{"id":32887,"date":"2005-09-06T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2005-09-06T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermons\/despise-not-these-little-ones\/"},"modified":"2005-09-06T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2005-09-06T00:00:00","slug":"despise-not-these-little-ones","status":"publish","type":"sermons","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermons\/despise-not-these-little-ones\/","title":{"rendered":"Despise Not These Little Ones"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2005\/09\/19222.mp3\"><\/audio><\/figure>\n\n<p><span style=\"\" class=\"\">I thought it would be good for\nus to consider this very important mission field and responsibility the Lord\nJesus has given to his church, that of reaching children. And I want to do so\nunder three heads. The first is why we should bring children to Jesus. You&#8217;ll\nnotice in verse 13 that people were bringing little children to Jesus. Then\nsecondly, how we may do it, and thirdly, what joy and blessing are ours if we\ndo. <\/span><\/p><p><strong><span style=\"\" class=\"\">There are three reasons we should bring little children to\nJesus.<\/span><\/strong><strong><span style=\"\" class=\"\"><\/span><\/strong><\/p><p><span style=\"\" class=\"\">Why should we bring little\nchildren to Jesus? First, because he bids them welcome, and we are his\nrepresentatives. As we&#8217;re told in the Bible, we&#8217;re to have the mind of Christ.\nIndeed, we read in verse 14 that the Lord Jesus was indignant when he realized\nhis disciples were trying to keep the children from him. And then there&#8217;s that\nother passage: &#8220;Do not look down on these little ones; despise not these\nlittle ones.&#8221; <\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"\" class=\"\">We all know that if princes had\nbeen asking to meet with Jesus, they would have said, &#8220;Well, of course.\nHow nice to see you. We&#8217;d like to open the way for you to come to Jesus. He&#8217;s a\nlittle tired, but I&#8217;m sure he will see you.&#8221; <\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"\" class=\"\">But when children came,\n&#8220;Go away,&#8221; they said, &#8220;the Master is busy. He&#8217;s too tired.&#8221;\n<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"\" class=\"\">That isn&#8217;t the way he saw it,\nand it isn&#8217;t the way we should see it. Princes and kings and presidents and pop\nstars and ballplayers are not more important than children or anybody else,\nbecause God doesn&#8217;t see as we see. We have our heroes, our stars, and we say,\n&#8220;Wouldn&#8217;t it be wonderful if that person became a Christian?&#8221; It\nwould, but it would be just as wonderful if the person who lives next door to\nyou or who works at the next desk became a Christian. <\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"\" class=\"\">There&#8217;s a second reason we\nshould bring children to Jesus, and I want to spend some time on this: clearly,\nthey are eminently suitable to receive the gospel. Verse 15: &#8220;I tell you\nthe truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child\nwill never enter it.&#8221; And then in Matthew 18, when Jesus was asked who is\nthe greatest in the kingdom of heaven, he called a little child and had him stand\namong them. It&#8217;s clear that children were never far away, so Jesus just\nindicated to a little child to come and stand, and then he said, &#8220;I tell\nyou the truth, unless you change, unless you be converted&#8221;&#8211;the word means\nturned around&#8211;&#8220;and become like little children, you will never enter the\nkingdom of heaven.&#8221; He doesn&#8217;t mean we&#8217;re to become childish or immature,\nbut there must be some things about a child that grownups have to emulate in\norder to enter his kingdom. You would have thought, therefore, that we would\nhave had a fruitful ministry amongst children, because they&#8217;re already like\nthat, eminently suitable to receive the gospel. <\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"\" class=\"\">What is it about children that\nmakes them eminently suitable to receive the gospel? I would say in the first\nplace that little children have no difficulty believing in God. It&#8217;s as they\nget older and become more sophisticated that they say they have some difficulty\nbelieving in God. But when little children see something that&#8217;s beautiful and\nintricate, they say, &#8220;Somebody made that.&#8221; It&#8217;s only after lies are\nreceived in their education that they say it happened by chance and accident.\nBut little children believe in God the Creator.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"\" class=\"\">And they believe that God the\nCreator can do anything, because that&#8217;s the only God worth believing in, isn&#8217;t\nit? It&#8217;s only when people get grown up that they say, &#8220;I believe in God\nthe Creator, but I don&#8217;t believe he can do miracles. I can&#8217;t believe all these\nthings I read in the Bible; they&#8217;re impossible.