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Isaiah 55 one through nine

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come,
everyone who thirsts, come to the waters,

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and he who has no money come, buy any.

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Come by wine and milk, without money
and without price.

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Why do you spend your money for that
which is not bread?

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And your labor for that
which does not satisfy?

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Listen diligently to me, and eat
what is good,

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and delight yourselves in a rich food.

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Incline your ear and come to me.

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Hear that your soul may live,
and I will make with you

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an everlasting covenant, my steadfast,
sure love for David.

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And behold,
I made him a witness to the peoples,

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a leader and commander for the peoples.

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Behold, you shall call a nation
that you do not know,

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and a nation that did not know.

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You shall run to because of the Lord
your God,

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and of the Holy One of Israel, for
he has glorified you.

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Seek the Lord while he may be found.

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Call upon him while he is near.

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Let the wicked forsake his way,
and the unrighteous man his thoughts.

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Let him return to the Lord,
that he may have compassion on him

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and to our God, for
he will abundantly pardon.

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For my

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thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways.

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My ways, declares the Lord.

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For as the heavens
are higher than the earth, so are my ways

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higher than your ways,
and my thoughts than your

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thoughts.

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Everybody, good morning
and welcome to Christ Community Chapel.

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I am so, so glad that you're here.

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Thanks for coming. Welcome.

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Those of you
that are East Service as well.

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All right.

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This is the fourth message
of our five part series.

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We've been calling every Minute Matters.

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There are approximately 478,000
more minutes in 2025.

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We want to make every one of them count.

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Today we're looking at, Isaiah chapter 55.

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So if you have your Bibles,
you can turn there.

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If you have a phone or a tablet
or if you want to use one of our Bibles,

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in the pew, it's on page 576,

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page 576, or you can just wait for
it to come up on the screen.

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I love this passage.

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I've loved it for a long time.

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There are some passages in the Bible
that strike my soul like a tuning fork.

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And, this is one of them.

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And I want to get right into it,
because I want to make sure I.

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I leave you as many of your seven minutes
as I can.

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We have a a really full
service is going to be a great service.

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We have, baptism today.

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We're baptizing 29 people
throughout all the services,

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which is going to be really fun.

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But I want to

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give you your seven minutes
because I love the way you're spending it.

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Some of you are coming up front to pray
with the prayer team, or you're saying

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and little groups and visiting or out
getting a cup of coffee and visiting.

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The reason I like that

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so much is that the church
isn't supposed to be like an audience,

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where it's like,
you come in for a performance

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or a concert,
you come in and then file out

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and you only talk to the person
you came with.

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The church is the community,
and that's why we have carved out,

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seven minutes at the end of the service
for you just to take a breath

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and visit with each other.

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All right.

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Isaiah 55. You just had it read to you.

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Let me give you my three points
to you know where I'm going.

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If you're a note taker
you can write these down.

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But I want to talk about the wonder
of the invitation,

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the wonder of the invitation.

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Secondly,
the responsibility of the mission.

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And third, the urgency of the moment.

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All right.

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First, the wonder of the invitation.

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Look at verses one through three.

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You know, when I memorize this passage
years ago, I memorized it in a version

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that said this, that started out saying

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how you who are thirsty come to the water,

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you who have no money come by wine
and milk, without money and without cost.

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Why do you spend your money on
what is not bread,

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and your wages, and what does not satisfy?

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Listen carefully to me and eat

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what is good, and delight yourself
in the abundance of fair.

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I like how

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poetic that
is, but I really like the way it begins,

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because it's the cry of God and it.

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It starts out whole.

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Like he's crying.

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Like he's yelling
at somebody who's walking away from him.

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Not to him. He's gone.

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How you who are thirsty
come to the waters?

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Because he really was crying out to

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Israel, and Israel was moving
away, for Israel was in decline.

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They'd been disobeying God for a while.

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One of the good things
about the Old Testament is when you read

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about Israel, it's, it's a lot like,
kind of getting insight

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into the way the human heart works
writ large with a nation.

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It's kind of the way your heart works,
the way my heart works.

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I think what Israel did was
they started to disobey God some.

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And then your life started to get messy.

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And instead of running right back to God,
they they went deeper into disobedience.

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The sting of a little bit of disobedience
usually isn't enough.

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To make me run back to God
is probably not enough for you either.

