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Thank you for listening to the 
river. 

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Bend Church podcast Reverb in 
church exists to lead all people

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to know love and live New Life 
in Jesus Christ. 

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We hope that you enjoy this 
message. 

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Ruben Church, good morning and 
Merry Christmas to you, what an 

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exciting time to come together 
and celebrate the birth of 

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Jesus. 
The real reason for Christmas 

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today, I want to share a story 
with you about the wise men. 

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The wise men, you probably know 
these guys. 

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If you have a nativity set, 
they're usually three of them. 

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And they are kind of holding 
gifts off to the side. 

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The reason I want to share this 
today is Christmas is a big time

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of giving gifts. 
A lot of you, maybe you open 

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gifts this morning or last 
night, or you will open them 

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this coming week with friends 
and family. 

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But but there's these guys in 
scripture brought gifts to 

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Jesus, and he wasn't a baby 
anymore. 

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He wasn't probably at the barn 
at this point. 

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This is months later because 
these men traveled, a long ways 

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away to seek Jesus out. 
So maybe Jesus is a year old, or

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a little over a year old at this
point, but here's How The Story 

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Goes. 
Matthew, choose says, this the 

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star they had seen in the East 
guided them to Bethlehem. 

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It went ahead of them and 
stopped over the place where the

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child was, when they saw the 
star, they were filled with joy,

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they entered the house and saw 
the child with his mother Mary, 

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and they bowed down and 
worshiped him. 

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Then they opened their treasure 
chest and gave him Gifts of 

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gold, frankincense and myrrh. 
Here's, here's the crazy part of

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the story. 
They probably had no idea that 

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these gifts were prophetic, what
I mean by that is every gift of 

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represented, who Jesus was even 
as a baby. 

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But here's the beauty of it, we 
get to look back today on the 

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life and on the death and on the
resurrection of Jesus Christ, 

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2000 years ago. 
And we understand that these 

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gifts represented who he was. 
So, let's look at him. 

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Gold, frankincense and myrrh. 
The first gift was gold and in 

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that culture. 
And in that day, gold, Old was a

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gift that you would give a king 
without even knowing it. 

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These wise men travel from far 
away and they'll a probably a 

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large amount of gold before 
Jesus. 

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Here's what it represents. 
Jesus didn't become king because

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of what he did, he didn't rise 
to military power while he was 

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here on Earth, he didn't have to
die. 

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He didn't have to perform 
miracles in order to become a 

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king or be enthroned as a king. 
What this gold represented was 

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this baby. 
Jesus had always been a king. 

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He had Always been the lord of 
the cosmos. 

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He chose to allow himself to be 
wrapped in flesh. 

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He chose to come down and be 
conceived by the spirit. 

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He chose to be born as a baby 
but the baby was already. 

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The Lord, the king, the little 
baby Mary held literally was the

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Lord of all the heavens. 
And so these men, maybe they 

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didn't recognize him as a king 
but they knew he was royalty and

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they lay this gift of gold 
before him and not only goal, 

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they give him a second gift 
frankincense. 

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Frankincense. 
Most likely was A type of 

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incense that would have been 
burnt at the temple as the 

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priest prayed. 
So you know what frankincense 

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represented or told us about 
Jesus that he is priest. 

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He is a pre. 
See, in the Old Testament, kind 

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of Judea static system. 
You would come to the temple and

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you would bring a sacrifice, but
you couldn't go sacrifice it for

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yourself. 
The priest would go in for you 

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and he would sacrifice. 
He would basically go in and 

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pray that God would forgive your
sins. 

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And so when Jesus this this in 
Sense is laid. 

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Before Jesus, is very valuable 
costly incense. 

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What it Representatives, he was 
going to be our priest that 

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would intercede for ever for us.
The Bible tells us that When 

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Jesus ascended to Heaven, again,
he sat down at the right hand of

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the father. 
You know what he does, he 

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intercedes for you and I that 
means he makes prayers for us. 

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He says, father, that one is 
mine. 

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I know they're struggling. 
I know that they, they fail a 

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lot. 
I know that that the guy they 

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don't act like they should, they
don't talk like, they should, 

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they don't always live, like, 
they should. 

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But God, they Surrender to me 
and they are mine. 

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And so you have somebody pulling
for you in heaven, rooting for 

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you before the Lord and cheering
you on before the heavenly 

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father. 
And so the priest this, the 

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frankincense represented, the 
priest, but then also the last 

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one probably probably the one 
that there's no way that Mary 

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could have known. 
What this gift represented. 

