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OK, starting our new series for 
Advent this year, Wicked for 

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Christmas. 
I'm shamelessly piggybacking on 

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on one of the most popular 
movies series that we've had in 

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a very long time. 
I'm going to. 

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I never know how to treat these 
kind of things. 

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I don't want to make 
assumptions. 

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I'm sure not everyone here is a 
Wicked fan. 

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I'm a Wicked fan. 
I know there's some others. 

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We've had some talk. 
I know there's some people that 

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think, Oh my goodness, this is 
not what about what? 

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Why can't we just stick with the
original 1939 version? 

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But just so you know, the 1939 
version starring Judy Garland 

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was not the original. 
It was the 4th full length 

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theatrical adaptation of what is
it E Frank Baum? 

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Is that am I getting? 
Yeah. 

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E Frank Baum, his book The 
Wonderful Wizard of Oz. 

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When you count all of the 
different adaptations before the

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1939 version, it was like the 
depending on how you count and 

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how you divide it and how short 
you're willing to go on some of 

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the adaptations, it was at least
the 9th or 10th version. 

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So this is not, you know, it's 
not a new thing to remake these 

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things. 
I think the storytelling and the

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lessons and the music and, and 
the magic of, of the new Wicked 

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series is just wonderful. 
There are some incredible themes

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within the movies, within the 
songs. 

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And each Sunday throughout 
Advent, we're going to take one 

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of those songs and use it to 
kind of as a as a lens through 

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which we're going to look at the
Christmas story and, and the 

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coming of Jesus Christ into the 
world and what that's all about 

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and the impact and the effect 
that it has on our lives. 

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So if you have, whether you have
seen the movies or not, if you 

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haven't seen them, go see if you
hate musicals, don't bother. 

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It's a musical and some people 
just hate musicals. 

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If you like musicals, I, I, I 
think you'll really, really like

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these films. 
And they, they have some 

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powerful characters and powerful
lessons. 

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The very first song that we hear
in the very first movie, Wicked,

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the one that came out last year 
is no one mourns the Wicked. 

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And I'm going to play a clip. 
Some Sundays we're going to have

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live people singing. 
Some Sundays we're going to have

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clips. 
And this Sunday we have a clip. 

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And so I'm going to play the 
clip so we can we can start 

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where we are. 
For those of you who are not 

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familiar with the story of 
Wicked or the Wizard of Oz, 

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both. 
Well, this is they're 

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celebrating the death of the 
Wicked Witch of the West here. 

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So not. 
Yeah. 

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Well, yeah. 
Here we go. 

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Oh, sound. 
I forgot to warn you. 

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We need sound. 
Do we have sound? 

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OK, some Everyone's a comedian. 
I get, I get no respect, no 

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respect. 
I don't know how it went mute 

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between that first one and this 
one, but here we are. 

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And now it's unmuted. 
So here we go. 

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At this point in the sermon, we 
listen to the song No One Mourns

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the Wicked from the musical 
Wicked. 

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For licensing reasons, I can't 
include it in this recording. 

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It's a great song and Ariana 
Grande sings it beautifully. 

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You can find it on YouTube, 
Spotify and iTunes. 

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I hope you'll give it a listen. 
Now, back to the sermon, all 

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right? 
For those of you who are fans, 

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you're going. 
That's not the whole song. 

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You're right. 
We can't do the whole song. 

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We don't have time. 
It's a really long song. 

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It's a really good song. 
It's a fascinating song. 

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No one mourns the wicked on the 
surface of it. 

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That is so true. 
When was the last time you were 

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really, really sad when someone 
that you thought was just 

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really, really awful died? 
You know, I, I, there was not a 

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long line of people in the 
United States and Western Europe

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that were, I can pick on the 
easiest target in all of human 

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history. 
When, when, when Hitler died. 

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No one was going, oh, no one 
mourns the wicked. 

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No one mourns the wicked. 
That's a human tendency. 

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When we see people out in the 
world or groups out in the world

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that are doing things that we 
think of and understand to be 

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really, really awful things, and
those people are cut down. 

