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I opened the sermon with a clip 
from the movie Wicked. 

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It showed Elphaba right after 
she was born and later as a 

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child. 
In both scenes, Elphaba was 

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rejected by many of those who 
should have loved her, including

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her peers, but also and 
especially her mother and 

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father. 
Now here's the sermon. 

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I don't know about you, but if I
was one of the kids, I would 

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have run as soon as the rocks 
raised up off the ground. 

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It's enough. 
I'm out of here. 

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Elphaba had a lot of challenges.
She was rejected from the time 

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she was born because she was 
different. 

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She was born with this bright 
green skin. 

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No one understood why, no one 
seemed to even ask why. 

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They just knew she was 
different. 

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They decided she was 
unacceptable and almost everyone

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rejected her, from family to 
peers to to most folks she met. 

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But Alphaba was a human being 
and, and like most human beings,

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she grew up and she fell in 
love. 

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And the man that she loved, 
Fiero, seemed to only have eyes 

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for, You know, the the prom 
queen, Miss Popular Galinda the 

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Good Witch. 
And well, she wasn't. 

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Never mind, we'll just stick 
with Galinda for now. 

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I'll try to avoid too many 
spoilers, but as as Alphaba fell

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in love with Fiero, she still 
faced all these challenges. 

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She had been rejected so many 
times by so many people 

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throughout her entire life that 
her fear really was that Fiero, 

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whom she loved, would reject her
too. 

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There's lots of reasons for 
that. 

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She had experienced so much 
rejection. 

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We tend to expect out of the 
future what we've received in 

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the past, and what Alphabet had 
received was rejection. 

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And that's what she expected. 
And so even as she found herself

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falling for Fiero, she also 
found herself afraid that Fiero 

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would not reciprocate, that he 
would not return her love. 

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I'm going to grab my notes. 
Silly me. 

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I thought, I can do this without
my notes. 

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I'm a nut. 
Oh, yeah. 

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It is that right time. 
OK. 

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That love, that fear that she 
had, it is beautifully expressed

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in a song that we're going to 
have sung for Up. 

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Yeah. 
There we go. 

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That's my problem. 
I didn't move my slides fast 

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enough in a song sung to us by 
Ida Patterson. 

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I'm not that girl, Ida. 
She is the girl that's singing 

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and she's going to come up and 
and share full, Full disclosure.

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Ida's my cousin and she sings 
beautifully and I'm not 

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unbiased, but it's still true. 
She sings beautifully and I'm so

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glad she was able to to step in 
and sing this this week for us. 

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At this point, Ida Patterson 
beautifully sang the song I'm 

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Not That Girl from Wicked. 
Due to the technical 

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difficulties faculties of 
getting a good live recording 

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with the equipment I have 
available, I can't include it 

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here. 
I described the details of the 

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song later in the sermon, so I 
won't get into that here either.

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It's a wonderful song and I 
encourage you to listen to it. 

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You can find it easily on 
YouTube, Spotify, and iTunes. 

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Now back to the sermon. 
I told you that was beautiful, 

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Ida. 
Thank you, thank you as Alphabus

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sings that song and in the 
movie, expressing her her 

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heart's desire for Fiero, but 
feeling, fearing that she's not 

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that girl, the girl that he 
would love, that he would be 

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willing to devote his life to. 
So the movie Wicked and is is a 

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movie. 
It's it's a battle of good 

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versus evil, but it's also a 
love story. 

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And like every great story, 
every good story, every good 

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story, even the good love 
stories, if you're not a love 

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story fan, you know it's all 
right. 

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But even the love stories point 
to the great story. 

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And I almost have to say at this
point that especially the good 

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love stories point to the great 
story, because there's a lot of 

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ways in which this story of 
Alphabus love for Fiero is very 

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much like the story of our 
relationship with God. 

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And and if that sounds weird to 
you, then then go back and read 

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your Bible again, because there 
are many places throughout 

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Scripture which describes the 
relationship between God and the

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people of this earth as a love 
story. 

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Elena read a portion of that 
this morning in Hosea where God 

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talks about alluring his bride, 
his his, his people into the 

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wilderness. 
And that one day she would, she 

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would no longer call him master,
but husband, and she would know 

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him and love him. 
And the relationship would be 1 

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of love and faithfulness and joy
and peace. 

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And there are many other 
passages like that. 

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The climax of the entire 
scripture is Jesus coming back 

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to earth to receive His bride 
who is US. 

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The relationship between God and
his people. 

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The story of God's relationship 
with his people is a love story,

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and often we treat it like 
Alphaba thinks of Fiero with 

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that fear that am I good enough,
am I enough? 

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Is God really going to love me? 
Is God really going to care for 

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me? 
Let's go through the lyrics, 

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just just for a moment. 
I don't worry, I'm not going to 

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sing. 
I promise. 

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I have made that covenant with 
you. 

