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Max Lucado - Heaven's Door Is Always Open Biblical Sermon · Max Lucado Daily Sermons

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  Speaker 1: I hope this series on the twenty third Psalm has
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  Speaker 1: been a strength to you. Over the last few weeks,
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  Speaker 1: We've needed the comfort that comes from these beautiful words.
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  Speaker 1: And I'm so thrilled to turn our attention to the
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  Speaker 1: final words Psalm twenty three and verse six. And I
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  Speaker 1: will dwell in the House of the Lord forever, Oh
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  Speaker 1: Gracious God, We bow before you, needing you, Father, so
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  Speaker 1: in need of you, so in need of your touch,
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  Speaker 1: so in need of your strength, so in need of
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  Speaker 1: your forgiveness and your mercy. We believe, Oh Heavenly Father,
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  Speaker 1: that you sit on the throne. You oversee every detail
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  Speaker 1: of human life. You know the end from the beginning.
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  Speaker 1: You saw all the challenges of twenty twenty coming before
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  Speaker 1: twenty twenty was born, and you have solutions for that.
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  Speaker 2: We kneel before you.
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  Speaker 1: And cry out to your heavenly Father, and now Father,
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  Speaker 1: forgive our speaker. You know his sins are many. Help
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  Speaker 1: us to see Jesus Christ and just Jesus. Through Christ.
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  Speaker 1: We pray Amen. Unhappiness on earth really cultivates a hunger
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  Speaker 1: for heaven. By gracing us with a deep dissatisfaction, God
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  Speaker 1: creates within us a desire for his affection eternally. The
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  Speaker 1: only real tragedy in life is to be settled in life,
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  Speaker 1: to be satisfied prematurely, to settle for this earth, to
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  Speaker 1: be content in a strange land. We're not happy here, folks,
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  Speaker 1: because we were never intended to be happy here. We're
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  Speaker 1: not happy here because we were never intended to be
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  Speaker 1: happy here. We're not happy here because we weren't made
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  Speaker 1: to be here. We are like foreigners and strangers in
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  Speaker 1: this world. One Peter, Chapter two, in verse eleven. Take
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  Speaker 1: a fish, Put him on the beach. What does he need?
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  Speaker 1: What does he need to have his life restored to him?
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  Speaker 1: As you watch him as his gills gasp and his
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  Speaker 1: scales dry, he's not happy. He's not happy. So what's
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  Speaker 1: it going to take to make him happy? Do you
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  Speaker 1: cover him with a mountain of cash? Do you bring
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  Speaker 1: him a beach chair and some sunglasses to go out
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  Speaker 1: and buy him a copy of Playfish magazine and a martini?
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  Speaker 1: Do you get him a wardrobe with a double breasted
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  Speaker 1: fins and people's skinned shoes. No, you know what makes
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  Speaker 1: him happy, and that is you put him back in
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  Speaker 1: his element.
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  Speaker 2: You put him back in the water.
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  Speaker 1: He'll never be happy on the beach simply because he
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  Speaker 1: was not made for the beach. And friend, you'll never
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  Speaker 1: be completely happy on earth. You won't be simply because
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  Speaker 1: you were not made for earth. Now you're gonna have
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  Speaker 1: your moments of joy, and may you have plenty of them.
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  Speaker 1: You're gonna catch glimpses of light, you'll know moments of peace.
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  Speaker 1: But they do not compare. They do not compare with
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  Speaker 1: the moment that you are placed where you are intended
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  Speaker 1: to be, in the presence of God for eternity. Augustine said,
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  Speaker 1: thou hast made us for thyself, and our hearts are
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  Speaker 1: restless until they rest in thee. So rest on this
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  Speaker 1: earth is a false rest. Now, just be aware of
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  Speaker 1: people who tell you that you're gonna find total happiness here.
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  Speaker 1: You won't guard against those physicians who tell you that
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  Speaker 1: true joy is only a diet away, a different marriage away,
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  Speaker 1: a job away, a transfer away. The prophete Amiah denounced
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  Speaker 1: people like this. He said, they tried to heal my
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  Speaker 1: people's serious injuries as if they were small wounds.