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When they're cut out, when 
they're removed from power, when

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they're removed from their 
position, when they die, when 

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they're killed, people tend to 
celebrate. 

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They tend to be glad. 
So it there is a very real sense

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in which what the munchkins and 
and here are singing and 

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celebrating and no one mourns 
the wicked and they're all happy

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about that, that they are right.
Spot on. 

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People just don't mourn when 
someone that is wicked dies and 

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is removed. 
However, however God says this, 

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we just read it from the book of
Hosea. 

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This is God speaking through the
prophet Hosea. 

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And I'm sorry, this is from this
one's from Isaiah. 

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I will not accuse forever. 
I will not all, nor will I 

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always be angry, for then they 
would faint away because of me, 

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the very people I have created. 
I was enraged by their sinful 

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greed. 
I punished them and hid my face 

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in anger, yet they kept on in 
their willful ways. 

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I have seen their ways, but I 
will heal them. 

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I will guide them and restore 
comfort to Israel's mourners, 

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creating praise on their lips. 
It's a fascinating passage from 

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the prophet Isaiah. 
The Old Testament gets a bad rap

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and a lot of modern versions of 
Christianity and and and and 

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even secular looks at the Old 
Testament about God of the Old 

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Testament being a God full of 
judgment and anger and wrath. 

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When we say that we we have 
overlooked intentionally or 

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unintentionally, passages like 
this, it's important to note God

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as he's talking through Isaiah 
here. 

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God is not wearing Rd. color 
rose colored glasses. 

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He's not under any delusions I 
was enraged by. 

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He knows about their sinful 
greeds. 

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I have seen their ways, their 
sinful greed, their their 

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willful ways. 
I've seen all of that. 

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I know it. 
But I will heal them. 

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I will heal them and restore 
comfort to them. 

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God mourns the wicked. 
God mourns the wicked. 

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Human beings don't, but God 
does. 

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When God looked out at the 
world, Genesis 6, we've gone 

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over this a whole bunch of times
here recently. 

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Before God sent the flood to 
wipe out the world, we're told 

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that God, when he saw how wicked
the people of the world had 

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become, God grieved. 
It grieved him. 

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It broke his heart. 
It caused God pain and anguish. 

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God mourns the wicked. 
God doesn't celebrate the 

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destruction of wicked people 
because they're God's people 

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too, in the sense not in the 
sense that they see themselves 

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as belonging to God, but in the 
sense that God gave them life 

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and breath. 
God designed them. 

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God knit them together in their 
mother's wombs, just as you did 

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everyone else. 
And Jesus came and lived and 

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died for them as well. 
Human beings don't mourn the 

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wicked, but God mourns the 
wicked. 

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This in Hosea as God. 
Once again, the first part of 

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the passage it's all about God 
seeing how he uses the term 

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Ephraim, the name Ephraim rather
than Israel. 

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Here Ephraim was one of the 12 
tribes and in many of the 

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writings of the prophets, 
Ephraim is used to refer to all 

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of the children of Israel, all 
of the Israelites and and God 

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has detailed the ways they've 
been unfaithful, the ways 

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they've abandoned. 
I rescued him, I brought him out

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of Egypt, that they keep going 
back and worshipping these other

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gods, all of these wrong things 
they've done. 

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But God says this, my heart has 
changed within me. 

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All my compassion is aroused. 
I will not carry out my fierce, 

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fierce anger, nor will I 
devastate Ephraim again. 

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For I am God and not a man, the 
Holy One among you. 

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I will not come against their 
cities. 

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They will follow the Lord. 
God says I'm not. 

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There's tough things in the 
Bible and there's a couple 

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different passages in the Bible 
that that in effect say what God

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is saying here. 
God is saying I'm not like you. 

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He looks at us and he says that.
Just so you know, I'm not like 

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you. 
I'm not like you. 

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I don't celebrate the 
destruction of the wicked. 

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I don't rejoice over the death 
of the wicked. 

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I mourn and I grieve. 
My compassion is aroused. 

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I call them to repentance. 
I heal them when they will 

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receive it. 
I want them to follow me. 

