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Howdy. Well, we're getting into the season of Advent. So for those of you who haven't

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been celebrating Advent in the past, this is the season that leads up to Christmas. So

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Advent is talking about the coming, the coming of the Christ. And with that is each of these

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weeks ends up being another week that builds on that theme of Christ coming into this world.

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And this first week, we're looking at the season of hope. Now with that is a lot of

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times as a child of the 80s, hope could be a very difficult thing at times. Pretty much

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anything and everything that we would be immersed in as children would scare the bejesus out

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of us. So for example, we're watching the never ending story, and we're thinking to

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ourselves, oh, this is lovely, a boy and his horse, a giant flying dog, all of these cute

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creatures and then you find out that everything's falling apart. And then you realize that the

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horse is getting sucked into a swamp. And it's like now it's like children that grew

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up in the 80s with me. Now we've got PTSD over anything to do with swamps, because we're

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afraid that now it's going to just suck us right in. Apparently we all think that, you

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know, like quicksand and everything else is all around us now. Or then we might say, well,

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there might be other things that we might have enjoyed, you know, maybe instead the

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American tale. The American tale is this little mouse fival and he's leaving his home in Russia

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and he's coming to the US and you're like, oh, that's wonderful, except he's separated

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from his family and he's surrounded by these scary cats and you don't know who's coming

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after him and you're just like, I thought this was a sweet movie and don't even get

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me started on Disney. Oh my word. Pinocchio still haunts my dreams. Oh my goodness, those

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donkeys, they were children. Oh my goodness, it just seemed like each one of these stories,

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it's like, it's this sweet story except for the dark side to it. Oh my goodness. And so

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it's like in addition to our, you know, mutual counseling sessions and support groups among

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children of the 80s, is that in addition, it oftentimes ends up not only shaping us,

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but also in many ways, it kind of changes what we're waiting for and expecting. And I

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bring that up this morning because this is the season of Advent. And so I went into looking

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at this hope week, you know, what is it that Advent is going to express for hope? So I'm

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thinking, okay, this is the time for, you know, the baby Jesus and the wise men and the

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shepherds and I don't know, maybe something new with gingerbread. I'm sure, you know, like

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that's what the wise man brought, gold, frankincense, myrrh and gingerbread cookies. So with that,

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I'm going into the passages and I'm kind of excited and I'm looking at and then I get

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to Mark 13 and I'm like, okay, let's see what this has to say. Mark 13. In those days after

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that tribulation, the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light and the

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stars will be falling from heaven and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. This

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is leading to Christmas. What in the world? And I started looking at this passage thinking

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to myself, geez, Christmas story got super dark, like really fast. But in reality is

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this idea of what is happening in the world around us. The world doesn't just stop just

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because we are in the middle of the Advent season. There are a lot of things that are

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still happening all around us, things that are difficult and scary and we make us frightened

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and unsure. We know that at this time, the ceasefire in the Middle East has come to an

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end and they're back to bombing one another. We know that there are still hostages that

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are in prisoners that have been taken and are in places that they don't need to be.

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We know that there is still a battle happening, Ukraine and Russia. We know that we are still

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in the middle of issues in our world right now too. The Black Friday sales and the Christmas

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season hasn't fixed anything with the economy and inflation just yet. We're still surrounded

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by so many things that not only are frightening, but maybe they distract from what Christmas

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is supposed to be about. You see, this idea of hope can sometimes be difficult to hold

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on to. Now, when we think about stuff like the moon and losing its light and the sun

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being darkened and we sometimes get caught up in these kind of scary images that are

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in our heads, and whenever we think of something that's frightening, it's very easy to try

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to look to a strong, confident figure that makes us feel safe. We're oftentimes trying

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to find someone that, well, we're not always worried that there's somebody that we like

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and we're not always worried that it's somebody that's nice. We're just wanting to make sure

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that it's somebody strong enough to make us feel safe. We want to know that there is someone

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there that we think has our backs. You see, I was trying to think through what were some

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images of when we're looking for someone to come and to not only make us safe, but also

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to take care of our enemies. And I started trying to think through who was a military

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figure, somebody that we could look to and say, that is a person that made us feel safe.

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And I started thinking about all of the controversial figures that we have known for some time.

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And I kept looking back and looking back, trying to find somebody that brought us a sense

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of safety that everybody could agree on. And basically, I got George Washington and that's

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it. I have no idea who else we'd even looked to. Because with so much of this is that oftentimes

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we're putting people in our lives that are just strong, but not always asking if they're

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good. More than that, though, is what is it that we're wanting them to do in our lives?

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In Revelation six, there's an image where there are people that have been martyred for

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the name of Christ for the word of God. And it says, they cried out with a loud voice,

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Oh, sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood

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on those who dwell on the earth? Because that's a huge part of this. We oftentimes feel in

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one way or another that people have wronged us, that they have harmed us in some way.

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And we want to know that someone's going to come and take care of that for us. We want

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to know that someone is going to fix it. Our hope is oftentimes in thinking that someday

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someone is going to take care of all the people we didn't like. And the world will finally

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make a little bit of sense. But you see, whenever we hear the passages that say that the kings

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of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful and everyone

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hid themselves in the caves and they're calling to the mountains, fall on us and hide us from

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the face of the wrath of the lamb. Then we also have to pause and ask, Yeah, but who

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is it that would be afraid of the wrath of the lamb? You see, in our Isaiah passage,

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it starts off by saying things like, Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down that

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the mountains might quake at your presence. And the nations would tremble to make your

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name known to your adversaries. But here's the difficulty later in that chapter, it says,

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behold, you were angry and we sinned in our sins. We have been a long time and shall we

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be saved? When I was six years old, I went to the theater to watch the best movie of

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all time, Transformers. Okay, I don't care about all your Michael Bay stuff nowadays.

