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I have a question. How many of you have spent any time at all with sheep?

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I mean, real live sheep out in a field.

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A while ago, the church where I was serving wanted to do a whole series of

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studies for children, and of course, for their adults too, on various heroes in the

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life of the church. And over the course of about five to six weeks, different

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people would just appear at announcement time, fully garbed in

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costume, come up to the center, and for five minutes describe who they

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were and why they were considered important in the life of the church.

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Everybody from the Apostle Peter to St. Claire, sort of you name it.

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I got asked to be Francis.

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So I went to a local Franciscan monastery and asked if I could borrow one of their

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garbs, and they were very happy to lend to me.

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And then I thought,

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"I need a sheep."

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And I started calling around to see if I could find one, and sure enough, there was

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somebody actually in our congregation who was a farmer who in fact had sheep.

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So he promised to bring me that sheep on Sunday morning.

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It was tiny, which was actually perfect.

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So I come up the aisle holding the sheep.

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Of course, everybody goes, "Aw," just like that.

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And I talk a little bit about Francis and what all of this might mean in terms of

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particularly Francis's understanding of who we are as Christians, as God's

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sheep.

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And then we were to bring the sheep home, and then he would come and pick it up.

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So all of that was fine until we had left the sheep in our backyard.

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We had to get the sheep.

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Sheep are fast.

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We didn't have a big, big backyard, but it was probably about the size

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of this room here, and it backed up to pasture.

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There were Brahma bulls usually on the other side of the fence.

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So here we are, without exaggeration, dive-bombing to grab

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the sheep. And it took us all, but maybe all of us, I mean, me,

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Laura Lee, the kids. Can you imagine Laura Lee dive-bombing for a sheep?

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She did it. So did I. And we finally got the sheep.

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It was picked up, and it was taken out.

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And then not long ago, Laura Lee and I watch a show on Prime, which

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is about

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a farm. Same thing happened. They want to corral the sheep to try to just give them

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their shots. I mean, this is a vet. Sheep do not want to go into the very corral

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where they're going to get the shots.

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All of this matters when Jesus describes himself as the

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shepherd and we being the sheep.

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Because not unlike sheep, we actually don't like

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somebody stepping in our way and forbidding us from doing and going where we want

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to do and where we want to go. So, and if we could have the shot, please, that's on

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the-- There we go.

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The reason this is up here,

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you have to think about this for a minute because this applies directly to the

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lessons today. I'm not just sort of shooting off about it, is that what Jesus

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has done in this picture is that he has gone to rescue a sheep.

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Why did he need to rescue the sheep?

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Because the sheep want to go where they want to go.

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They don't necessarily want to follow the voice of their shepherd, and in fact,

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they'd rather go their own way. And sure enough, one of the sheep, just like my

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backyard, just like the sheep on the show that we watch on TV, were hightailing it

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entirely in the other direction. Jesus finally

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gets the sheep, and the reason he's holding the sheep like this is so that

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the sheep do not get away. There's absolutely nothing

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picturesque about this picture, except it has a lot to do with the

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determination of Jesus to make sure that he rescues.

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Because if that sheep is left to its own devices, then there are all kinds of wild

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animals out there that would love to have that sheep for dinner.

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And so Jesus finds a way to be able to get the sheep and carry it back.

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Now, you also need to know that by the time that Jesus rescues a sheep like that,

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that sheep is filthy.

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It's been everywhere.

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And therefore, for Jesus to literally pick up the sheep and put the back of his

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neck against the chest and lower parts of the sheep means that Jesus is in

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contact on the back of his neck with some of the dirtiest parts of that sheep.

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That's how tenacious Jesus is in

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terms of his love for us.

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And that, in fact, even though we don't always feel it, that

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position right there of where the sheep is and where Jesus is, is actually what

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is positionally true for us right now.

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Because left to our own devices, we would easily be

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distracted by you fill in the blank, whatever it might be.

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It could be something on your phone.

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It could be another interest that you have that would literally try to draw you

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away from the love of God, the desires that are inside of our heart.

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We are a very confused mixture inside as human beings.

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But in that place, then what Paul writes in the epistle lesson,

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"Let love be genuine," or actually what the word is in the Greek is,

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"Let your love be authentic."

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That position is what makes that possible.

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Meaning for you and me,

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as I begin to yield to him

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in a very clear

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way, what that does is actually cement my

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sense that I am being held by him,

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and that I can trust his grip

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to lead me into the safest of pastures, to take me into the places

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where his love literally flows into me and allows me to be the instrument

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that he uses to make a difference in the lives of other people.