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  Speaker 2: They said, it's.
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  Speaker 1: All right, it's all right, But really it's not all right.
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  Speaker 1: Jeremiah six and verse fourteen, and folks, it won't be
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  Speaker 1: all right until we get home. Now, we're gonna have
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  Speaker 1: our moments, the newborn on the breast, the bride on
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  Speaker 1: the arm, the sunshine on our back. But even these moments,
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  Speaker 1: even these good moments, are slivers of light compared to
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  Speaker 1: the great joy in the sunrise that awaits us. In
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  Speaker 1: those moments, God is just flirting with us. He's tantalizing us,
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  Speaker 1: he's romancing us, and he's urging us to lift up
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  Speaker 1: our eyes and look toward our eternal home. Isn't this
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  Speaker 1: the concluding promise of David? He said, and I will
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  Speaker 1: dwell in the House of the Lord forever. This is
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  Speaker 1: what we were intended to do. Our forever house is
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  Speaker 1: the house of the Lord. This house is not our
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  Speaker 1: forever house. This is just short term housing. This is
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  Speaker 1: not our home. The scripture says, our homeland is where
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  Speaker 1: it's in heaven. It's not here. Our homeland is in heaven.
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  Speaker 1: This explains the homesickness that we feel. We felt a
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  Speaker 1: lot of home sick sickness over the last days and
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  Speaker 1: weeks and months.
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  Speaker 2: It just doesn't feel right.
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  Speaker 1: This is why we were never made to live in
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  Speaker 1: a diseased, riddled, pandemic clouded world like we are doing now.
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  Speaker 1: Now we all get homesickness. We've all had cases of homesickness.
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  Speaker 1: I told you before about a job I took during
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  Speaker 1: the summer of my nineteenth year that took me one
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  Speaker 1: thousand miles away from home to northern Georgia. You know,
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  Speaker 1: the folks in Northern Georgia are wonderful folks, but nobody's
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  Speaker 1: really nice to ador to door salesman, and that's what
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  Speaker 1: I want. And there were many times that summer I
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  Speaker 1: felt my bones would melt. I was so lonely. I
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  Speaker 1: can recall in one particular, when I was on the
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  Speaker 1: side of a country road. I was lost, the hour
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  Speaker 1: was late. I'd stopped to try to find my way.
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  Speaker 1: To my right was a farmhouse, And the fact that
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  Speaker 1: I can remember this some four and a half decades later,
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  Speaker 1: it just demonstrates how profound that image was for me.
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  Speaker 1: As the sun was setting, I could look right into
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  Speaker 1: the farmhouse through the big pane glass window, and there
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  Speaker 1: was a family seated down at dinner. The mom was
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  Speaker 1: spooning out something out of a bowl and putting it
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  Speaker 1: on the plates of the kids. There was a dad,
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  Speaker 1: there was a mom, There were two children. The dad
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  Speaker 1: was saying something that must have been funny, because the
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  Speaker 1: kids were laughing. They just all looked so happy. And
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  Speaker 1: it was all I could do to get to not
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  Speaker 1: go up to the front door and ring the doorbell
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  Speaker 1: and ask if I could sit at the table, because
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  Speaker 1: I longed to be home. I felt so far from home.
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  Speaker 1: And what I felt that night, some of you have
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  Speaker 1: felt ever since your husband died or your child was buried,
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  Speaker 1: or ever since you learned about the lump in your
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  Speaker 1: breast or the spot in your lung. Some of you
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  Speaker 1: have felt weary, You felt wounded, you have worried. Ever
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  Speaker 1: since this pandemic fell upon this planet. The twists and
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  Speaker 1: turns of life have a way of reminding us that
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  Speaker 1: we are not home here.
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  Speaker 2: This is not our homeland.
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  Speaker 1: We aren't fluent in the languages of disease and death.
