Open—E. Staggs, T. Harkens, M. Rogers
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You pray.
And our God and our Father, we are thankful. We think of these last three days when we have had, as I love before us, a great love.
The relationship that we've been brought in with myself and we've had the word of God opened and thou hast answered our prayers. Thou has instructed us.
Thou hast not spoke to each one of us, many of us, uh, distinct and different needs that we've had.
Zas presented Christ to us in the most wonderful way.
He's identified with us in our sufferings, our sorrows, and His love and the giving of Himself and His life for us.
We do ask our Father, this is an open meeting and uh, we approach it with fear and trembling. We do pray for something, for the conscience, for the heart, for our encouragement, for our need for the day. We do ask this our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ precious name, Amen.
We've had, umm, the Gospel of John Chapter 11 before us last couple of days and, and I would like to look at that chapter again. Not because I think I can add anything, not because I didn't think it was covered properly.
But I was very much struck with what was in this chapter.
In connection with who we are as the people of God.
That is that there were so many things in this chapter.
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That were so distinct as a help in various ways.
But I'd like to impress upon our hearts.
Just who we are.
As children of God.
Who have the Spirit of God within us?
Who the Father loves and cares for and Christ loves us and can identify with us as we go through this wilderness land as one who's felt sorrow and suffering and we had different groanings that the Lord Jesus experienced that different aspects of his groanings.
And what I was thinking about in this is just how important we are to God.
God is our Father.
And you know, we've started out in this Chapter 11 with the fact of a great trial, a great sorrow, a sorrow that many in this room perhaps can identify with across all of us who have lost a loved one. I lost a brother, grandparents. I know there's many in here who've lost parents. We know it's a great sorrow to lose a child, certainly.
And here we have these two sisters, but I'd like to take a look at some individual distinct lessons that I believe that the Lord is speaking to us and teaching us in a way that I think each one of us can identify, uh, identify with. So the very first thing that we have addressed here, and like I said, I'm, I'm not looking at going through this to try to bring out points to haven't been brought out.
But I'm thinking more of of them speaking to us as individuals.
The things that we might find in ourselves, because I think when we can take up a chapter like this, that what we're not, what we're not to do is look over and say, you know, that brother over there could use this.
What we really need to ask ourselves are these things that I've done in my own life.
Are these things that the Lord is teaching me? You've acted in that character and you need to change.
Well, the first thing we have is this idea of the Lord.
In in that.
He has been told that Lazarus is sick.
And I would like to just take a look at the different, if I can say failings, but I think that each and every one of us can identify with in some way. And I think the first one is those disciples that were with the Lord Jesus.
You know, sometimes during a trial.
During different circumstances, maybe we see it in somebody else or we maybe see it in ourselves. But you know, our tendency is to make comments unintelligently, make decisions and discernments about things as though somehow we have some in with God and He's made it known to us, but we don't have it in at all. And I'm thinking about this in connection.
With the disciples, when umm, they're going with the Lord Jesus and they have a misunderstanding. So in, in verse, umm, let me catch up here. Uh, in verse six, it says when he had heard therefore that he was sick, he abode 2 days still in the same place where he was. Then after that saith he to his disciples, let us go into Judea again. His disciples say unto him, master.
The Jews of late sought to stone thee, and goest thou thither again Jesus answered, Are there not 12 hours in a day? If any man walk in the day, he stumbleth not because he seeth the light of this world. And if a man walk in the night, he stumbles because there is no light in him. These things said he, and after that he saith unto them, Our friend Lazarus sleepeth but but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep.
But his disciples, uh, but his disciples said, Lord, if he sleep he shall do, He shall do well. Albeit Jesus spake of His death, but they thought that he spoke often, but he spoke of taking, of rest and sleep. Then said Lazarus unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead. And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there for intent. You may believe. Nevertheless, let us go on to Him.
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Then said Thomas, which is called Didymus unto his fellow disciples, let us go, that we may die with him. Then when Jesus came, he found that he had lain in the grave for days. Well the point that I want to make here is the fact that that the disciples really didn't discern or understand or enter into umm what the Lord Jesus idea or plans or purposes for Lazarus were at all. And sometimes we make the mistake of.