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If that's not true, then the Romans lesson is not possible.

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We can't do it. And it gives sense to the harsh

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rebuke that Jesus gives to Peter when Jesus is telling them

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about, "I need to tell you what we're going to be facing and what is going to

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happen to me," and that he is going to suffer and die and be raised from the dead.

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Jesus loves Peter.

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He's his friend. He understands that what Jesus is describing is

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torture,

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humiliation,

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the very things you would never want to ever happen to someone that you know, and

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in a way that was brutal. Of course, if he was given into the hands of those

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leaders, Jesus would die. Capital punishment would be enforced.

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So of course, Peter would say, "God forbid, this can't happen to you."

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And what Jesus' rebuke is, "You have your mind on earthly things.

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You're thinking how a human being would think.

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You need to be thinking about the ways of God."

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And the crux of that is that you and I have all kinds of ideas about what we

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all should or should not be doing. But the question is, does it look

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like that And that becomes in some ways, the definition, the

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expression, and even the model of what love in Christ Jesus is and

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how it gets expressed. It comes from a life that is doing what it can to

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literally yield to that position of being submitted to Jesus Christ.

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And out of that submission, the power flowing in and through me because it is his

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love, not my own, and I'm doing my best to step into positions that quite frankly

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may be his will, but really are way above my pay grade sometimes in terms of my own

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capacity to be available with people.

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I want, and it's true for all of us, I'd like a convenient life.

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Doesn't always have to be easy, but it has to be convenient, meaning things that I

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want to do.

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And yet what God has for me is not a convenient life,

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but an obedient life. I read one commentator who put it this way.

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He said, "What the gospel shows us in the way that Jesus rebukes Peter,

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and the challenge that it offers us, is that we have to be willing to give up

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when it comes to God, the will to lead, and instead

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take on the will to obey."

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That's the heart of the matter.

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But as all of this says us, that for us is our act of love.

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Our act of love for the Savior who laid down his life for us

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is our willingness to say yes to him, even when it is

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inconvenient, when it stretches us, when it puts us in places where we don't want

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to go. Why? Because the fruit of it is worth it.

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We're invited into places that may be profoundly challenging or very difficult, but

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God desires people who are willing to enter into those places because that's when

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the power and the life gets released.

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That's where people are touched with his love, when we are literally brought to the

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end of our own understanding and are willing to step forward anyway and say

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yes to him because we have that sense that is what is asked of us.

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Grant us, we pray, and I call it the love of your name.

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And what is that? That the love is saying, "Yes, Lord.

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Yes, Lord, because I know you hold me tightly

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around your neck, and that the dirt on my body is not inconvenient to you, and you

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don't mind that I'm right next to you in all of the humanness of who

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I am. That as it were the dirtiest and smelliest parts of my life are not something

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that you don't know about, and you hold me tightly right here on the neck,

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leading me into the places where you want me to go." And even though a part of me

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says, "Oh, God, I wish this wasn't happening," there is also a part of you that

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says, "That this, in fact, is the safest place to be.

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This is, in fact, where the grace is.

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This is, in fact, the place where he is expressing his

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love for me, that I get to be a part of what it is that he is doing, and

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that he wants to take me with him, as it were, on his adventures." And will it be

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costly? The answer is yes,

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without hesitation.

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One of the passages here, the way they're woven together is very clear that the way

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Jesus' love gets expressed through us and in us is sometimes

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we are asked to join with him in his suffering.

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The scripture in no way shies away from that.

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But that's where the love of God gets expressed.

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It's not a convenient life at all, but it

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is the best life of all.

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So today,

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Lord, how may I serve you?

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Help me keep an eye on what's happening in the people around me, so that I notice.

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Servanthood often begins just by noticing.

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Not wrapped up in everything that I need to get done or want to get done, but that

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I'm willing to kind of, Lord, help me to lift up my head and see other people,

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because often I just don't.

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So if I see somebody in need, immediately inside of me is, "How can I help?"

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And that becomes the thing I keep asking, rather than, "God, watch out for them.

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I've got things I've got to do." And a willingness to enter into, as I said, this

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kind of inconvenient existence, so that in the end,

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God uses you. God uses you to do

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things that you never thought possible or imaginable.

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Grant us the love of your name.

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And that is a life expressed in noticing,

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saying yes, and being willing to live the

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inconvenient life for his glory.

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Amen.