Welcome to the Valley Baptist Church sermon podcast.
We're so glad you're here, and we hope this message inspires you,
builds your faith, and moves you toward a deep relationship with God.
Today, you'll find great insight into the Bible
and learn how you can apply it straight to your life.
So welcome and enjoy the message.
There's a conversation that I think all of us have had with our kids at some point.
Somewhere along the way, they said, you know, that's not fair.
And we said, well, life's not fair, right?
And you know what, that's an easy lesson
for us to experience, but it's a hard lesson
to come to grips with because deep down,
we all expect life to be fair.
We want justice.
And that's because God hardwired us
to want justice and fairness.
We are created in the image of God.
And so the reason we're so concerned with justice
is because God is concerned with justice.
I mean, your dog doesn't worry about justice or unfairness.
I mean, in anger, you could throw something at him,
and the next moment he'd curl up next to you
and be your best friend like nothing ever happened.
But someone throws something at us, mistreats us, we're offended, right?
Our sense of justice is offended.
And that makes living in this messed up, broken world very frustrating.
Because we're surrounded by injustice.
Now, in the beginning of chapter 3 that we looked at last week,
Solomon shared some of his most famous words.
He said, to everything there is a season.
A time for every purpose under heaven, a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant
and a time to pluck what has been planted.
And in beautiful poetic form, Solomon describes the various seasons and events of life.
And his point is that God is sovereign over it all.
You may think that you have control over everything in your life, but you don't.
God does.
The great victories that we celebrate,
the great defeats that we mourn,
ultimately speaking, God is behind it all.
He has either directly caused it or he has allowed it.
And so in verse number 16, Solomon begins wrestling
with the unfairness of life in the light of God's sovereignty.
He says in verse 16,
Moreover, I saw under the sun, in the place of judgment, wickedness was there.
In the place of righteousness, iniquity was there.
Solomon is saying, we expect the good guys to be good guys,
but that's not always the case.
We expect evil to be punished and good to be rewarded,
but sometimes the bad guy gets away,
and sometimes the good guy is punished.
Solomon is wrestling with the fact that God is sovereign.
and yet life is still very unfair.
I mean, how do those two things go together?
How can a good and loving God, who's all powerful,
allow evil and injustice into the world?
That is perhaps the most difficult
philosophical question of life.
We dare not reject the goodness of God
And we dare not reject the sovereignty of God.
For if God is not all powerful and all knowing, we have no confidence that God actually beats Satan and we all win in the end.
And so we've got these two great truths, the goodness of God, the sovereignty of God.
And then when we throw in evil and injustice into the mix, we can't quite get our minds around how that all fits together.
And so when tragedy and suffering come our way, we ask why.
Why, God, did you allow this?
How could this possibly fit into your plan?
You know what?
Asking God why is okay.
Because asking why implies faith.
That we believe that there's a God to ask.
We believe that he's good.
We believe that he is all-powerful, and yet we're having trouble reconciling the vents of life that we're experiencing with those truths.
Now, the Bible is filled with people of faith asking God why.
The prophet Habakkuk in the Old Testament asked God why.
The Chaldeans or the Babylonians, wicked and evil people, empire, they were prospering and yet the Israelites were suffering.
And Habakkuk wanted to know why.
Why do the wicked prosper and the righteous suffer?
And God answered him.
But God did not give Habakkuk the answer he wanted.
He gave Habakkuk the answer he needed.
God answered him.
He said, the just shall live by his faith.
In other words, Habakkuk, trust me.
We're like the little guy who keeps asking his dad, why?
Why, daddy?
Right?
Well, why is the sky blue?
Why this?
Why that?
And as dads, we don't give the little guy the scientific explanation of why the sky is blue.
Why?
Because it's far too complex for his little undeveloped brain.
So instead, we say, because God made it that way.
We give him the answer that he needs in life.
There's a God who made it that way.
Now, oftentimes, that's the response we get from our Heavenly Father when he answers us.
He says, trust me.
And understanding that is one of the keys to enjoying life in the midst of an unjust, unfair world.
That in moments...
When we don't understand God's ways, that we choose by faith to trust His heart,
that He's our Father, and that He loves us so very much.
When my dad was diagnosed with terminal cancer, it was devastating.