Looking at a trial, looking at what someone is going through and we make discernments about it. We say what the reason that that it did is because the brothers not going on in a happy way or like they said, well, let us go with Jesus and we'll die with him. That wasn't the reason Jesus was going at all. Jesus, Jesus was going because he was going to raise Lazarus, not in not in their time, not in their time schedule, but according to his time and what his exercise and what his desires were.
And, uh, you know, I found this in myself and I believe we might say that we've all been guilty of it in some degree where we look at something, there's a trial going on and we say, you know, I wonder if the Lord hasn't allowed that in their life for this reason or for that. And we make judgments about things that we know nothing about.
And I think that's a very dangerous thing to do. I think it's something we need to be exercised about. I believe that that there is an importance of not trying to be something that we're not, are trying to act as though we have some kind of a discernment about things we don't and to leave it with the Lord.
The next thing that we find and I want to present these failings.
The next thing that we find is Martha. And we've talked about Martha and we've talked about her and maybe her impatience. But the next thing is that that these are tendencies in our own lives, aren't they? Tendencies to go through a trial?
And or maybe someone else is going through a trial, someone we love, someone maybe we want to even get. We want that. We love that that is lost and we want to be saved.
And, and we get frustrated or we get discouraged and we get impatient as though somehow the Lord is asleep. Somehow the Lord has, has not, umm, he does not seen the urgency about a thing the way that I do. I believe that's another one of the weaknesses that we have, umm.
And and so much as as that we blame the Lord for the circumstance, we blame the Lord for not caring enough, we blame the Lord for not doing it.
In a hurry and then our time schedule and I think that these are things that.
That when we go through trials and it's so difficult, it's so difficult to go through a trial, especially when it's a deep trial and it touches someone that you love so dearly or it touches yourself personally to just to be able to rest in his love. You know, we've talked about Mary and I don't want to make this about Mary, but it seems like Mary was the only person in this whole thing did it right.
And we're gonna come back to Mary. But there, there were others too, that, that they looked and, and it was brought out that the Lord Jesus groaned because there was this, this unbelief of what was in the heart, the goodness of the Lord Jesus. And the Lord Jesus groaned about it. And you know, sometimes I think that's another one of the failings that we have. Sometimes we lose the confidence of, of our love, of the love of Christ.
In a trial or in a circumstance that, that we, we look and we say, I'm not even sure God is able. I'm not even sure he wants to. And I think about that. You know, sometimes I look at somebody and you know, I, I suppose if you knew my life about who I was, I wasn't raised in a Christian home and I don't want to make myself the subject, but it goes to show how far down the Lord will go to save a soul.
And, and, you know, yet in my own life, I look over and I go, and I said, that person is so bad. I don't even know how God could save somebody like that. And yet God saved me and God saved you through the person of his own beloved son. And so there, there is the danger of, of unbelief. There's, there's the, the, the one thing if there's something that Satan is, is it would, would love to do.
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He would love to get you to doubt about the love of God for you. That is that is one of the the the you might say the energies of Satan is to get you so off the path as to God's love for you that you become discouraged and begin to question his love and it takes you away from him. And so these are these are different things that are failings that I that I see if if.
Uh, and I think it's a beautiful thing that God loves us so much that he gives us these different details about these different ones that are in this chapter that we might weigh them out in ourselves. Am I like that? Have I done that? Is that danger, that capacity to be, uh, to be that, umm, questioning to the love of God? Are these things that are something that that can be in us? I believe it is. I believe there's always a danger of that.
And I believe that's the, one of the beauties of this, of this chapter is that it carries so many different, umm, you might say actions of unbelief in it that that we're being instructed as we're reading it because we have a life that can do that. We can have a life that can look into these things and umm, and we can discern them and we can weigh them out before God say, Father, do I have these things? Help me not to have them. Help me to be faithful. Help me to trust you.
Help me not to be doubting, help me not to bring my own thoughts into things, whether they're in my trial or they're in your trial, but help me just to realize that you are God and everything you do is for the good of your people.