&#8221; But that&#8217;s the point\nabout God; he can do the impossible because he is God. <\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"\" class=\"\">When my children were little, I\nused to do their prayer time with them at night before they went to sleep. We\nused to discuss what we would pray for, and one night when I asked what we\nshould pray about, Richard, the youngest, didn&#8217;t answer because he was nearly\nasleep. He was allowed to go to sleep during prayer time because he was very\ntiny. And Timothy, the oldest boy, said, &#8220;Let&#8217;s pray for the queen.&#8221;\nI said, &#8220;That&#8217;s good. We&#8217;re told in the Bible to pray for those who rule\nover us.&#8221; So he said, &#8220;Yes, we&#8217;ll pray for Queen Mary.&#8221; I said,\n&#8220;Well, the queen&#8217;s name is Elizabeth. Queen Mary is dead. We don&#8217;t pray\nfor the dead.&#8221; So then my daughter Allison said, &#8220;How did she\ndie?&#8221; And I said, &#8220;I don&#8217;t really know how she died. I think she just\ngot to be a very old lady, and then God called her to himself.&#8221; And\nRichard, who I thought was asleep, took his thumb out of his mouth and said,\n&#8220;And then God turned her into a boat.&#8221; When queens die, they\nobviously get turned into boats\u0085and a child has no problem believing that God\ncould do that. <\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"\" class=\"\">Thinking back, I don&#8217;t know how\nhe dealt with the ship named the <em>Queen Elizabeth<\/em>, because she&#8217;s still\nalive. But one of the things about little children is that they don&#8217;t have any\ndifficulty believing in God. The world didn&#8217;t make itself, did it? And God can\ndo anything. <\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"\" class=\"\">Children are also open to\nteaching. They grow up to become know-it-alls, particularly in the realm of\ntheology, but when they are little, children know they don&#8217;t know about God. They\nwant to know about God. &#8220;What is he like?&#8221; they say. &#8220;What does\nhe look like? How old is he? Who made God?&#8221; and so forth. They&#8217;re\ninterested. They&#8217;re teachable. <\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"\" class=\"\">But I find that grownups often,\nas the Lord Jesus was indicating, put all that behind them and become expert\ntheologians. They say, &#8220;Well, I think God is like this, and I think God is\nlike that. And the God I believe in, he does this and he does that.&#8221;\nUsually with people who talk like that, the one thing you can be sure of is that\nthey don&#8217;t think. They preface everything with, &#8220;I think,&#8221; but they\ndon&#8217;t think. They make it up. They make a god out of their own minds as the\npagans, the idolaters, do. The idolaters take a piece of wood and make shapes\nout of it, and then they put it on a pedestal and say, &#8220;That&#8217;s god. We&#8217;re\ngoing to pray to the god.&#8221; Or they take a piece of stone and they chisel\nit this way and that, and then they put it in a temple and say, &#8220;We&#8217;re\ngoing to pray to that; that&#8217;s god.&#8221; And we say, &#8220;How silly.&#8221; But\nsome of us do the same thing, only we don&#8217;t use our hands. We use our minds,\nand we say, &#8220;I think I&#8217;ll make God like this, and then I&#8217;ll make him like\nthat, and I&#8217;ll have him do this but not that.&#8221; We haven&#8217;t a clue what he&#8217;s\nlike, because we don&#8217;t read the Bible. We end up with a god made in our own\nimage, and it&#8217;s worthless. But children say, &#8220;I want to know the truth.\nWhat is God like? What did Jesus do? Does he love me?&#8221; <\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"\" class=\"\">And they have tender\nconsciences. It&#8217;s only as they grow up that their consciences become, as the Bible\nputs it, &#8220;seared as with a hot iron,&#8221; or insensitive. When children\nare little, they aren&#8217;t like that. With two of mine anyway, I only had to say,\n&#8220;You&#8217;ve disappointed me. I&#8217;m sad today because you did that,&#8221; and the\nlittle eyes would fill with tears. I didn&#8217;t have to do anything else. And we\nneed a tender conscience if we&#8217;re to know we need the Savior. <\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"\" class=\"\">If our conscience is seared and\nwe do things wrong and don&#8217;t think it matters, how can we ever know we need him\nwho came from heaven and went to the cross that we might be forgiven? And how\ncan we ever come in the right attitude to this great God and Creator, the God\nof the impossible, and say, &#8220;God, you made me and you will judge me, but\nplease be merciful to me, a sinner&#8221;? <\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"\" class=\"\">A little child is also used to\naccepting authority. When we grow older, we say, &#8220;Nobody is going to run\nmy life, not even God, and certainly not Jesus Christ. I&#8217;ll do it my way.&#8221;\nHell will be full of people who said, &#8220;I&#8217;ll do it my way.&#8221; The great <em>I<\/em>\nis right in the middle of the word <em>sin.<\/em><\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"\" class=\"\">One of the things we need to do\nwhen we become Christians is to say, &#8220;Lord, you are the Lord. Be the Lord\nof my life; I surrender my heart to you.