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In the name of the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

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Amen.

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Our Gospel text is John chapter 2.

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That was read by Pastor Wilson.

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This morning I need your help, a help from your imagination.

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I want you to imagine that you're walking this morning to chapel and this beautiful

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manicured path leading to chapel is taken over.

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Not only the path but also you imagine the plaza, crowds and many peoples.

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But not only people, also you're going to see a lot of animals out there.

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To the left you could see the stalls for the bulls.

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Next to it there is another stall for the sheep.

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To the left you see the scoops for the doves.

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And right in the entrance of the chapel you're going to see many, many tables.

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And you see people exchanging coins with you as you come in, making sure that you have

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the tax.

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And the right coins to pay the tax.

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Can you imagine this scene?

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People talking, people yelling at you, children running around, all the noise, the lowing

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of the cattle, the bleating of the sheep, the clinking of the coins.

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And you, you try to maneuver through all of that to come to inside of the chapel to worship

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the Lord.

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How would you describe this situation?

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Chaotic?

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For sure.

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Confusing?

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Madness.

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Worship madness, right?

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In addition to this, you start to ask and wonder how much this would affect our worship.

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Would it be a distraction for us to be worshiping the Lord this morning.

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This situation I ask you to imagine was the reality for Jesus when he was in the temple

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in Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover.

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All the animals, the vendors, screaming and yelling, making noise, was a serious distraction

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for Jesus, his disciples, and all the serious worshipers.

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The commotion, the noise, the greed, confusion was too much for Jesus.

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And he realized this stuff needs to get out of the way between people and God.

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It's a big distraction.

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So Jesus takes the matter in His own hands, making a whip of cords.

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He drove out of the temple, the cattle, the sheep, the doves, the money changers, and

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then He said, take these things away.

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Do not make my Father's house a house of trade.

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You see, for Jesus, His Father's house, the temple, was transformed in a marketplace.

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What meant to be a place of worship of God, a place where people would receive God's forgiveness

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and blessings became a place of business, and most likely dishonest business, fueled

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by greed, right in the courts of the Gentiles.

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Personally, we should be upset because that will be our place.

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But you have to understand what's happening here because things are happening in that

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moment because Jews, faithful Jews, had to travel to be present in the temple at least

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three times a year.

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The Feast of Tabernacles, the Pentecost, the Passover.

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Like many Jews like Jesus, they had to travel from all over the world in that time.

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And people came from different parts of Egypt, Rome, Jericho, and as they travel, as can

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you imagine, they couldn't bring their animals for sacrifice.

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On top of that, the animals need to be, make sure that they are clean, spotless to be sacrificed.

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Like a USDA inspection these days, I would say.

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So it's very complicated to bring, can you imagine a big ox for three days walking?

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Sheep, dove.

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So everything was available for you right at the entrance of the temple.

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On top of that, we also had the tax, the temple tax.

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And everybody came from different countries, they have different coins.

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So it was very easy to have someone helping you out.

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Oh, you want to pay the tax, you can trade off.

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Of course, with a good margin of profit.

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You see things that started a little bit down the hill, start to come off to the gates of

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the temple and all of a sudden it's in the courts of the temple.

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This was usually to be convenient and easy for the worshipers.

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You see distractions, distractions, they start really small.

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Usually we don't pay attention to them too much.

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But then they start to pile up between us and between God.

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Our lives are full of distractions.

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Some are imposed to us and some we seek them out.

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Probably some of you here are thinking about the end of this semester.

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I cannot deny, I'm thinking too and you know how many papers I have to grade?

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I'm thinking about that even when I'm preaching.

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You see that?

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Distractions, distractions, you see how that thing works.

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Final exams, things to do.

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I need to fix my car after chapel today.

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I need to pick up my kids after school.

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I need to do this, I need to do that.

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By the way, family are coming out of town this weekend.

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I think we're going to skip church this morning, Sunday morning because we're going to go to

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the zoo, it's so close by.

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You can add whatever you want.

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You have your own excuse like I have my own.

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Like I said, some are imposed to us, some are self-inflicted.

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You seek them out.

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What is the commotion, what is the noise, what is the confusion that you're going through

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your life right now?

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What has become a serious distraction between you and God?

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What may be in the way of your worship to God?