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The original cartoon movie in 1986 is still the best. All right. But at the same time,

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there I was watching this movie and half of them died. Oh my God, it was it was scarring.

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I'm like, No, no, no, they're okay. Just put a bandage on it. It'll be fine. I don't I

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don't care what I just saw. We're going to say it's okay, right? Right? Well, one of

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the biggest scenes in there. And for those of you don't know, Transformers are robots

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that turn into cars and planes and everything. Hopefully, I don't have to go into much

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more detail than that with you. But the ultimate bad guy, Megatron is fighting the ultimate

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good guy, Optimus Prime. And there was a young guy who comes up named Hot Rod and thinks

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that he is going to come and take on Megatron. And instead, Megatron beats him down, grabs

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him and uses them as a shield and shoots down Optimus Prime. See, as much as Hot Rod is

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thinking that he is going to somehow come up and take care of everything in reality,

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he was the one who brought the downfall of Optimus Prime. But that's the reality with

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us as well. See, we spend a lot of time looking at the world around us waiting for God to

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somehow take care of that group or that issue or those people. When in reality, we're oftentimes

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the ones causing the problems. Isn't it so easy that we can see everybody else causing

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it and then realize that sometimes we're the ones who actually made it possible for evil

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to win the day. The times whenever we have not only taken for granted who God is and

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what he's doing, but sometimes taking each other for granted, sometimes ignored one another,

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or even at times like Christmas, where we're looking to just make sure that we had a wonderful

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time and we got to see and enjoy everything around us and make sure we got all the sales

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and whatever it is we were waiting all year to get. And then we don't pause to realize

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that there are times whenever we've made things harder for God and for the world around us.

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You see, oftentimes whenever we say, God, we're waiting for you to return. Yeah, but why

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hasn't he returned yet? It says in 2 Peter chapter three verse eight. When we're looking

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at this, it speaks of what's happening whenever everything is falling apart. And it says in

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here, do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as 1000 years

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and 1000 years as one day, the Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count

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slowness, but as patient toward you. Not wishing that any should perish, but that all should

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reach repentance. See, in reality, God isn't forgetting us. He's waiting for us because

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many of us just keep kind of putting off the things of God. We just keep kind of going

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back about our lives and just ignore whatever it is that God is trying to do. God is waiting

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not only for us to change and to come to him, even as Isaiah says that you are the potter,

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we are the clay. He said he's also waiting for us to take that message to the rest of

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the world. The show Thunder Cats, I always loved it. At the end of every episode, there

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was always a lesson you were supposed to learn. I was becoming a pastor at the age of seven,

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I didn't even realize it. But when it first started, they were escaping their planet and

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they were all in some frozen state of animation, but one of the pods opened up. It turned out

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that somebody had to stay awake to make sure that the ship landed where it needed to. You're

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sitting there watching as that person keeps aging and aging and aging. You're just like,

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please let them get to the planet soon before, and then you realize that he has passed away.

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The thing is, is that oftentimes when I look back and I'm like, how could that character

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have just sacrificed himself like that? Because he realized who it was that was depending

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on him. The question is, what is it that he's waiting on with us? What is it that he has

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been saying, I have called you for a reason? When are you going to live into it? When are

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you going to come back to knowing who I am? And when are you going to go out and share

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that with the world that is around you? See, when we look at the season of hope is that

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in many ways we're thinking we are hoping for Jesus to come again. But the truth is,

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is that Jesus has already come. And what have we done with it? See, that's the thing whenever

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we look at the hope of the world, the hope of the world that is to come, is that oftentimes

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we miss out on the fact that we've already been given the hope that we're meant to have

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here and now. But we keep taking it for granted. You see, whenever I finally finished Never-Ending

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Story and I was like scarred for the rest of my life, at least the good part was that

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at the end everything was restored. There was still an opportunity for a Trey U and

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his horse to ride off together. There was still an opportunity for all the creatures

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to come back together. Same thing with the American tale. Fival eventually found his

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family. He was able to have his happy ending there in New York. And truth be told is,

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Transformers, they always manage to find a way to bring back Optimus Prime. I mean,

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everybody loves him. But in reality is that we also know that eventually we're going to

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get where we're supposed to go. As much as we keep saying, come Lord Jesus, that part's

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already figured out. We know that Jesus is coming back. But what we don't know is what

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he's doing in our lives in the meantime. So as we are going into this Advent season,

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I want us to take a pause from thinking of what is it that we're trying to look to in

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the future and instead look at what has already come. See, the Christ child is being born

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in a manger. Not to come and knock everyone out and make sure that everybody has been

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taken care of, but rather is to grow for 30 something years and to spend his time being

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one of us. Because in that time, he could then eventually go to the one place that would

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bring salvation and with that cross to bring a new life. So as we get through the season,

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what is it that God is now doing in your life, not only to bring you back to him, but also

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so that you can go forth and bring others to know him as well. May he be the hope of

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this season for us and for the world. Thanks be to God.