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Continuing our series tonight, 
Wicked for Christmas. 

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If you haven't been with us for 
the series, we've been working 

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our way through the movies, 
Wicked and Wicked for good and 

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using some of the songs in those
movies of ways to reflect on the

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life of faith. 
We've had most of the Sundays 

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we've been doing this, we've had
live people singing tonight. 

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I didn't want to ask. 
I I thought it would be simpler 

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for everyone to use a recorded 
song tonight from the movies 

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rather than rather than live 
singers. 

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I, I know folks have a lot of 
stuff going on on Christmas Eve,

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and so I didn't want to put 
pressure on anyone to need to 

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sing tonight. 
But tonight we're talking about 

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what we'll be later listening to
the song for good, which is from

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the second movie. 
I believe it's the final song. 

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And but before we get to that, I
want to talk about one of the 

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good things about being a kid, 
kids. 

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There's a lot of, you know, 
being a kids not easy all the 

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time. 
There's a lot of struggles that 

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go along with being a kid. 
But there's some things you can 

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do when you're a kid that you 
can't do when you're an adult. 

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And one of the best things you 
can do as a kid, which I seldom 

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see adults doing, is playing 
tag, right? 

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I mean, you don't typically when
a group of adults get together, 

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you don't hear a 40 something 
person saying, hey, let's play 

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tag, you're in. 
You don't typically hear that, 

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but tag is one of the best games
ever. 

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You don't need any equipment to 
play tag, right? 

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None. 
You can play tag bare feet if 

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you're tough enough. 
I was never tough enough for 

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that. 
But all you need is space and 

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people and sometimes the more 
people the better. 

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And you know how it works. 
Who? 

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What's the part that everyone 
wants to have when you're 

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playing tag Bass. 
No, no, no. 

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What role? 
What role do you know? 

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What person? 
Who? 

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What? 
What's the one thing? 

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What it you want to be it when 
you're playing tag? 

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I don't know who came up with 
his name, but you just it and if

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you're it, that means you have a
special power. 

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You can run around and you can 
touch other people and depending

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on the type of tag you're 
playing, different things 

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happen. 
If you're playing freeze tag and

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you're it and you touch people, 
you have the power to freeze 

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them. 
But in the purest form of tag 

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and the most simple version of 
the game, the power that you 

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have as it is that when you 
touch someone, now they're it. 

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And they get to chase people and
tag them and make them it. 

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And you just keep passing it 
around from person to person. 

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The brilliance of the game. 
Now I'm finally understanding 

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it. 
I'm sure this game was invented 

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by parents who wanted to wear 
their kids out because part of 

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the brilliance of the game is 
there is no end. 

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You just keep playing until 
everyone like, falls on the 

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ground exhausted or someone 
says, is it a time for ice 

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cream? 
Let's go in and get some ice 

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cream. 
It's a great game. 

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One person touches the others 
and the next person becomes it, 

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and so on and so on and so on. 
There's a lot of, There's a 

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sense in which life is like 
this. 

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It's like a game of tag where 
one person is it and they touch 

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others and, and pass that on to 
others. 

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And, and I did that too soon. 
We see that from the time of 

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Jesus's conception, right? 
There's Jesus in Mary's womb. 

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Not exactly. 
I think she's like 3 or 4 months

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along at this time. 
I can't remember. 

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She goes to visit her relative 
Elizabeth, who is also 

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miraculously pregnant with 
Jesus's cousin John. 

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And and she's miraculously 
pregnant because she is well 

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past childbearing years, and yet
she's about to have her very 

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first baby. 
And as soon as Elizabeth hears 

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Mary's voice, the child within 
her leaps for joy. 

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John. 
He didn't even have to be tagged

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by Jesus. 
You just had to get close to 

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Jesus and, and, and hearing his 
presence through Mary's voice, 

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John leaps for joy. 
There's a very real sense in 

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which this is kind of a cosmic 
game of tag Being touched by the

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person who's it changes you. 
Being touched by Jesus changes 

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you. 
Jesus changes us for good. 