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  Speaker 1: The culture confuses our hearts, the noise disrupts our sleep,
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  Speaker 1: and we feel far from home. And you know what,
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  Speaker 1: this is going to surprise you, But that's okay, that's okay.
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  Speaker 1: If you're unhappy, you're you're not weird, you're not emotionally underdeveloped,
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  Speaker 1: You're not home, You're not home homesickness. Homesickness is just
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  Speaker 1: one way that God continues to remind us that we
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  Speaker 1: were not made to live forever here, but we will
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  Speaker 1: dwell in the House of our Lord forever. Some time
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  Speaker 1: ago I read the story of Putsy the parent. She
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  Speaker 1: escaped from her owner and came into the keeping of
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  Speaker 1: the Humane Society when nobody else claimed her, Sue Gleeson did.
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  Speaker 1: Putsy and Sue hit it off pretty good. They talked together,
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  Speaker 1: they hung out together, they became friends. But one day
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  Speaker 1: that bird did something incredible. It flew over to Miss Gleeson,
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  Speaker 1: put her, put his beak against her ear, and said,
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  Speaker 1: fifteen one five zero zero South Oneida Street, Green Bay.
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  Speaker 1: Is that not the craziest thing? I had to read
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  Speaker 1: this story twice? Gleeson was dumbfounded. She researched and found
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  Speaker 1: that that was an actual address. She went to the
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  Speaker 1: house and she found a man seventy one excuse me,
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  Speaker 1: seventy nine year old man by the name of John Struban's.
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  Speaker 1: She said, do you happen to own a parrot? He said,
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  Speaker 1: I used to, and I miss my parrot terribly. And
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  Speaker 1: when he saw his Puzsi. He was thrilled, and here's
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  Speaker 1: what he told missus Gleeson. You know he even knows
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  Speaker 1: his phone number. As crazy as that might sound, it's
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  Speaker 1: not as crazy as you might think, because you have
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  Speaker 1: an eternal addressed fixed in your.
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  Speaker 2: Mind as well.
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  Speaker 1: God has set eternity in the hearts of men. There
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  Speaker 1: is something inside of you that is longing for an
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  Speaker 1: eternal home.
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  Speaker 2: Down deep.
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  Speaker 1: You know, you know, you know this is not your home,
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  Speaker 1: So be careful not to act like you are. Don't
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  Speaker 1: lower the duffel bag too soon. Would you hang up
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  Speaker 1: pictures on the wall of a greyhound bus? Would you
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  Speaker 1: set up a bedroom at the roadside rest stop? Would
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  Speaker 1: you ever load a kingsized bed on a commercial flight? No,
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  Speaker 1: you know, it's simply a tool of transportation to get
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  Speaker 1: you to your home. And that's what this life is.
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  Speaker 1: It's simply a mode of transportation to make sure we
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  Speaker 1: get home safely. Don't treat this world like it's home.
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  Speaker 2: It isn't.
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  Speaker 1: The greatest calamity is not to feel far from home
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  Speaker 1: when you are, but to feel right at home when
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  Speaker 1: you're not. The greatest calamity is not to feel far
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  Speaker 1: from home when you are.
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  Speaker 2: But to feel right at home when you're not.
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  Speaker 1: So don't quench that, rather stir stir these longings.
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  Speaker 2: Forever. God's home is our forever home.
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  Speaker 1: That's why the Psalmist said, and I will dwell in
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  Speaker 1: the house of the Lord forever.
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  Speaker 2: That's your forever home.
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  Speaker 1: I know a couple that adopted a three year old
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  Speaker 1: and a one and a half year old. The one
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  Speaker 1: and a half year old obviously doesn't know a big difference,
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  Speaker 1: but the three year old can tell a difference between
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  Speaker 1: his new home and the foster home.
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  Speaker 2: And when you ask.
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  Speaker 1: Him, he says, this is my forever home. Won't it
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  Speaker 1: be great when we're in heaven and we can say
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  Speaker 1: the same thing, we can say, this is my forever home.