I believe that's just a practical side of of what we have here and I and I and then my my desire is is not to bring necessarily the chapter all over again to bear, but who we are as a people of God.
That are so valuable to God that he takes the time to have these stories written down. The living word, brother says a living word is the only book on the planet that's meant to meet our need and and it can if we will, if we will allow it to do that, if it's it's better to learn failings in the life of others.
And they have to go through the experience yourself to learn them.
And So what the Spirit of God has done is these words have been written down that we might be able to look at these things, say, Lord, help me not to be like that. Help me not to be like that.
Well, the other thing I was struck about is the number of different ways.
That the Lord Jesus was presented to us.
In this chapter.
He he was presented to us as the one who is caring, but he's acting according to his own timetable.
He's he's presented as the one who does everything according to perfect time for the glory of God.
He is the one who feels and identifies himself with the sufferings of those who are suffering. When we go through these trials, Christ personally feels what we're going through.
He's one that that hurts personally, he can be hurt.
We don't get it here, but it's been brought out. He wept over Israel. Why? Well, because they rejected Him. He displayed the greatest love that could ever be displayed to a people outside of the cross.
And all they did was hate him and reject them. Did he feel it? He knows what it is to take a stand for the glory of God and be rejected for it. And so we we learned something about not only His identification with us, but his own personal sufferings, His feelings, what He's experienced, what He's gone through. Did. Did we not? Did we not pray?
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That the Lord would teach us something about ourselves and help us.
Changes to be something other than what we what we are as a as as those inconsistencies bring something more of the life of Christ and us. Did we not pray that we might have a better and a closer understanding and a glimpse of Christ and his love? Did we not get in this chapter? I believe we did.
Do we not see the power of of what the work of Christ on Calvary's cross as the one who is the resurrection of the life, the power of what He has done for each one of us as we were?
Called forth from the tomb.
Given life.
Have these filthy rags gently taken off us by faithful brethren?
Isn't it wonderful? Another thing that we learned that was brought out?
That Christ delights to identify us with his work.
We've had the gospel brought out. It's gonna be brought out again tonight. We've had the faithful word of God brought out. We've had different places of encouragement and conversation and building one another up. Number of things that have gone up, it's all brought out in this chapter.
It's an amazing thing to think about.
That God cares so much about us that we get this much from one chapter of the Word of God.
How much the whole of the Word of God is for us, to bless us and to encourage us, to build us up in our most holy faith, to encourage us to go on.
But there's another thing you know, and.
In the Gospel of John chapter one we we get John the Baptist and he looks on and he says behold the Lamb of God.
Behold the Lamb of God.
But, you know, I think it's a wonderful thing when the Spirit of God presents some wonderful truth to us.
But you know, there's, there's something about just knowing the truth.
And the truth has an effect on us inwardly.
That the word of God has such an effect on us.
That there's something that happens within us in the contemplations of Christ, that others around us see it.
What happened the next day?
John the Baptist sees Jesus as he's walking. He's so taken up with the person.
Of who he is and what he's done. It's no longer just a doctrine.
He's the object for the heart. What does he say?
Behold the Lamb of God. What happened? Well, those who are with John followed Jesus.
Should this not be the desire of our hearts?
That the Word of God becomes something more than just so many doctrines to us.
When we look at a chapter like this and we ask the Lord through the Spirit of God, to bring Christ to bear upon our hearts, make Him more real and precious to us, does it not exhume out from us? Does it not go out to others to see, to encourage?
Well, I'd like to encourage you.
Having taken up this chapter the way that we have.
And we've seen Christ in so many wonderful aspects here.
That is something you can take home with you, and others can see how much Christ means to you in your life.
You know this is a difficult day.
And Christianity is perhaps, as we're winding down to the end, it's under great attack.
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And you know Daniel?
Daniel, he purposed in his heart not to defile himself.
And that's the other thing I I want to encourage you about that the word of God.
Should create a a kind of encouragement when you understand how greatly you're loved, how greatly were loved.
And the world that we're going through and the attacks that the enemy has against us.
