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Help My Unbelief! Sermon · Beyond the Sermon

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You're listening to Beyond the Sermon, the podcast the First
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Methodist Church in Collingswood, NJ.
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On this podcast, the goal is not just to share our sermons, but
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to go beyond the sermon and talk about what we're learning and
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what God is doing in us and in our community.
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This fall, we're living in the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke,
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and John and learning how to live from our model, Jesus.
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This sermon is part of our series The Gospels.
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You can find out more information about our church at
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fumccollingswood.org. Thanks for listening.
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This morning scripture comes from the Gospel of Mark Chapter
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9, starting verse 14. When they returned to the other
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disciples, they saw a large crowd surrounding them and some
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teachers of religious law were arguing with them.
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When the crowd saw Jesus, they were overwhelmed with all, and
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they ran to greet him. What is all this arguing about?
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Jesus asked. One of the men in the crowd
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spoke up and said, Teacher, I brought my son so you could heal
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him. He is possessed by an evil
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spirit that won't let him talk, and whenever the the spirit
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seizes him, it throws him violently to the ground.
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Then he foams at the mouth and grinds his teeth and becomes
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rigid. So I asked your disciples to
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cast out the evil spirit, but they couldn't do it.
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Jesus said to them, You faithless people, how long must
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I be with you? How long must I put up with you?
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Bring the boy to me. So they brought the boy.
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But when the evil spirit saw Jesus, it threw the child into a
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violent convulsion, and he fell to the ground, riding and
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foaming at the mouth. How long has this been
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happening? Jesus asked the boy's father.
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He replied, Since he was a little boy, the spear often
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throws him into the fire or into water, trying to kill him.
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Have mercy on us and help us if you can.
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What do you mean if I can? Jesus asked.
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Anything is possible if a person believes.
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The Father instantly cried out. I do believe, but help me
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overcome my unbelief. When Jesus saw that the crowd of
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onlookers was growing, he rebuked the evil spirit.
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Listen, you spirit, that makes this boy unable to hear and
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speak, He said, I command you to come out of this child and never
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enter him again. Then the spirit screamed and
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threw the boy into another violent convulsion and left him.
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The boy appeared to be dead. A murmur ran through the crowd
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as people said, He's dead. But Jesus took him by the hand
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and helped him to his feet, and he stood up.
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Afterward, when Jesus was alone in the house with his disciples,
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they asked him, Why couldn't we cast out that evil spirit?
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Jesus replied, This kind can be cast out only by prayer.
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This is the word of God for the people of God.
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Thanks be to God, when we were preparing to go to Uganda for
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our first term, we we hit a point in our fundraising where
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we'd kind of stalled. We had reached a certain point
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and and couldn't get past it. We got pretty discouraged about.
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We were at the point where we either needed to get that last
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bit of funding or decide we weren't going to go.
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So we started praying more intensely about and God began to
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bring the funding in in a way that we didn't expect.
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There was progress toward our going.
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We started to feel hopeful and that's when it started right.
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Tim, who was not even 2 1/2, but who seemed much older than our
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six month old Benjamin. Weren't they cute?
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I don't know what happened, but they were cute.
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Tim, however, he started waking up in the middle of the night.
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He was screaming. He was inconsolable, almost
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uncontrollable. There was nothing we could do to
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calm him down. We felt so incredibly helpless.
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We just kept asking Jesus to make it stop.
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We we recognized it as spiritual warfare, but even though we were
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preparing to go and serve as missionary, we didn't have
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categories. We didn't have a box to put it
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in for, for what that meant that we were supposed to do about it.
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So we asked people to pray for Tim's sleep.
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We prayed for Tim's sleep, but it didn't seem to change because
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at that point I don't think we were addressing the real issue.
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Those experiences have given me a soft spot in my heart for the
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Father in this story that Jeremy just read for us this morning.
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It's not hard for me to imagine what it would be like to be in
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this Father's shoes. He's been watching his son being
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afflicted since he was just a little boy, maybe around 2 1/2.
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I don't know. We don't know.
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The story doesn't tell us how old the child is now, but we can
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assume that this has been happening for some time.