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  Speaker 1: Couldn't we use a forever home? Birthdays remind us that
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  Speaker 1: we could. You know, I'm officially a man of Medicare,
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  Speaker 1: and twenty twenty saw, in addition to everything else, it
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  Speaker 1: saw my sixty fifth birthday, and all those things that
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  Speaker 1: I've heard all my life about aging are coming true.
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  Speaker 1: I'm patting myself less on the back and more under
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  Speaker 1: the chin. I have everything that I had thirty years ago,
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  Speaker 1: except now it's all lower. The other day, I tried
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  Speaker 1: to straighten out the wrinkles in my socks, and I
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  Speaker 1: found out I wasn't wearing any I've come to appreciate
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  Speaker 1: this parish paragraph written by humorist Dave Barry. He said,
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  Speaker 1: with the exception of dental problems, intestinal malfunctions, muscle deterioration,
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  Speaker 1: emotional instability, memory lapses, hearing, envision loss, impotence, seizures, growths,
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  Speaker 1: prostate problems, reduced limb functions, massive coronary failure, death, and
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  Speaker 1: of course painful hemorrhoidal swelling. I'm doing just fine. Aging
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  Speaker 1: it's no fun. It's no fun. Yeah, and the way
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  Speaker 1: yet to avoid it? You think we could, But we
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  Speaker 1: do everything right. We paint the body, preserve the body,
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  Speaker 1: protect the body, and we should. These bodies are God's
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  Speaker 1: gifts and we should be responsible. But we should also
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  Speaker 1: be realistic. This body must die so that our heavenly
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  Speaker 1: body can live. Here's what the apostle said. Flesh and
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  Speaker 1: blood cannot have a part in the Kingdom of God.
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  Speaker 1: Flesh and blood in our current state cannot have a
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  Speaker 1: part in the Kingdom of God. Something that will ruin,
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  Speaker 1: which is this body cannot have a part in something
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  Speaker 1: that never ruins, and so this body must be changed.
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  Speaker 1: Aging is God's idea. It's one way that he prepares
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  Speaker 1: us for our eternal home, and it's a reminder that
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  Speaker 1: we are headed homework. We can't change the process, but
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  Speaker 1: we can change our attitude toward it. Here's an idea.
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  Speaker 1: What if we begun to look at the age body
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  Speaker 1: like we do the growth.
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  Speaker 2: Of a tulip.
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  Speaker 1: I don't know a lot about tulips, but I do
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  Speaker 1: know that people don't mourn over the passing of a
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  Speaker 1: tulip bulb. Gardeners don't weep as the bulb begins to weaken,
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  Speaker 1: and they don't purchase tulip girdles. They don't buy petal
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  Speaker 1: wrinkle cream or consult plastic leaf surgeons. We don't moan
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  Speaker 1: the passing of the bulb. In fact, we celebrate it.
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  Speaker 1: Tulip lovers get excited when the tulip bulb begins to weaken.
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  Speaker 1: Watch that one. They say, it's about to blossom. Here's
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  Speaker 1: a crazy idea. I wonder if angels do the same
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  Speaker 1: with us. The more frail we become, I wonder if
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  Speaker 1: the angels get excited when they see the fact that
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  Speaker 1: we're about to blossom. Watch that lady in the hospital,
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  Speaker 1: she'll be coming home any day. Now, keep an eye
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  Speaker 1: on that fellow with the bad heart. He about to blossom.
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  Speaker 1: Here's the promise from the Apostle Paul. He said, we
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  Speaker 1: are waiting for God to finish making us his own children.
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  Speaker 1: We're waiting on him to finish this, which means our
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  Speaker 1: bodies will be made free. Do you think our bodies
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  Speaker 1: are free now? By no means. The Apostle Paul describes
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  Speaker 1: them as earthly bodies. Here's some other translations. Lowly body,
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  Speaker 1: the body of our humble estate, weak, mortal bodies, vile bodies,
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  Speaker 1: humble bodies. I mean, these bodies they don't get a
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  Speaker 1: lot of positive press in scripture. Why it's because they
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  Speaker 1: have to be transitioned. They have to be changed. You
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  Speaker 1: could add your own adjective. What word describes your body today?