But I'm a bit of an optimist by nature, and so early on, as our church family, we prayed for him.
I really believed God was going to heal my dad and that he was going to extend his life.
Well, there were a series of weeks where every time the doctor came into the hospital room, the news he delivered was the worst.
Case scenario news, right?
We thought it was this, but it was actually that.
We tried this, but it didn't work.
And I remember during those first few months of multiple surgeries and treatments, we made
a lot of important decisions on behalf of my dad.
And it seemed like every decision we made turned out to be the wrong decision.
And I would have these moments of incredible regret, but by God's grace, those moments didn't last more than a few seconds.
How? My belief in the sovereignty of God.
I knew I'd prayed over everything. We had prayed over it.
We'd made the best decision we possibly knew how to make with the information we had.
I also knew that God is sovereign.
that whatever ultimately needed to happen with my dad was going to happen.
I knew that while we were fighting like crazy for my dad's life,
he was not going to live one day longer than God allowed,
and he was not going to die one day sooner than his appointed time to die.
And you know what?
That truth, that fact was like a blanket of peace upon my soul.
See, a lot of people are very troubled by the sovereignty of God.
Not me.
The sovereignty of God is one of the most comforting truths in all of the world.
That whatever good or bad happens to us in our life, that we are in the hands of God.
And His hands are good.
And his hands are all powerful, which means we know how the story ends, right?
In the end, God has the victory, and those who are connected to him join in that victory.
Now, in chapter 4, Solomon moves.
We're going to jump back to chapter 3 in a moment.
But in chapter 4, he moves from the injustice of the courts to the oppression.
of the vulnerable. He says in verse number 1, he says, then I returned and considered all the
oppression that is done under the sun. And look, the tears of the oppressed, but they have no
comforter. On the side of the oppressors, there's power, but they have no comforter.
You know, there's a lot of oppression in our world.
People like Hitler and Stalin exist.
Racism exists.
Abortion exists.
There's all kinds of oppression that exists in our world.
And Solomon says, the oppressed, they suffer at the hands of those who have power over them.
They cry these tears, but no one is there to comfort them.
Now, as Christians, we are to fight for and we are to comfort those who are oppressed.
But the truth is, our world is so broken and marred by sin that no matter how much effort on our part is going to fully fix the problem.
Life's going to continue to be unfair.
And I think Solomon, like many of us, oftentimes he's getting overwhelmed with that thought.
Verse number two.
He says, therefore, I praised the dead who were already dead, more than the living who were still alive.
Yet better than both is he who's never existed, who has not seen the evil work that is done under the sun.
Solomon sounds a whole lot like the prophet Jeremiah, who said, I wish that my mother's womb had been my tomb.
That's pretty low.
Yeah, that's where many people...
sadly find themselves in this unfair world.
Maybe you're there today.
Life has been so unfair to you, it seems, that you've lost even hope for living.
I want to encourage you to stay with me today,
because by the end of the message, I'm going to give you some hope and where you can find hope.
Now, let's jump back to chapter 3.
for a moment. Verse 17, he said, I said in my heart, God shall judge the righteous and the
wicked for there's a time then there for every purpose and for every work. He says there's a
time for every season in the world and there's a time for justice. Here's our principle. God is
going to judge all of the wickedness and the evil in our world. If you're like me,
That's something to long for.
You're troubled by the evil of our world.
So Solomon reminds us here
that time of God's judgment is coming.
It's not now.
And it's perfect timing that lines up
with God's purposes for the world.
When all who believe come to faith in Christ.
He's being patient now, but someday justice will be served.
Now that should be comforting to all of us,
but it should also be a little bit frightening.
It's comforting because we know that God wins in the end,
that all the unfairness of life, it's all going to be straightened out.
No sin or act of treason against Almighty God will go unpunished.
Sometimes we wring our hands, we watch the news,
we watch all the evil that's happening in our world,
and we fret about how the Hitlers of the world and the Stalins
commit these awful crimes against humanity,
and it all seems like, you know, they get out scot-free.
No, they don't.
They will answer to the God who made them.
They will receive judgment, the judgment they deserve.
Justice is going to be executed upon every murder, upon every act of rape, upon every abuse of a child.
And that is very comforting for us, but it's also a little bit frightening.
Why?
Because we're also sinners, aren't we?
