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Reading for this day is written in the book of the prophet Micah the

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third chapter.

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As I read today

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I'll warn you I have to squint I got one eye through old faster

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than the other one.

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Yahweh

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says this

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to the prophets,

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who lead my people astray.

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So long as

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they have something to eat.

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They cry

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peace, shalom.

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On Anyone who puts nothing in their mouths they declare war.

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And so 

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for you

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night

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will be without vision.

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And daylight without divination.

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The Sun

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sets

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for the prophets and daylight will go black will turn black on

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them.

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Then the seers will cover their faces with shame.

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The diviners with confusion. They will all cover their mouths because

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there is no answer from God.

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Not for me.

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I am filled with strength.

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With

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the spirit of Yahweh.

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I am filled with the sense of right I am filled with energy,

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to accuse Jacob and Israel of their sin.

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Listen to this you leaders of the house of Jacob you princes of the

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house of Israel who detest Justice.

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Tearing it from its rightful course.

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Who build Zion with blood.

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And Jerusalem with iniquity.

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Her leaders

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give judgements for bribes.

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Her priests for a fee

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offer their rulings.

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Their prophets

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divine for money.

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And yet they say.

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Isn't the only among us?

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No disaster will come up on us.

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That is why,

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thanks to you.

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Zion will become

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 plowed land.

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Jerusalem

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a pile of rubble

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and the holy mount

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a dying forest.

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This is the Gospel of the Lord. Yeah, right.

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Micah

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like most of the prophets in scripture

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anyhow I always picture is having a very hard in a very lonely life because

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they're called to speak hard and bitter Words which we just read.

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Now, he also explains why it is that he has hard and bitter words and

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it is because he is filled with the spirit of God and is filled with

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energy.

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It's his words were filled with energy to accuse Jacob and

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Israel and their leaders and their priests and their prophets who are

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really the center of the text.

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The hard life.

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The problem with that is that Micah is dealing with your however

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is a tough one.

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And it is people, prophets are prattling

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peace.

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Which leads to the topic for today and good way to summarize what

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drives in the text here. What price

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peace?

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Peace for a price.

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Peace

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for a bowl of rice.

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Two would be nice.

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Peddling peace

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is a sell-out

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on the call that God may have given them and they just walked away

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from.

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What price peace? The thing is this

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this way of pedaling peace has kind of plagued the people of God the

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Church of God,

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ever since.

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We could bring that up a little closer to date

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by a couple of millennia.

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And recognize

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the role of Martin Luther and the problem he was facing with Johann

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Tetzel.

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Peace for piece for a penny.

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Peace for a couple of pennies.

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We recognize it in a lot that goes into sermons in our day as well.

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An easy smooth life.

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Smooth roads through an easy life.

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But what

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price

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peace?

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Micah's answer

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is that horrifying judgment that he laid on them.

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What price

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for pedaling peace?

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There is no answer

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from God.

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God withdraws his answer. God withdraws his word god withdraws his

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presence.

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God withdraws his peace.

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It's all sham

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it's empty.

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Yahweh's intent was that through Abraham and through the seed of

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Abraham all the nations of the world would be blessed and have peace.

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The thing is that those he called to be the best souls the agents of

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peace if they are running after a different kind of peace.

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They are empty.

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And prophets are not bashful about saying God has no use

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for you. You're in the way can't get there from here.

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Is that a dead end?

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You might think so.

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But it isn't

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from the perspective of God.

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God is not bound by human frailties.

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And in fact

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the delight of reading the book of Micah is in seeing that when you

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get out of this text that we read which is kind of like that into the

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context of the text to the continuing opening vision of God. That God

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gives Micah

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you realize now we're not at a dead-end yet.

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And God kind of opens fine tunes

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Micah's visioning to see

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a remnant.

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A remnant of God will salvage and God will nurture.

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And then God gives Micah her kind of little more of a depth of vision

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and let's Micah see

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many nations, many nations coming to the holy mount to worship Yahweh

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because Yahweh will teach them himself.

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And there will be

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peace.

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Sorry.

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There will be peace.

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And then Yahweh

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trump's Micah to see a little spark

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in a suburb out there named Bethlehem Ephratah.

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From which

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a shepherd

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will arise to lead.

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And the vision goes on how much Micah knew, we don't read anything from

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the book itself, but God's not done yet.

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There will come a time in fact in the fullness of time.

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When the angelic host from heaven will celebrate the coming of peace

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on Earth.

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Peace in the flesh.

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And not so long after that kind of halfway in their journey together.

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Jesus looks at the disciples and says, don't know if there's an ominous

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tinge there.

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Peace

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I leave with you.

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My peace I give you. Not as the world not as those peddling prophets

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give you.

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And a little further down the line.

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Jesus comes to seek

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his disciples who were in a self-inflicted lockdown.

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Devoid of peace.

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And his first words

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peace.

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Peace be with you.

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What priests what peace?

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The one I guess who gets a priceless peace.

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A peace for which there is no proper currency that we have to buy that

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peace. A gift of peace. Peace

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what price already paid?

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And the currency

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is the cross

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and the empty tomb.

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And that blessing peace be with you.

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The peace, word peace and the word you kind of make their way through

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the millennia through the centuries through the world.

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So that that

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you is you.

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And all of the yous we might address including me.

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And with that there's an addendum.

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It says

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as my Father has sent me.

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So I send

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you.

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Peacemakers

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And they're singled out for special blessing in the Beatitudes right,

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children of God.

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That's why you're here.

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That's where you going.

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And we really oughta loop back and do right by Micah's warning,

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anyhow.

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And that is don't run with peddlers.

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And don't

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succumb to the temptation

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to pedal a fake peace.

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What price peace?

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Our Lord himself.

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And what we give

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is what we have been given.

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And

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we end today and giving it one more time. May the peace of God.

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Which passes all understanding

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keep you and hearts your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

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Amen.

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We continue with the hymn.