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God does not mourn the wicked 
because God is not like us. 

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Isaiah said it this way, God 
through Isaiah, my ways are not 

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your ways, my thoughts are not 
your thoughts, as heavens are 

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the higher than the earth's, or 
my thoughts higher than your 

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thoughts, and my ways higher 
than your ways. 

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And the context is once again 
mercy and compassion. 

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Mercy and compassion. 
God exceeds and excels us in 

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every way, including in mercy 
and in compassion. 

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We don't mourn the wicked, but 
God mourns the wicked. 

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God mourns the wicked. 
That begs a very significant 

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question. 
Who are the wicked? 

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Who are the This is one of the 
major themes of of the the 

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wicked movies as who are the 
wicked really? 

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And, and if you really want to 
spend some time, you know, 

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watching these movies, go back 
and and watch this opening song 

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again and see how Glenda is not 
singing what you think she's 

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singing the first time you hear 
it through and how she's appears

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to be celebrating the death of 
the Wicked Witch of the West 

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with the Munchkins. 
But she's not, she's not in the 

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original. 
See, I do the same thing because

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it's original, because it's the 
first one I saw. 

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And that's how we human beings 
do that. 

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In the 1939 version, the Wicked 
Witch of the West was the 

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wickedest of the wicked people. 
And, and Dorothy was a hero and 

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the Wizard of Oz was was a 
wonderful, helpful person, even 

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if he was a fraud. 
And and that's how things worked

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out. 
Wicked retells the story. 

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And now Oz is the Wizard is the 
villain and his chief assistant 

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and and Dorothy's kind of a 
hapless person who's being 

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directed by forces that she 
doesn't understand. 

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And the goodest of the good 
folks in the land of Oz is 

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Alphaba. 
Her name, by the way, taken from

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the author's name, L Frank Baum,
Alphaba is how that name was 

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derived. 
Alphabus, the one fighting for 

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justice. 
Alphabus, the one defending the 

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weak. 
Alphabus, the one trying to 

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protect the helpless from the 
powerful forces that are trying 

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to destroy and enslave them. 
But it's very difficult to see. 

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And most folks in the land of Oz
see Alphaba as wicked and as 

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evil. 
And the few that don't see her 

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as wicked and evil but see her 
as good don't have the strength 

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or the courage to stand up for 
her. 

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Most of them. 
This is a challenge in the 

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movie. 
It's one of the central points 

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of tension in the movie is who 
is the wicked person, really, 

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and what do we do about that? 
That's one of the central 

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tensions in human existence. 
Who is the wicked really, and 

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what do we do about that? 
It's something that that I would

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say in our modern culture, I 
don't think there's anything at 

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all new about this. 
Maybe just the tendency in human

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culture is to divide up and to 
make easy divisions between the 

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good and the bad, the wicked and
the good, the evil and the good 

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and decide, you know, we all of 
these shortcuts, all of these, 

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you know, easy answers, all of 
these Cliff notes on who are the

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wicked and what do we do when 
bad things happen to them. 

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Because it's Christmas season 
and, and, and, and I'm going to 

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get really, really dark here and
controversial. 

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I meant to deliver that in a way
that would inspire some humor, 

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but I, I didn't and I know it, 
it wasn't funny. 

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I delivered that all wrong. 
No, I don't, I'm going to going 

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to move on, going to move on. 
But we need to get really dark 

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here for a minute and really 
controversial here for a minute.

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On October 7th, a couple years 
ago, one group of people 

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murdered and killed and raped 
many representatives of another 

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group of people. 
And the world was instantly 

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divided on which side in that 
conflict should be celebrated 

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and which side in that conflict 
should be mourned. 

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Few months ago a controversial 
political activist was 

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assassinated and immediately 
there was division, with one 

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side celebrating perceiving that
person as being a person of 

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great wickedness and evil, and 
the other side mourning 

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perceiving that person to be a 
person of great goodness. 