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Knowing Jesus, being touched by 
Jesus, being in Jesus's presence

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changes people for good. 
We see that over and over and 

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over again in the Scripture. 
We see it with Mary as Jesus 

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comes literally into her life. 
Then as Mary carries the unborn 

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child to other people, they're 
touched by Jesus. 

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Their life is changed. 
There's joy in in John's life 

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before he's ever born just 
because he's in the presence of 

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Jesus. 
Jesus when he, he goes out into 

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the boat with Peter and James 
and John and they get the 

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miraculous catch of fish. 
And Peter's like, who is this 

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guy? 
He's, he's, he says to Jesus, 

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get away from me, you're holy 
and I'm not. 

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And Jesus says, we'll take care 
of that. 

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Jesus went to the woman at the 
well and this woman outcast by 

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her own community suddenly 
becomes it and she becomes the 

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one that brings the other people
in her community, Jesus, after 

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she's touched by Jesus, Jesus 
touches the lepers. 

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One of the amazing things about,
you know, I don't know about 

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you. 
When I was growing up, I, I had 

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to dress up for church. 
I'm glad that that's not a rule 

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anymore. 
I had to dress up for church 

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and, and, and, and you ever have
anyone here have their parents 

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ever have the experience of your
parents making you dress up? 

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Anyone ever have that? 
And what are you told once you 

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get dressed up? 
What's that? 

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They look nice. 
You get that, But you also get 

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an instruction. 
Don't get dirty. 

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Don't touch anything. 
No playing on the ground, no 

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playing on the floor, no 
crawling around outside in the 

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grass. 
Don't touch anything dirty. 

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Because when you're all cleaned 
up and you get into something 

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dirty, what happens? 
You get dirty. 

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That's not how it worked for 
Jesus, the ultimate cosmic it He

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was perfectly clean, perfectly 
holy. 

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And when he touched someone, no 
matter how holy or no matter how

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dirty or how unholy they were, 
they didn't make Jesus dirty. 

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Jesus made them clean. 
They didn't make Jesus corrupt. 

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Jesus made them holy. 
That was the power that Jesus 

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had. 
No one wanted to touch the 

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lepers. 
They would immediately become 

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unclean, dirty, corrupted, but 
Jesus, who could have healed 

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them with a word without ever 
touching them because he did 

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that for people sometimes. 
Jesus touched the lepers and 

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healed them and made them clean.
Jesus touched with and hung out 

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the folks that no one else 
wanted to touch your hand. 

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At least none of the good 
people, none of the religious 

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people wanted to touch want to 
hang out with. 

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He hung out and touched the tax 
collectors. 

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He hung out and touched the 
prostitutes. 

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He hung out and touched the the 
drunks. 

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He hung out and touched the 
folks that that that were 

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shunned and avoided by all of 
the good religious people in 

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society. 
When Jesus entered their lives, 

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he changed them and he changed 
them for good. 

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Sometimes it seemed even against
their will, or at least against 

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their knowledge and their 
intention, it didn't. 

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It's something it didn't seem to
matter. 

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Whatever the reason, you came to
Jesus. 

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And, and I say this just because
at the end of Jesus's life on 

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this earth, when he was being 
beaten and hung on the cross and

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crucified there, those folks 
touching Jesus, Jesus prayed for

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them and asked his Father in 
heaven to forgive them. 

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They were blessed. 
They were changed for good by 

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Jesus without ever trying to be,
without ever trying to be. 

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The woman caught in the act of 
adultery brought to Jesus so 

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that he could sentence her for 
the sentence her to death. 

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Because she was brought to 
Jesus, she was forgiven and went

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away, set free. 
This is what it means to be 

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touched by Jesus, to be close to
Jesus. 

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Now there is a very real sense. 
Well, there's there's many 

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different versions of tag, 
right? 

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One of my favorites that 
contradicting what I said 

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earlier, I, I did play a lot as 
an adult. 

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I wasn't really an adult. 
I was right. 

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Just Full disclosure, right now,
I'm mentally and emotionally a 

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15 year old and I have always 
been a 15 year old. 