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We're a little bit like people
that, you know, are speeding.

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And then, you see the blue lights come on

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and you think to yourself,
maybe I can make a run for it.

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You know,
maybe I'm the only one who thinks that.

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Or maybe it's better.

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It's like if you catch a little, child,

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you know, obviously, you know,
before they get good at lying and,

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you confront them with a lie,
and instead of just fessing up,

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they they double down.

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That's that's the human heart.

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That's part of what makes the
this invitation so amazing, because Israel

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isn't coming back to God and begging
to get connected with him again.

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God is calling out to them

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and say, and saying, aren't you hungry?

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Aren't you thirsty?

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You know the metaphors of eating
and drinking, being hungry and thirsty

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because every one of us experiences
that every day, every day you are hungry.

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Every day you are thirsty.

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This metaphor is supposed to connect
to life itself.

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You don't live very
long without food and water,

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and that's what this is.

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That's why every person is looking

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for something to fill themselves up.

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You're looking for something
to fill your soul up.

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I remember
being in the Dominican Republic years ago.

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This is heartbreaking, by the way.

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But I was helping to build an orphanage,
and I was taken to a little shack where

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there was a little boy
who was going to be fed at the orphanage,

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and they were just introducing me
to this little two year old.

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They had him in their arms
and he had a distended belly,

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and he had that, the thinning brown hair
that showed that he was malnourished.

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But they also brought out,
this piece of foam

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that he had been sleeping on
in the corner of the shack.

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It was dirtier than this piece of foam,
but there were big pieces,

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chunks that were ripped out of the foam.

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And they said at night,
this little boy had been tearing

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off parts of the foam
and eating it because he was so hungry

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and his
belly was full, but he was starving.

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That's what God is saying.

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God is saying, why do you spend your money
and what is not bread?

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Why do you spend your wages
and what does not satisfy?

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What he's saying is that, listen, we're
all filling our trying to fill ourselves

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up, our souls up with some semblance
really seems really good.

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Like,
we we try to fill ourselves up with family

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and friends
and our marriage, our children,

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our career, or our health.

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But what God is saying here
is, if it's not me

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that then you're starving.

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You just don't know it yet.

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And God is inviting us to say, here come,
I will make myself

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what you really hunger for,
what you are really thirsty for.

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I will give it to you in abundance.

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But he's not just offering the banquet,
he's offering rest

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because he's saying,
I will lay it all out.

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All you have to come to do
is come and eat.

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And this is one of the ways
that, you know, you're trying

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to fill yourself up with something else
is that you're just exhausted.

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It can grind

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you to powder, trying
to be the perfect parent,

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trying to climb the ladder at work
or whatever it is.

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And God is saying, come to me.

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That's why Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew
says, come to me, all you

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who are weary and heavy laden,
and I will give you rest.

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Rest.

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That's the first thing,
the wonder of the invitation.

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The second thing is
the responsibility of the mission.

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What he says in verses four and five,
he says, behold, I made him

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a witness to the peoples,
a leader and commander for the peoples.

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Behold, you shall call a nation.

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You do not know.

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In a nation that did not know,
you shall run to you

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because of the Lord
your God and of the Holy One of Israel.

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For he has glorified you.

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What it says is, God says, if you come

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and you begin to enjoy the banquet,
you have true bread.

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You have pure water for your soul.

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Then he says, you become a witness.

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You tell other people, you we
I think we gonna

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we can all bunch up about being,
about witnessing, about Jesus.

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And I don't think it's as hard
as we make it out to be, I think.

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I think being a witness comes
pretty naturally for most.

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I think it does for me.

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Like if I find something
that that helps me,

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I am always ready to share it
with somebody.

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Like if I find something that

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helps me sleep when you get to be my age,
that's one of the major things

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you think about and talk
about with people my age.

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But, if
I find something that helps me sleep, I.

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And I hear somebody talking
about struggling with sleep, I'll say,

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hey, have you tried magnesium
that help me something, right?

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If I eat, at a really good restaurant
and I have.

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And I enjoy myself,
and I hear somebody talking about

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going out to eat,
I say, have you tried this place?

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I love that place. Right?

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And what what God is saying is,

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if you found true nourishment
for your soul,

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you need to know everybody around you
is is hungry and thirsty.

