WEBVTT

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 So today we're learning from the life of one of my favourite women in the Bible.

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 And I hope that this morning you will be just as inspired as I am by her,

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 especially by two characteristics that she has, which is difference and dedication.

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 And I hope that today you can ask yourself,

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 how can you develop those two characteristics in your own life?

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 But before we do dig a little bit deeper into the life of this great woman of the faith

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 and why she has earned that title, Great, let's do a quiz.

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 And let's see how well you know some of the most influential women of modern history.

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 So can I have the first picture please?

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 Amelia Earhart.

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 Earhart, Earhart. Well Earhart, she was a pilot, but I think it's Earhart.

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 So she was the first female aviator to go across the Atlantic.

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 She said this,

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 Never do things others can do and will do if there are things others cannot do or will not do.

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 And one of the sad things about this particular lady is that she had an ambition to circumnavigate the globe,

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 to go around the whole world.

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 And unfortunately she crashed in the Pacific and she was sort of lost.

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 Until recently where they found the remains of a woman on an island.

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 And they've sort of put the pieces together with some other bits that they found and recordings,

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 the May days, all that kind of stuff.

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 And they reckon that this lady, she probably survived for about at least a week

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 after crashing on an uncharted, abandoned island.

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 That's pretty hardcore.

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 Surviving a plane crash is hardcore anyway, but also surviving on an abandoned island post that.

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 So I think she's got these characteristics we just spoke about.

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 Let's try the next one.

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 This is Catherine Switzer.

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 Now this lady is the first woman to run the Boston Marathon.

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 But not only was she the first woman to do it, she wasn't allowed to do it when she was doing it.

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 And this picture, these people are literally trying to pull her out of the race.

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 But apart from the one next to her, who's the partner at the time,

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 who the story goes basically takes out the other guys so that she can keep running.

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 But yeah, if you ever see someone running a marathon, a lady,

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 and you think, oh, it's just another person doing a marathon.

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 Actually, she set the tone and changed the mentality to women doing things like running marathons.

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 And if you think about the Tour de France at the moment,

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 I don't want to drop any political comments or anything,

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 but the Tour de France is still a race that men only can do.

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 So if you were enjoying that, feel a bit guilty.

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 But yes, another woman, dedicated and different.

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 She said,

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 All you need is the courage to believe in yourself and put one foot in front of the other.

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 And this lady's still alive, still speaking, still running marathons.

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 Amazing woman.

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 Okay, let's go for our next one.

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 Emily in Pankhurst.

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 This is the lady whose work meant that the women had the right to vote.

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 In the UK, massive suffragette.

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 Legend.

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 There was a bit of controversy around her,

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 but I think you can understand her dedication and her difference,

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 especially when this was one of the quotes she said,

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 My parents, especially my father, discussed the question of my brother's education as a matter of real importance.

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 My education and that of my sister's was scarcely discussed at all.

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 So another lady that decided actually, no, no.

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 Go on then, let's go for the next one.

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 Mother Teresa.

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 When you dig into these people's lives, you actually find out that pretty much all of them have a little bit of controversy.

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 And you kind of want to go, do I want to put them up?

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 Because there's always somebody who goes, well, actually.

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 But it's another lady who, absolutely incredible, dedicated her life to the other.

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 And she founded the Missionaries of Charity.

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 4,500 sisters in 133 countries.

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 And we know she's someone who wasn't afraid to touch the untouchables.

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 And to put her life at risk on a daily basis.

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 Because there are others that were being written off.

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 And she said, your true character is most accurately measured by how you treat those who can do nothing for you.

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 Gosh.

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 I've got a great story from a book called The Irresistible Revolution.

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 And a guy called Shane Claiborne went to see this lady.

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 And he noticed that her feet were all, like, damaged and crumpled and crippled up.

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 And he asked why.

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 And it turns out that people are always giving her new shoes.

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 Because they see her feet all crumpled and crippled up.

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 But she gives them away.

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 She always gives the new pair away.

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 And just makes do with whatever ones are left.

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 Amazing woman.

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 Difference.

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 Dedicated.

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 Okay, let's go for our final one.

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 Rosa Parks.

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 She was quite an influential, important person, right?

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 She was the one who was sat on a bus, already segregated, and asked to move for a white person.

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 And went, actually, no, not today.

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 Great woman.

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 She said this.

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 I have learned over the years that when one's mind is made up, this diminishes fear.

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 Knowing what must be done away with does away with fear.

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 So this is, yeah.

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 She was a civil rights activist known as the first lady of the civil rights.

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 The mother of the freedom movement.

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 And because of her, you know, the rights of black people in America greatly improved.

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 Still lots of work to be done.

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 Still lots of work to be done even in the UK.

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 But people like this who decided, no.

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 Great woman.

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 So let's go to our final picture.

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 This is called Google Search Ruth.

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 As you can imagine, Ruth is a...

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 There's not many pictures of Ruth in Google.

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 And funny enough, there's a lot of white pictures of Ruth.

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 But let's not go there.