Justice is going to be executed also upon every sin we've ever committed,
every thought of lust, every act of adultery, every lie, every word of gossip,
every act of disrespect towards one's parents, every theft, every thought of envy,
every curse word, every sin will be judged rightly and perfectly by God.
Why? Because God is just.
And God cares a whole lot more about justice than we do.
So in light of that, the truth is,
We shouldn't want justice,
because we shouldn't want life to be fair,
because if life is fair, that means we all go to hell.
So instead of justice, what we really need
is God's mercy and his grace.
We need to be forgiven.
We need to be acquitted of our crimes
against God and humanity, our crimes of sin.
Now, the question becomes,
how can a just God
allow the guilty to just go free, right?
How does that happen?
I mean, if someone rapes a woman and they stand before a judge and he says,
you know, I feel really loving today, you can go free.
We would be outraged by that.
That would not be just because justice must be served.
You do the crime, you do the time.
And it's the same in God's courtroom of life.
Every sin must be paid for.
But
Since we all deserve eternal judgment for our crimes of sin, and since God loves us,
God provided another way that would allow him to give us mercy and grace while still satisfying his justice, his fairness.
And that's the story of the cross, where God's love and God's justice meet.
Jesus, the Son of God, he said, I'm going to pay for, I'll pay for their sins so they don't have to pay for them.
They've committed high treason against us.
They've committed sins against one another.
But I love them.
I love them so much.
I will pay for their sins.
And the gospel is that if you accept and you receive Jesus and you accept what Jesus did, paying for your sins upon the cross, you're going to get mercy and grace.
Amen.
You're going to be freed.
But if you reject Jesus, you reject his payment for your sins, you get exactly what you deserve.
Unrelenting justice that is right to give.
That's the message of the Bible.
Verse number 18, he says,
All go to one place, all are from the dust, and all return to dust.
Who knows the spirit of the sons of men, which goes upward, and the spirit of the animal, which goes down to the earth.
Now, let's remember, throughout Ecclesiastes, Solomon is writing from an under-the-sun perspective, which filters God out of life.
So what he's saying is, if there is no God,
We're no better than the animals.
An animal dies, he turns to dust.
Well, a human dies, we turn to dust.
Without God, there's no really any difference.
In the end, we all turn to dust.
Life doesn't matter.
And he says, who knows if the spirit goes up when we die,
our spirit, and the animal spirit stays on the earth.
What he's saying is we don't actually know if all dogs go to heaven.
Who really knows what happens after we die?
Now, Solomon is describing life under the sun without God in the equation.
So he actually knew what happens to the spirit of the believer.
We know that from the end of the book in chapter 12, verse 7.
He said, then the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it.
So what's Solomon's point here at the end of chapter three?
He's saying if you remove God from life,
we're no better than the animals.
Because just like the animals, we also are going to die.
Now, Solomon is painting this hopeless,
pointless view of life without God.
Now, for the remainder of the message,
I wanna transition and give several points of application.
How do we navigate life when life's not fair?
Here's our first point.
We need to choose to enjoy the blessings of life.
Verse number 22, Solomon said,
So I perceive that nothing is better than that a man should rejoice in all his works,
for that is his heritage, for who can bring him to see what will happen?
Solomon is saying, do not focus on the unfairness of life.
Instead, focus on the blessings of life.
Maybe you've experienced tremendous unfairness in life.
Maybe as a kid, someone who was supposed to protect you abused you.
Maybe someone who was supposed to be loyal and faithful and love you cheated on you.
Maybe you live with chronic, if I can say that word,
disabilitating pain.
Maybe you live with a disability physically.
Maybe you've lost a child.
There's a tremendous suffering and pain in this life.
I think Solomon's saying,
no matter what awful things happen to you,
no matter what evil you've experienced,
The things that you've experienced don't have to be the focus of your life.
You can let your focus be God.
You don't have to let the injustices of life define you.
Instead, by God's grace, you can allow God to define you and to allow you to heal.
He can heal you so you can move on.
Now, last week, Pastor Matt said, don't let what you can't control destroy what you can enjoy.
And that's so true.
But let me say it this way.
Don't let what you don't understand destroy what you can enjoy.
Choose to enjoy the blessings of life.
