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Lord God, the way that I see the world,

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the way that all of us see the world,

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Lord God, it is flawed.

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It is tainted.

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There are so many ways in which we keep telling ourselves stories

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and views that don't match what you see.

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Lord God, we ask that You would be our vision.

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We ask that You would be the one to show us what You see

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because You are the one who is Lord of all.

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You have come to this earth and given us life, light,

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and our guidance on our path.

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Thank you, Lord God.

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In Christ Jesus. Amen.

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Howdy.

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And a quick thank you to Anna and Jennifer

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and some of the people from Jovi

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who are helping with our children's church and our nursery

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going on during the worship service

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and for some of the little ones that really wiggly in their seats.

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So really glad that they're helping us out with that.

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I wanted to talk with you a little bit today

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and talk about some of the festivals

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that I will oftentimes go to.

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Now, you may or may not remember,

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but there are usually three festivals

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that I try to go to every year.

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I try to make sure that I go to Renaissance Festival.

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All right, absolutely. Preferably the Celtic weekend.

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I'd love to be able to have an excuse to wear my kilt.

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It's very awesome. Yes.

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No, I don't shave my legs.

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Or then, of course, the second one being a rodeo.

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Even if you're not sure which person you want to hear us sing,

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apparently MC Hammer was there once upon a time.

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So apparently anybody could be there.

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You never know. Have no idea.

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But then, of course, the third is that every year

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I need to try to go to Comic Palooza.

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Very important.

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Now, for those who may not realize, Comic Palooza,

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it's a chance not just to see a bunch of people

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with comic book characters,

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but also sci-fi and fantasy

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and all sorts of fun, different spots.

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They have not just booths for people to sell things,

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like books or figurines or all sorts of artwork.

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But they'll even have places where little kids can go

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and have pretend fights with each other.

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Hopefully they'll pretend there's always somebody

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with a bloody nose.

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But then you would also see grown-ups going over there

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with their own fake swords

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and having their fights and everything.

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And you're kind of like, well, I'm 44.

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If I go to the little kids, I could probably win.

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Okay, but, and yeah, they keep telling me no,

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and it's very unfortunate.

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But also this year, back to the future,

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Michael J. Fox, all right, and Christopher Lloyd.

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They were there.

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I was hoping to go and have my photo taken with them,

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but some people want to get married that weekend.

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I don't know.

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I mean, crazy people over there.

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I guess you have to do what you gotta do.

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But with all of this, though,

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is that there were a lot of wonderful things to get to see.

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But one thing that really threw me

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was there was this one booth that was over there.

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All right, and what I saw was a figurine of Optimus Prime.

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Now, you may or may not know who this is.

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Maybe you've been living under a rock, okay?

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But there was a cartoon about these robots

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that would transform into vehicles.

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Okay, and so what would happen is

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that you'd see these old toys that are there.

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Let's see, I think there might be a picture of it, yeah.

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And so what you might end up seeing

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is that all of these figurines,

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they might even be in their original packaging.

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But then more than that, they might be in this other box.

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And so what I saw, I saw an Optimus Prime.

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And it was in perfect condition,

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and the price tag said $60.

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And I'm like, I know how much those things can go for.

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That's like half price at the very least.

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I mean, for goodness sake, I have to go and find out.

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But I saw there was another figurine next to it

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that was $70, but it wasn't quite as important

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of a character as Optimus Prime.

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And so I went and talked to the owners and I said,

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what's going on with the figurines?

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Why would this figurine cost more than Optimus Prime?

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And the guy looked at me and said, you misunderstand.

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That's not the price for Optimus Prime.

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That's the price for the case that he's inside of.

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Just for that box.

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And I looked around and I saw all of these

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beautiful pristine figurines in these cases that are there.

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None of them were for sale, only the cases.

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And I'm just sitting there like,

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I didn't even know what to do with this.

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It's like they were so focused on the packaging,

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but you couldn't get the toy that was inside of the package.

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And that really struck me,

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this idea of being focused on the packaging,

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but not always on the content.

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See, what I would say today is that we,

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are oftentimes too focused on the framework

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we see outside of something.

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We're too focused on the context of our world.

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Too focused on the perspectives.

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And we're not necessarily focused

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on what God is showing us on the inside.

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Now, to make sure that you know why it is

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that this is tying in with what we're discussing.

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Let me give you the context for what was happening with Jesus.

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See, Jesus and his disciples,

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they had been going through different towns

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and they had been doing good works

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and they had been teaching and everything else.

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And they're coming through this field with wheat grain.

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And what do they do?

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Do they have anything to eat?

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Are they hungry?

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All this stuff.

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And they reach out and they grab some of the heads of grain

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so they can get the kernels

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and they have something that they can munch on.

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But as they do so, as they're grabbing this,

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they're not taking the grains and milling them,

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making bread, they're not going to try to bake it.

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They're not trying to sell it.