That we purpose not to defile ourselves.
There will be others.
Who will be encouraged to do the same?
The Word of God shows us that that's true.
So I just, you know, I was actually had this on my heart because I was, I was thinking about each one of us in this room and I was thinking how unique we are.
You know you, you take just take thought of the person that's sitting next to you.
If they're a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ.
They have an eternal hope.
You're wonderfully loved by God the Father.
He cares about everything, every aspect of your life. Nothing happens in your life that he's not aware of. And there's things that are going on that he's doing. Sometimes it's through trial to bring out blessing, but it's always for our blessing.
And so I was just thinking about this chapter.
And how wonderful it was that God has made such wonderful provision for us to bring these kinds of truths to bear, to exercise us and encourage us.
With her brother.
I was just speaking about.
I would like to, uh, continue on a line of thought that he mentioned and brought out.
Again, looking at the Gospel of John Chapter 11 for just a couple of verses there.
These last few days.
The theme of these meetings?
That have been brought out in many of the addresses. The breaking of bread.
Has been the love of God.
And what a wonderful subject we can have before us.
I'd like to look at a couple of verses here in John Chapter 11.
And consider.
But I can say for myself, I see as a shortcoming in my faith as far as the love of God is concerned.
John, Chapter 11.
And verse 21.
Then said Martha unto Jesus, Lord, if thou hast been here, my brother had not died.
And we know a few verses on down, Mary's response was the same words we spoke about that.
But what I want to bring out was that Martha and Mary.
Their response was the response of a natural heart when faced with trial.
Their response was, Lord, if you had been here, this trial would not have come across.
And when we talk about.
The love of God and having an appreciation for it. I speak for myself first.
Do we really believe in His love for us or do we shy away from the things that He allows in our life to teach us more about His love for us?
We're well acquainted with the verse in Philippians chapter 3.
In which?
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The Apostle Paul.
Says in verse 10.
That I may know him.
That I may know him.
What else?
And the power of his resurrection.
The Lord revealed that power to Martha and Mary through that trial.
It wouldn't have necessarily come into an understanding at that time of.
The Lord's heart of love for them and that distinct way, I do not allow that.
Yes, so they're still lovely, Brother Lazarus. And then his response in raising him from the dead as a brother brought out. It was four days.
And those dear women went through.
A significant amount of grief during those four days. There's much sweeping.
There's more to this verse and.
Philippians send Flippians 3 and verse 10 that I may know Him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings.
You know, I'm the least of those that can get up here and speak about the fellowship of his sufferings. There are many here that know much more than I do about what it is to pass through trial.
And yet the Lord works in each one of us to reveal himself to us in a more.
Special way to his individual dealings with us in the trials that he sees fit for each one of us to go through and sometimes.
There will be more deep to others than they are to me, and He has purpose for that in each one.
I'd like to read a few verses that speak of this.
Umm, they've already been read, some of them. One of them in Matthew Chapter 11.
Matthew Chapter 11 and verse 27.
All these things are delivered unto me of my Father, and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father. Neither knoweth any man the Father save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him.
Come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me.
Cry and meek and lowly of heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
Then in Job chapter 22.
Job chapter 22 and verse 21.
The point now thyself with him.
And be at peace, thereby good shall come unto thee.
I can speak for myself that.
Often the response that I have when the Lord.
Would seek to reveal himself to me in a more fuller way.
When it includes trials.
There's a distinctive version to going through that trial.
And I believe that for myself, especially in my earlier life, I was hindered.
And coming into a greater knowledge of my Savior because of the fear of passing through the trials that it would require for me to come into a better understanding of who He was and the power that He could show through those trials.
I don't know how else to illustrate this, but to use a feeble example from my own life.
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But.
A couple of years ago.
The Lord saw a fit.
To allow a situation in which I would be required to go through a serious surgery.
And.
For whatever reason I believe it was, the Spirit of God showed me that this was something that the Lord was going to do to reveal Himself to me in a way that I had not ever experienced before.
And rather the for the first time, rather than being afraid, there was almost an exciting.
