Gifts from Above: Understanding Your Spiritual Abilities

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Hello and welcome to the Middletown Baptist Church podcast, where we are proclaiming the truth to the world.

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In this podcast series, we're going to be looking into biblical words that have great significance to our faith.

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The name of this series is called the Word of the Week, where once a week we will dive deeper into these words that we are familiar with in Scripture.

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So come along with me.

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Let's study the Word of the week.

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Pastor Josh here.

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The Word of the Week is gifts.

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Again, we are studying the gifts that God gives us in our life so that we may serve him to the best of our ability.

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And we've been looking at that list in Romans chapter 12.

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If you've been following along with this series, we've gone over so far two different gifts that God has given us.

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The first gift we talked about was the gift of prophecy or the gift of proclaiming the truth of God to the world.

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And that is done through preaching and through proclaiming different elements of Scripture.

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But we also looked at last week the gift of service.

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And that's a broad category.

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That's a category that we can see lived out in the church in many different ways.

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The Bible says to minister one to another, but then we get to Romans chapter 12, and we see the next gift that's given to believers there for service.

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And that is the gift of teaching.

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It says there in verse number eight, he that teacheth on teaching.

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And so the Bible clearly tells us that there is a spiritual gift of teaching given to individuals to teach elements of Scripture.

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So there's the proclamation of the truth of God, and then there's the teaching or the explanation of the truth of God.

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And so there.

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There is that need for proclamation, but there also is a need for explanation.

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And the Bible tells us that there is an importance to teaching within the body of believers.

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And some people are gifted in that way.

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Some people are supernaturally gifted to explain Scripture and make it very clear for individuals to understand how to apply these truths of God.

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And so we think about other passages of Scripture in the New Testament that talk about teaching.

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And one that would hopefully come to our minds is the passage at the end of Matthew, Matthew, chapter 28, what we call the Great Commission.

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And the Great Commission tells us to do a few different things.

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It's.

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It's proclaiming the truth of God to a world that needs salvation.

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But we also do know that there is that element of teaching included there.

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And so if you have your Bibles or if you have some sort of device that you can follow along with me, I'D like you to turn there with me to Matthew, chapter 28.

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Just as Jesus is about to ascend into heaven, he speaks to the disciples about the power that's given to him.

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And he then challenges his followers to go.

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He says, go ye, therefore.

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And then the next thing we see here is the word teach and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.

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So what are we going to teach them?

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What's, what's the need for teaching within the Church?

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It says very clearly here, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.

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And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world.

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And so what are we supposed to teach within the Church?

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Teaching folks how to observe the things that have been commanded to us in Scripture.

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How to obey Christ, how to obey His Word, how to live out His Word in the world.

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And so the Bible does teach us in a few different passages in the New Testament, the way that we prove our love for God is by obedience, is by living out the things that are given to us in Scripture.

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So somebody needs to understand that, to live it.

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And so part of the teacher and part of the role of the teacher would be to explain to people what it means to understand the Word and what it means to live out the Word.

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And Scripture is our source.

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We don't take other sources outside of Scripture and use that as our teaching material.

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We use scripture.

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Second Timothy 3, 16 says, all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.

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And so we know that the Scriptures are given to us to teach us, that's the first thing, doctrine, what to believe.

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But then you know, where we're wrong, how we can fix that, and really where we can walk in the truth of God.

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And so the Bible tells us to go, to preach the gospel, to teach the gospel, but to teach how we can live out Scripture in our lives.

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And teaching is done in a few different manners.

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Obviously, teaching can be done in a classroom.

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It can be done in a setting where there's a group.

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It's mostly done through what is said, how it's explained, but also teaching can be done through lifestyle.

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Teaching can be done through the way that we live our lives, because it is a message that's heard a lot more when it comes to application, when we walk the walk and not just talk the talk.

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So, right, I can teach all day about the truth of God, but the application is going to miss if I don't back it up with what I live by now.

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Nobody's perfect in that.

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But a teacher is a lot more effective when he or she can demonstrate the truth that they're teaching, not just by word, but also.

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Indeed.

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And so there's a few other passages that talk about teaching, obviously more than we could go over in this short amount of time.

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But one that I really appreciate is a passage in second Timothy.

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Second Timothy, chapter two tells us another directive when it comes to that area of teaching.

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And so God gives us the example, God gives us the practice, the practicality of this, and he gives us what the outcome should look like within the church.

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Second Timothy, chapter two, it says in verse one, thou, therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.

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Meaning Paul is talking to Timothy here, his son in the faith, and he says, hey, as you pastor this church, as you minister, you know, rely on the strength of God, the grace of God, and then he says, and the things that thou has heard of me.

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So, so Paul talks about what he has taught to Timothy.

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So, so we see the element of the teacher teaching the student.

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It says, and the things which thou has heard of me among many witnesses.

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So there's not just Timothy here that's learned.

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It's, it's the corporate group, the same commit thou to faithful men, meaning as I have taught you, so you teach others.

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And that's really the goal of teaching is it's not just to impart knowledge upon someone's life, which that is an element of teaching, but it's also to train people to teach the same things to other people.

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Right?

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And that's how the discipleship process goes within the church.

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And so God has gifted certain individuals to teach within the church so that those people who are learning can then turn around and teach those other people that are in the church.

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And there.

