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Howdy. Well, it's time to look up this fourth topic that we had going on and to look up the idea of love.

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So I figured if I needed to do my research, then what would be important is to look up the top 10 love songs from the last 100 years.

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I figured that would be the best way to learn about this. So I have interesting ones that came up.

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Apparently some of the top 10, at last my love has come along by Edda James.

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And then there was one, the name always throws me, but then you know it. It's called Unchained Melody, and you're like, what?

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But then you hear the words and you're like, you know, it's like, oh my love, my darling, I've hungered for your touch,

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aka Patrick Swayze in that really weird potting wheel scene in Ghost. Then there's the one,

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I will always love you.

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Okay, and she must have had, I know, I know, worked from the diaphragm there very much so. I think she had an extra lung implanted there, I think for sure.

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There was Endless Love, Diana Ross, Lionel Richie, Your Song, Elton John, and then there was My Heart Will Go On by Celine Dion,

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after Titanic, kept going on and on and on. Boys to men that I cannot actually tell you the name of the song in the midst of church,

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Make You Feel My Love by Adele, who stole it from Garth Brooks, who stole it from Billy Joel, who stole it from Bob Dylan.

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Then there is this one no-name band, they sing something, I don't know, they misspelled Beatles, I don't know, they spelled it with an A.

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And then Just The Way You Are by Billy Joel, not the one by Bruno Mars.

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Now what was not in the top ten though, was Justin Bieber singing Baby. Apparently, the lyrics, they're very, very deep, they go,

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Baby, baby, baby, ooh, baby, baby, baby, no, baby, baby, baby, ooh, thought you'd always be mine.

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It took me a while to memorize that, it was really complicated, really, really deep, so I like picking on him just a little bit.

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He's actually a believer in Christ, so it's just, when you got hair like that, you really got to just tease the guy.

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I mean, come on. But the thing is, is that with all these top ten hits, is that as we listen to them though, they're not necessarily very deep.

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I mean, poetic for sure, but isn't love supposed to be deeper than this?

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They're supposed to be more to it than just whether or not someone has opened the door on your heart, or whether or not you can feel them hungry for your touch.

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The thing is, is that what we end up seeing about love is something that ends up going even more deeply as we look at our passage for today.

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We have what could be considered a different type of song. It is called the Magnificat.

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The Magnificat is called this because Mary is saying, my soul magnifies the Lord, magnificat, magnifies.

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And so with this, is that this is an opportunity to express what it is that she is feeling and seeing as she is visiting her cousin, Elizabeth.

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Now, this may or may not have necessarily been originally something she was singing as much as something that she was expressing from different places.

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You see, Mary was visiting Elizabeth when both of them were pregnant, alright?

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And, you know, being pregnant does not magically make you a better singer somehow.

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But with it is that instead what we see is that Mary is taking from different passages that she has heard over time from the Old Testament scriptures.

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You see, there was someone named Hannah who in 1 Samuel 2 was not able to have a child and she was expressing what she was feeling.

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And that this had been read so many times before that you can hear bits and pieces from what Mary is saying that came from that as well as other parts of the Old Testament.

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It was sort of like she was creating a medley.

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So taking all these other old songs and piecing them together into something new.

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Like whenever we take phrases like something in the way she moves or you can tell everybody or, oh my love, my darling, or my love has come along and putting them together and creating something new.

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Now, sometimes whenever we look at this passage, there have been discussions about whether Mary was actually the one who was speaking this Magnificat.

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Because what it was is that there were a few of the Latin manuscripts that put Elizabeth's name on there.

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Now all the original Greek manuscripts that we have show it to be Mary.

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But the reason for that is because both of them were feeling and experiencing much of the same thing.

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But in these experiences, we end up discovering and seeing more of what love can and should be.

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We see this especially when we look at Elizabeth and Zechariah and we look at their love that they have.