Lori Rogowski, who served on our staff for 20 years as our Small Wonders Preschool Director,
passed away a few months ago of pancreatic cancer.
Now, Lori was a bit of a health nut.
She rode her bike to work.
She ate vegan.
She was very conscientious of taking very good of her health, of her body.
Well, when I first went to the hospital
after she'd first been diagnosed to see her,
she smiled and she said,
"'Pastor, the moral of the story is eat the cake."
Eat the cake.
Her point was,
"'We don't have complete control over our health.'"
of our bodies, of when we're going to die. So enjoy some dessert now and then. And I think
that's kind of what Solomon's saying. He said, enjoy life while we have it. Now here's our next
point of application. Recognize that there is actually purpose in our pain. Solomon said earlier
in verse number 11, he said, he's made, God's made everything beautiful in its time.
You see, God's able to take the worst tragedy that we can imagine and bring beauty and good from it.
Now, that doesn't mean that the tragedy itself is good or beautiful.
It means God can take it and he can bring good from it.
Romans 8 tells us that God is working all things together for good for those who love him.
Now, why did God give mankind a choice of sin so that we would rebel and there would be evil in the world?
I don't know exactly why.
That's above my pay grade.
But I do know that God is glorified through the cross.
And I do know that God is glorified through our salvation.
With no evil, there's no cross and there's no salvation.
You see, light shines brightest in the darkness.
It's the dark backdrop of life that causes the blessings of life to really come alive so that we appreciate them.
In the movie The Truman Show, Truman Burbank lived this unknowing life in a 24-7 reality TV show.
The directors of the show manipulated his life, and they caused everything to be perfect for Truman.
He had the perfect job.
He had the perfect wife.
He had the perfect life.
Nothing bad ever happened to him.
And to be honest, as you start to watch that show, it's...
It's very boring.
The movie is very boring.
There's no conflict.
There's no hero.
There's no real love.
You see, the challenges and the sufferings that we face and we have to go through in life,
they make happily ever after actually mean something.
It becomes very, very special in light of all that we've been through and God has forgiven us from.
Now we know how to appreciate the perfect life that is going to be in heaven with God.
I don't know all the details of why bad things happen to good people,
but I do know that ultimately God is working all things together for good.
Joseph, in the book of Genesis, was sold into slavery by his own brothers.
Betrayed.
And years later, after he had arisen in prominence in Egypt, became Pharaoh's right-hand man,
Joseph came face-to-face with his brothers.
They were coming because they were starving.
There was famine in the land.
They were coming for food.
And Joseph comes face-to-face with them.
And Joseph says, he says, what you meant for evil, God meant for good.
Corrie ten Boom, in her book, The Hiding Place, described what it was like for her and her sister, Betsy, to live through the evils of the Holocaust.
She shared about how they were living in the concentration camp, and her sister Betsy insisted that even though they were suffering greatly, they needed to keep trusting God.
They needed to thank God for everything.
Thank you.
And so that's what they did. Day after day, they trusted God and they thanked God for everything.
Well, the thing that Corrie hated the most were the fleas that were in her bed in the barracks there.
And so one day, Corrie was praying and thanking God and Betsy interrupted her and she said, and the bedbugs and the fleas.
Be sure to thank God for the fleas."
And Corrie thought that was crazy, but by faith,
she thanked God for those fleas.
Now, the two girls were Christian young women,
and they started the Bible study in their barracks,
and something that could have gotten them killed,
but the guards never came in and saw their Bible study.
They always wondered why did they never come in,
to find out we were studying the Bible.
Corey later learned it was because of those bedbugs.
The guards were afraid to catch the fleas.
You see, God had put a shield of protection
around those young women and he used a bedbug to do it.
See, we don't know what we don't know.
We don't know when the irritations
and the disappointments and even the sufferings of life
are being used by God to prevent greater suffering
in our life or in the lives of others.
We just don't know.
Tomorrow morning, I'm doing the funeral service for Ben Myhall,
a 17-year-old boy in our church who recently died of cancer.
Last fall, Ben's cancer returned, and he was placed on hospice.
And so I went to see Ben and went into his room there and had a wonderful conversation,
amazing conversation about the Lord.
It was very uplifting.
Made a good friend that day.
And in our conversation, I learned that Ben wanted to be baptized, to go public with his faith, to make it known, his unwavering faith in Jesus.
