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

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and Savior Jesus Christ.

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Amen. The text for our message this morning is the Gospel reading from

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Mark with you heard red just a few moments ago.

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In Jesus name dear friends.

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The text before us deals among other things with the will of Jesus.

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It therefore deals with the will of God.

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Every time we pray the Lord's Prayer we pray in the third petition. thy

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will be done.

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The leper

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is expressing essentially the same thought as he addresses Jesus in

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our text.

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There is no question in his mind as to whether or not Jesus is able to

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heal him or as he says cleanse him.

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That Jesus can heal him is taken for granted.

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The question is what is Jesus' will?

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We frequently do in our prayer life what this man

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did. We pray for healing for a loved one.

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We pray for help in a financial crisis.

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We pray for delivery in a time of severe trouble.

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We pray for all sorts of things.

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And frequently we pray thy will be done.

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And even when we don't use those words specifically in the prayer,

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they're always assumed their implied, thy will be done.

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Abraham prayed that Sodom and Gomorrah be spared.

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Jacob wrestled with an angel in prayed that he might be blessed. Hannah

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prayed for a son. David prayed for the destruction of his enemies. Paul

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prayed that the thorn in his flesh would be taken away.

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But all of them prayed with the understanding that in the end God's will

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would be done.

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They just hoped it would correspond with theirs.

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Jesus himself taught us to pray in this way.

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In The Garden of Gethsemane, he was looking forward to the terrible

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suffering and death that was rapidly approaching.

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And in great anguish prayed my Father if it be possible, let this cup

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pass from me.

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Nevertheless,

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not as I will

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but as you will.

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A few minutes later

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He prayed again. My Father if this cannot pass unless I drink it,

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your will be done.

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These words your will be done are precisely the same words that Jesus

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uses when he gives us the Lord's Prayer.

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All our lives we are in the place of that leper.

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If you will.

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We try to persuade ourselves at times that we have things things

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pretty well under control.

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But when we are honest, we will confess on our knees that the Lord's

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will, will be done. And we will pray

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if you will.

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When our second son Eric was about 10 years old.

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He was struck in the leg by a steel swing.

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He was in a great deal of pain.

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We drove him

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I think it was about 10 miles

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to I get to a place where he could have his leg x-rayed, this happened on

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the weekend, by the way, that's one of the rules of life.

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At any rate

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they took an x-ray.

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And I said, you know what

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there's nothing wrong,

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he's fine.

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So we took him home.

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In reality the person who read the X-ray had not looked at it

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carefully enough.

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And he had a fracture to his shin that he simply didn't see.

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So we brought him home.

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We we brought him back the following Monday and you got an x-ray and

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they found the they found the break and put a cast on him.

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But over the weekend, he couldn't walk he was in terrible pain and so

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everywhere he wanted to go I carried him.

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We didn't have a wheelchair.

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We didn't have crutches because after all we were told there's nothing

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wrong.

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So over that weekend, I carried him everywhere

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he needed to go. If you needed to go to the bathroom and ask me dad

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can you take me there

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I would.

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For a meals I would carry him into the kitchen.

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He could ask me to take him anywhere

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he wanted.

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But always implied was

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nevertheless not as I will but as you will.

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He didn't get to go wherever you wanted to go.

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And we don't get everything we want either.

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And so if Eric said, can you take me to the TV room?

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I might respond Eric,

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this is not the time for TV.

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If he said can I go outside?

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I might respond maybe later not now.

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He could ask anything he wanted.

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And if that's where I wanted him to go.

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That's where he went.

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He had very little control that weekend over what he did or where he

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went.

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Fortunately, he had a father who loved him and who wanted to help him.

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I think the application is clear enough.

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We're like that little boy

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broken,

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hurting and in great need

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everyone of us.

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But we also have a father who loves us and who wants to help us. The

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leper pleads if you will.

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And Jesus says I will

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and heals him.

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How many times have we look back on our lives and realized that over

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the years

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God said so many times I will.

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Sometimes we don't see it at the time.