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  Speaker 1: Maybe you say my cancerous body, my arthritic body, my
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  Speaker 1: deformed body, my crippled body, my addicted body, my ever
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  Speaker 1: expanding body. The word may be different, but the message
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  Speaker 1: is the same. These bodies are weak, and they begin
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  Speaker 1: decaying the minute we began breathing. And my friend, that's
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  Speaker 1: a part of God's plan. That's a part of God's plan.
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  Speaker 1: We can celebrate our aging because every day we get
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  Speaker 1: closer and closer to that moment that we are transitioned
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  Speaker 1: into our heavenly home. Every wrinkle and every needle takes
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  Speaker 1: us one step closer to the last step when Jesus
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  Speaker 1: Christ will change our simple bodies into forever bodies. There'll
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  Speaker 1: be no pain, There'll be no depression, there'll be no sickness,
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  Speaker 1: there'll be no end, there'll be no pandemics.
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  Speaker 2: This is not our forever home.
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  Speaker 1: Now. It will serve for the time being, but there's
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  Speaker 1: nothing like the moment that we enter his door. I
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  Speaker 1: just want to urge you to set your heart on that.
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  Speaker 1: During these times of difficulty, we must have times that
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  Speaker 1: are focused on eternity. Heaven is the green vegetable, on
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  Speaker 1: the spiritual diet. We need to think long and hard
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  Speaker 1: about it. We our need to set our mind on
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  Speaker 1: our heavenly home. We need to continually try to envision
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  Speaker 1: a life that awaits us. We are here friends for
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  Speaker 1: just a moment, just a moment, and then we'll be
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  Speaker 1: with Christ forever, and that moment is going to pass
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  Speaker 1: very quickly. Hang in there, don't get discouraged, don't give up.
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  Speaker 1: Keep your eyes up, keep looking toward your heavenly home.
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  Speaker 1: When sickness comes, when aging comes, when problem comes, when
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  Speaker 1: diseases come, don't let them pull you down. You keep
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  Speaker 1: lifting your eyes up and looking toward your heavenly home.
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  Speaker 1: You were not made for here. Don't think for a
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  Speaker 1: second you'll ever be completely happy here again. You'll have
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  Speaker 1: your moment, and I pray you have a lot of them,
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  Speaker 1: but you'll never be completely happy here. Let your expectations,
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  Speaker 1: if this life be realistic, be realistic. This is not
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  Speaker 1: your home. You're a fish on the beach, and your
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  Speaker 1: heavenly Father is going to come, and he's going to
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  Speaker 1: put you in your element, and he's going to do
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  Speaker 1: it at the right time, in the right way. He
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  Speaker 1: loves you. Let him love you. Let him love you now.
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  Speaker 1: Maybe I'm speaking to somebody who doesn't know their heavenly father.
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  Speaker 1: You don't know that the Lord Jesus is coming for you.
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  Speaker 1: You don't know that this earth is just a transition place.
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  Speaker 1: It's just an airport terminal in which we are being
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  Speaker 1: moved from one place to the next. Maybe you're just
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  Speaker 1: hearing this for the first time. Well, let me tell
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  Speaker 1: you what Jesus says. Jesus says this world is not
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  Speaker 1: your home, but that he has gone to prepare a
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  Speaker 1: place for you, and he will come back and take
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  Speaker 1: you to be with him so that you can be
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  Speaker 1: where he is.
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  Speaker 2: But he won't do that.