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My sense of humor, everything 
about me and in most respects in

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my brain is about 15 years old. 
So technically I've never grown 

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up, but I I as a young adult, I 
played a game at camp called 

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BLOB tag. 
You ever played BLOB tag? 

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BLOB tag is light tag, only more
complicated. 

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And in this case, the 
complication makes it fun in a 

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lot of other ways because you 
can have a massive group playing

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BLOB tag and you're never, it's 
never too many people. 

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The difference between BLOB tag 
and regular tag is that in BLOB 

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tag, when when it touches 
someone, that person doesn't 

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just become it. 
And then it becomes someone to 

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be chased. 
When you're playing BLOB tag, 

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when it touches someone, you're 
both it. 

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You have to stay in contact. 
If I ran up and touched and we 

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would join hands and then we 
would try to touch other people 

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and join hands with them. 
And the BLOB just keeps getting 

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bigger and bigger and bigger and
bigger until everybody's it. 

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There's a very real sense in 
which the life that Jesus calls 

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us to is like a really good 
blame game of BLOB tag, that 

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when Jesus touches us, when we 
encounter him and he changes us,

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he's changing us for good. 
But not just for our sake, for 

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our sake, because we all need 
that, but not just for our sake.

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He wants us to stay close to him
and then reach out and touch 

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others and be part of his 
changing them for good too. 

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Jesus passes along that power to
us. 

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He did that with his first 
disciples. 

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He sent him out into the world 2
by 2 little blobs, but blobs 

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nonetheless, so that they could 
go out and change people for 

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good, Casting out demons, 
healing wounds, restoring 

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relationships, helping folks 
discover and rediscover the joy 

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and wonder and awesome holiness 
of God, and making the BLOB 

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bigger and bigger and bigger. 
Jesus passes on to us the power 

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to change others for good. 
Now we're going to listen to the

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song and this is a short message
tonight after the song, I'm 

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almost done. 
We're going to listen to the 

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song for good, from the end of 
Wicked for Good. 

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And if you haven't seen the 
movies or the the theatrical 

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production, the two main 
characters are Alphaba and 

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Glenda. 
And they early on hate each 

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other, then they become close 
friends, then they become find 

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themselves on the opposite sides
of the major ideological and 

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social issue of the Kingdom of 
God. 

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And in the end as they are 
reconciled, I think is maybe the

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right word as their relationship
and they are physically going to

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be separated maybe for the rest 
of their lives. 

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They sing this song together. 
I think it's a beautiful song, 

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and as we listen to it, I'm 
going to play a lyric video. 

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I can't get a video clip of it 
because the movie's still in the

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theaters, but we're going to 
play a lyric video. 

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I want you to just watch and 
listen to the lyrics and invite 

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you to think about this. 
Who in your life has touched you

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and changed you for good? 
Let's reflect together. 

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At this point in the sermon, we 
listen to the song for good from

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the movie Wicked for Good. 
For licensing reasons, I can't 

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include it here, but you can 
find it on YouTube and all major

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music platforms. 
It's a beautiful song about how 

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two people can affect each 
other's lives and change each 

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other for good. 
I hope you'll listen to it. 

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Now back to the sermon. 
As you go into Christmas Day 

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tomorrow, maybe as you're lying 
in bed trying to go to sleep 

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tonight, as you walk through 
this coming year, when those 

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people come to your mind, people
that have been in your life, 

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that have touched you in one way
or another and you know they've 

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changed you for good, take a 
moment and pray a blessing for 

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them. 
Take a moment and thank God for 

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them. 
Take a moment and receive again 

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that blessing of having been 
changed for good. 

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And then as you take your next 
steps, as you're getting up 

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tomorrow morning and walking 
through this year, ask God, this

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God, how can I, how can I be one
of your people who when other 

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people encounter me, they're 
changed for good too? 

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This is the gift that we have in
Jesus, who was born as one of 

228
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us, that he came not not to show
off, not to simply display how 

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wonderful and powerful he is, 
but to touch us and change us so

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that we can be part of changing 
others for good as well. 

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In Jesus name, Amen. 
Amen.