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 Ruth was a Moabite.

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 More likely dark-skinned than a white, blue-eyed person.

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 And she's our lady of today.

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 And I want to tell you a little bit about her before we have the reading.

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 And she's one of only two women in the Bible to have a book named after them.

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 She's also one of only four women in the genealogy of Jesus.

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 She's a Moabite, which means she's a descendant of Lot.

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 On a weird family weekend.

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 She was married to an Israelite who dies and left her with nothing but a mother-in-law and no future.

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 Sometimes can be interchangeable, those two.

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 She is our woman of today.

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 She is the lady we're going to look at.

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 And if we could have our reading now, that would be...

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 So that passage is just a really short part of a very short book.

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 But there's so much meatiness in there.

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 And you could ask the question,

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 Why does Ruth of the Bible, this lady part of a patriarchy and a widow,

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 how does she end up being classified as one of the greats with the ladies that I showed you before

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 who have done these massive, incredible feats of challenging the social injustice of the world we live in?

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 And actually, I think that Ruth is exactly the same as those ladies

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 because she embodies that same determination.

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 She's dedicated and she's willing to be different.

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 I love her response to Naomi.

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 I wonder if any of you have ever had that sort of dedication to someone else

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 or to a cause.

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 Ruth is an early example of someone who refused to quit.

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 And where logic would say,

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 Go back to the safe zone.

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 She refused.

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 Ruth saw an impossible mountain to climb.

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 She saw famine.

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 No future.

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 No security.

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 And instead of turning back to the safety of Moab,

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 where she could remarry, live well, eat,

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 she chose to stick with Naomi and a life of uncertainty.

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 Poverty.

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 Danger.

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 To live as a foreigner in a hostile land.

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 To be a Moabite in Israel when it was just,

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 at that period of time, was not an easy thing to do.

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 The path she chose seemed impossible.

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 And yet within it,

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 her dedication and her difference led her down the path God had planned for her.

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 God had planned to bring about a blessing on them both.

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 But the road they needed to walk was filled with challenges.

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 And yet Ruth was different.

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 Different to Orpah.

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 She was different to many others who in Scripture we see crumble at challenge.

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 Ruth was dedicated.

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 Committed.

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 She was dedicated.

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 She was dedicated and committed to the cause and the path, no matter where it was going to lead and how hard it would be.

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 I wonder how you feel hearing all that.

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 I personally often think I can take on a challenge.

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 I can gear myself up.

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 I can get excited.

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 But then I get stifled by the potential weight, the burdens, the challenges, and whether I will be able to carry them.

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 But let us wonder, is it really down to us to carry it alone?

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 Was that true for Ruth?

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 Was that true for our great inspirational women?

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 Were they left to carry it their own?

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 When the challenge comes for us, are we left to carry it on our own?

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 I want you to think about that.

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 One of the many things I love about Ruth and find so inspiring about her is that we see in her strength.

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 But it was a kind of strength that didn't cause her to escape from all the stuff that was going on.

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 But rather she continued with all those difficulties.

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 But found that strength to actually carry on and go into even yet more potential difficulties.

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 Knowing that that inner strength, that invisible strength that God gave her, would enable her to do anything.

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 The thing is, sometimes in life we have to carry heavy burdens.

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 We have things going on in us.

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 And Ruth had no shortage of stuff going on in her life right then.

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 Life was pretty, pretty challenging to say the least.

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 But she didn't just take the easy option and make her prayer, God, just take everything that's wrong away from me.

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 No, she knew that what she needed was God's strength so that she could have that stickability and do what she did.

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 And sometimes in our own lives we can be tempted to make our prayer, Lord, just take all this stuff away from me.

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 Sometimes God does that miraculously.

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 But very often he doesn't.

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 But what he does do is he gives us the strength to carry on.

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 And one of my favourite verses is from the Psalms.

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 From Psalm 118, which simply says this.

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 The Lord is my strength and my song.

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 He has become my salvation.

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 The Lord is my strength and my song.

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 He has become my salvation.

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 I've got it written on this piece of paper.

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 You see, the thing is, is that God doesn't always remove those burdens from us.

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 But he does promise to give us strength.

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 Let's remember those words.

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 The Lord is my strength and my song.

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 He has become my salvation.

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 Because when that happens,

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 when that happens,

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 the burden may still be there.

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 But suddenly it becomes light.

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 Ruth didn't make her prayer

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 the sort of prayer that you and I perhaps feel tempted to pray

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 when things are going difficult.

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 Lord, take this away.

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 She knew that she could do anything

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 if God could give her that strength.

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 Which he can.

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 And he did.

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 Amen.

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 Amen.

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 Amen.

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 Amen.

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 Amen.

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 Amen.

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 Amen.

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 Amen.

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 Amen.

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 Amen.

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 Amen.

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 Amen.

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 Amen.

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 Amen.

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 Amen.

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 Amen.

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 Amen.

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 Amen.

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 Amen.

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 Amen.

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 Amen.

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 Amen.

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 Amen.

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 Amen.