And so I baptized him just a few days later that Sunday.
And our team posted his baptism online.
And looking at the numbers yesterday, it went viral, over 200,000 views of that baptism.
See, God used Ben's cancer to give him a platform to share his testimony with hundreds of thousands of people who otherwise would have never witnessed the gospel.
They saw the gospel in Ben.
Last week, I...
We had the graveside for Ben, and it was a very intimate service.
It was only his close family and myself.
And at the end of the service, I watched as Ben's family went to the casket.
They wept over that casket.
My eyes also filled with tears, and I thought back in that moment to something Ben told me.
In his room the first day that I visited him, he said,
I'm thankful for my cancer because God used my cancer to deepen and solidify my faith in Jesus.
He was a young man who understood something about the nature of suffering,
something about the nature of God.
You see, life's short.
We're all going to die.
Whether you're 17, whether you're 70, it doesn't matter.
We're all going to die.
Life is very short.
Sorrows are going to come in life, and when they come, we all have a choice to make.
Are we going to let those sorrows make us bitter, or are we going to let them make us better?
I want to encourage you to be like my friend Ben.
Don't waste your sorrows in life because God has incredible purpose in them.
Now, for whatever reason, you can't seem to come to grips with the unfairness of life still,
and it only makes you angry with God.
I want to encourage you with this thought.
Perhaps you need to know.
that no one has ever been treated more unfairly than Jesus.
No one.
Jesus never did anything wrong.
We've all sinned.
Jesus never sinned.
He never did anything wrong.
He only loved.
He only encouraged.
He only lifted up.
He only healed, and yet they crucified him.
He stood trial before Pontius Pilate.
Pilate even admitted, he said, I find no wrong in this man.
This man, he looks innocent.
And yet because of the cry of the mob, Pilate sentenced him to die by crucifixion.
No one has ever been treated more unfairly than God, than Jesus.
Interestingly, the corrupt sham of a trial, the injustice that crucified Jesus is what God used to ultimately provide justice for you and I.
It's a great reversal.
What Satan meant for evil, God meant for good.
And he can do the same thing in your life.
He can take the tragedies of life, even the evil that's done against you.
He can take it and use it and turn something good and beautiful out of it if you allow him to do that.
1 Peter 3, verse number 18 says,
For Christ also suffered, he suffered once for sins, the just, that's Jesus,
for the unjust, that's us.
Why?
That he might bring us to God.
That's what we need most, to be reconnected to God.
Here's our last point of application.
I want you to invite God to comfort you today.
Comfort is available.
Whatever pain that you have, whatever suffering, whatever ails you,
comfort is available to you right now if you invite God to comfort you.
Solomon said, the oppressed, no one is there to comfort them.
But he's wrong because he was just giving the small picture.
He wasn't giving the big picture.
The world cannot truly comfort you, but God can.
And God will if you invite him to.
Sometimes.
People suffer and they get angry with God.
Listen, God didn't oppress you.
God's not oppressing you, the devil is.
He's the father of lies.
All of this evil, the devil's behind it.
And yet oftentimes after our suffering,
people reject God who offers love and comfort
and they start living the devil's life.
The very one who's behind all the suffering
they're experiencing, they start living his life.
We've got to draw close to God.
Yet when people suffer, they ask God, why?
And they ask God, they say, where's God?
And I've been there.
I'm praying earnestly for something in faith.
And yet I feel like the prayer's not been answered.
Where's God in this?
I understand that.
But I want to encourage you today that God is right there with you.
And you're going to find him if you look for him.
Those who seek him, he says, will find him.
Sometimes it takes the pain of hitting rock bottom in life before we look up and see God.
The Bible says that God is near to the brokenhearted and that God comforts the afflicted.
I want to encourage you, allow God to comfort you in the midst of whatever pain you have.
Now, how's God going to do that?
With His presence.
The Holy Spirit's called the Great Comforter.
There's nothing more comforting than the presence of God.
My dad returned from MD Anderson where he was being treated for cancer in Houston, Tennessee.
There were hundreds of people gathered at the church to welcome him home.
And we were supposed to just drive by in the parking lot.
But at the last minute, Dad asked for a mic.
And so we stopped, and he got out, and he shared extemporaneously for nearly 20 minutes.
