were not giving the greatest gift.

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We're not giving that which is going to last that, which is eternal.

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But it isn't only that the forgiveness of sins is to say that you

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speak remission

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Ffor those things that have occurred in the past.

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In fact, you see, Jesus doing things

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backwards in a lot of ways.

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For example, in Luke when the man is lowered through the roof.

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He's going down to see God.

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That's not the way that you see God in the Bible.

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Is it? You go up on a mountain to see God, you look up into heaven to

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see God.

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When you go to see God

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you don't go down to see the guy hopping out of the boat.

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When you go to see God and you need to be forgiven, you don't expect a

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guy who's going to spit on your tongue and stick, his fingers in your

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ears.

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When you go to see God to be healed.

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You don't expect a guy to make a paste out of spitting, mud and rub it

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on your eyes and say go wash now.

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Because when you expect to see God, you expect something that brings

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you into the heavens. Something that's going to transform your world

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into a more glorious world.

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But you see those who truly know, God, those who truly have faith

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understand that all of these things are hidden from our sight.

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And are known only by Revelation, it's only because God has spoken

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the word that we know that any of these things exist, beyond what we

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see.

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Now, if we're going to know, God, we're going to know this one who's

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down on the seashore.

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Down in the house. Down in the muck.

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Making a paste of mud.

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We're going to see this one

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Wwho sees this man laying there on a mat.

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Now, I believe the translation the ESV what you just read?

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Says, Jesus looks at him and says, son, your sins are forgiven.

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But he says something that you can overlook pretty quickly as you get

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to the big bold part about the Pharisees, doubting it in their hearts

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and all the other stuff.

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He says, in Greek pharsi technol.

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Not son,

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Child.

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All the sudden all these pictures from all over

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the Bible, come swarming in.

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And he held a little child in his arms and said, let the little

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children come to me and forbid them, not for to such belongs.

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The kingdom of God.

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I tell you, anyone who would not receive the kingdom of God, like a

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little child will never enter it.

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Or on the disciples are debating about who's the greatest.

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He takes a little child and puts them in the puts him, in the midst of

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them

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and says, this is the greatest of them all.

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He speaks about divine protection of the Angels themselves.

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For those who would abuse these children.

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I tell you

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Anyone who causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin.

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It would be better for him to have a great Millstone tied around his

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neck and tossed into the sea.

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For I tell you their Angels always stand before my father's face.

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But he says to this one.

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paidí,

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child.

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Is to say more than any of us could ever say in a single word.

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And just, as he knew, the hearts of the Pharisees who were saying, who

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can forgive these sins.

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He knew the heart and the need of the man, who lay on the mat.

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Back when I was in seminary, one of the most memorable sermons, that I

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remember came from one of my history, professors William

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Weinrich and he was talking about visiting Bethesda, Lutheran home

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back

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when they had a residential Center, where people were, were still

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handicapped and living in the home.

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And he said, there was this young man who had to be tied to his

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wheelchair because he had this

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disease or problem, or mental illness, or whatever you want to call it.

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That made him literally rip chunks of flesh off of his body.

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Weinrich said,

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I asked him

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if Jesus could give you anything

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what would you ask him for?

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The man said, forgiveness.

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There's one eternal.

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One gift that never ends.

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Because when Jesus gives forgiveness, he gives himself.

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He gives his father with him.

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He makes us eternal children

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who cannot be denied salvation.

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Because his blood has won it. His gift has given it.

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And nothing in heaven and on Earth could take it away.

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And that's why that word tharsi.

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it's a rare word in the New Testament.

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Tharsis comes in, because it's only spoken in times of great

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trouble and tribulation.

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It's often translated

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take heart.

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I don't even know how to translate it in English.

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The the right way, but it just means that you've got to be courageous,

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but there's a reason for your courage, things are going to turn out.

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Okay.

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And they will.

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Because he, who can forgive sins can also order this world for the

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sake of his church

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and has promised to do so.

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He who can forgive sins has promised that all things work together for

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good

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for those who love God and are called according to their purposes.

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And he will fulfill that promise. He who can forgive sins

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has told you that neither life nor death nor principalities nor powers

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nor things present, nor things to come.

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Nothing in all creation, will be able to stand between you and your

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savior.

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And your Father and whose house you will live eternally.

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And the gifts that he brings.

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And the promise will be kept.

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And so as we wander through a world filled with increasing amounts of

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rabid, hatred, toward Christianity, and Atheism, and sexual

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immorality, and all kinds of vice, pandemics, and disease, and death,

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and hardship and sorrow.

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And midterms and finals, or whatever else.

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This one who brings the forgiveness of sins comes to you and says our

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tharsi technon.

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The child, I grabbed to be mine in baptism is still my child.

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We share a father.

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We share a life.

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A life that only the one who can forgive the sins, or forgive sins,

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raise the dead, and make the paralytic walk.

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The blind to see the deaf, to hear the mute to speak.

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This one

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comes to you and calls you his child.

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This one comes and says your sins are forgiven in Jesus name.

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Amen.

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May the peace of God, which passes all understanding.

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Keep your hearts and Mminds in Christ Jesus to life Everlasting.

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Amen.