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Sometimes we may never see it.

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But hasn't it happened Dale over and over again in your service here

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at the Seminary that you've been able to look back and say you know

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what God's will was done.

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That's the way it works in our lives.

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We thought our prayers went unanswered but the Lord was listening and

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he answered our prayers and eventually he even gives us the

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opportunity to see that he answers.

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He wants to help us.

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He invites us come unto me all you who labor and are heavy laden and I

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will give you rest.

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He says call him to be in the time of trouble.

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I will deliver you

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and you will glorify me.

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Sometimes he even goes out of his way to take care of our needs and to

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show how he cares for us. Outside of Jericho when Bartimaeus was crying

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out for mercy and people were trying to get him to shut up.

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Jesus hears his plea he calls him over and he actually says to

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Bartimaeus what would you like me to do for you?

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Bartimaeus, what is your will?

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He cares for us.

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He wants to answer our prayers.

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He's interested in our will.

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And in being a loving heavenly father to us. What is frequently so

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difficult however for us to understand is that he wants to help us.

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He truly loves us and cares for us.

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And so it is that we are constantly praying if you will

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and he is constantly answering I will.

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Today we pray again.

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Thy will be done.

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In two days, the electors will choose a new president for Concordia

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Seminary.

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We've been living for a while now

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with a certain amount of uncertainty.

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We're confident that God's will will be done.

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But we don't know what it is.

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During the coming days and weeks that will become much clearer.

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God's will, will unfold before us.

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And we will thank him for it.

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Thy will was done.

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There is one more important point to make before finishing our look at

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this text.

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The leper does not cry out, Lord if you will you can heal me.

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He implores Jesus if you will you can make me clean.

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He was unclean.

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If people came too close to him or he got too close to them.

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He was required to yell out unclean, unclean.

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He lives not only with a horrible disease, but with terrible shame.

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He not only wants his body to be healed.

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He wants his shame to be taken away.

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And Jesus says I will

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be clean.

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And immediately Mark tells us the leprosy left him

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and he was made clean.

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His illness was gone.

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And even more importantly

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his shame was gone.

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And what about you and me?

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What about our own shame and uncleanness?

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Like the leper we come to God confessing it was about this time

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yesterday that we confessed most merciful god, we confess that we are

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by nature sinful

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and unclean.

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Yes.

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Unclean.

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More so than the leper we have sinned against you in thought word and

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deed by what we have done and by what we have left undone.

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Unclean

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and living with shame.

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What is God's will for us shameful people?

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Unlike with the things of this world the things in the Kingdom of the

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left.

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When we often don't know what God's will is when it comes to our

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uncleanness and shame we do know what God's will is for us.

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It's to cleanse us.

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It's just forgive us. Every one of us every time no matter what it is

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that has brought so much shame upon us and caused us to be unclean.

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When Peter confronts Jesus crucifiers with their guilt and they

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cry out what shall we do? Peter answers repent and be baptized everyone

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of you for the forgiveness of sins.

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And you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

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They crucified the Lord of Glory. They crucified the author of life

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they killed him

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and their sins are forgiven.

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Your sins

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are forgiven

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no matter who you are.

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No matter what you have done.

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What does Paul say?

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God being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved

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us.

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Even when we were dead in our trespasses made us alive together with

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Christ. By Grace you have been saved and raised us up with him in the

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Heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

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He has raised us up with him in the Heavenly places.

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Our shame

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is gone.

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What does Jesus say?

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For this is the will of my Father that everyone who looks on the Son

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and believes in Him should have eternal life and I will raise him up

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on the last day.

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Not only have you been cleansed.

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But you will one day be raised from the dead to Everlasting Glory.

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What is God's will for you?

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Forgiveness.

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Cleansing all shame taken away.

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Eternal life.

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Our Father Who Art in Heaven

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thy will be done.

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Amen.

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Now may the peace of God which surpasses all understanding keep your

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hearts and minds through faith in Christ Jesus unto life

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everlasting.

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Amen.