And there were a number of quotable things that he said.
But one line stands out to me today.
He said while he was laying in that hospital bed for those weeks, he learned that God's direct answer to prayer is not the most important thing.
That His presence is.
We ask God for the, we don't have the full picture.
Only God can make those perfect decisions.
So what He gives us is what we need.
And what we need is Him.
Let me ask you, have you ever experienced the presence of God?
There's nothing like it.
Let me ask you this, are you experiencing the presence of God?
I can tell you, you're not experiencing His presence if you're living in sins.
Because the fellowship, your fellowship with God has been broken because you're living in sin.
You're not living for him.
But once we confess that sin, he is faithful and just to forgive us.
His presence, the sweet presence of God, we experience again.
You're also not experiencing God's presence if you've never given your life to Jesus.
That's the starting place.
I want to invite you today, right now, to turn from your life of sin, of self.
And to turn in faith to Jesus.
And to open your heart.
Sometimes we get hurt, we callous up, we harden up, we don't want to get hurt again.
I want to encourage you to allow the Spirit of God to do the opposite.
And to soften your heart transparently before Him.
And to receive the presence of God, the Holy Spirit.
You receive Him by faith as you trust Jesus as your Savior.
And allow God to comfort you right now.
James chapter 4, verse number 7 says,
Therefore submit to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.
Let's bow together in an attitude of prayer, both here and those even watching online.
Perhaps God's really doing a work.
in your heart, in your life, and you want to just kneel before Him,
I want to invite you to bow your head and ask God,
God, would you come into my life and comfort me?
God, I'm sorry for my sin, and I confess it to you, and I'm turning from it right now.
And I want to place my faith in Jesus.
I want to receive him right now.
Would you come into my life and give me your presence, your forgiveness, your life?
If you're honest with God about that and you surrender your life to Jesus,
he will meet you right where you're at.
I can promise you.
In just a moment after I pray, there's going to be pastors and other leaders here at the front of our worship center.
We're going to stand to our feet.
We're going to sing a song.
At that moment, the first words that are sung, I want to encourage you at that moment to start walking forward as God leads.
You're invited to come, walk down one of these aisles, walk down one of these staircases and say, I want to give my life to Jesus.
I want the presence of God.
Did you know that you were made for God's presence?
You were made for a relationship with him, but because of our sin, we've been separated from him.
So we don't experience that.
That's why Jesus came, to the presence of God, to bring us back to God, he said.
I want to invite you to allow yourself to be brought back to God today.
And it only happens by faith.
These folks will know exactly how to help you.
They're not going to ask you any questions you can't answer.
They're not going to embarrass you in any way.
They're going to help you.
Maybe you want to come and be prayed for.
You're going through something in life, and you're experiencing a painful season.
You just want a brother or sister to pray for you.
We're here.
We would love to link arms with you and pray for you.
Maybe say, I want to be baptized like others today
or join our church family.
Come, let us know.
We'd love to visit with you about that.
Help you take the next steps.
These steps are also open for you to just come
and pour out your heart to the Lord.
However he leads, let's pray.
Father, thank you so much for your amazing love.
Thank you that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Thank you that we love you because you first loved us.
It's not that we have to initiate pursuing you.
You're who initiates pursuing us.
Lord, we've been born into darkness.
We've been living in darkness.
We've been adding to darkness.
Thank you, Lord, for your marvelous light.
I pray, Lord, that your light would shine brightly upon souls today.
and their spiritual eyes would be opened
so they could see you for all who you are.
You are an amazing God who is faithful to be trusted.
Lord, I pray that you do a work now
that goes beyond anything I could ever do
or anything our church could ever do
or anyone could do except for you.
Lord, that you would take hearts
that perhaps have been calloused.
by unfairness, calloused by pain and suffering, calloused by their own sin.
And Lord, would you soften those hard spots?
Would you give us a heart of flesh and remove the heart of stone?
Do that which only you can do, Lord.
We rely upon you.
We need you.
Apart from you, we can do nothing.
And so we commit this time to you and we ask, Lord, that you do as you wish.
Have your way.
Give people the courage it's going to take to choose you, to respond to your love.
Lord, we pray that you do a great work in our midst.
We ask in Jesus' name.
Amen.
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