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I will never sing to you. 
Hands touch, eyes meet. 

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Sudden silence, sudden heat. 
Hearts leap in a giddy whirl. 

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I'm not sure everyone, In fact, 
I'm I'm pretty confident. 

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Not everyone who is a Christian 
has had that kind of experience 

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with God, but it's also not 
uncommon. 

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Many people have that in the 
early stages, when they first 

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become aware, when they first 
really feel the presence of God.

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And maybe it's in a Sunday 
school, maybe it's at a Bible 

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study, maybe it's at camp, maybe
it's at another time and another

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place. 
But God feels so present. 

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God feels so real. 
Maybe it's in baptism that that 

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you can feel like you can reach 
out and touch him and there's a 

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a warmth in your heart and a 
lightness in your spirit and A 

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and a brightness in your eyes. 
And you think, This is why I 

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follow Jesus. 
And then time passes and that 

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fades and you begin to wonder. 
You begin to wonder, have I 

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dreamt at all? 
Don't dream too far. 

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Don't lose sight of who you are.
Don't remember that rush of joy.

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And there's a cautiousness that 
creeps into our relationship 

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with God. 
Did I just imagine it? 

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I mean, it felt real, but, you 
know, was it real? 

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Was God really there? 
Was it just a dream? 

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Can I really lose myself to this
one who might really just be a 

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fabrication of my own 
imagination? 

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And the story continues, every 
so often we long to steal to the

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land of what might have been, 
but that doesn't soften the ache

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we feel when reality sets back 
in. 

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One of the challenges that comes
in the life of almost every 

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follower of Jesus is that 
initial rush of joy. 

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Again, whether it happens at 
baptism, at camp, at VBF, 

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wherever that happened, that 
initial rush of joy at being in 

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a relationship with this God who
loves me infinitely fades. 

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And reality creeps in and 
there's pain and there's 

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heartache, and things aren't 
working out the way they 

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expected to. 
And if God really loved me, how 

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can this kind of stuff be 
happening? 

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I've had people say that to me 
after years of giving 

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sacrificially to care for other 
people in the name of Jesus and 

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bad stuff just keeps piling on 
and one thing after another and 

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they say is it? 
I thought God loved me. 

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Why is life like this if God 
loves me? 

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Blythe smile lithe limb. 
She's who's winsome. 

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She wins him gold hair with a 
gentle curl. 

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That's the girl he'll choose. 
Part of our mind then tells us 

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if we were just better than this
bad stuff wouldn't be happening 

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if if we were just a different 
person, a better person. 

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There's people like we see on on
the TV or the movies or or or 

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singing the songs on Spotify and
iTunes that always just sounds 

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so joyful and always seem to 
just their eyes just seem to 

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fill with tears when they think 
of their relationship with God. 

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They must be doing something 
right that I'm not doing. 

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There must be something wrong 
with me, something wrong along 

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with my relationship with God, 
because I don't feel that way. 

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And maybe I'm not the one that 
God loves. 

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Don't wish, don't start wishing 
only wounds the heart. 

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I wasn't born for the Rose and 
the Pearl. 

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And we tell ourselves to let go 
of the dream, let go of the 

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wish, let go of the hope. 
It's safer that way. 

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It's safer that way. 
It's much harder to be 

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disappointed when things don't 
work out the way we wish than it

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is to not have any wishes to. 
It's a lot safer just to not 

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have to let go of the wishes, to
let go of the dreams, to let go 

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of those kind of hopes and just 
say, you know what, life is 

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going to be bad. 
And if I expect it to be bad, I 

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won't be disappointed. 
If I imagine there's some kind 

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of all powerful God that is all 
loving that will take over and 

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guard and protect and care for 
me, then then it doesn't happen 

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and all of this pain happens 
instead. 

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That's too much to bear. 
We we can easily end up treating

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our relationship with God like a
Disney movie, like God is, is 

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Prince Charming. 
And, and if we're just pretty 

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enough or beautiful enough or, 
or whatever, then, then, then 

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God will fall in love and save 
us from our mass and take us 

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away from the awfulness that 
we're in. 

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But if we think about our 
relationship with God that way, 

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we're getting the story 
backwards and upside downs. 

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When we approach Jesus in the 
same way as we the, the, the, 

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you know, we approach the, the, 
the one person approaches their 

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love interest in the romantic 
movie we're getting, we're 

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getting the story backwards and 
upside down. 

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If we approach Jesus with the 
fear that we're going to be 

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rejected because we're good, not
good enough, we're getting it 

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backwards and we're getting it 
upside down. 

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Let's go back to I'm just going 
to warn you with the clock 

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stopped. 
It's a very dangerous thing to 

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turn me loose with a sermon and 
a broken clock at the same time 

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or a dead battery at the same 
time. 

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I'm trying to keep track of my 
phone here. 

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Jesus, who is God in the flesh, 
longs for you and would go to 

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great lengths to when your 
affection, devotion, and love. 