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I don't think that that the wise
men would have known but we do 

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and it's summer seamer was in 
embalming spice. 

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Something you would put on a 
dead a dead body. 

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We know that Jesus body was 
quickly, sort of Embalmed with 

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spices as they took him down 
from the cross. 

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But do you know what we look 
back and see that, even in this 

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gift of myrrh, there is a savior
murder would be a gift for a 

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savior who would die, who would 
sacrifice himself. 

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And we know that he would rise 
again. 

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But, isn't it crazy how when you
dive into the Bible story in the

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Christmas? 
This Christmas Story in 

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scripture. 
What we find is, there's this 

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prophetic word that this little 
baby that we celebrate today, 

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being born, he was king of kings
and Lord of lords from the time 

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he stepped on this Earth. 
Earth. 

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He would also be the priest who 
would forever intercede for you.

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And I he loves us that much and 
then the gift of myrrh, it 

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represents the fact that he is a
savior. 

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See, there's a sin debt that 
couldn't be satisfied. 

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Any other way, God couldn't just
Overlook our sin and let us back

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into heaven. 
He couldn't just sweep it under 

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the rug at had to be dealt with 
and paid for. 

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And so Jesus steps Out of 
Heaven, he comes to be born as a

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baby to live a sinless life, the
only person to ever do that. 

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He does about three three and a 
half years of ministry where 

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there are Miracles taking place,
he's raising people from the 

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dead. 
He's giving people back their 

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sight. 
And then, he allows himself to 

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be nailed to the cross. 
The story makes no sense. 

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Until you realize that the 
purpose he came for, was you. 

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And I because as he took our 
pain on the cross, he also 

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satisfied the righteous Judgment
of the heavenly father. 

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So they put him in a grave. 
He rose again. 

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He ascended to heaven. 
And here's what he says, if you 

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will, just believe that I'm king
of kings and Lord of lords. 

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If you would just accept me as 
your priest and align yourself 

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under my lordship, if you will 
believe, That I am your savior. 

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If you'll believe in me that I 
literally took your place on the

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cross. 
You can have eternal life. 

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I can think of no better way 
today to celebrate baby Jesus. 

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Then to come and lay a gift 
before him. 

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We can't get gifts and lay them 
physically. 

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Before him. 
One of the things we've done 

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through project hope and other 
things this year, we brought 

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physical gifts and we giving 
them to other people, in the 

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name of Jesus. 
We've tried to Build a Better 

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Community and bless people and 
lift people up through project. 

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Hope this year just be in the 
hands. 

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And Feet of the Lord. 
But how do we bring Jesus a gift

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today? 
We bring Jesus to give today by 

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bringing ourselves before him 
laying our hearts before him. 

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So, if you belong to Christ 
already today, maybe it's just 

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the day over a reminder of 
worship day of, reminder, to say

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in Jesus, you are my Lord. 
Thank you for being my savior. 

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That's how we lay a gift before 
him today. 

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But maybe you're watching and 
you go, you know, I've never 

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really surrendered my life to 
Christ. 

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I'm not exactly sure that. 
I'm there, I can think of no 

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better day than Christmas day 
for you to give your life. 

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If to Jesus to give him a gift 
of you, he wants to give you 

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salvation. 
He wants to redeem you and draw 

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you to himself and make you 
right with God again but it all 

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comes through surrender. 
So, if that's you today, right 

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here on Christmas, why not just 
give your life to Christ, open 

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up your heart right now and just
say this prayer from your heart 

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to the heart of God. 
Say, say God today, I Surrender 

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my life to you. 
And say this Jesus. 

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I believe that you came for me, 
I believe that you died for me 

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and I believe you rose from the 
dead and I'm asking you to 

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forgive me, just say this, a I 
give you my life, this 

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Christmas. 
I'm ready for you to be my Lord 

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and I'm ready to follow you. 
Thank you for saving me. 

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Listen God receives you if you 
gave your life to him today or 

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maybe you just celebrating in 
worship, that he is your lord. 

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He has accepted you. 
I would love love. 

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Love to know that you gave. 
The gift of your life to Jesus 

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on Christmas day. 
Would you send me a message? 

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Drop a comment in the chat right
now. 

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I would love to know and worship
and celebrate with you. 

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Listen, I pray that you have an 
amazing rest of your day today. 

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Merry Christmas to you and your 
family. 

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I can't wait to see you here at 
Riverbend next week. 

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God bless. 
Thank you for listening to the 

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Riverbend Church podcast. 
Learn more about who we are as a

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church and how to connect you 
can head over to our website 

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Reverb in church dot life.