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Families that are suffering bereavement, the families that are suffering sickness in their homes or in the hospitals, we lift up to you the families that are in distress for some cause other than illness. Lord, we thank you this morning that we can come to you with all the cares and that we

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can lift them up to you and that you love us and care for us so much that you've set up a situation through Jesus the Christ as our intercessor to receive our petitions. So Lord, we come this morning through intercessory prayer, praying on the behalf of others, asking Lord that whatever their needs are because you know them best that you will bless them

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with their needs. Lord we thank you for those who are here who are still able to come. We thank you for good health and for strength. We thank you that we are able to come today and to worship you in spirit and in truth. Lord, as we lift up those who are dealing

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with some kind of an ailment, illness, stress, strain, or depression, because during this particular season, Lord, it says that all kinds of articles are being written in papers and newspapers and on the newscast

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that this is a time when man needs to lean and depend on you the most. So Lord, the names that we do not have, the names that you know that need thee in a very special way this morning, we lift them up too. Lord, as we enter into this Advent season, we pray that we will enter into it with hearts

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of praises and thanksgiving, looking to you for all good and perfect gifts and for everything that we need. We thank you now, O God, for those whose names that have been called. We ask a very special prayer on the Van Dyke family and the Gwendolyn Webb family in New York. Gwendolyn lost her mother, as you well know, Lord, on last Monday. We know, Lord,

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that these are not the only two families who are suffering bereavement. So we ask that you would bless and be with each and every family. Lord, we thank you for going into the sick rooms in the homes as well as in the hospitals. Lord, we thank you for God in the hands of the doctors and the surgeons and the nurses. We ask, oh God, that you would

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bless those family members that are taking care of the sick and the bereaved. Be with them, Lord, in a very special way. We thank you, Lord, that you are our comforter and that you are our guide and that in you we can find all comfort and all peace. Now Lord, we ask that anyone that we've left out, we ask at this time that you would bless

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them especially. Not only the sick and shuddering here at Ebenezer, but across the city and the state and the nation. Be with them and guide them and help them to know that if they live daily with you,

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there's enough grace in your mercy to see them through. Bless them and keep them, O God, as only you can is our prayer. In your Son's name we pray it all. Amen and Amen. [Music]

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[MUSIC] ♪ Holy Lord ♪ ♪ And His heaven reigns ♪ ♪ Holy Lord ♪

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♪ Our one and sole believer ♪ ♪ In worship ♪ ♪ Holy Lord ♪ ♪ I have been with Him ♪

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♪ All day long ♪ ♪ I've been with Jesus ♪ ♪ All day long ♪ ♪ I've been set for the praise ♪

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♪ All day long ♪ I want my soul to live in worship for the Lord. I am living here. ♪ The way you guide us ♪

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♪ From on a hill and mountain ♪ ♪ From on a mountain ♪ ♪ For me ♪ ♪ So I will honor us ♪

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♪ As we lead the path ♪ ♪ Lord, I pray ♪ ♪ Continue to live ♪ ♪ You've paid for my sin ♪

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♪ God, are you enough ♪ ♪ Lord, all I have done ♪ ♪ For thee ♪ ♪ Oh, I will long enough ♪

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♪ To grace the end of time ♪ ♪ And grace continue for me ♪ ♪ Oh, dear Lord ♪ ♪ I'm here with Jesus ♪

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♪ Holy Lord ♪ ♪ My lips have not a phrase ♪ ♪ Holy Lord ♪ ♪ My heart, my soul ♪

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♪ Believe and be in worship ♪ ♪ Holy Lord ♪ I have been with him. Only Lord, I have been with him.

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Only Lord, I have been with him. [ Music ] [Chorus singing] ♪ No afflictions we hold but a song ♪

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♪ And sunlight is hidden from view ♪ ♪ If ever you tempted to wear out the grave ♪ ♪ Just think of His goodness to you ♪ ♪ Just think of His goodness to you ♪

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♪ Oh, let's make of this goodness, this goodness to you ♪ ♪ The Son of His King, He's able to be ♪ ♪ Oh, make of this goodness to you ♪ ♪ The world may forsake you ♪

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And those whom you trust may prove to be false and untrue. There's one you can trust even unto the end. Just think of his goodness to you. Just think of his goodness to you.