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See, there's something to point out for you all about Elizabeth and Zechariah's love is that while we realize that it was a miracle that Elizabeth was able to have a child at the age that she was,

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what was not happening was this was not some supernatural birth like the virgin birth.

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This was a normal human child, which means that it was a normal human birth with a mother and a father together with one another.

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And I know all the children are like squirming in their seats at the idea with their parents.

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But the thing is that as we're looking at this is that we realize that the love that was there between two parents creating this child was still there between the two of them.

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How easy is it though that we let anything and everything distract from the love that two people would have between one another?

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Is that even though they were frustrated at not being able to have a child between them, is that they were still close with that love, that intimacy, that togetherness that was there?

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And that it is so easy to let circumstances or where we find ourselves keep us from having that closeness.

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How often is it that it may be that whether not being able to have children or sometimes by feeling like maybe we have too many children,

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or whether it may be dealing with the pets that day, or whether or not we didn't think that dinner and the date and the movie went well and maybe there was some disagreement,

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or even I remember one family where they went to Disney World and then found out that apparently the husband had forgotten to get the tickets in advance and they had to stand at the gate for two hours just waiting to be able to go in?

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Is how often is it that different things that happen end up putting a strain on whether we're able to love this person that we're with?

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But isn't love supposed to be more about the person that is there rather than the circumstances that are around us?

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Because yes, what is happening around can be difficult, but shouldn't love be something that is for the person rather than just because the circumstance is warranting it?

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And yes, even the single guy knows that part.

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With it is that the turmoil that happens though is not always just the circumstances that are around us,

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but that turmoil that is within us can also be such a difficult thing to overcome when we are looking at loving that person.

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For example, looking at the uncertainty that a person may be dealing with, because love is more than just convenience.

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See, in looking at our story, there's something we actually don't know for sure.

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We actually don't know based on what Scripture says whether Joseph had actually welcomed Mary back into their engagement before she went to see Elizabeth.

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We actually don't know.

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Mary may have gone off to see her cousin and spent all that time not knowing for sure what was going to happen with her own marriage and life and family.

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Because that's the thing is that for an unwed single mother, life is not at this time a very positive prospect.

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The thing is, is that if she is going through all of this right now, where was that ability to get up and to go help care for somebody else?

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To be able to put things aside, to be able to deal with the turmoil and uncertainty that was in her own life, and to be able to help someone else at that point.

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The thing is, is that instead of waiting for everything to be peaceful inside, is instead making that effort to love because it wasn't convenient.

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And even more than that, realizing that when Joseph understands what has actually happened, that doesn't change the fact that he cannot prove to people around them that this baby is from God.

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This is not something, there are not actual little halos over them like the ancient artwork may have depicted.

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He was going to have to suffer the opinions of other people for many years to come.

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And yet still is to say, this is going to be my wife.

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To be able to show love for one another, even with so much turmoil that was happening.

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Because the thing is, is that we're not meant to just show love for others only when it's convenient.

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It's supposed to be something that is a calling for us, something that we are meant to do because of who we are in Christ.

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Because the thing is, is that the love of God, it's not in spite of the life that we're going through.

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It's actually in the midst of all the things that we are going through.

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Because Mary, she didn't end up seeing her pregnancy as something to be dreaded.

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The thing is, is that in realizing that she is about to have a child is to treasure up what God is doing in her life.

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Because isn't that really what we end up seeing from parents?

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How many times it is that a parent is going to make that effort to love their child in the midst of what it is that they are going through.

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Even realizing, even seeing it in my own mother, and realizing that unfortunately now my mother has had to go through cancer with both her children now.

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And even three decades apart from each other.

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Is to realize that she didn't have to be convinced to sit there during hospital treatments.

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Or to be able to deal with the inconveniences with work and life.

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But rather it was just understood she would be there.

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Is it that still the case of what we see whenever the love of the parent is there for the child?

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But even more than that is believing that she is actually loved by God.

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Not in spite of the situation, but in it.

