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God put you on this earth to do something.

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Not just to exist, but to actually do something

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to make a contribution for the kingdom of God on this earth.

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And the more you're in the flow of God's gifting and calling on your life,

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the happier you're going to be, the more joyful you're going to be.

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So anxiety is an epidemic problem in America today.

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I believe it's probably true in other countries,

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but all I know is the U.S. has some of the worst anxiety disorders

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of any nation in the world.

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Over 19 million people struggle with anxiety disorders.

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It's causing people to commit suicide.

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It's causing drug addiction, alcohol addiction, divorces,

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all kinds of issues that are affecting us mentally,

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physically, spiritually, and emotionally.

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And so what we're talking about here in this final episode

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is how to break the power of anxiety, depression, and isolation.

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And we're reading from 1 Peter 4, 7 through 11.

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But the end of all things is at hand.

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Therefore, be serious and watchful in your prayer.

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So in Episode 1, we talked about the power of prayer.

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And above all things, have fervent love for one another,

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for love will cover a multitude of sins.

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Secondly, I talked about fervent love.

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Verse 9, be hospitable to one another without grumbling.

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In the next episode, I talked about the importance of hospitality,

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the importance of community.

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And then lastly, Verse 10, as each one has received a gift,

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minister it to one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.

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If anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God.

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If anyone ministers, let him do it as with the ability which God supplies

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that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ

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to whom belong the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.

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So fourthly and lastly, using your spiritual gifts, your talents, and your skills

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to bless other people, to minister to every person that you meet.

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Let me explain what I mean by three concepts that I'm going to give you.

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The first is natural talents.

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The second is spiritual gifts.

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And the third is acquired skills.

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So he says here, each one has received a gift,

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minister it to one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.

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Men and women, you've been given talents and gifts and skills.

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They're from God, and you're required by God to steward that.

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And a steward was like a servant in a house in ancient times.

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They didn't own the house.

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They were not the owner of the house, but they stewarded.

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That means that they worked the house.

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They protected the house.

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They cleaned the house.

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It might even have been a steward would be one who was over the finances of the owner.

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The point is is that the steward did not own the house,

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and the steward's money that he was stewarding was not his own money.

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And so it's the same way with each of you.

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You've been given sovereignly by God before you were born in the mother's womb certain talents.

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I would call them natural talents were given to you sovereignly by God.

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Those talents were given by God for you to use to help others, to minister to others,

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to make a difference in this world for the glory of God.

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Even in my life as a little kid, I remember certain things that I liked to do,

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that I wanted to do when I was playing by myself or when I was playing with others

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that would be part of the natural talent that God had given me.

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Each one of you are that way.

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When you look back, as far back as you can remember, remember and look at what were you interested in?

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What is it you liked to do?

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What did you maybe even naturally have a talent for?

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That was from God, and God wants you to develop that.

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And so first of all, he's talking about natural talents.

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And then when you're physically born, you're given natural talents,

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but when you're born spiritually, born again, you're given spiritual gifts.

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And so those spiritual gifts are supernaturally given by God into your life when you know him.

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So you have talents and gifts.

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So gifts that are all through Scripture, probably the two best passages are

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1 Corinthians 12 and Romans 12, they give a list of gifts.

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I don't think any of them are exhaustive.

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I think the gift of being an evangelist or a teacher or a pastor or administrator is

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just an example of all the different spiritual gifts that God gives us.

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So like even right now, we're in this room, we're in this studio filming, and my son Josh

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is filming this particular series.

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He is the current director of Empower You.

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So what are the natural talents and the spiritual gifts that make up what he does?

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And one thing I've always noticed with my son is he definitely always had a natural,

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sort of a natural talent for what I would consider more sophisticated things.

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So he can look at a complex situation and figure it out.

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He's a guy that can figure stuff out, and it's a natural talent.

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And then when he's born again as a Christian, he's using that with his spiritual gifts that

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God's given him, and he's now running Empower You as a leader.

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So there's a leadership aspect to that too.

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But then the third thing is acquired skills.

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So it wasn't good enough for my son just to have natural talents and spiritual gifts.