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All they're doing is just grabbing where it's there

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and munching on the kernels.

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The thing is though, that as the Pharisees see this,

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they get offended.

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Why?

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Because the day they're doing this is the Sabbath.

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You're not supposed to work on the Sabbath day.

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You're supposed to be focused on God

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and on worship on the Sabbath day.

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Now, what do we want to try to do though,

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is realize that what they were doing

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was not actually working in that strict sense.

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But what had happened is that there were all these extra views

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that the Pharisees had put

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in order to decide what was or was not acceptable.

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Now, with this though, is you have to realize

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that there were other times where they might make exceptions.

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See, the thing is, is that there were many times

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where there might be an exception made

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for why something was acceptable or allowable.

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And why it was that the teachers, the Pharisees,

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describes different groups of people,

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they would support some people and not others.

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One of those examples was David.

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You see, when David had been anointed to be king,

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but Saul was still reigning as the king at the time,

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David had to run from Saul a lot.

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And what was happening is that David would spend time

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often hiding with some of his men, his supporters,

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but they didn't have food all the time.

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So at one point, he goes up to the priest

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and he says, give me the showbread.

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Now, just to make sure you understand what this is,

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what they were supposed to do is they were supposed to break,

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sorry, they were supposed to bake bread

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and put it before the presence of God.

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This was an offering to God.

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As that bread is hot and fresh, it stays there.

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But whenever it starts getting cold

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and a little bit stiff, starting to get stale,

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they take it off once it's no longer hot and fresh,

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and then they have to put new bread on there.

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But what would they do with it?

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The priests would eat the bread.

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So you see, this bread was in the presence of God,

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not exactly the same way as what we do with communion,

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but a similar theme, a similar feeling.

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Now, feeling.

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Now, technically though,

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David was not supposed to eat that bread.

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The only people who were supposed to eat that bread

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was the priests.

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But they had no food.

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They needed something to eat.

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They were desperate.

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And the priest wanted to support God's anointed.

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But at that point in time,

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they kept making excuses for why it was okay

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to give them the bread.

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It wasn't actually supposed to be his.

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But the way that they viewed it,

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they were making an exception for David.

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Now, why is it that the Pharisees and the teachers of the law

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would accept that David's context,

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it was okay to eat the bread?

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Why would they think that it was okay?

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Because David was their hero.

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David was the one that they looked up to.

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David was the one that they were supposed to defend.

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And yet, even though David had gone and taken bread

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that was not meant for him,

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and they would be able to make an exception for that,

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Jesus and his disciples are just reaching

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and grabbing the kernels there and munching on them

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because they have nothing else.

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And what do they do?

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They go after him.

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But you see, even the priests themselves,

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there might be times to question what is happening.

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You see, Jesus says, kind of like a tongue-in-cheek sort of idea.

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Like, he's not really attacking the priests,

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but he wants them to question things in their mind.

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He says that technically, the priests blaspheme

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or they go against the Sabbath.

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How is it that the priests are blaspheming

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or contradicting the Sabbath?

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They're doing it because they're technically working on the Sabbath.

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It would be sort of like, if you look at the pastor

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and say, well, the pastor works on Sunday,

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I guess that should be okay.

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And it would be the same idea with the priests.

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Is that if you try to look at it that way,

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then technically every single priest has sinned

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because every single one has worked on the Sabbath.

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But you see, that's not the way that they framed it.

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It is amazing how we as people

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pick and choose who or what embodies what we want

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instead of looking inside in light of God's will.

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The thing is, is that the way that things are presented,

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it actually shows more about what we want to see

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and what we want to happen,

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rather than asking what something is or is not good or right.

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And that's why it is that we connect it with our epistle lesson today.

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That there are treasures that are in jars of clay.

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Maybe for some of you, jars of clay is the name of a band.

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It does come from here.

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The idea of a jar of clay

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is that this is supposed to be a frail and an imperfect vessel.

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Now, you can put things inside of it.

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You can have water, you can have grain,

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you can have all sorts of things.

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But if you're looking at this vessel,

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this vessel is not meant to be the treasure.

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What's inside of it is what's supposed to be important.

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But you see, oftentimes what we do

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is we obsess about the jar.

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We focus on the jar.

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We make that the thing that we care so much about.

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We care so much about what's on the outside.

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And yet, at the same time, it's supposed to be frail.

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But more than that, we are those jars of clay.

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We are meant to be frail.

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We are meant to be, admit that we're flawed.

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It speaks in the epistle about the times

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whenever there are struggles and being perplexed

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and feeling abandoned.

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If you are a follower of Christ,

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are you going to always feel safe and comfortable in the world?

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Absolutely not.

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And if you're trying to always feel safe

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and comfortable in the world,

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then it means that you're probably getting something wrong.

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Because the truth about this is that

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it is meant to be something that we realize is frail.

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Because then that means what God is doing inside of us

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can be that much more powerful

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and that much more amazing.