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Because how many things is it that we have that are inconvenient or frustrating or somehow feel like suffering.

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And we somehow think that God has lost sight of us.

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Or somehow has forgotten us.

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And that love would finally be there if he would just remember us instead of leaving us in this situation.

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And yet even in this one, Mary knows that it is God's love that is there for her.

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It spoke in 1 Timothy 2.

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It's this really weird passage that's in there that says,

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Women will be saved through childbirth.

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A very strange passage indeed.

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Except when you know that the context is trying to explain that whatever situation you're in,

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your salvation is still lived out right then and right there.

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Not somehow waiting for something to change.

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But rather whatever place you may be in your life.

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You see, whatever that situation or role we may be in, God is still showing us love through it.

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Not in spite of it.

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And doesn't mean that we accept everything that has ever happened to us as if we're not allowed to make life better.

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But it does mean that maybe we pause long enough to ask,

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What could God be doing in this right now?

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But you see, it's more than just Mary herself.

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You see, this is more than just some narcissistic weird moment where everything is just about Mary and her life.

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But rather realizing that God is doing a work in and through her.

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Something that she realizes is that it's not just for her, but rather this child is for all of Israel.

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The thing is, is that they were in such difficult places in life,

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but that she realizes that God's love was going beyond just herself.

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God's love was more than just what she was experiencing.

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But to realize that in a world, in an environment where the powerful were always making the decisions that everyone else was stuck with,

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where the ones who are truly in need would be forgotten,

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that instead God would be walking along with love and compassion for all the people.

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And even more than that is that the Romans that were in authority there,

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they were not always going to stay in authority.

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And what was fascinating is to even see that the events of Jesus' adulthood with his crucifixion, his resurrection,

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and much of what happened later, had played its part in changing the dynamic for Rome at the time.

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But even more than that was to realize that Jesus brought a kingdom that saw beyond the government.

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Jesus brought a kingdom that wasn't waiting for government to change before it finally found hope or peace or joy or love.

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But rather that Jesus was bringing a kingdom that brings love itself because of sacrifice,

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because of giving of oneself, because this was bringing salvation, not just from Rome,

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but from sin, death, and hell.

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To know that this child was being given by God specifically to be the sacrifice.

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Because that's the thing, is that God actually loves us that much, to give of himself for us.

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This is the same God who has had to watch us and all of the mistakes and the poor choices,

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and just the treachery of who we've been as human beings over however many centuries.

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And in looking at that and still loving us.

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And that's the same kind of love that we are now meant to bring to the world.

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Because we're not just called to love the people who are deserving and have managed to get everything right.

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We're meant to love everyone, even knowing the ways in which they may have ruined or messed up their own lives.

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Or even the times when they've made ours harder as well.

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Because the thing about love is that love looks forward to opportunities to make what is ugly into something that is beautiful.

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And to take what has been failed and turn it into a joy.

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We may be looking at a lot of things that are happening in our life and in our world today.

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That we are struggling to understand what this even means.

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And maybe we are waiting that somehow something will change over the new year.

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Maybe there is some present under the tree or there is some opportunity around the corner that we are waiting for.

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And that once that happens, then our hearts can relax.

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And we can finally be the people that we feel we're meant to be.

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But the love of God goes beyond the circumstances.

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The love of God goes beyond the turmoil that is inside of us.

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The love of God goes beyond whatever we see in life at this moment and shows us something deeper and something better.

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So more than just the songs that we hear on the radio, more than just waiting to see if your favorite one comes up and puts you in a good mood.

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But rather is to say that who we are in Christ is what truly brings love into this world.

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And if you are struggling to feel that today, may you be able to hear it from God's word and see it shared from those who also know Christ Jesus as well.

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So this morning may we not only know the love of God because Christ Jesus has come to give his life for you,

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but also may we share it with those around us because this world desperately needs it just as much as we do.

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Thanks be to God.