To go into that and has he led me through.
The process of that surgery.
He did reveal himself in a way that I could have never comprehended. I would have never had the opportunity to understand had he not taken me through that in that special way.
I really felt that it was the Lord speaking to me, saying Tim.
I need you to go through this trial.
But I'm going to go with you.
And as he took me through, felt like as he led me, I've shared this with somebody, it felt like he took me by the hand and he led me into the wave and he walked in front of me and broke the waves and all there was for me was to just fall.
And the blessing that came from that, my soul.
At eternal value.
It couldn't be measure.
And so and just this.
Very simple way.
I would just like to.
Encourage each one.
To consider.
That love of God that he just displayed infinitely at Calvary in the giving of his Son.
And to not be afraid.
When he calls you to go through a trial for the purpose of.
Revealing himself to you in a way that you would never have opportunity to understand in any other way.
To rest in the love, to be at peace.
And to just let him lead you through it and allow him to show himself to you in a way.
That he couldn't in any other in any other way.
Mary and Martha.
Had this opportunity.
They they started out with the with the response that I believe is very normal for the natural heart. Lord, if thou hast been here, my brother would not have died.
That they had the opportunity.
To experience Lazarus being raised from the dead.
To see the Lord in a way that they had not experienced it before and to reap the blessings of an understanding of Him as we and I'm not, I don't have any intention to go into it anymore. But we see that there was a response, especially in Mary, of desiring to be at the Lord's feet, learning more of Him.
We've had a precious time in in at the tomb of Lazarus, and then this morning we had a precious time.
Around the Lord's table, and I was just watching, often times ahead of time, I think about all the dear believers that I've had the opportunity to have.
That remembrance meeting ahead of us, those that are in Tasmania, Japan go around the globe.
And to see those in the Eastern starboard, and we have ours at 11:00.
And uh.
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As I was sitting there this morning.
Before the meeting started, it occurred to me.
There has been a uh.
There isn't a remembrance of a different kind over in Arlington, VA, since 1925.
24 is that 24 hours a day, seven days a week?
I got the Medi meditating, reflecting upon the differences of what we have there at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
And.
We've been before a tomb Lazarus tomb here last few days and there's a few things to maybe bring out in relation to what we've had at the Lord's tomb.
At the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, a soldier walks 21 steps.
Waits 21 seconds, turns around and walks back.
The ones that are these are a volunteer position.
And many apply for this job.
In fact, fewer than 20%.
Get the job to volunteer as their service as it's called to walk the mat.
And they prepare, they have a large preparatory time to do such a thing, both for the job as as well As for their duty of that day.
And for instance, the soldiers spend up to six months studying. I believe there's 172 unknown soldiers there. They study the lives of the ones that are in the tomb.
And then the preparatory work. I've read some things about how they prepare for their job for that day. It's Immaculate and what they do.
And they then spend 30 minutes doing their due diligence.
And then they're relieved.
And you do it.
In snow, sleet, ice, summer and winter.
In fact, recently there was a hurricane coming through and it has not been interrupted since 1925.
And the hurricane was coming through and the commanding officer said, stand down, lock it down, step inside.
And then said no.
The hurricane was hitting and they.
So I'll only read 2 verses. Link 2 verses together. One is in Luke 22.
We know this portion well.
Perhaps it gives us a little bit of insight into the Lord Jesus. Luke 22. Well, it's it's going to be verse 14 as well, verse 14.
When the hour was come, he sat down and the 12 apostles with him, and he said unto them with desire, I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. Perhaps for a few minutes we could look at the desire that He had to be there with his disciples.
It's often times we can lose on the first day of the week we can lose.
The consciousness of the Lord to be there.
And perhaps the comments can be addressed to those of their younger as well.
The solemnity of being at that table.
I think of those soldiers as they passed through this complete regiment of not only the preparatory work that they go through, but the, but the, uh, the, the, the, the mandates of the job. In fact, there is a creed that the soldiers, you can read for yourself, The soldiers take of their life from then on. There is a creed. There's only four hundred of these soldiers that have walked them out.