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And this Father, and I'm speaking from my own experience
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here, surely felt helpless. I'm sure he had tried everything
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he knew to try, but nothing changed.
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And then imagine what would have happened within him, with it
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within his heart, the hope that would have risen up when he
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heard the news of what this Jesus of Nazareth was doing.
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How Jesus was going throughout the region teaching with
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authority and healing those who are sick, and even casting out
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demons from those who were oppressed and not just Jesus,
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right? We've talked about how there
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were dozens of his followers who were going around being sent out
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to do those very same things. And this Father, he decides he's
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going to bring his son to Jesus. But when he finally does, when
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he finally meets up with them where where they happen to to
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come in contact with each other, all he finds are some of Jesus
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apprentices, right? They tell him that Jesus is
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away. He's gone up the mountain.
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Remember, this story begins as Peter, James, and John and Jesus
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are coming back down from the Mount of Transfiguration.
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We talked about that story from Matthew a few weeks ago, that
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that moment when Jesus says glory was revealed.
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And, and so right now, Jesus isn't around, but his disciples,
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they, they've been doing this. They decide they're going to
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give it a go. They've, they've been casting
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out demons, right? So why not this one?
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But they too, are unable to do anything about it.
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And this is the scene that Jesus walks up to as he comes down the
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mountain to rejoin the group, right?
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The rest of the disciples have gotten into an argument with
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some of the religious leaders. We're not told exactly what that
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argument was about, but we can probably presume that it had to
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do with the source of this boy's affliction and Jesus.
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He's annoyed, right? He's annoyed when he hears the
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story, when they tell him, you know, they've they've the father
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brought the Son and they haven't been able to cast out this
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demon. He calls out their lack of
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faith. He commands him to to bring the
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boy to him. All right, go, let's go right to
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the source. And so the boy is brought to
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Jesus. And when he comes into Jesus,
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his presence, and this demon within him sees Jesus, the
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Spirit throws the boy to the ground.
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He's convulsing, he's foaming at the mouth, he's writhing around.
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And none of this phases Jesus, right He.
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He's not fazed by this attempted show of power, and he isn't
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distracted by these physical manifestations within the boy.
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In fact, Jesus just turns his attention to the Father and
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begins to have a conversation with him.
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He asks how long has this been going on?
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And the Father replied, since he was a little boy, the Spirit
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often throws him into the fire or into the water, trying to
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kill him. Have mercy on us and help us if
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you can. And I think here Jesus is a
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little offended by that qualifier there at the end,
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stuck on the end of the Father's request, if you can.
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And he lets him know, right? Jesus says, what do you mean if
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I can? Jesus asked.
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Anything is possible if a person believes, I think the the, the
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common reading of this verse that it's somehow the father as
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the one making the request who's supposed to believe, who's
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supposed to have enough faith. And that's clearly how the
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Father hears it, right? Because he cries out.
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I do believe, but help me overcome my unbelief, he
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believes. But if they haven't been able to
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cast out the demon yet, he must not believe enough.
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But I've begun to wonder if that's not quite what Jesus
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meant. Or at least it isn't.
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The totality of what Jesus meant when he said anything is
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possible. If a person believes.
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I wonder if the faith that Jesus is talking about, the faith that
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makes anything possible, is in this instance not the faith of
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the Father, but the faith of Jesus.
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I wonder if Jesus was offended by the phrase, if you can,
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because he knew that the deliverance of the boy rested on
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his own faith, which was already a settled matter in his mind.
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And at that point, the crowd begins to gather around Jesus
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and the Father and the little boy.
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They they've kind of noticed that they've gone off to the
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side somewhere. And so Jesus rebukes the demon.
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He commands it to come out of the boy and forbids it from ever
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entering him again. And in what amounts to something
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like a death spasm, the demon scream convulses the child again
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and leaves. This has been such a traumatic
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experience for the boy that is that it appears he's been left
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dead until Jesus reaches out his hand and helps him stand up,
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which doesn't actually answer the question of whether he was
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dead or not. Now I want to make a couple
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comments here about this topic that, at least in my experience,
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the majority of the church in America doesn't speak that much
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about. OK, couple comments on the
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demonic. First, I think it's worth noting
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that there is no indication that the child has done anything to
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be responsible for his demonic oppression.