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This question of who are the 
wicked divides us as cultures, 

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as people, as Christian. 
I got, I had people in both my 

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ears, Christians who saw, you 
know, who saw those two events 

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completely differently, 
completely differently divide 

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whether we're whether it's 
Christian, whether it's division

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within the Christianity itself, 
whether it's, whether it's 

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political, whether it's social, 
whether it's ideological, 

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whether it's culture, whether 
it's national. 

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We divide on this question of 
who are the wicked. 

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But here's the thing. 
I, I don't think I changed this.

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When I think I've got the next 
slide out of order, I do. 

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I'm fix this and then forgot to 
fix it on this one. 

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See, now I messed it up. 
Doggone it, I missed my big 

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reveal. 
I was going to feel good about 

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that. 
We have a cheat code. 

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Christians have a cheat code for
this question of who is the 

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wicked and and we got to, we got
to go back to the Old Testament 

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again to get to that cheat code 
back to Isaiah where we're told 

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all of us like sheep have 
strayed away. 

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We have left God's paths to 
follow our own. 

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Yet the Lord laid on him the 
sins of us all, all of us. 1 of 

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this one of the main prophecies 
of, of the Messiah in the Old 

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Testament, Isaiah chapter 53. 
And right in the heart of that, 

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as God is talking about why the 
Messiah is coming, why this King

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is coming, We are told that all 
of us, like sheep have strayed 

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away. 
Being called like sheep, though,

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by the way, not a compliment, 
not a compliment at all. 

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If you know sheep, you know no 
one really strives to be a 

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sheep. 
All of us, like sheep, have 

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strayed away. 
All of us have left God's path 

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to follow our own way. 
Yes, the Lord God laid our sins 

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on him, on Jesus, on Jesus. 
The the the cheat code in all of

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this is who are the wicked we 
are all of us are. 

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This is one of the most 
controversial things about 

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Christianity is the statement of
I'm not going to be, I'm not 

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going to step back and throw 
stones at the wicked people 

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because I'm one of the wicked 
people. 

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It's self interested in some 
respects, which in some ways is 

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the is the closest we can get to
God's compassion. 

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Here is this self interested 
compassion. 

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I'm not going to throw stones 
because I'm one of the wicked. 

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We're all one of the wicked. 
And while the world wants to 

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divide us into these camps and 
these groups and to say those 

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are the really bad people and 
those are the really good 

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people. 
And we can sort that out and we 

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can sort all of those things and
divide that all up on our on our

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own. 
We know darn well who the good 

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are and who the wicked are. 
All we have to do is look at how

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you vote, or all we have to do 
is look at what you tweet, or 

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all we have to do is look at 
what you post. 

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All we have to do is look at 
where you go on Sunday morning 

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or don't go on so we can sort 
these things out pretty easily 

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ourselves. 
You're in jail. 

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Yeah, you're one of the bad 
guys. 

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Not in jail. 
You're going all right. 

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Bible takes all of that away 
from us and says we're all off 

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course. 
We're like sheep. 

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We've fallen into the ditch 
again, we've gotten lost again, 

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we're off course again. 
And we don't get to throw stones

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at other people who have to, who
happen to have gone off course, 

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just in a different direction, a
lot of different ways to get off

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the path. 
All of us have been there and in

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some respects all of us are 
always there because none of us 

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gets it perfect. 
So are the wicked. 

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We are. 
All of us are all of us. 

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We have that cheat code. 
Told you that was out of order. 

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Here's the thing though, this 
season of Christmas, the season 

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of Advent, season of Christmas, 
is a time to celebrate the world

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altering truth that God mourns 
the wicked. 

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It is such good news that God 
mourns the wicked because God's 

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mourning of the wicked is why we
have Christmas to begin with. 

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God's grief and compassion for 
the wicked is what motivated 

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Jesus's messianic mission. 
He came to set the captive free,

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to give sight to the blind, to 
free those possessed and 

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00:19:34,360 --> 00:19:38,600
ensnared and enslaved by demonic
forces, spiritual forces beyond 

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their control. 
He came not to judge, not to 

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condemn, but to free to show 
compassion, to show mercy, and 

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to show love. 
It's the fact that God mourns 

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the wicked. 
That's why Jesus came, because 

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God was grieving for us. 
All of us who like sheep, have 

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gotten off track. 
And so he came to us as one of 

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us, born as a child among us, to
show us compassion and restore 

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us to the way and bring us back 
into the fold. 

