Gospel Identity & Motivation: 1 Peter 1:22–23

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last week I shared a little bit of video
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talking about identity and helping us
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understand what is it and particularly
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for the Christian how should we
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understand identity I just said that
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identity something the whole human
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population is grappling with we all need
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to understand a sense of who we are
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since himself and I talked about how
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identity is primarily one of one of the
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ways that we secure our sense of value
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and significance so obviously it’s very
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important and particularly for the
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Christian we understand our identity in
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a unique way and it’s not primarily
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linked to who what we do in particular
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is the uniqueness of the Christian
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identity but then it’s because of who
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God is and what he’s done that we
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understand our identity so if it’s
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helpful to think linearly I find it
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helpful like a flow chart is that
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because of who God is
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that’s theology and we find that mostly
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primarily in the Bible because of who
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God is that’s theology and because of
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what God has done in the gospel
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primarily but all throughout history the
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redemptive history of the Bible the
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gospel being that Jesus Jesus Christ’s
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life death and resurrection to forgive
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the sins of of people and to give us
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eternal life because of who God is
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that’s theology because of what he’s
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done in the gospel those two things tell
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us who we are
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and because we understand who we are as
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Christians then we’re able to understand
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how we should live and what we should do
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so because the fuggin is God is what has
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he done in the gospel and then we
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understand who we are because of those
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two things and then we understand how we
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should live because of understanding who
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we are related to who God is and what
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he’s done so I find that to be helpful
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to think about kind of the Christian
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context for understanding identity and
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how we should live our lives so I want
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to look at three examples of identity in
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first Peter and we’ll do three videos
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but the first one we’ll look at today to
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understand what the gospel identity is
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because of who what Jesus has done we
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understand who we are I want to look at
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some examples of that but also the idea
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that the writers of the New Testament
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while the whole Bible but especially the
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New Testament like in the letters of
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Paul or theirs
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they talk about because of who we are
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this is how we should live or they say
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we should live this way because of who
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we are in the gospel and because of the
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gospel itself so I call that identity
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driven obedience or gospel driven
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obedience because of the work of Jesus
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and because of who we are in the gospel
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the work of Jesus we understand how we
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should live and it actually is a
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motivating power to want to a desire a
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desire creating effect to make us want
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to live in such a way rather than we get
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in trouble when we get it backwards we
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want to live in such a way because we
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should or because I want to find my
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identity through doing such a thing or
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or living in such a way and I talked
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about that last week so we want to
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understand that progression of the Bible
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gives us so three examples from first
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Peter briefly just the understanding of
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the context of first Peter is that the
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Apostle Peter is writing to Christians
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that are dispersed all throughout Turkey
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or modern-day Turkey or Italy or Greece
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they’re experiencing suffering and
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they’re trying to follow Christ
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faithfully and he writes to encourage
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them the first part he writes to help
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them understand the truth of the gospel
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be reminded about it talk about the
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challenge of suffering and then also how
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we should live then in the next part of
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the first chapter and that’s we’re gonna
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look at verses 22 and 23 of 1st Peter
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chapter 1 and I’ll read those verses it
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says having purified your souls by your
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obedience to the truth for a sincere
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brotherly love love one another
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earnestly from a pure heart since you’ve
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been born again not of perishable seed
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but of imperishable through the living
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and abiding Word of God so it’s just
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three parts I want to look at first of
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all is what is the command that he’s
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giving God’s people to live out and that
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is from verse 22 to love one another
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earnestly from a pure heart so that’s
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the command he’s saying this is what I
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want you to do this is what you need to
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do but because as we said before he
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gives them motivation as to why should
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we want to and desire to do this well he
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says in verse 23 cents or because you
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should love one other earnestly because
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you’ve been born again not of perishable
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seat but of imperishable so there’s your
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motive
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why we’ve been born again and then the
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last I want to look at his is how did
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that happen how did this being born
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again well he says it’s through the
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living and abiding word of God and if we
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look over at verse 25 he clarifies that
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living an abiding Word of God is the
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good news that was preached to you
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he’s saying it’s the gospel the work of
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Jesus on the cross to forgive sins and
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to give you eternal life so so what’s
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the connection between that command to
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love one another earnestly with it from
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a pure heart and why because we’ve been
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born again well there’s a couple things
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I want to look at first of all is that
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it says because you’ve been born again
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you should love one another is saying
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that we used to be dead we did we were
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ruled by sin previously and so we needed
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to be born again through a spiritual
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rebirth by the Spirit of God through the
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gospel of God we were unable to love
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earnestly and from a pure heart before
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because of our old life ruled by sin and
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in the Bible say all people are
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afflicted by sin there’s no way to fix
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it apart from coming to Christ and
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trusting and believing in Jesus and
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having that new birth happen through the
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Spirit of God so we’re actually able to
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love because we’re being born again
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first of all and the second is that it
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says from a pure heart love earnestly in
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one another from a pure heart our hearts
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weren’t pure because of sin
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previously before knowing Christ and
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being born again but now we’ve been
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given a pure heart through the
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forgiveness and righteousness of Jesus
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so we’re able to love earnestly from a
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pure heart because of the gospel because
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we have a new identity so he’s saying
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that truth that reality whether you
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recognize it or not it’s a reality for
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the Christian should motivate you to
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want to and be able to earnestly love
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one another and then I also want to
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point out that the gospel itself it’s
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not explicitly mentioned here but the
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gospel itself is a powerful motivator to
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love because in the gospel we see the
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love of God most supremely demonstrated
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as we see in John the Gospel of John
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verse 3 chapter 3 verse 16 it says for
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God so loved the world he gave His only
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Son so that whoever believes in Him
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should
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perish but have eternal life he gave his
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own son over to death for the
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forgiveness of our sins and then we
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could ever eternal life in life in him
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and so that is the love of God on
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display in the most extreme in
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incredible way and that itself should
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make us want to love one another
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earnestly from a pure heart so that’s
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the gospel motivation for the command is
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that you’ve been born again and it’s
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also that that sense of motivation of
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from our identity that we are no longer
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who we used to be we’re born again to
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having pure hearts and we should love
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because God loves us so that’s a gospel
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identity and an identity driven
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obedience example that I wanted to share
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the first of three from first Peter so
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thanks so much look forward to the next
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two weeks and we’ll share the other two
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thanks