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They're filling themselves up with stuff
that does not

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still of them, does not feed them.

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Then you should just tell them

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about Jesus. Right?

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But he says this to it verse verse
five, behold, you shall call a nation.

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You do not know.

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And a nation that did not know
you shall run to you because of the Lord

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your God and the Holy One of Israel, for
he is glorified. You.

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What he's saying
is the whole nation of Israel was supposed

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to be a witness, whereas
a whole group of people who had found

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that God had provided nourishment,
real food for their souls,

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so that if somebody came from another
nation this way, it was supposed to work,

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they were supposed to cross the border
into Israel and just just kind of sense

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that something was different here.

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That's what the church is supposed to be.

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That's what
this church is supposed to be like.

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That's what we want it to be like.

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What have we?

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A place where in all the craziness
of the world, you can tell your neighbors

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or your coworkers, listen,
if you if you ever want to go to a place

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and see how people can really act,
how people can really care for each other.

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You ever want to bring your kids
to a place where they can learn and love

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and be loved,

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and you should bring them to my church.

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If you ever want to be involved
in a sports program where people

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don't scream at the refs
or getting fights after the game, right?

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And the reason that people do that is
because it has become way too important.

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They're trying to fill their souls up
with something else.

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But you say you
you should come and be a part

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of what my church is doing.

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We want to be like an oasis in a desert

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where if somebody comes into this church,
they can just sense

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that something's different here.

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That's what it means to be a witness.

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And then the third thing
is the urgency of the moment.

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So what he says in verse six

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and seven, seek
the Lord while he may be found.

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Call upon him while he is near.

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Let the wicked forsake his way,
and the unrighteous man his thoughts.

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Let him return to the Lord,
that he may have compassion on him

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and to our God, for
he will abundantly pardon.

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I think it's really interesting

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that he says, seek
the Lord while he may be found,

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because that implies
that there might be a time

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where he won't be able to be found.

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You know, I grew up a preacher's kid,

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and that means that, among other things,
I was in church all the time.

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You know, when your dad gets paid
for going to church, you go with him.

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And that's the way my kids grew up, too.

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But, I didn't know what it was like
to miss church for a couple of weeks

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in a row, or let alone a couple of months

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in a row until I went to college.

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And whenever I talk about the time

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when when I really fell in love with Jesus

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and felt like Jesus was in love with me,

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I always say that
I went to the University of South Florida

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and I went on a like a 13 month
moral freefall when I first got there.

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And what I did was I was
trying to fill myself up with everything

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that a college kid, that someone people
told college kids that would fill them up.

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And what I it was just so much fun.

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And I found myself empty.

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And I jumped in my car
and started the trip

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from Tampa to Orlando,
where my parents lived.

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And I didn't even know it was God
who was calling me,

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but was like this
distant voice saying, oh,

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I, aren't you thirsty? Aren't you?

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All I knew is that I was starving,
and I asked God if I could come home.

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And the reason I'm in ministry right now
is because at that moment,

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because I felt so filled,

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I was invited to this feast.

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And I thought if I could spend my life
telling people about

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this, be a life well-lived,

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I don't know.

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Now, I say, I went on a 13 month
moral freefall.

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I don't know how much longer
I would have lasted.

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You know, when it says

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that, call upon the Lord
while he may be found.

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It may be may not be that

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that God makes himself scarce.

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It may be that you wait too long.

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You know,

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we were on vacation,

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years ago.

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We went out west with the family
to look at the

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go to the national parks and everything,
and we rented a van.

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So I wasn't very familiar with the van.

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And we were driving in Wyoming
to get to one of the national parks.

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And there's
a whole lot of nothing in Wyoming.

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And if you've ever been there.

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But I was driving and I went by an exit

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and I saw the sign at the exit,

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and I read it just as I was driving by,

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the sign said, next gas 46 miles.

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And as I as I went, I saw that sign go by.

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My fuel light came on and I told the kids
were turning off the air conditioning.

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00:16:07,466 --> 00:16:09,918
We're not going to roll down the windows
that causes drag.

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I was like trying to draft behind a truck.

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I was just desperate to try it.

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I didn't know if I was going
to make it right. I made it.

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When it
says seek the Lord while he may be found,

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if you're in a desert,
you walk by enough watering holes.

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You may not get to the next one.