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Right. I think it's clear from the text
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that this boy is the victim. He he's not been a a willing
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participant in some dark magic or some gross sin which opened
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the door for his demonization. That's not to say that those
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other things don't occur. They do, but not every case of
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demonization as a result of cooperation with the demonic.
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And here the boys demonization which has afflicted him since he
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was a small child. It's an expression of the
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bondage that the world is under. Since the fall, we've been under
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the dominion of Satan, right? And Scripture even calls him the
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God of this world. Now, I don't know about you, but
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I don't like that very much, right?
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I, I much prefer the idea that the only way we come to be
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oppressed by an evil spirit is because we've been messing
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around with things we shouldn't be messing with, right then.
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I know how to avoid it. That doesn't appear to be the
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case for this boy, and it wasn't the case for Tim when we were
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dealing with those things, Pastor John Thompson says we are
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often handicapped by a Western understanding that things we
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don't want, don't believe in or don't like can't happen to us.
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Such is not true, right? Just because we don't like
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something, just because we don't want something, doesn't mean
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we're immune from it. That's the first thing.
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Second thing I want to know in this conversation is that we
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have to be very careful not to jump to conclusions when we're
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talking about these things, particularly regarding the
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source of afflictions in our lives, right?
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Mental health issues are real things.
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Genetic conditions are real things.
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Depression and emotional issues are real things.
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But they're also not the only thing.
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Right here in the in the post enlightenment W, we've become so
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conditioned to look for the scientific answer behind things
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that we've convinced ourselves that those are the only answers.
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But friends, things are not always what they seem, and we
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have to be careful to discern what the source of things is.
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Is every affliction demonic? No.
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Is every affliction physical, mental, or emotional?
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Also, no, right? We have to be careful not to
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jump to conclusions either way, and we have to be careful not to
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dismiss either category if our desire is to truly see people
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healed and set free. Third thing, and I'm trying to
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move towards closing. Don't worry.
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Third thing is this idea of demonic possession, right?
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In ancient Greek, which is the language the New Testament was
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written in, there are five different words related to the
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idea of possession or ownership. You know, owning something,
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which I think is how we often usually think about possession,
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right? If I possess something, I own
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it. If a demon possesses something,
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they have some kind of ownership of that person.
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But but these five Greek words, which all nuance this idea of
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possessing something, they don't actually appear in any of the
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stories of someone being possessed by a demon.
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We we see the word possession or possessed in in English, but
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it's not there in the Greek. It's been inserted by
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translators following the tradition of of the King James
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Version, one of the earliest English translations.
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But hearing this story, it doesn't say that the boy was
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possessed by a demon. It says in a very literal
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translation he the boy he has a spirit unable to speak or he has
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a spirit that makes him mute. Right?
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It doesn't say this boy is possessed by a spirit.
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My my point is, while it is possible for someone to be so
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overwhelmingly controlled by a demon that possession would be
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the right word to use, I think we would do better to to shift
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our thinking about demonic activity into something that's
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less all or nothing of a term right?
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We could use a word like influenced or harassed,
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tormented, oppressed, afflicted. Or you might have noticed I've
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used the term demonized right because it it doesn't quantify
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the level of activity or influence.
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It leaps out that idea of of ownership.
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Not every person who's afflicted by a demon is under the
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ownership of that demonic presence.
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As I closed, I want to go back to the end of this story before
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the scene closes and the Jesus and the disciples move into
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another area. The disciples who are now alone
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with Jesus, they asked him, why couldn't we cast out that evil
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spirit? To which Jesus replies, this
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kind can only be cast out by prayer.
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Well, what did Jesus mean by that?
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Or, or even the phrase we might be more familiar with from the
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King James Version, right. This kind can only be cast out
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by prayer and fasting. Did anyone else feel like that
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was missing when that was read this morning?
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A few of you? Well, again, just like the idea
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of possession, fasting doesn't appear in most modern
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translation because it it doesn't appear in the earliest
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and best Greek manuscripts that have been discovered since the
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King James Version was translated over 400 years ago.