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  Speaker 1: Unless you accept his invitation, his invitation inviting him to
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  Speaker 1: be the lord of your life, inviting inviting him to
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  Speaker 1: be the master of your eternity. He's got such great
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  Speaker 1: plans for you, a great destiny for you, and he
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  Speaker 1: will offer it. He offers it to you, but he
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  Speaker 1: won't force it upon you. Why don't you say yes
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  Speaker 1: to him? Say yes to him, Just say, Lord, I
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  Speaker 1: receive you as my king, I receive us my master,
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  Speaker 1: I receive you as my maker. I acknowledge that this
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  Speaker 1: difficult world is not my home, and I'm looking forward
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  Speaker 1: to the home you give me. You see, the reason
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  Speaker 1: that Jesus died on the cross is so that you
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  Speaker 1: could become a perfect person in a perfect place with
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  Speaker 1: your perfect heavenly father. I close with the story that
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  Speaker 1: came my way through a friend who heard it from
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: a friend who heard it from another friend, who knows
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  Speaker 1: how many friends it passed through. So I can't really
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  Speaker 1: vouch for its authenticity. Chances are it suffered through each
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  Speaker 1: of the generations. But even if there's only a splinter
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  Speaker 1: of fact in what I heard, it's such a great
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  Speaker 1: story it's worth their retelling.
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  Speaker 2: Seems.
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  Speaker 1: A fellow was doing some shopping at a commissary on
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  Speaker 1: a military base. He didn't need much, just some coffee
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  Speaker 1: and some bread. He was standing in line at the
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  Speaker 1: checkout stand. Of course, this was long before he had
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  Speaker 1: the social distance, and it was back in the days
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  Speaker 1: when people would, you know, stand in line and be
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  Speaker 1: able to carry on a conversation one with the other.
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  Speaker 1: Behind him was a woman with the full cart. He
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  Speaker 1: noticed that her basket overflowed with groceries and clothing, and
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: even some small appliances. As he stepped up to the
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: grocer to the register, the clerk invited him to draw
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: out a piece of paper out of a fish bowl.
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: If you pull out the correct slip, the grocer said,
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: then all your groceries today are free. Well, the man asked, well,
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: how many correct slips are there, and the clerk said, well,
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: there's just one. Well, the gentleman looked to the fishbowl.
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: It was packed with all these little tiny pieces of paper,
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: and he said, well, what are the odds?
• 21:05
  Speaker 2: Even so? It wouldn't hurt.
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: So he stuck his hand in there and he pulled out,
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: wouldn't you know it? He pulled out the winning ticket,
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: wouldn't you know it? But then he realized he was
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: only buying coffee and bread. What a waste. But this
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: fellow was a quick thinker. He turned to the lady
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: behind him, the one with a mountain full of groceries
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: in her basket, and he proclaimed to her, well, what
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: do you know, honey, we won, and he gave her
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: some serious winks. She stared at him, he winked some more,
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: and somehow she had to wearwithal to realize what he
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: was doing, and she decided to play along. She stepped
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: up beside him, and she put her arm in his
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: and smiled, and for a moment they stood side by side,
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: wedded by good fortune in the parking lot. She consummated
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: the temporary union with a quick kiss on the cheek
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: and a hug, and went her way with a grand
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: story to tell her kids. I know, I know, I know.
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: Don't send me any emails. That's that was a bit shady.
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: That was a bit shady what that guy did. Yeah,
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: I know, I know, kids. He shouldn't have lied. He
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: and she shouldn't have pretended. But all that taken into account,
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: isn't that a great story? Isn't that a great story?
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: And in that a story that's not too distant from
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: our own. We two have been graced with a surprise,
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: even more than the lady. And she had a big
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: debt to pay. We had a debt that we could
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: not pay. But like the woman, we've been given a gift,
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: and not at a checkout stan, but a gift we're
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: going to receive as we stand before our great God
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: who loves us in our heavenly home. And we too
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: have become a bride, not just for a moment, but
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: for eternity, and not just for groceries, but for the feast.
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: And don't we have a great story to tell our friends.
• 23:21
  Speaker 2: We're going to.
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: Dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Lord, thank
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: you for these comforting words. May they lift our hearts today.
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: May they lift our hearts today, And may you speak
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: especially to those who are lonely, who are afraid, who
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: are finding it difficult to press forward day to day,
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: Lift their spirits Lord with the promise of their heavenly home,
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: for its just a moment, and we'll be there to Christ.
• 23:54
  Speaker 2: We pray
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: Amen.