&#8221; <\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"\" class=\"\">Next, children are responsive\nto love and friendship. They know they need that; they like people to care for\nthem. D. L. Moody ran a wonderful Sunday school amongst children in Chicago one\nhundred years ago. Little boys and girls would come, often ragged and some of\nthem barefoot, sometimes literally walking miles to get there. One day he asked\na little fellow, &#8220;Why do you come so far to get here?&#8221; <\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"\" class=\"\">And the boy said, &#8220;Because\nthey love a fellow here, Mr. Moody.&#8221; <\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"\" class=\"\">I hope that&#8217;s how our boys and\ngirls feel. So, children are eminently suitable to receive the gospel precisely\nbecause they have the characteristics of a child. <\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"\" class=\"\">And then a third reason we\nshould bring children to Jesus is that Jesus saves children&#8211;he really does.\nMark 10:14, &#8220;For the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.&#8221; It\nmeans what it says. And Matthew 18:6, &#8220;If anyone causes one of these\nlittle ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a\nlarge millstone hung around his neck and be drowned in the depths of the\nsea.&#8221; The text calls children those &#8220;who believe in me&#8221;&#8211;it\ncouldn&#8217;t be plainer. Therefore, I believe that although children are young and\nthere are many things they don&#8217;t understand, they can know that Jesus loves\nthem, and they can learn that Jesus came to take away their naughtiness that\nthey might be forgiven. And in response, they can give their little hearts and\nlives to Jesus. <\/span><\/p><p><strong><span style=\"\" class=\"\">There are three ways to bring\nlittle children to Jesus.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><p><span style=\"\" class=\"\">How can we do it? <\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"\" class=\"\">First of all, we bring children\nto Jesus by prayer. This we must do, because their salvation is not automatic.\nJust because they&#8217;re little children and open to the gospel doesn&#8217;t mean they\nwill hear and believe the gospel. No one is born a Christian. They may be born\nin a Christian country in the sense that the country has been heavily\ninfluenced by the Christian faith. They may be born in a Christian family, and\nthat&#8217;s a wonderful privilege, but even that doesn&#8217;t guarantee they will become\nChristians, because becoming a Christian is a choice that each one must make.\nGod has no grandchildren; he only has children, and each person must be born\nagain. Only God can do this great and gracious work. So we&#8217;re to pray for our\nchildren. <\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"\" class=\"\">One of the greatest preachers\nthe world has ever known was Charles Haddon Spurgeon. He was raised in a town\ncalled Colchester in the East of England, and his father was a lay preacher who\nused to go out every Sunday ministering the Word. But one day, as his father\nleft home, he felt convicted that he was going to minister to other people and\nwas neglecting his own family&#8217;s spiritual welfare. So he turned about and went\nback, and as he was going up the stairway to the apartment, he heard his wife&#8217;s\nraised voice. At first he wondered if she were angry, if someone were\nmisbehaving. Then he realized as he stood outside the door that she was in\nprayer. With a tremor in her voice, she was pleading for the salvation of her\nchildren&#8211;&#8220;especially,&#8221; he heard her say, &#8220;my eldest son,\nCharles.&#8221; God heard her prayer, saved the boy in his teens, and made him a\npreacher who led tens of thousands to Jesus Christ. <\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"\" class=\"\">Pray for your children, for\nyour grandchildren, for your nephews and nieces, for your neighbor&#8217;s children,\nand for the children of your friends at work. Perhaps you&#8217;ll be the only one\nwho ever prays for those children. That&#8217;s how we&#8217;re to bring children to Jesus,\nby bringing them to his throne in prayer as Mrs. Spurgeon did. <\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"\" class=\"\">And then we bring children to\nJesus by teaching them. Second Timothy 3:15 says, &#8220;From a child you have\nknown the Holy Scriptures which are able to make thee wise unto salvation\nthrough faith in Christ Jesus.&#8221; We shall teach them many things, but let&#8217;s\nteach them this Book. Let that be the basis of our curriculum always. In the\nBook of Deuteronomy, God&#8217;s ancient people were told, &#8220;Teach your children\nthe things of God. Bind them upon your forehead, bind them upon your hands,\ntalk with them in the home, talk with them by the way.