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So that means

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if that's you,

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if you are here and you've been thinking,
you know what?

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I'm kind of empty.

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00:16:42,918 --> 00:16:44,837
You know what? I'm.

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I'm kind of thirsty.

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I'm hungry.

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This is your day,

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right?

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You came here for whatever reason,

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and God is shouting out.

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You say, hey, aren't you thirsty?

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Aren't you hungry?

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Would you come to me?

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00:17:04,590 --> 00:17:07,443
And I wanted to just tell
you, don't put it off and listen.

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If you're here and you know what it's like

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to really have true bread in Jesus.

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Pure water.

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00:17:18,270 --> 00:17:21,707
If there's a reason that Jesus
calls himself the bread of life,

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there's a reason he calls himself
living water.

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That metaphor,
it goes all the way through the Bible.

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What he's saying
is what you are desperate for is me.

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If you already know that,

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00:17:36,321 --> 00:17:37,856
then you need to remember that

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00:17:37,856 --> 00:17:40,859
every person you run into is hungry.

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00:17:41,326 --> 00:17:44,480
Every person you run into is thirsty.

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00:17:45,531 --> 00:17:48,801
It's like, this invitation is wonderful.

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00:17:49,852 --> 00:17:52,337
It's the greatest invitation
that it's ever been given.

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00:17:52,337 --> 00:17:53,472
It's better than any.

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This is what makes it better
than any other religion by a long shot.

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Because God is shouting out
to people who are far away.

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You can come home right?

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00:18:03,499 --> 00:18:06,018
The responsibility of mission is ours

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00:18:06,018 --> 00:18:09,805
to let people know where they can
find true bread,

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00:18:10,823 --> 00:18:13,459
where they can find pure water.

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00:18:13,459 --> 00:18:16,728
And there's an urgency to the moment,
right?

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00:18:16,762 --> 00:18:19,765
Because every minute matters.

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00:18:20,582 --> 00:18:23,569
Everybody you know is hungry.

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00:18:23,719 --> 00:18:26,722
Everybody you know is thirsty.

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00:18:27,089 --> 00:18:29,208
Let them know about Jesus.

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00:18:29,208 --> 00:18:29,992
Bring them here.

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00:18:29,992 --> 00:18:32,995
We will tell them about Jesus.

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00:18:33,178 --> 00:18:34,613
And if you know Jesus,

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00:18:35,814 --> 00:18:39,001
then just enjoy the banquet and rest.

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00:18:40,052 --> 00:18:43,038
Would you pray with me?

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00:18:43,772 --> 00:18:46,108
Father in heaven.

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00:18:46,108 --> 00:18:49,411
I love, love, love this passage.

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00:18:51,063 --> 00:18:53,632
And I don't know if it's this passage

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00:18:53,632 --> 00:18:57,619
that saved my life
those many years ago, but

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thanks that you call out to everybody,

353
00:19:01,106 --> 00:19:04,109
no matter how far away they are.

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00:19:04,860 --> 00:19:07,045
And you say, aren't you thirsty?

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00:19:07,045 --> 00:19:09,331
Aren't you hungry?

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00:19:09,331 --> 00:19:11,567
Then come to me.

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00:19:11,567 --> 00:19:13,552
I pray for anybody here

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00:19:13,552 --> 00:19:16,738
who, feels kind of the
the catching their throat,

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00:19:16,738 --> 00:19:20,609
the tears behind their eyes, and they know
that you are talking to them.

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00:19:20,609 --> 00:19:24,029
I pray that this would be the day
that they would, come

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00:19:24,713 --> 00:19:28,367
and pray with somebody in the prayer team
and just, come to the banquet

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00:19:28,367 --> 00:19:33,388
that you have for them that you laid
for them when you sent Jesus for all of us

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00:19:34,907 --> 00:19:36,258
and for this church.

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00:19:36,258 --> 00:19:40,078
I pray that you'll make us a witness
in such a way that anybody who comes to

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00:19:40,078 --> 00:19:44,967
anything here will realize it's
a little bit like an oasis in a desert.

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00:19:46,068 --> 00:19:48,587
Recognize something's different.

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00:19:48,587 --> 00:19:49,037
Thank you.

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00:19:49,037 --> 00:19:51,707
Thanks for sending us
such a wonderful savior.

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We pray this in Jesus name. Amen.