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But the thing is, is that whether we're talking about

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our perspective of the world,

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or our jobs, or our life situation,

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or certain people, or ideas that we have,

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is that oftentimes we try to protect those.

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We try to take the jar, and we glaze it.

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And we set it in a fire, and we try to harden it.

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And we try to make it beautiful and perfect.

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We want it to be strong.

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We want it to be hardened.

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But what I'm going to suggest to you today

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is that the jars of clay,

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ourselves and the way that we see the world,

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sometimes it's supposed to be smashed.

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We talked a minute ago about David.

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As much as many people in Israel

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looked up to David and saw the future Messiah

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as coming from David's lineage,

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is that David was oftentimes a terrible human being.

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He saw a young woman at her home,

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bathing, trying to become clean after the monthly ritual

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that is needed, and sends his guards to take her

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and bring her to him to have what he wanted with her.

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And then, when a child comes from this,

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he tries to hide it.

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And the woman's husband, Uriah,

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dies for his mistake.

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He has him killed.

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And then on top of it is that God has to get across to him

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what's going on, and the child dies because of it.

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But it's more than that.

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This is also the guy whose firstborn son

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tries to overthrow him

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and ends up getting killed in battle against him.

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This is David who decided that he was going to have a census

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because he wanted to count how many people he could take to war

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if he wanted to go off against people,

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instead of trusting that God was with him

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or even wondering if he even needed to go to war.

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And because of that, God had to smite 70,000 people

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to communicate what was done was wrong.

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This is the same David who wasn't allowed by God to build the temple

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because he was a man of war, a bloodshed.

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And even more than that, his son ends up bringing idols into the worship

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and even some of their descendants bring back child sacrifice

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in the kingdom of Israel.

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Because the reality is that as much as they wanted to put David on a pedestal,

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his reign had to come to an end.

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And the truth is that the same thing happens with our own toys,

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with the things that we have as well.

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I was moving a lot for a while there,

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and I had one of my own figurines.

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It was still in the original package.

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But every time that I would move,

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that package would get bent up a little bit more.

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It would get torn from time to time.

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There would be pieces that I had to tape up,

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trying to make it look good again.

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The package kept getting wrinkled up.

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And one day, after another move, I finally opened up the box.

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And I looked and I was like,

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why do I have this ugly wrinkly package here in my things?

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And so I took away the package.

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I threw it away.

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And I put the toys up on the shelf by themselves.

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And I could finally see them for what they were meant to be.

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The thing is, is that as much as I was trying to protect the packaging,

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it was what was inside that actually mattered.

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See, in many ways, we need to stop glorifying the vessels.

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Whatever it is that we think is the framework,

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the means by which we want things to happen in our world,

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God doesn't abide by our plans.

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He doesn't abide by our framework.

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But more than that is that there is only one Lord of the Sabbath.

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There's only one who is actually in charge.

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But here's the question, though.

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Not just Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath,

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that He's the one in charge,

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but also more than that, He's Lord of the Sabbath.

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Why is the Sabbath so important?

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It's so important because that is the day when we're meant to stop fighting

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and to come into the presence of God and to worship.

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That is the time, that is the day

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when we're supposed to go to the one who can actually make all things good

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and all things new.

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See, the reality is that it is time to refocus.

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And what I would say, why the Lord of the Sabbath?

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Because the Lord of the Sabbath is the one that can actually change us

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and refocus us.

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I would say that in many ways, as a world,

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we're struggling to have our priorities straight.

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What are the things that we actually treasure and make important?

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But you see, more than realizing that you are not the Lord of the Sabbath,

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you're not the one to decide what God is going to do and how He's going to do it.

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But also more than that,

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is that it's time to let God smash those vessels.

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This isn't just, you know what, maybe if I can just tape it up a little bit

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and maybe try to reorient it a little bit.

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Sometimes God has to destroy something in your life.

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Sometimes God has to destroy something in the world around us.

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Sometimes things have to come to an end.

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And that's a hard piece with that to accept.

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But also in many ways, that's the piece that we need to embrace the most.

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Because what I would also say is that Jesus himself is the one who started

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by letting himself be broken.

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As much as we may find the world today perplexing and confusing and unstable,

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that means that this is exactly the time when maybe God can show himself the most clearly.

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So that we can realize who God truly is and what he's actually trying to do.

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But on top of that, is that Jesus himself isn't trying to be protected.

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And maybe that's a piece with us as well.

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Maybe we're trying so hard to protect ourselves,

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is that we're not willing to let God change what needs to be changed.

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So today, what I have to say to you is that broken vessels

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are okay to be broken.

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It's okay to let some things fall apart.

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It's okay when something has to come to an end.

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It's okay whenever we find out that something is flawed.

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It's okay whenever we find out something just isn't meant to be.

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Because the treasure of God's grace is eternal.

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And nothing changes that.

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So don't give up everything of value just to keep your broken vessels.

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Thanks be to God.