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That passage, I didn't put that,
OK. 

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That passage from Hosea and the 
passage from Matthew, they share

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that phrase out of Egypt. 
I have called my son. 

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Remember that and Aubrey read 
that earlier that that after you

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know, Herod found out about 
Jesus the Messiah being born and

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00:20:38,200 --> 00:20:41,280
he was going to had the wise men
come back and report to him. 

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00:20:41,480 --> 00:20:44,400
The wise men didn't come back 
and report to him where he was. 

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So he just decided to kill all 
of the two year old and under 

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baby boys in the region of 
Bethlehem. 

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And God warned, God warned 
Joseph in a dream, take Mary and

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00:20:55,160 --> 00:20:58,000
the baby flee to Egypt. 
And then we get this quote. 

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This fulfills what the prophet 
said out of Egypt. 

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I have called my son. 
There's one way to read these 

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00:21:04,480 --> 00:21:07,080
kind of New Testament prophecy 
fulfillment things. 

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00:21:07,240 --> 00:21:09,520
And that's like the writers of 
the New Testament are just kind 

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00:21:09,520 --> 00:21:12,440
of cherry picking. 
So Jesus had to flee to Egypt 

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and God brought him back from 
Egypt. 

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So this fulfills the prophecy 
that Hosea made when God says 

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out of Egypt, I have called my 
son. 

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00:21:21,960 --> 00:21:24,200
That's a really shallow way of 
looking at it. 

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00:21:25,360 --> 00:21:28,320
Those prophecies and 
fulfillments are in there to 

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00:21:28,320 --> 00:21:32,680
show us how Jesus story fits 
within the story that God has 

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00:21:32,680 --> 00:21:34,800
already been telling and already
been doing. 

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00:21:35,160 --> 00:21:40,280
And, and when, when Matthew's 
ties Jesus's birth, the 

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00:21:40,280 --> 00:21:44,840
incarnation of Jesus himself, to
this passage that begins without

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00:21:44,840 --> 00:21:49,600
of Egypt, I've called my son, 
Matthew is tying Jesus's mission

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00:21:49,600 --> 00:21:51,440
and ministry to that whole 
chapter. 

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00:21:54,520 --> 00:21:58,120
God's coming with compassion, 
not with anger. 

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00:21:58,320 --> 00:22:00,880
God's coming with grace. 
His heart has changed. 

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00:22:00,880 --> 00:22:03,720
He's seen the wickedness. 
He understands the sin. 

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00:22:03,840 --> 00:22:05,640
He knows how bad we've messed 
up. 

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But instead of coming to 
destroy, God is coming to save, 

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00:22:09,320 --> 00:22:13,160
even at the cost of his own 
life, even at the cost of his 

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own dignity, even at the cost of
his own Son. 

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It is such a good thing for all 
of us that God mourns the 

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wicked, that God does not 
celebrate the death and 

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00:22:27,480 --> 00:22:30,520
destruction of wicked people. 
God mourns and grieves the 

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00:22:30,520 --> 00:22:35,560
wicked because that's what 
motivated him to come to us, to 

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save us. 
And he invites us to share his 

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00:22:40,200 --> 00:22:47,600
heart in this way that we too 
mourn and grieve those others 

350
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who like us are off track, even 
if they're off track in a 

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00:22:52,560 --> 00:22:55,400
different way. 
Maybe we fell off the left or 

352
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the right and they fell off the 
right or the left. 

353
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Maybe they've fallen behind. 
Maybe they've tried to go ahead.

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Doesn't really matter whether 
how you got off track or where 

355
00:23:04,440 --> 00:23:08,320
you went off track. 
If you're off track and God says

356
00:23:08,560 --> 00:23:17,520
join me in this, have my heart 
in this, in Jesus name, Amen, 

357
00:23:18,240 --> 00:23:18,640
Amen.