&#8221; In other words,\ndon&#8217;t teach just in formal sessions, but let conversation in the family often\nbe about the things of God. <\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"\" class=\"\">And it isn&#8217;t only the parents\nwho have that responsibility. I believe the church has it, too. Jesus said to\nPeter, &#8220;Feed my lambs&#8221; as well as, &#8220;Feed my sheep.&#8221; We\nbring them to Jesus by bringing Jesus to them, by teaching them the Word and\nthe gospel. When they are skillfully prepared for each age, stories and songs will\nstay in the memory, making indelible impressions. <\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"\" class=\"\">When I was a teacher years ago,\nmy principal was not a believer. He told me that one day he&#8217;d been at home, and\nhis little grandson was there. And his grandson said, &#8220;Play the piano,\nGrandpa.&#8221; Grandpa was playing piano, and he swung into &#8220;Baa, Baa\nBlack Sheep.&#8221; <\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"\" class=\"\">The little chap said, &#8220;No,\nplay &#8216;Jesus Loves Me, This I Know.'&#8221; <\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"\" class=\"\">But Grandpa didn&#8217;t know that\nsong, so he said, &#8220;I don&#8217;t know that.&#8221; <\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"\" class=\"\">&#8220;Play it!&#8221; the lad\ninsisted. You see, he wasn&#8217;t sanctified yet. He got cross. He demanded\n&#8220;Jesus Loves Me,&#8221; and Grandpa kept saying he didn&#8217;t know that song.\nFinally, with wide eyes the little boy said to his grandfather, &#8220;Doesn&#8217;t\nJesus live in your heart?&#8221; <\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"\" class=\"\">I&#8217;d had many a conversation\nwith this man, but I think that got through to him more than Harry Kilbride had\never done. This little boy&#8217;s father and mother were not believers, either. I\ncouldn&#8217;t find out how he came to learn that song except that I suspect, from\nwhat the grandfather told me, that some neighbor had a Bible club and had taken\nall the children of the district who would come into her home and was teaching\nthem the old, old stories of the Bible and how to sing the gospel. Oh, it&#8217;s a\nwonderful ministry! <\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"\" class=\"\">And then we should bring them\nto Jesus by loving them lavishly, because God loves us, and Jesus loved\nchildren, and we should also. That&#8217;s not opposed to discipline. Godly\ndiscipline is an expression of love; it says in the Bible, &#8220;Whom the Lord\nloves he disciplines.&#8221; The Roman noblemen were very promiscuous. They had\nmany children who were bastards. They didn&#8217;t discipline them. They may have\nprovided a few coins for their upkeep, but they weren&#8217;t very interested in\nthose children. But those born to the wife, the sons and daughters who were\nheirs and heiresses, they were disciplined and taught because they were loved.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"\" class=\"\">But we should remember that God is\nslow to anger, plenteous in mercy. It says, &#8220;As a father pitieth his\nchildren, so the Lord pities them that fear him, for he knoweth our frame and\nremembereth that we are dust.&#8221; We&#8217;re to always remember he&#8217;s only little;\nshe&#8217;s only in the fifth or sixth grade; he&#8217;s going through that stormy time of\nadolescence; she&#8217;s in between being dependent and yearning for independence.\nWe&#8217;re to be understanding. <\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"\" class=\"\">And we&#8217;re to remember that\nChristianity is a faith of voluntary choice. Never abuse the mind or heart or\nwill of a child. There comes that point&#8211;and I don&#8217;t know in any particular\nlife when that point will be&#8211;when sometimes we have to say, &#8220;You yourself\nmust decide.&#8221; We have to keep hands off and let them choose, because we\ncan&#8217;t make people into Christians. We can teach them the gospel from the\ncradle. We can pray for them and with them, but we&#8217;re always to remember that\nour prayer is that they of their own choice will come to see their need of\nChrist and put their trust in him. What joy and blessing are ours if they do! <\/span><\/p><p><strong>We will have the joy of Jesus in this\nministry.<\/strong><\/p><p><span style=\"\" class=\"\">My last point is that we shall have\nthe joy of the Lord Jesus, because he said he rejoiced that these things were\nhidden from the wise and learned and revealed to babes, for such was the\nFather&#8217;s gracious will. He rejoiced when he saw that. We share the joy of the\nparents. Is it not a parent&#8217;s most desirable thing for a child that he should\nbe saved and given to Christ over and above academic prowess, sporting honors,\nor career success? For what does it profit parents if a child gains the whole\nworld but loses his soul? Shall we not share the joy of the child himself,\nbecause no one converted later in life doesn&#8217;t wish his whole life had been\nspent serving Christ. <\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"\" class=\"\">D. L. Moody was once asked after a\nmission, &#8220;Did you see any fruit from your evangelistic mission?&#8221; <\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"\" class=\"\">He said, &#8220;Two and a half\nconversions.