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Grace mercy, and peace be unto you from God our Father and our Lord

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and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.The text for today's sermon is the is the

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account from Ezekiel 34 that you just heard.

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Well its been about a year

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since we enjoyed one of the most wonderful family gatherings that

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I've have been blessed to participate. As a Cheryl and I were were

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privileged to be able to take our entire family our children and

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grandchildren even my my mother and my sister with us for 10 days in

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Paradise.

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Well, it wasn't he literally Paradise, but it was in the winter Cancun

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on the beach with perfect weather and lots of good food good drink and

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most of all just wonderful conversation and and life together.

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You know, we really anticipated that for quite a while because Sheryl and I

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kind of 

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had that experience have been gone a number of times in the

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past and being able to do this. And as we look forward to it, you know

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that was part of the fun.

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Just knowing that it was going to happen and then when it actually did

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we weren't at all disappointed.

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That might sound kind of cruel for me to talk about something like

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that with what is coming this year not only for us but for you guys.

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But I want to talk about the importance of looking forward to a

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wonderful time of gathering together with people that you care about

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dearly and with whom you share the most intimate and important aspects

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of life, especially your faith.

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Ezekiel is exhorting exiled Israel to do just that. Hear again these

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excerpts from the text. As a Shepherd speaks out his flock

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I will rescue them.

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I will gather them from the countries and will bring them into their

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own land and I will feed them on the mountains of Israel.

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I will feed them with good pasture.

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There

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they shall lie down in good grazing land.

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I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep declares the Lord God.

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Declares the Lord God.

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You can look forward to this it's going to happen says Ezekiel and

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you know, so can we that promise Gathering is for us as well.

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Israel really needed to hear this word.

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They needed to be encouraged to look forward.

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Because they were exiled from their homeland they were divided and

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dispersed in their Babylonian captivity.

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And this is a result of much other scattering that took place

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beforehand the scattering that resulted from sin the separation of

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judgment data that God brings about on people who who go against his

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will and his ways.

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They had false Shepherds, false leaders.

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The Sheep were evil.

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They were gouging and and pushing away one another.

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And judgment is pronounced in this text as well that all things will

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be set right and that while his weak and injured sheep can look

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forward to a blessing and feeding on Green Pastures.

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The wicked can look forward to feeding on justice.

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And this follows what we have here in Ezekiel really in the whole book.

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A pattern of sin and separation that goes back to nearly the beginning

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with Adam and Eve in the in the garden going against God and then

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being separated from him.

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Where are you?

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He called out to Adam and Eve and then we see this happening with

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nations at Babel.

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And of course there is the divided monarchy and now the exile.

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We can also give countless personal examples of how this pattern of

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sin and separation from God brought strife and separation and

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scattering from one another.

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From Cain to Joseph to all the accounts of wicked Kings before that

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the time of Judges where everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

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Sin is associated with scattering and separation as judgement in

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God's word.

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I think we should use this also as a hermeneutic to understand our

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reality today. A secular world that is a god-forsaking world and the

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consequences of that.

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When was the last time you saw a narrative in the popular culture that

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actually Incorporated God into reality?

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It's almost like even though it is unconscious,

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like it's intentional. That people try to interpret reality apart from

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God. Of course it is intentional on the part of the devil and he is the

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functional god of this world.

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We also see the personal examples in divorce and family strife

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and of course the much documented recent racial and political

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conflict.

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And then there is covid-19.

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Babbel 2.0.

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What is God up to?

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Well we have the direct consequences of illness millions of people that

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have that have been beset by this disease over a quarter of a million

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deaths at least that many in our country alone.

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Sin, and scattering in this fallen world

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these signs of the end natural and man-made disasters that call for the

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Lord to return.

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But today I want to also think about an impact of covid-19

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that is very palpable in the loss of community, the scattering.

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Now the so-called gathering together at distances where we can't

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see one another's faces.

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You can see mine, but I can't see the rest of you.

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I don't know if you're frowning at me or smiling or just fighting off

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sleep.

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No, hugs.

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And here we look forward,

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and I use that in quotes, to now holiday quote gatherings trying to

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balance the need for safety measures while lot lamenting the loss of

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community.