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Or there's been a lot of scholarship done and and as they
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found older and better manuscripts of Mark, scholars
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are less convinced that the words and fasting were part of
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the original text. They're added somewhere along
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the way, but but whether it's prayer and fasting or just
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prayer, I don't think Jesus meant that.
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It was simply a matter of saying the right words or performing
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the right rituals, right? That's not Christianity, that's
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witchcraft or sorcery. What I think Jesus meant is that
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there are some demons that can only be cast out by someone
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living out of a life of prayer, a life in in connection with
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God. It's not so much about the words
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prayed in the moment of the confrontation as it is about the
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life of prayer, right? The battle before the battle, so
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to speak. It's about allowing your faith
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to be built up through this habit of prayer, this
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conversation with God, or prayer and fasting, where our trust in
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God is deepened. We learn to hear His voice,
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which can tell us how to approach a specific situation.
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Now, I've said a lot and you might be sitting here thinking
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this morning, wow, Scott's really gone off the deep end, or
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I didn't think this church believed in that kind of stuff.
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Are we becoming one of those churches?
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Or maybe you're just thinking, I didn't sign up for this this
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morning. And frankly, I don't know what
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to tell you. We've been reading through
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before Gospels, and I can't read the Gospels without being
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confronted with the reality that we live in a world at war, that
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when Jesus came, he was bringing the Kingdom of God in the midst
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of enemy territory, and his ministry was opposed.
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And the call of the church is still to bring the Kingdom in
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enemy territory, and friends, it's still opposed.
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I think the bigger question we have to ask ourselves is, if
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we're not seeing the kind of opposition that Jesus
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experienced when he was taking back enemy territory, what
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changed? If we're not seeing the kind of
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opposition we see in the gospels and in the book of Acts
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everywhere the the gospel message moves into a new area,
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what changed? Now, listen, I'm not out here
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looking for spiritual opposition.
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If I could go through life and not have to deal with the
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reality of spiritual warfare, I would say thank you, Jesus.
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Amen. But maybe, friends, we've bought
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the lie that we can explain away what used to be considered
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demonic activity with modern science.
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Maybe we've put blinders on because we don't like the idea
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of demons at work in the world today, and if we just pretend we
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can't see them, they don't really exist.
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But maybe, maybe we're not seeing this kind of opposition
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because we're not really joining Jesus in the work of setting
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people free from their appreciate their oppression.
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Maybe we're not doing enough to be seen as a threat that needs
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to be opposed because Jesus didn't come just to die so that
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we could be forgiven and we could go to heaven.
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Jesus came to set people free so we could experience life
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abundantly, abundantly. And he calls us into that same
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work of setting people free today.
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And while the reality of demonic activity is something we need to
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be aware of, it's not something that needs to make us afraid,
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right? Remember what John wrote in his
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epistle. Greater is the one who is in US
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than the one who is in the world.
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We can't ignore it, but we don't need to be afraid of it because
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Jesus. Remember a few weeks back we
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talked about Jesus sending out the disciples with authority.
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God has given his church authority to step out into the
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darkness, to proclaim the good news of the gospel of Jesus that
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the Kingdom of God has come near, and to join him in the
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work of seeing people healed and set free, and to come into a
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life giving relationship with him.
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Let's pray together this morning.
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Jesus, we're so grateful that you are the King of Kings and
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the Lord of Lords, and that you are greater than the one who is
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in the world and you live in us. The same spirit that that raised
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Christ Jesus from the dead now lives in US and can give life to
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these mortal bodies that we live in that we are Jesus.
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We're grateful that you brought the Kingdom of God close to us
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and the Kingdom of God now is in our hearts because the Kingdom
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is anywhere, Jesus, that you rule and reign and where that
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rule and reign is accepted. So would you make that a reality
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in our hearts today and would you empower us and encourage us
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and embolden us to step out into the world around us, into the
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enemy territory that's all around us, to proclaim freedom
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and healing in the name of Jesus?
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Jesus, we love you and we don't know why you chose to work in
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the world through people like us, but you did, and so would
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you make us faithful to do whatever you're asking us to do
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for the sake of your Kingdom. We love you, we thank you, we
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pray all this Jesus, in your name and for your sake, Amen.