&#8221; <\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"\" class=\"\">&#8220;Do you mean,&#8221; said his\nquestioner, &#8220;two adults and one child?&#8221; <\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"\" class=\"\">&#8220;No,&#8221; said Mr. Moody,\n&#8220;two children and one adult. One of those who came forward had half his\nlife already gone. But two who trusted Jesus have their whole life before\nthem.&#8221; <\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"\" class=\"\">Mr. Moody had the mind of Christ.\nWhat is more valuable than the soul of a child? How could we possibly neglect\nthis ministry? Even the atheists and humanists and evolutionists will in\ncertain circumstances acknowledge this. <\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"\" class=\"\">Picture with me a great museum that\nis ablaze. There are priceless treasures in that place: paintings that can\nnever be replaced, documents of great historical importance, antique porcelain.\nThe fire tenders are coming from far and wide. &#8220;Save this, save that, save\nthe other!&#8221; people cry. Then in an upper-story window comes the face of a\nlittle child. Don&#8217;t you think that every man and woman in that crowd would say,\n&#8220;Save the child!&#8221;? <\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"\" class=\"\">Well, what about the atheists and\nevolutionists and humanists? Wouldn&#8217;t they say, &#8220;Never mind the child.\nChildren can be replaced. There are paintings in there that can&#8217;t be replaced.\nThere are documents beyond price. There are too many children in the world\nanyway, too many mouths to feed. Let the child bum.&#8221; Only a fiend would\nsay that. <\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"\" class=\"\">You see, an atheist may be one\nthing in the lecture hall, but he&#8217;d be another thing in those circumstances.\nAll the humanity God had put within him that he tried by his pride to deny\nwould come welling up, and he would say, &#8220;Save the child!&#8221; He&#8217;s not,\nafter all, a complex piece of protoplasm. He&#8217;s a little person made in the\nimage of God. The world generally doesn&#8217;t believe that, but we believe it.\nThat&#8217;s why we have to preach this Book. <\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"\" class=\"\">There is only a small percentage of\nchildren in this area, I am told, who come under any gospel influence. And this\nBook is not allowed into public schools. Who is telling them what&#8217;s there,\nthen? And if we don&#8217;t tell them, who will? We believe that children are of the\nutmost importance to Almighty God. &#8216;They&#8217;re unique, priceless treasures. <\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"\" class=\"\">And my last word is this: Have you\ncome as a little child to the Savior? No, I&#8217;m not asking if you&#8217;ve abandoned\nyour mind or thrown your intellect away. That&#8217;s not what Jesus meant. Have you\ncome humbly, teachable, and with a tender conscience to a God that you know is\nthere and said, &#8220;I need you. I can&#8217;t do it by myself. And I certainly\ncan&#8217;t get to heaven all by myself&#8221;? &#8220;Except ye be converted and come\nas a little child, you will not see the kingdom of God.&#8221; But coming like\nthat, you will. <\/span><\/p><p><em><\/em><\/p><p><em><span style=\"\" class=\"\"><\/span><\/em><\/p><p><span style=\"\" class=\"\">(c) <\/span><span style=\"\" class=\"\">Harry Kilbride<\/span><\/p><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading is-style-article-subhead2\">Preaching Today\nTape #64<\/h2><p><span style=\"\" class=\"\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.preachingtodaysermons.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"\">www.PreachingTodaySermons.com<\/a><\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"\" class=\"\">A resource of Christianity Today\nInternational<\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[1715],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_field_guide_subcategory":[],"tax_ctp_field_guides":[],"tax_ctp_format":[170],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[412],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_sermon_series":[],"tax_ctp_tags":[3569,3897,4596],"tax_ctp_topics":[],"class_list":["post-32887","sermons","type-sermons","status-publish","hentry","tax_ctp_authors-harry-kilbride","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-children","tax_ctp_tags-evangelism","tax_ctp_tags-parenting"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Despise Not These Little Ones - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermons\/despise-not-these-little-ones\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Despise Not These Little Ones - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I thought it would be good for us to consider this very important mission field and responsibility the Lord Jesus has given to his church, that of reaching children. And I want to do so under three heads. The first is why we should bring children to Jesus. 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