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Everyone, you meet

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is someone.

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Who has read been redeemed by the crucified and risen Christ.

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Now, not everyone believes that, not everyone receives that gift, many

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people turn away from it.

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They don't want to have anything to do with it and they're not

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believers, but Christ came and suffered and died and rose and made

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that sacrifice for all people.

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Not just for some, not just for a small group, but all people, he came

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in order to bring life and salvation to them.

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And so it is here

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even in our text for today.

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Paul is celebrating this fact that these Saints here in Philippi have

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received this gift, believe this gift of Salvation in Christ.

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And he says, I thank my God

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every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you

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I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from

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the first day

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until now. Being confident of this that he who began

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 a good work in, you will carry it on to completion until the day

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of Christ Jesus.

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It is great

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joy to build to know that this salvation of Jesus Christ is ours.

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And it's a gift that has been given to us.

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You see sin causes us to live in darkness and in fear and and it's a

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really a bad place to be in to be a have to live in this the sin of

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darkness.

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But the joy, the joy is that we have this light, this light of Jesus

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Christ that shines in our lives and tells us you are forgiven.

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You are a child of God, you'll have eternal life in heaven, and this

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is all for you for the taking.

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So you see everyone, we meet is someone who has been redeemed by the

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crucified and risen Christ, and this

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brings us great joy.

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But sometimes that joy can turn into despair.

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So,

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there is this town about 10.000 people in the midwest.

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Very agricultural community.

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There are two men in that town, Steve and Bill.

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They went to elementary school together.

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They went to high school together.

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They stayed in the community had jobs their businesses.

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Had families went to the same Lutheran Church.

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So they've been together a long time.

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And this particular Lutheran Church ended up in a major conflict,

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primarily because of the pastor, and with the pastor did Pastor left

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resigned and the church was still in a mess.

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They got an interim pastor to come in, to build to help them.

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So, they're working on things.

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But Steve and Bill ended up on opposite sides of this conflicted

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situation in the church, and it continued to remain that way even

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though they were in an interim, pastor situation.

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So it's a January evening.

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It's very cold outside.

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Snow is lightly falling and they have a congregational voters meeting.

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And Steve is the treasurer of the congregation.

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So he is giving his report his financial report.

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He's being challenged by this.

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People are asking very, very deep questions accusations are being made

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about the report suspicion is around the report, and it's getting

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really heated.

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And Bill, who's the president of the congregation stands up in the

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midst of this voters assembly.

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And he says, well, you know, Steve, you never really were that great

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at math in high school.

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In fact, I think you failed a math class.

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So you see, it doesn't surprise me that you're probably getting all

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these questions and you haven't done very well as a Treasurer.

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Maybe you should just resign as a Treasurer of this congregation.

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You haven't done as much good after all.

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Wow, silence, right.

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Everyone was surprised by by that comment.

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Steve was angered by it.

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He was so upset

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and so angry that this, this had been said in such a gathering.

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He was embarrassed by it.

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Well, the interim

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Pastor met with both of them.

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And Bill was able to be able to confess his sin to Steve and asked for

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forgiveness, but Steve refused.

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I will not forgive you.

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I am never going to forgive you for what you've done.

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You've embarrassed me.

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You've made me a laughingstock.

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I am not going to forgive you.

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And so days and weeks and months, go on.

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And Steve is not willing to forgive Bill for what he had done.

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In fact, if you brought up Bill's name in Steve's presence, he would

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let out this great gasp of air, roll his eyes and shake his head.

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When he was shopping in town going to one of the stores.

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If Steve saw Bill, he would give thanks to God if he didn't have to

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have any interaction with Bill.

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He go to worship on Sunday morning

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and for some reason Bill wasn't there Steve would give thanks to God

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that bill didn't show up in church that Sunday.

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And this is a small rural area

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so this is part of the cultural aspect of this that they published

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this newspaper.

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And if you ever had any kind of an encounter with law enforcement,

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they always published it in the newspaper.

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So here's Steve is looking through the newspaper and their Bill's name

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is he had gotten pulled over for getting a speeding ticket, had given

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this really huge fine.

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And so Steve was giving thanks to God finally some justice in the

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world.

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This is how it went on, when on, and on, because he did not want to

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forgive Bill for what he had done during that congregational meeting.

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Well, it's a year later.

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It's in January again.