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That's the reality of it. 
Let's look at Hosea again. 

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God, this is God speaking. 
Therefore I will now allure her.

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God is the one drawing us in. 
Jesus himself said that no one 

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comes to me unless they've been 
drawn by the Father. 

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And I will bring her into the 
wilderness and speak tenderly to

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her. 
And I will take you. 

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He's now switched to speaking 
directly to us. 

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I will take you for my wife 
forever. 

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I will take you for my wife and 
righteousness and justice and 

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steadfast love. 
And in mercy. 

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I will take you for my wife and 
faithfulness. 

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And you will know the Lord. 
See, the one who really has to 

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worry about being rejected in 
this relationship is God. 

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God's the one who from the 
beginning of time itself has 

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been doing everything he could 
to draw his people to him to to 

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woo them to him, to bring them 
into this same level of love 

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that he already has for us. 
And when our worry is, oh, I'm 

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not good enough and God will 
reject me, we've got it all 

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wrong. 
We're backwards and we're upside

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down because time and time and 
time again it is God who has 

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laid out his heart, who has laid
down his life and been rejected,

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but he keeps laying out his 
heart and he keeps laying down 

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his life. 
The Jesus who is God in the 

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flesh. 
To that Jesus you are that girl.

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You are that woman. 
You are that boy. 

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You are that man. 
You are the 1 He has been 

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longing for your whole life, 
your whole life, and he will do 

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almost anything to win your 
love. 

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We know He'll lay down your 
life. 

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Lay down his life. 
Said that wrong. 

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Lay down his life to win your 
love. 

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He longs for you. 
Consider Mary, in all of this 

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Christmas time may be a good 
thing to do. 

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There have been prophecies of 
the Messiah for generations. 

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The king that would come from 
the line of David in the House 

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of David, the greatest king in 
the minds of the people of 

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Israel in their history, the 
greatest King David. 

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And God had promised David, one 
of his descendants would always 

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sit on the throne. 
But it had been generations 

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since the descendant of David 
had sat on the throne and, and, 

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and every Jewish person in 
Israel was waiting for the 

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Messiah, hoping for the Messiah,
believing that one day the 

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Messiah would be born. 
But you'll never convince me 

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that Mary ever thought that she 
would be that girl that would 

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give birth to the Messiah. 
God would choose a rich 

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Princess. 
God would choose someone known 

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for their wealth and their 
beauty, for their station and 

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society, for their beauty, for 
their power, for their 

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influence. 
That's who God would choose to 

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give birth to the Messiah. 
Someone who lived in a palace, 

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someone had courtier courtiers 
around them, someone who was 

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filled with grace and and and 
beauty and admired by all. 

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And who was Mary? 
Mary was an ordinary girl from a

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small town that no one really 
thought much of, neither the 

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town or the girl. 
But that's who God shows this 

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ordinary girl to give birth and 
be the mother of his 

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extraordinary son. 
And it's the same way with us. 

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God's not out looking for 
Princess and princesses. 

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God's out looking for ordinary 
people. 

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Bible says God's Spirit hovers 
across the earth, searching the 

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earth for people who will be 
faithful to him. 

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He's simply longing for us to 
love him with the same fidelity 

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and the same hope and the same 
joy and the same passion with 

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which He loves us. 
Now, I put this in parentheses 

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because I'm not going to spend a
lot of time on it because we're 

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running out of time. 
And I knew we would because I 

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always do. 
By the time I get to the last 

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slide in this whole thing, God's
not going to leave us unchanged.

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One of the one of the one of the
messages that we see that are 

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that's in in, you know, love 
stories, books, TV, movies, 

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whatever is, is is this longing 
for someone to love me just as I

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am and God loves us just as we 
are. 

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But but the other side of that 
is kind of the the part that the

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books and TV's and movies often 
misses, that longing. 

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Love me just the way I am and 
I'm just always going to be that

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way and you're always going to 
love me. 

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The reality is God. 
We cannot be in relationship 

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with God without God changing 
us. 

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God loves us just the way we 
are, but He's not going to leave

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us that way. 
The longer we're in relationship

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with Him, the more and more He 
makes us into and the likeness 

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of His Son so that we can love 
like Jesus loved we can think 

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like Jesus thinks. 
We're going to talk a little bit

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more about that next week, but I
just wanted to mention it here 

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today. 
The story that we're in as human

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beings is a grand adventure of a
battle between the forces of 

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good and the forces of evil. 
But much more than that, it's a 

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love story and it's a love story
and which we do not have to 

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fight to win the love of the 
King. 

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It's a love story in which the 
King will lay down his life to 

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win our love and our devotion 
and our faithfulness and 

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loyalty. 
You are the man, you are the 

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woman, you are that girl, you 
are that boy whom Jesus loves 

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with his whole life. 
In Jesus name, Amen. 

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Amen.