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And there's more here.

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So he says, I teach you so that you teach others.

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And then he goes on to say, who shall be able to teach others also?

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And so we see that progression going down the line as one person teaches another person, then that person teaches another person.

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And it goes on and on and on.

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And so that's what's been happening here for, for thousands of years.

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And that's what will continue to happen as the church moves forward, is that God gives us his word and then teachers will teach his words as people, and the people will understand that, believe that.

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And as I said there, that are faithful individuals, faithful people.

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So people who believe in the teachings will then Turn around and teach those to other people.

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And that goes on and on and on.

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So that's the importance of teaching within the church.

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And so we need teachers.

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Not everyone can be a teacher.

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Not everyone is gifted in the area of teaching.

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Now, some people might be able to teach whether they know that they have the gift or not.

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Maybe they don't have the gift of teaching, but yet still can teach in certain elements and grow in that expertise, if you will, or that, that discipline.

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But what we're talking about when it comes to the spiritual gifts is that there are going to be some people that are supernaturally gifted to do it and have a desire to do it right.

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And desire is always linked to the gift that is given.

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And so for someone who has been given the gift of teaching, there is going to be a strong desire to teach the Word, and there's going to be a strong competency to teach the Word, a strong ability.

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Not that they're any more spiritual than anybody else, but there is that ability to take a passage of Scripture and dig deep into it and to pull out from it, application, to pull out from it the, the ways in which we can learn and grow.

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And the beautiful thing about Scripture is that every time we go back to Scripture, we can pull something else out.

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And that's what that passage in Second Timothy, chapter three talked about is.

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It's there to teach us what to believe, but also how to correct us, how to guide us, instruction in, in righteousness.

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And so that's the beauty of Scripture is that it's just a wealth of, of.

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Of blessing to us.

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And so we can keep coming back to that well, and it never runs dry.

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And so as a teacher, the goal is to obviously take the first fruits for ourselves.

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I mean, as a teacher, the teacher is the one who's learning the lesson first and growing in that lesson first.

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And then we take those lessons that we learn, hopefully as we're teaching, and then turn that around and explain that to other people.

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And so it simplifies, simplify, simplify.

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The more simple that we can make a concept, the more attainable it can be for people that, that need that truth.

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If we put all these theological truths on such a high pedestal that nobody can really obtain them, then, then we're not making it accessible for people.

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Now, are there going to be some complex issues, topics, belief systems that are going to be found in Scripture?

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Of course.

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But we try to simplify them the best that we can so that people can take that and grow.

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Because, you know, the, the greatest the greatest teaching is only going to be as good as the person who is hearing it and how they can receive it.

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So, you know, obviously you have to know your audience.

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You have to know who you're talking to.

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I'm going to talk differently to a 5 year old than I am a 50 year old.

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I'm going to talk differently to someone who's been saved for five years or someone who's been saved for five minutes.

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And so there's going to be differences to the way that we teach, but we don't compromise what we are teaching.

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But we definitely need to go in and understand where we're at when it comes to discerning our audience, so to speak, our students.

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And so that's the third list there, or, excuse me, the third gift there in that list in Romans chapter 12.

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We'll come back next week and we'll look at our next gift.

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But I do hope that you are understanding these gifts that are given to us in the spirit listed there in Romans chapter 12 and how we can utilize these gifts within the church.

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Because if you remember back in First Peter, Chapter four, it tells us that these gifts are given to us so that we can bring glory to God, so that we can do that through Jesus Christ and so that other people can be strengthened and encouraged in their spiritual walk.

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So I hope this has been a challenge for you as you've gone through these spiritual gifts so far.

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And I hope that you're able to discern where you are gifted and so that you can serve where you are at the capacity that God desires for you.

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Not everyone's able to serve at the same capacity.

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Not everyone's able to serve at the same area.

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There's diversity to these gifts, but there is also that unity of the gift that we all have a purpose and we're all serving in these capacities.

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And so hope that that's helpful for you here today.

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re coming into this new year,: 2025

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Can't believe that we are here.

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I hope that you have a fantastic year.

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I hope that you have a, a wonderful time with friends and family.

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And we would love to hear more from you at the podcast here.

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You can always contact us.

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You can contact me at Josh Massaro.

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e discussed here this year in: 2025

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We've had a wonderful time bringing these truths to you in this year and we would love to also have you share our podcast with some people that you might know.

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If it's been beneficial to you, maybe you could share that with some other people that you know and it could be beneficial for them as well.

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And so we really, really would appreciate that if you could do that for us.

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Well, we will talk to you next week when we come back with another Word of the Week.

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We hope that you have a wonderful week.

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We will be praying for you.

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If you have any needs, let us know.

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We would love to pray for you specifically and we would love to get to know you better through this podcast.

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Well, God bless.

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You have a wonderful rest of your week.

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We will talk to you soon.

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Hey, I really appreciate that you listen to the Word of the Week podcast.

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If you have any questions about the podcast or about our chur Middletown Baptist Church, you can find more information about us on Facebook or YouTube or you can find the podcast on NBCPodcast.org you can contact me directly at Josh Massaro at middletownbaptistchurch.org stay tuned for future Word of the Week episodes where we dive deeper into words that impact our life according to scripture.

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Thank you so much.

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God bless.

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We'll talk to you soon.