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And it is really snowing, really hard.

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And it is cold outside.

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And the worst part of it is, the wind is blowing.

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So these are blizzard conditions.

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And, and Steve was in another town about 30 minutes away making his

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way home, didn't quite get all the way home because he got caught up

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in this blizzard.

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His truck goes off the road into the ditch, and he's stuck there and

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to add additional concern to the situation

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he's a diabetic.

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He didn't eat right that day hadn't had his medication and he was

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having a diabetic episode.

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He calls 911 on his cell phone.

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Now

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this is another cultural thing about small town

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agricultural kind of situation. When you call 911 and you need people

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to help you the First Responders many times are volunteers.

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So they had a volunteer fire department Bill was on the volunteer fire

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department.

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You heard that Steve a stranded had a good idea probably where he was

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at and he had a snowmobile.

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So he gets on the snowmobile and he goes out and he finds him puts

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him on

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and takes him to the hospital and they're stuck there at the hospital

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because he can't get home

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because of the blizzard. They're able to stabilize Steve's condition

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Bill walks in and Steve says to him.

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Why did you do that?

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Why did you come looking for me?

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You could have just left me out there to die.

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Isn't that what you what you would have wanted?

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Bill says, no.

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We are both children of God.

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We go to the same church.

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We both believe in Jesus Christ, and and you're one of God's children.

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And, you know, I just did what I did to be able to help you and to

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care for you and Steve, couldn't understand that. You see, Steve did

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not look at Bill as someone who was Redeemed by the crucified and

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risen Christ.

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But Bill with the help of the interim pastor.

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Looked at Steve as someone who was Redeemed by the crucified and risen

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Christ.

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Now, it took some time and some effort

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but the interim pastor kept working with the situation and kept

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working with Steve, and eventually, he was able to get to the point

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where he could forgive Bill, and also confess his own sins of anger,

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and bitterness, and all the other things he thought and spoke against

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against Bill.

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And in time, there was reconciliation. And in time, there was peace and

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there was joy because they

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could give thanks to God and remember and see each other.

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As people of God, Redeemed, by the crucified and risen Christ, and

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what a joy that is.

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You know

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ministry can be kind of a messy thing.

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Those of us who are in Ministry can tell you that and we can tell you

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stories of the messiness of ministry.

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And those of you who are about ready to go into Ministry, even receive

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your calls today will discover very quickly

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how many messy Ministry can be. And why is it so messy?

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It's messy because of Sin. Sin raises its head and it has an impact

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upon us, and sometimes, we can't even control.

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We sin other people's sin against us, and it's difficult.

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And it's not always easy, sometimes to forgive.

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We don't want to forgive.

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We don't think the other person deserves to be forgiven and we act

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more like the world, then we act like Christians.

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But they had a really good interim

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Pastor.

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He didn't push the issue.

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He didn't make a big deal about it about himself or anything.

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He met with them and carefully and pastorally lead and talked to them and

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guided them and shared scripture with them.

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And notice how they came to being able to forgive each other at

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different times.

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But there that Pastor was doing faithfully, what he needed to do to

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bring the word of God to bear upon the situation.

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It is a joy to be in Ministry even in the midst of the messiness

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that comes with it.

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It'll be a joy to be able to see our fellow Christian brothers and

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sisters here

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today

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who are going to receive calls into the ministry.

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What a joy that it's going to be. And will there be times

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you're frustrated with it?

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Yeah, there can be. But I want you to stop and think about the

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attitude that you have towards other people.

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And I want you to have this attitude toward one another. That everyone

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you meet, whether there are Christian or not.

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Everyone you meet is someone who has been redeemed by the crucified

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and risen Christ.

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So,

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with Paul,

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I thank God

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every time I remember all of you.

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Because you have been redeemed by the crucified and risen Christ, and

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that is a wonderful thing.

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We no longer live in the darkness of our sin or wondering how this is

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gonna play out and impact us.

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Because living in the darkness of sin can be a very terrible place to

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live, but no, we live in the Light of Christ and that Light of Christ

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shines upon us.

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Because we are redeemed and we are saved and we are forgiven and we

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can share that with everyone around us whether they be fellow

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Christian or not.

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We can share that gospel message with others.

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It is a joy, pure joy to be the redeemed children of God.

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Redeemed and saved by the crucified and risen Christ.

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And that is joy.

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Amen.