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The third thing we get from these Psalms

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is they remind us that God

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punishes individuals.

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Individuals.

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The main reason I think Psalm 109

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bugs us so much is that David

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is going after one particular guy.

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Right? He's saying, God,

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do all this to him - this guy right here.

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Whatever his name was.

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David had one guy in mind clearly.

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He starts out talking 
about multiple enemies,

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but then he kind of 
focuses on this one guy.

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Do all this to him.

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See, if David had just kind of kept it

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general and generic,

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it wouldn't bother us so much.

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If he'd just say, "Oh God,

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deal with all the bad people out there

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wherever they are, whatever..."

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We'd have said, okay, great.

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That makes sense.

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But instead he focuses in on one guy.

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And that just really bothers us.

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Oh man, can that be right?

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But what struck me this week

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are that this list of things

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that David asked to happen to this one guy

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and we read that and just cringe

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and recoil at it.

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God is going to do a 
million times worse things

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to every person that's outside of Christ

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in eternity.

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Individuals.

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People who's names and faces we know.

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People that we dearly love

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are under the wrath of God.

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I know we all believe 
in hell as far as I know.

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We all believe in hell 
theoretically at least.

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We know that it's in the Bible.

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It's in our systematic theology 
book somewhere.

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But I think we desperately need hell

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to become a more practical,

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practical reality to us.

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That it become a part of our worldview -

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the way we see life around us,

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that looming in the background

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is this ominous cloud of eternal hell

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hanging over everyone 
that's outside of Christ.

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Hell is for a bunch of people

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that you know and love.

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It's not just this generic 
category out here.

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It's individuals.

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And that really bothers us.

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So your great aunt -

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your Great Aunt Beatrice we'll say -

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your Great Aunt Beatrice

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passes away at the age of 84.

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And your family goes to her funeral.

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On the way back from the funeral

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your thoughtful six-year-old 
in the back seat

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pipes up:

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"Hey mom and dad,

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did Aunt Beatrice go to Heaven?"

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The kid's asking the right 
question isn't it?

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It's like it doesn't matter what else

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was said at her funeral,

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the question is did she go to heaven.

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It's the right question.

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What are mom and dad going to say?

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How are you going to answer that question?

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Are you going to tell your kid the truth?

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Because see, Aunt Beatrice,

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she was a nice lady,

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but she didn't really go to church.

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She would say some kind of 
vaguely spiritual things at times,

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but she wouldn't talk about Jesus.

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When you'd try to 
bring up spiritual things,

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she'd shut it down.

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You've always thought of her as lost.

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Are you going to give your kids

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some weaselly answer of:

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"Well, you know, you can't really know

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what's in somebody's heart deep down."

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Are you going to tell your kid that?

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Are you going to say, well, you know,

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we don't know what happened

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those last two minutes 
she was in the hospital bed

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halfway conscious.

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Maybe, maybe she got saved in the end."

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Or are you going to tell 
your kid the truth?

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Oh kids, Aunt Beatrice is in hell.

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She's in hell.

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As far as we know, she's in hell.

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And she's been in hell ever since

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the minute she died.

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She's been in torment 
under the wrath of God.

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She's been suffering the 
most horrible things

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anybody can imagine suffering.

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And it's going to go on

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for a million billion years -

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as long as you can imagine in her future.

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And God is right to do that to her

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because she loved her 
sin and loved herself

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and hated God

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and despised the Lord Jesus Christ.

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Are we going to tell our kids the truth?

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Are we going to make 
hell real and practical?

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Oh kids, Aunt Beatrice 
was a very nice lady.

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We appreciated all the nice 
things she did for us.

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We appreciated the cookies she made us

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and all the playing with us.

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But you know kids,

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being a nice person is not 
how you get to Heaven.

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The nicest person in the world

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can't get to Heaven on that.

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There's only one way to Heaven,

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it's through the blood of 
the Lord Jesus Christ.

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He's the only way to the Father.

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If you reject Christ,

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there's no hope for you.

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One time people asked Jesus

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about why God's punishments happened

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to certain people.

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Why did God let these bad 
things happen to folks?

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Was it because these folks were super bad?

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They brought up these Galileans

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that got murdered over here,

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and then these other people 
that this tower fell on.

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And expecting to get this 
philosophical answer from Jesus,

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instead what Jesus did 
is He made hell practical.

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He said, "Unless you repent,

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you will all likewise perish."

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He said don't you worry about them.

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You worry about yourself,

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your standing before God.

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He makes it practical.

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He points it back to the individual.

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People are frightening by 
lots of silly little things,

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but the fear of God -

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the fear of God is a good thing.

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It is a healthy thing.

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It says in Psalm 19,

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"the fear of the Lord is clean."

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It's pure. It's right.

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It's to be encouraged.

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God is a consuming fire.

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And God's hell is a really good thing

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to be scared about.

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When I was a kid,

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my parents loved me enough

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to tell me these things.

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My parents told me about sin

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and judgment and hell and stuff like that.

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I was scared of hell for years.

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You know?

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When I was Ruby's age,

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when I was James' age,

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I was scared of hell.

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You say what a horrible thing

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to make this poor kid be scared of hell!

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No.

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It was a great blessing

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because my fear of hell made me

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concerned for my soul

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and that made me want to seek the Lord

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and be saved.

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And God used it.

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My conversion - I came to know

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the Lord Jesus Christ 
when I was 10 years old

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by His mercy.

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Flee from the wrath to come.

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That's in the Bible, you know.

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You've got to know about the wrath

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in order to run from it, right?

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Every lost person we witness to -

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I had a wonderful time witnessing

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in the jail last night to this guy.

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We talked for two hours.

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He wants to be a Christian.

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I got to pour out the Gospel.

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It is so intense to look 
into somebody's eye

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and to plead with them 
to become a Christian.

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And to know that this is an immortal soul.

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That these are the most important words

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this guy's ever going to hear.

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And if he doesn't come through to Christ,

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it's not just that he's 
missing out on some joy.

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Or that he's going to 
have an unfulfilled life

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or he's going to have this 
God-shaped hole in his heart

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that's never going to get filled.

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No, the problem is that he's going to be

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under the wrath of God.

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He's going to go to hell forever.

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He's a heartbeat away from that.

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God punishes individuals 
that we know and love.

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So we see it in Psalm 109 
and it bothers us.

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I mean, the things I just said bother us.

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You think about that.