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[ Silence ] [MUSIC] He was despised and rejected, ban of sorrow, of tragedy and pain. He was wounded, wounded for our transgressions.

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He was bruised, he was bruised for our iniquities. But early one Sunday morning He said, "I got all power in my hand." Going back to His Father in glory But He's soon to come again. ♪ Oh, the blood ♪

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♪ Oh, the blood ♪ ♪ Of Jesus ♪ ♪ Oh, the blood of Jesus ♪ ♪ Oh, the blood ♪

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♪ The blood of Jesus ♪ ♪ Oh, the blood ♪ ♪ Of Jesus ♪ ♪ It will never lose ♪

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♪ Its power ♪ ♪ He was despised and rejected ♪ ♪ He was despised and rejected ♪ ♪ Man of sorrow ♪

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♪ Man of sorrow ♪ ♪ Ungrateful thing ♪ ♪ He was wounded ♪ ♪ Wounded for our ♪

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♪ Transgressions ♪ ♪ He was bruised ♪ ♪ He was bruised for our iniquity ♪ ♪ But early one Sunday morning ♪

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♪ He said I've got all power in my hand ♪ ♪ Going back to his Father in glory ♪ ♪ But he's soon to come again ♪ ♪ Oh, the blood of Jesus ♪

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♪ Oh, the blood ♪ ♪ Of Jesus ♪ ♪ Oh, the blood of Jesus ♪ ♪ Oh, the blood ♪

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♪ The blood of Jesus ♪ ♪ Oh, the blood ♪ ♪ Oh Jesus ♪ ♪ It will never lose ♪

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♪ Its power ♪ ♪ It will never lose ♪ ♪ Its power ♪ ♪ We'll never lose ♪

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♪ Each other ♪ - Amen. Hear this word. And one of the Pharisees desired him

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that he would eat with him. and he went into the Pharisee's house and sat down to meet. And behold, a woman in the city, which was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at meet in the Pharisee's house,

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brought an alabaster box of ointment and stood at the feet behind him, weeping and began to wash his feet with tears and did wipe them with hairs of her head and kiss his feet and anointed them with ointment.

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Well according to Luke, the seventh chapter, verses 36 through 38, this is the word of the Lord. The subject, welcome to the table. Welcome to the table.

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One of the things that Jesus' adversaries criticized him about was their opposition to his table manners. They did not like the fact that Jesus sat at the table with all sorts and conditions of humankind.

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These people of various ranks, different status, met together with Jesus at the table. They had table fellowship together. But his enemies found fault with him because they felt that his beliefs and practices were not

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consistent with what they thought would be required of a good life and of a respectable profit. They had various levels. We're acquainted with these levels.

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They start real young. In school, we put -- we have the A group, or the number one group. This is the fast group. And then we classify the other.

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These are the slow ones. And you get that pretty soon, that idea that there's some different levels. And we have it in our society, different levels.

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The top ladies, which means there must be some bottom ladies. (audience laughing) We have our fraternities and our sororities. And all of these, whether we want to admit it or not,

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emphasize certain levels, certain levels. We get our degrees, and that emphasizes a certain level. You see those degrees, someone writes you and they put it the end of his PhD, you know, right?

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And he is letting you know that he has reached a certain level. Well, the society has its upper class and its lower class.

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Pharisee invites Jesus to his home invites Jesus to his home for dinner. Jesus accepts the invitation. And while they are eating,

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a woman in that city, who is known all over town as a notorious sinner came and joined him.

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In other words, she crashed the party. She received no invitation. She came on her own on like one knocking down a locked door. She crashed the party. She heard Jesus was a dinner

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guest in that home and she made it her business to be on the guest list. In fact, she put herself on the guest list. It mattered not to her that she was not on the guest list. It mattered not to her that she had no place at the table.

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It didn't matter to her that she had no name card indicating where she was to sit. She came anyhow and she crashed the party, crashed it. Our two older daughters had a party

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when they were in high school and they were permitted to invite their friends and acquaintances, they made out a list and they sent out invitations.

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And the time came for the party, and they all gathered at our house. They came in one by one. But there was one young man who crashed the party.

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He wasn't invited. His name was not on the list that she had given. And the children came to us reminding us that he had crashed the party.

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And my wife said, "Well, let him go, let him go." Well, he seemed to have moved about, had more to say, and ate more than anyone else. But he crashed the party.

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He made himself at home. He really enjoyed himself. If nobody else did, he did. But he crashed the party.

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So this lady crashed the party. the party. In Luke's account of this event, the group is assembled in the Pharisees' house. Now the Pharisees are known as the pious ones. They are known for their holiness. They have an outstanding reputation for their prayers

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and for how they demonstrate the holy life. But this woman has the reputation of being a foul sinner. So, but here they are all in the same house

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and around the same table, this sinful woman having dinner at the Pharisee's house comes in uninvited. She stands at the feet of Jesus, behind him. Then she engages in weeping,

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and she carries with her an alabaster box, a bottle of precious perfume. Not only is it precious, it's costly. And she stood there,

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weeping and as she wept, she washed the feet of Jesus with her tears. Now, with all of this taking place at the dinner table, usually that's a place where we engage in considerable small talk. You brag about how good the food looks, who cooked it, and all of those sort of things at the dinner table. But here is a far more serious matter that is before them.

