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Alright, so starting off with a little introduction here.

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Alright, when I went to school, I was playing basketball.

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A lot of it.

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You won't believe it.

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Full time job, six times, six days.

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Alright, now through those times playing basketball, I have learned a lot of things

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not just about the game but about myself.

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Right now applying that to this, as you get further and further away from the hoop, it

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gets harder to score.

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Right, now when you have a defender on you, it becomes so much harder to score.

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I'm 5'8", so once I'm 5'8", I'm 6'6", and when somebody who's 6'6", is guarding

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me, I'm 6'6", and when somebody is guarding me, I'm 6'6".

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So now when you're having somebody who's defending you, you need a relief.

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Right, you need a good teammate.

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Alright, so this teammate is going to help make things easier.

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That's you and your flow.

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Keep you cool, under pressure, and help your team win.

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So the title of my message today is about standing in the gap.

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We'll get more into what that means in a little bit.

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But for right now, I want you all to stand up and look at your models to look 18 and

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19.

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When you have the same map.

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Now we'll read this word in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

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The Pharisee stood and was praying this to himself.

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God, I thank you that I'm not like other people, swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like

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this tax collector.

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Now another verse that I have is Luke.

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Verses 12 and 13.

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Alright, so now a little background on this one.

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Jesus telling the tax collector, collect no more than what you have been ordered.

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Alright, so that's the reading that I have for you.

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So put the first thing that we have in mind, alright?

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And see that there's an obvious disconnect.

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People in taxes.

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Why do you have to be told that not to do more than what you're doing in business?

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You're dishonest in doing business.

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You're exploiting people.

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They can't even manage you.

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Now something that we don't know about tax collector is that they had turned on their

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own people to get themselves rich.

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Alright, so Jews did not like Romans.

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They didn't want to serve their gods.

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They thought they were the scum of the earth.

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So just being a Roman was bad enough.

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Not bad.

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Now imagine your tax collector.

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Or you turn on your own people.

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Alright, so these people hated them and they were rich.

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They were traitors.

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The people hated them and they were traitors.

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Alright, so they're basically scum to everybody and they were rich.

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So the tax collectors, what they did was that they widened the gap between Rome and

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the Jews.

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Alright, they couldn't connect with one another.

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The person in the middle of the gap was taking advantage of the power and taking advantage

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of the people for their own gain.

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Now we've heard this story a thousand times, right?

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Of God leaving the 99 for the long.

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We've heard the story about being the prodigal child.

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But I've never heard it that we're the tax collector.

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We take advantage of people for our own upbringing.

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We turn on our own people so that we can get glory.

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We do things in God's name, but for us.

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Alright, now Luke 19 too.

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It says, and behold, there was a man named Fikia, which was a chief tax collector and

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was wealthy.

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And it happened that a Baron called Saquiao, who was a rich and poor people, these are

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the two things that we want to be.

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Powerful.

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We want status and money.

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Followers, sponsorships, endorsements, and we want platform.

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Alright, we beat people down to put ourselves out.

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Whether it's for a promotion, whether it's for getting a raise for a job we think we

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should have gotten, but we're on a sports seat and we think we deserve a spot.

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But everything that we're doing will beat people down to put ourselves out.

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That's why we're doing that.

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So many people have left the church because of our doing.

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People get hurt.

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They get fired at us and we tell them, right, we see the need and we don't help.

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We see all the reason that people leave the church, not we see them as invalid, even

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no more of the problem.

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Right, we don't realize the damage that they've done.

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We use what God has given us for our own money.

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We pray like God, you know, I pray that you can use me during prayer.

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But we also hope that the church is full of work from the bottom.

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We pray, God, I know that you're going to use me.

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Allow me to be powerful in every path.

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We're thinking about the money that we're going to receive.

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We look at a govah where we've taken our cameras out and everything, on a video that

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don't even matter.

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Wow, we don't realize when our hearts aren't set on Christ, our vice is not at the center.

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When Christ is at the center we hurt people, Isaiah 64 verse 6 says, our righteousness

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is the filthy rags.

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Nothing we do matters.

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It's not going to get us to heaven.

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It's not going to get us saved.

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Nothing we do matters.

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It's not going to get us to heaven.

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It's not going to get us saved.

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It's not going to bring us more crowns and more glory or anything like that.

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How much money you make doesn't matter.

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How many followers you have doesn't matter.

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It also doesn't matter how many people you bring to church.

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It doesn't matter how many people are showing up.

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It doesn't matter if the benches are full.

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It doesn't matter if the working figure is fantastic.

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None of that stuff matters.

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The posture is not solely for Christ.

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None of that's going to get us in the heaven.

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And the issue that we have,

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why there's a big gap in the church,

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and why we can't minister effectively,

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is because we have a bunch of people who think that we're saved.

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And who are coming to church regularly,

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but we've got nothing to give.

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We have a lot of people showing up,

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but we're not developing into powerful criticism like this.

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Right? Last, be exploiting people.

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Exploit people with needs and your impact.

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When people walk into the door,

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instead of giving them what they open up,

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look them up and down with judging eyes.

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God has blessed us with so much,

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and we still don't give.

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He gave you a raise in your job.

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No, we can't give to nobody in him.

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He gave you a new house.

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No, we can't host no dinner for the money.

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We get that new car,

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but we won't give nobody no ride.

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We have great clothes,

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but we also won't donate.

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We can't minister effectively

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because we close ourselves off

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to all the things that God has given us

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and take credit as if it's something we've done.

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We turn on our own people

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and we get ourselves up.

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I realize that we left the trail of them on the cross.

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The trail.

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Our lack of trust in God

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and wants your control

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and put us in a position

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where we're ineffective in the industry

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because God is not the center.

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So you have the tax collector

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and I gave you that example.

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Now look at when Jesus was in the gap.

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When he was working for the kingdom

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and he was uplifting people,

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what happened was they came together.

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Jesus wasn't what I think it got.

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When you allow God to work

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as a vessel,

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I work in you

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in the show process of the trail that you've gone on.

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Things will be so much better.

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I can use you so much more.

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I knew I had much more given to you

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than if we're like the tax collector.

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When we allow God

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and we take the love that he's given us

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and we receive it,

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we can be so much more effective

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than if we close ourselves off.

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And if everybody in your friends group

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only agrees with what you agree on,

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all we believe is what you believe

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and we have all the same beliefs and everything.

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Where's the accountability?

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Where's the growth?

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We can't minister to people who are homosexuals

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or we can't minister to people who are dealing with abuse.

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We can't talk to the people on a brink of divorce.

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We're real quiet right now,

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but that's not what's going on.

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We can't minister to those people

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because you know what?

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They're not holy.

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They're not in church right now.

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You look at them like they're on touch.

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You see the example of Jesus,

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these are the ones that he was called.

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You didn't see Jesus sitting with the rich.

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You didn't see Jesus sitting with the leaders.

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He was sitting with people with the blue chat.

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He was sitting with the low people.

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These are the people that need our help.

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These are the people who we need to minister to.

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These are the people we need to be shown what God likes.

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I'm challenging you today

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when you're standing in the gap,

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use what God has given you,

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close the gap,

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bring people together,

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let's develop one another.

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We're all on the same team.

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We're all playing for the Kingdom of Syria.

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Thank you.