And read and read the lifestyle that they have to dedicate themselves to for someone who they do not know in that too.
There are there are remains in that tomb of who there's unrecognizable.
And so there's things to think about. We know our Savior and to think about the fact that we can read and consume Him.
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We know who's in the tomb and we know he's out of the tomb.
But one other thing too.
I think too you can read and in fact I encourage you there are video clips to look at to see.
Them walk and there was one where there was laughing in the gallery. There is an ability to observe. One thing to note is anyone can come and observe.
This monument and the respect that the soldier is giving anyone can come.
But there's laughing and to see the soldier stand and address.
Was striking and I relate that to as well as we gather together.
Well, one, before I go there, the the soldier is also carrying his rifle between the crowd and the two. There's a significance in this.
There are things that are coming in.
That are going to affect the preciousness.
Of a large table and there is only one weapon to stand between.
That thing that's coming in.
And the sacred thing there?
Only one thing, and that soldier will shift the rifle as he as he stops at either side.
This is solemn because, as we all know, the time is getting short and there are things that are subtly creeping in that must be addressed with the Word of God.
So just the 15th, 1St there with desire, desire to eat this Passover with you. I've understood it to be there's a ferventness there. It doesn't necessarily come out, the ferventness. Do I see my Lord there with his ferventness of being there with his disciples, do I see him?
There this morning, fervently wanting us to be there. And then the second verse is in, of course, with no First Corinthians 11.
Uh.
And it's well known here in verse 26 for as often as eat this bread and drink this cup, you do show the Lord's death till he come to think that the soldiers are sitting there as a as a volunteer of a creed of their lifestyle, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, sleep, rain, shine, and they are walking the mat.
As a duty, as an honor. And so it's a privilege for them to do so. It's a privilege for you and I as children of God to be there at the Lord's table. But there's also responsibility as well.
Know the word of God. Know the fact that there are attacks that are indeed coming in.
So there's a responsibility, the security, and it's a privilege to be there.
And so it bothers me and I'm certain and I know I've had the privilege of knowing those that were quite old, 190 something years old that come from a an age past, that there are things that have been given up in just pure and simple.
Respect.
That's a large table.
And those of us in the younger generation may not have heard about these.
Circum respectfulness to be at the Lord's Table.
Perhaps when the Lord was there.
He he obviously had a preparatory work to be there in that upper room. We see that very clearly. He sent two disciples ahead.
Am I preparing myself to be at this Lord's Table? These soldiers, if they walk the smarts, have a preparatory work to do their job that day.
Their shoes are am Immaculate they're they're they're uniforms are pressed 01 Thing about their uniform. That's beautiful to see. There is no rank and file in their uniforms. They intentionally leave the rank and file off of their uniforms. Is that not like all of us to be there around the Lord's table as priests?
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One with a lot of public gift, one with private gift, a sister that that prays incessantly in her closet. Those that have a public, they're all one before this table before the Lord to not have a rank and file for these one soldiers as they March back and forth 24 hours a day, seven days a week. And The thing is, is they close the crowd. The crowd is only got opening hours and many think that it stops no.
There's a soldier out there at 1:00 in the morning. There's one out there at 2:00 in the morning.
Doing their duty of a privilege of remembering those that had fallen and to think about the privilege that we have here in this verse here you do show the Lord's death till he come. And I do think of those that are in the jungles of Ecuador, in the mountains of Bolivia and downtown Tokyo or, or or underneath a tree in Africa that I've heard about remembering the Lord.
Is that striking or what?
Is to think of the myriads of opportunities since the Lord has gone. Glory is to have the myriads of opportunities of Saints then and then today to be able to take up a simple remembrance meeting that many don't observe even.
And to have that responsibility and privilege of being there at his table.
So I thought that was just a beautiful thing to see Soldier of the of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, to see it as a type, if you will do some study on it, it's very, very educational. But to see the fact that we too have a responsibility of preparing ourselves and, and to have that privilege of guarding and remembering simultaneously. Let's have his name.
Could we say #208?
#208.
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Uh, could you please give me?
Uh.
And.
Mm-hmm.