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Okay.

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We have our exile also.

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While sin and separation were real for the people of Israel

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they're real for us.

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The promise and exhortation of Ezekiel is as well.

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This promised Gathering.

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And this isn't just some opium of the masses some drug that during

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some hazy time and dreamy time

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you can kind of retreat to and then you have to wake up to reality.

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No,

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this is a future reality promised and prophesied. Ezekiel says as a

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Shepherd seeks out his flock I will rescue them.

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I will gather them from the countries and will bring them into their

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own land and I will feed them on the mountains of Israel.

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I will feed them with good pasture.

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There

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they shall lie down in good grazing land.

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I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep declares the Lord God. The

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day is coming.

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The day is coming. Now this week

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we've heard some wonderful sermons preparing

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let's say the sinful side of our nature to be aware and alert for that

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day through repentance and faith.

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But today I want to encourage us in the more saintly side of that

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nature to realize in hope that that day is coming where the scattered

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will be gathered and will be brought to a real Paradise.

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Not just a dream vacation but a real Paradise.

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To anticipate that

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and we know that it's true

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I've been saying that it we know it's for sure because it was brought

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about as Ezekiel said by quote my servant David.

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Of course, we know who the son of David is.

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Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is the basis

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and the certainty of this promise.

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The Good Shepherd

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who lay down his life for the Sheep.

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Who on the cross expressed the pain of separation brought about by sin when

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he cries out and it's not a question,

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It's an exclamation of pain, my God my God

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why have you forsaken me?

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Well, he knew it wasn't a question cuz they'd already had this

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conversation in the garden and he agreed not my will but thy will be

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done.

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I will do that.

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I will make the sacrifice a being separated from you to bring about

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peace with God for your people.

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I will bring about reconciliation with you.

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So that they can also be reconciled with all in your kingdom on the

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last day.

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That final day will be a great gathering.

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It began its it already started it began at Pentecost.

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Pentecost for the Holy Spirit comes upon the people and he brings

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those who are living after Christ Resurrection into the church created

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by that promise of his death and resurrection.

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Undoing Babbel bringing back together all people through Christ and

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his sacrifice.

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And that has continued this last day preparation is continued as you

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experience it in your own homes and Christian communities your

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churches.

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Receiving the promise of baptism gathering around the Lord's table to

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know that Holy Communion of faith.

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As we read in that early church is true today to we devote ourselves

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to the apostles teaching the fellowship, the breaking of bread and

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prayer.

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And it is this now of faith that can sustain us through pandemics and

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whatever else is coming here in the end time.

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It is that comfort of sharing God's word like Psalm 23. The Lord is my

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shepherd.

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I shall not want.

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And that in the end

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my cup overflows.

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But it's not yet.

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Like we're going to see on that last day.

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Even when the masks were off when the hugs were there, it's still

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wasn't like what it's going to be like on the last day. When the

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shepherd seeks out his flock when he rescues them when he gathers

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them.

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I just love the way Luther highlights this in the explanation of the

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third article,

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we just said. You know in the first part where it's about personal faith

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course, we don't say gather. But then he says in the same way

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he called gathers, enlightens and sanctifies the whole Christian Church

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on Earth and keep it with Jesus Christ in the one united one true

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faith.

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And this Gathering isn't just going to be a bunch of people gathering

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around, you know being together, but it's going to be in this paradisiacal 

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reality.

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If you read on into verses 25 to 31 after are text talks

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about the Covenant of Peace where all the wild beasts of the land

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where that the Wilderness is gone pushed away and it's a place of

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blessing and grazing on the mountain heights of Israel.

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Truly a paradise to look forward to. Yes, you can give yourself

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permission no matter what time you have in what season of your life

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you're in one experience,

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what disappointment to look forward to this day that is coming

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because it will be paradise for God's people.

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It's something you can anticipate.

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That's why the last well second the last verse of the Bible is Amen

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come Lord Jesus. And we don't just have to do this at the end of the

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church year, but it's always appropriate to say Maranatha come Lord

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Jesus.

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Amen.

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Please rise and comfort and courage one another as we await that day

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as we sing Psalm 23.