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They are engaged in eating dinner at the table, and this woman is a woman who is a very good And this woman is concerned about the condition of her life. She is on her knees, weeping and washing the feet of Jesus and wiping the feet of Jesus. Weeping, washing, and wiping.

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All taking place there in the presence of the master. And she is very perceptive. It was customary in those days for people who entertained guests to wash the feet of their guests.

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That was customary. That was hospitality which was expected. You just knew to do that. But somehow they'd all gather there and fail to do this.

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Everybody is so concerned about who's there and where they're going to sit. And those are the matters we are concerned about. You see some people going around before they get to the table to see where they are going to be seated.

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In our convention, that seems to be a matter that is of great concern. They always have someone appointed to sit you without knowing where you ought to be placed. And they're always trying to find out

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whether to put this brother here, that brother there. And they were doing it in one of the sessions I was with my wife and the president of our state convention and the people didn't know where to put us.

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I said, "Come on, y'all just sit anywhere. "They don't know, sit down." And they sat down. These are the things we get caught up with

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Who's gonna sit next to the president? Who's gonna sit next to Jesus? Where will I be seated? And well, concerned about all of these matters,

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here is this woman who begins weeping and washing and wiping the feet of Jesus with this costly bottle of perfume. Now you know how, you ladies know how,

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and you men also know how costly good perfume may be. It's very costly. I think I may have shared with you some time ago when I was courting my wife and I gave her some perfume

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and I gave her some Evening in Paris. I thought I was doing something. And I found out later that I was on very, very thin ice. Evening and-- but just costly perfume.

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Costly perfume. And she does not hesitate to use it for Jesus. Now, she'd probably been using perfume in other ways. many places she was going, she left in her train a seductive aroma of perfume.

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But now she brings this to Jesus, pours it out. You know how we do, costly perfume is by drops. But she pours it out in the presence of the Master. Now, what kind of dinner party can this be when there are a Pharisee, a sinner, and Jesus? sinful woman, proud Pharisee, and the Holy One, Jesus Christ.

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We put all of these people together, these persons are together, around the same table. And one of the problems we have today is we cannot get together around the table. It's one of the problems in Israel today. They've talked and they've come to America and they've worked with our leaders and all

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of that. They've gone back to their homeland and our leaders have gone there and worked, but we can't get together around the table. The peace table, we call it.

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and Palace of Versailles, years ago when we visited there, they still had the peace table, the table on which the peace was signed for World War I. But before that war was over,

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preparations were being made for another war. Here they are at the table. This woman is a prisoner. She is in bondage.

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She's in bondage to herself. She's in bondage to society. She is in bondage for her sins. Now, Jesus notices that as she weeps

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as a manifestation of her sins, she has a penitent spirit. She washes his feet with her tears. She extends to Jesus the hospitality that his own host,

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the Pharisee, had neglected to provide. She knew that hospitality was to be given to honored guests, but the Pharisee, who was the one who was the host, who was the host didn't do it.

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And here this woman breaks tradition, so to speak. First of all, she's having a business at the party, according to the standards of that day. That this was sort of a man's affair.

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But here she comes. And they know that she's there, but they don't really accept her. They're glaring at her without a spirit of acceptance. And as they are doing so, the Pharisee,

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who is the host who hasn't done his duty, he says, this man, talking about Jesus, If he were a prophet, he would have known what kind of woman this is. Because she has a reputation all over town.

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And if, it's a condition. He doesn't have any feeling of really being convinced of the divinity of Jesus. He says, "If." - Yes.

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- He has it riding on this conjunction. - Yes. - If. And we put so many things on if.

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- Yes Lord. - If. If he were a prophet, he would have known that this is not a good woman

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and he would not have accepted the kind of hospitality that she is showing him if he were a prophet. But Jesus knows. He knows the conditions of our hearts.

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He knows. He knows what the Pharisee is thinking. He knows. And he says, "Simon," calls his name.

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"Simon!" He said, "I have something to say to you." He said, "Say on, Master." He said, "If there were a debtor,

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And he owed another 500 pence. And he was unable to pay it. And his creditor forgave him of the debt. And if there were another creditor who owed 10 or 50 pence,

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which one, and he did likewise, which one would love him more? He said, well, the one that owed him more. He said, you have rightly said,

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this woman whose sins are many are forgiven. So her sins are forgiven. Thy sins are forgiven. Those are words of freedom.

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They're words of the beginning of a new life. In other words, the slate is clean. Your sins are forgiven. You can start all over now.

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So, she had been separated. She had been estranged from goodness. She had been exiled from holiness. This woman who is known as a vile sinner.

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But she has undergone a miraculous change of spirit. The very fact that she's at the feet of Jesus weeping, that's a penitent spirit. It's a spirit seeking forgiveness.