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What makes you and me sometimes honor God only with our lips instead of our hearts?

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You know, Lent reminds us that Jesus is coming to remove all distractions, distractions from

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our lives.

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Jesus came to clean the temple, open the way for us to have a free access to God and worship

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Him.

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And this is the theological claim that John is making not only in our Gospel reading today

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but in his entire Gospel when he says in chapter 1 verse 17, for the law was given through

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Moses but grace and truth come through Jesus Christ.

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As Jesus starts to drive away from the temple, the animals for sacrifice, the money changers,

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is making a clear statement that He is bigger than Moses.

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Pastor Wilson preached yesterday about the Ten Commandments.

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You think it's a coincidence to have the Ten Commandments read in the same Sunday that

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Jesus is cleaning the temple?

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It's not.

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There's somebody here bigger than the Ten Commandments, bigger than Moses himself.

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You don't need sacrifice anymore because Jesus himself is the ultimate sacrifice.

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Like John the Baptist, pointing to him said, look, this is the Lamb of God who takes away

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the sin of the world.

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But you see the Jews, the leaders in the temple, they didn't get it.

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They are really upset with Jesus because He was taking away not only their business, their

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profit.

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And they asked Jesus, can you give us a sign why you're doing those things?

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And Jesus says, yes.

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Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.

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The religious leaders, they have no clue.

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They think that Jesus is talking about this temple that took 46 years to be built.

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And by the way, that time wasn't finished yet.

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It was finished in 64 AD.

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They think about the temple, the stones, the mortar, everything.

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You see when Jesus speaks, He speaks as someone that is coming from above.

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And the people are trying to understand Jesus from below.

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Jesus is talking about spiritual things.

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And men are thinking about business, matter, stones.

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And this is why John is very helpful in our reading, in our text today because he moves

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on and he says, but Jesus, He was speaking about the temple of His body.

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And therefore He was raised from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said

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this.

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And they believe the Scriptures and the word that Jesus had spoken.

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To be able to clear the way and give us free access to God in heaven, Jesus must suffer,

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He must die.

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This is what Lent is all about.

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Slow down.

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Stop watching the distractions around you.

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Watch Jesus.

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What Jesus does.

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By the way, this is the emphasis of Lent.

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I love the church calendar because I love the distinction between Epiphany and Lent.

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Because Epiphany tells us who Jesus is.

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He's the beloved Son of God.

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But Lent, Lent tells us what Jesus does.

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He's the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

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Are you looking to the temple?

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Instead, look at me.

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I'm God's tabernacle among you.

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I'm God in flesh dwelling among you.

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By the way, I'm not only the temple, I am the way, the truth, and the life.

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No one is going to come to the Father except through me, not this temple.

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Do you get it?

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I'm inviting you to look beyond the temple's walls.

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You want to come to the presence of God?

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In this case, you don't need the temple tax, you don't need the animals, you don't even

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need the temple in itself.

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And by the way, the blood of the animals will not help you, it doesn't matter how clean

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they are.

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But through my suffering, through my death on the cross, through my shedding my blood

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on the cross, you will be reconciled to my Father in heaven and your sins will be forgiven,

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forgiven indeed.

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You know my friends, Lent reminds us that God is interacting with us in a new way, without

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distractions, but only through Jesus.

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When Jesus gets on the scene, when the Word becomes flesh, we don't need anything else

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but only Him, we need only Jesus.

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Jesus now is at the center of our worship.

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He is the true temple, the temple that is going to be destroyed and the third day is

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going to rise again.

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And through this temple, God talks to us and God brings us reconciliation.

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Why is God present now?

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Look to Jesus, no distractions.

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Look to the Baptist's front and the entrance, you touch it.

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By the way, you are touched by it, by the water.

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That gave you a name that said you are a child of God.

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Where is God now?

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Oh, look to the altar, bread and wine, the true body and the true blood of our Lord and

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Savior Jesus Christ.

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Where is God now?

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Watch better.

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Listen, He talks to you in His Word.

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This is Lent.

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This is Lent, my friends.

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You slow down and you don't pay attention to the distractions, but pay attention only

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to Jesus because He is the one that really matters.

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Amen.

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And the peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and minds

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in Christ Jesus.

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Amen.