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He also had to work on the skill needed to learn how to run cameras, to learn how to

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film, to learn how to video, to learn how to edit what he's doing.

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Well, that takes skill learned.

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You have to go to school.

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He didn't go to school in his case, but he definitely trained himself by being around

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well-developed producers and editors, and he learned from them.

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So I would call it kind of mentoring.

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He was more in mentoring relationships.

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Well, God's given every one of you that is listening to this natural talents, spiritual

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gifts, and acquired skills.

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The natural talents are from God.

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The spiritual gifts are from God, but the acquired skills, that's on you.

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That's you taking what God sovereignly blessed you with and you develop it.

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And so as a missionary, I went on the mission field.

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I felt called to go on the mission field.

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I was in Asia for almost 10 years, but I had to learn the Japanese language.

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I had to go to school to learn the language.

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I had to study and read books about missiology and cross-cultural communication.

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In other words, God called me to do something, but I also needed the skills to do that.

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So the importance it is of being a steward.

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So stewardship means that you're taking something that's really not even yours.

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It's God's.

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Your talents are from God.

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Your spiritual gifts are from God.

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And you're acquiring and developing the gifts and talents and the skills through

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school, education, being mentored, and being in different contexts to grow that

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because it's not your gifts.

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It's not your talents.

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You're doing it for the glory of God.

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And so we can break the power of loneliness and break the power of anxiety and break

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the power of depression by using our gifts.

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I mean, I believe God put you on this earth to do something, not just to exist,

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but to actually do something to make a contribution for the kingdom of God on

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this earth.

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And the more you're in the flow of God's gifting and calling on your life,

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the happier you're going to be, the more joyful you're going to be.

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So develop yourself, develop your skills and your gifts.

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Now, in Mark 4, Jesus says something also very interesting.

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He says,

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And to you who hear, more will be given, for whoever has, to him more will be

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given.

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But whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.

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In Luke 6, we read, Jesus says,

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Both verses are saying that what you've been given, God wants you to give out to

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others.

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And if you give it out to others, God's going to bless you with more.

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In other words, being the best that you can be with the gifts and talents that

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you've been given, there's going to be added measure back to you.

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And actually, in the sower and the seeds, Jesus says,

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100 times, he talks about 60 times, he talks about 30 times multiplication of your gift

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if you give away what you've been given.

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So if you hoard, if you just kind of bury your personal treasures that God's placed

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into you, that actually makes God very, very angry.

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Look at the parable of the sower and the seeds if you have any doubt about that.

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But on the other hand, he says for whoever has, who's willing to give it to others,

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to him more will be given, but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away

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from him.

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So I like to say this phrase with gifts from God, use it or lose it.

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Either use it or lose it.

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Use what God's given you or you're going to lose it.

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Another way to look at it is the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.

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So the more you give and you use what God's given you, the more he's going to pour it

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back into you.

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So let me challenge you.

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There's no reason for you to continue to live in anxiety, depression, and loneliness.

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Let me challenge you from this passage to be a man or a woman of prayer, to have a fervent

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love for other people, to be in a community.

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And then lastly, use your natural talents, your spiritual gifts, and your acquired skills

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to bless others and God's going to bless you back and you're going to get a richer and

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richer and richer life.

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You're going to experience so much joy because you're going to be changing other people's

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lives through the gifting and the talents that God's given you.

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So I just challenge you right now, wherever you are, that you do not have to stay in this

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place of anxiety.

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You don't have to stay in this place of depression and loneliness.

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Let me challenge you to proactively and intentionally start to work out these four things in your

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life and watch what God will do.

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So I just want to pray for you right now.

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So God right now, those that are listening, I pray the Lord you would give them the intentionality

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and the courage to be serious and watchful in prayer, to have a fervent love, that you

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would develop a fervent love in them for other people, that by the God you'd give them a

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passion for community with others, and the Lord that the talents that you've given them

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and the gifts that you've given them and the acquired skills that you've given them, the

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Lord they would use that to minister to others.

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We just trust that Lord God, that's going to break the power of shame.

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That's going to break the power of isolation.

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That's going to break the power of loneliness and depression and anxiety.

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In your name we pray, amen.

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God bless you.