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She doesn't say a word, she just shows it by her actions. And Jesus accepts her while others are rejecting her. She has undergone a miraculous change.

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And so there was a sweet fragrance in the house because this woman came. She's classified as a vile sinner, but somehow Jesus has lifted her to a new status.

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This woman, this woman. We don't have her name. We don't have her name. We don't know who she was as far as her name is concerned,

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But one thing she has done, she has written her name in history by the manner in which she came and stood behind the table, wept and poured out her perfume,

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washed the feet of Jesus and dried them with her hair. She has made a special place in history for herself. And the word is, "You are forgiven." Those are wonderful words.

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He didn't ask her, "Why did you do this?" You know, when we have somebody, "Why did you, we want to get to history." "Well, you shouldn't have done it."

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"Why, why did you do this?" "And why didn't you do this rather than that?" But Jesus doesn't say anything, just, "You are forgiven." Oh, how gracious God is,

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no matter how we may drift into a far country, when that wayward child comes back, the father does not engage in a fuss or debate, he just has his arms outstretched,

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saying, "Come ye, come." Prepare a feast for him. He has come home, he's been lost, He strayed away, but now he has come back home.

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And all of us, my brothers and sisters, are in debt. No matter who you are, no matter how much we have achieved, all of us are debtors. We are in debt to God,

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and we can never fully pay the debt that we owe to him. We are debtors. But here this woman is forgiven. And we are the fellowship of the forgiven.

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We gather around the table today is because we have all been forgiven. We can't boast about goodness. All we can boast about is that God has forgiven us

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of our sins. And how wonderful that is to be numbered among the fellowship of the forgiven. And to be able to gather around the same table

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When I was a boy, little fella, the preacher would be invited to our house, then my grandmother would be preparing the dinner. We were sent, the children were sent to the kitchen. We didn't eat at the dinner table up front with the others.

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And sometimes they would eat all the food practically, and they'd have to cook something else for us. and I'd get the neck of the chicken and the feet, you know, the feet of the chicken. So I have never liked the neck of the chicken, nor the feet of the chicken because of that practice. And Langston Hughes has picked up this theme and he says

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about our race, they send me to the kitchen to eat when company comes. But I eat there and I go strong and healthy. But one day I'm going to sit at the table and they will see how strong and how beautiful I am.

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That day when I come. There's a place for every one of us at that welcome table. God, God has arranged it through Jesus Christ for us to have a seat at the welcome table. Oh, I wish I could have met this sister.

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I wish I could have heard her testimony. For I feel that when she went from, she said, "Oh, let me tell you what happened to me today." I met the Lord and he lifted my burden.

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He dried the tears from my eyes. I'm a new person, I have met the Lord. She made a wonderful testimony. Well, I think it's expressed in the song

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that was sung earlier by the choir, "Pass Me Not." She heard Jesus was gonna be in the territory. She didn't want to miss out on that. Pass me not, oh general Savior.

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While on others thou art calling, do not pass me by. Savior, oh Savior, hear my feeble cry. Well, this is a story. We may think it's this woman's story,

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but it's really Jesus' story. It's the story of Jesus in the life of this dear woman. And Jesus has so many stories. He has a story in my life.

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He has a story in your life. And he just wants to get his story told. And every day in every way, we are sort of contributing to that story.

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Blessing, we sing assurance, Jesus is mine. Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine, hour of salvation, precious is God, born of his spirit, washed in him.

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This, this, this is my story, this is my song, praising my savior all the day long. As we sing the hymn of invitation, we extend the privilege to accept Jesus Christ as

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Lord of your life, we ask you to come. The door of the church is open. As we sing, break thou the bread of life, hymn number 134. 34.

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Lord, the church is open, I invite you to come. Come to the table that He has provided, a table in the wilderness. Come.

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[MUSIC - "RAY OF THE MIDDLE EYE"] (SINGING) Ray of the middle eye, nearer to me, as of its break of dawn beside the sea, ♪ Beyond the sacred page ♪

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♪ I seek thee, Lord ♪ ♪ My spirit and soul ♪ ♪ In holy word ♪ ♪ Rest now, love, to me, Lord ♪

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♪ Do greet to me ♪ ♪ As the gift ♪ ♪ Blest the bread ♪ ♪ For Galilee ♪

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♪ Then shall all proudness cease ♪ ♪ All fetters fall ♪ ♪ Thy shelt'ring by peace my all in all ♪ ♪ Lord, the bread of life, o'er to me ♪

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♪ Thou holy Word, that saved the world ♪ ♪ And save her peace ♪ ♪ Give thee to me, my dear ♪ ♪ Give thee thou, O Lord ♪

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♪ Teach me to love thy kids ♪ ♪ For thou art love ♪ [MUSIC] ♪ None to be ♪

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♪ That he may touch my heart ♪ ♪ Or make me see ♪ ♪ Show me thou truth, conceal ♪ ♪ Within my blood ♪

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♪ But in my poop revealed ♪ ♪ I see the door ♪ - The table provided for the forgiven. [BLANK_AUDIO]