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♪ Yes, thank God there's goodness to you ♪ ♪ The sky's all is green ♪ ♪ The air's very well-brewed green ♪ ♪ Oh, thank God there's goodness to you ♪

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♪ Misfortune, dark cloud, rain ♪ ♪ Ain't no mother rain ♪ ♪ This I do, this I pledge to you ♪ ♪ The Savior is God in your treasures up there ♪

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♪ Just think of His goodness to you ♪ ♪ Just think of His goodness to you ♪ ♪ Just think of His goodness to you ♪ ♪ Those now on this street ♪

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♪ He's able to give ♪ ♪ Oh, think of His goodness to you ♪ ♪ And dear ones are taken away of you ♪ ♪ In love with a Christian so true ♪

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♪ Put on to the Savior more strength to endure ♪ ♪ And think of His goodness to you ♪ ♪ Just think of His goodness to you ♪ ♪ Just think of His goodness to you ♪

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♪ Those not on this trip He's able to spare ♪ Speak to our hearts, O God. In the strong and perfect name of Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.

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I'd like to read a scripture passage in another translation. On the way to Jerusalem, Jesus was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee. As he entered a village, ten lepers approached him, keeping their distance. they called out saying, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us." When he saw them he said to

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them, "Go and show yourselves to the priests." And as they went, they were made clean. Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. He prostrated himself at Jesus' feet and thanked him. He and he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus asked, "Were not ten made clean? But the other nine,

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where are they? Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner? Then he said to him, get up and go on your way, your faith has has made you well. Luke chapter 17 verses 11 through 19.

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The subject, the leper's thanks. The leper's thanks. Among the recollections of my childhood There's a question that was often asked by my parents.

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Did you say thank you? And from time to time I was told to go back and say thank you. Many of us here can remember hearing our parents say, "Remember to say thank you." To say thank you whenever you're the recipient of a special favor or a particular benefit,

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Remember to say thank you. And sometimes there were occasions when you too were told to go back and say thank you. Go back and say thank you. That's good counsel not only for today, for this week, and for this year.

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That's good counsel for a lifetime. Go back and say thank you. Now why is this simple advice so valuable? I think it is considered simple because we are so prone to take it for granted. We become attached to pursuing the next thing on our agenda.

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We become absorbed in the challenge of the present, and anxious about the happenings of the future. So much so that we fail to express gratitude for past benefits. But we cannot go where we want to go without a grateful heart.

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We cannot go where we want to go without recognizing that we have been helped along life's way. Too quickly, I think, many of us forget what has been done, and we confront our benefactors, or those who have helped us, rather, with a question, "What have you done for me lately?"

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On his way to Jerusalem, Jesus passes through the region between Samaria and Galilee. He's traveling along the border. He's on the boundary.

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There are advantages in living on the boundary, being on the cutting edge. One is in the position to venture into new territory and have new experiences. Where Jesus went had

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certain social restrictions. It was posted, keep out.

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It was a quarantined area. This particular place was a village

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inhabited by ten lepers. It was considered out of bounds for the average

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traveler. It was forbidden territory. In practice, according to the protocol of the time, Jews had no dealings with the Samaritans.

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Jesus is on the border in territory between Samaria, a land of foreigners and Galilee, his homeland. The master is traveling between the forbidden and the familiar. Samaria the forbidden, people with whom Jews are to have no dealings, Galilee the familiar, the land where Jesus grew up. In a sense we too are on

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the border. We're traveling between the forbidden and the familiar. Jesus travels on both sides. So let us go to the border with Jesus for there is a colony of lepers, prisoners, persons who are AIDS victims, homeless, hungry, social rejects, all in this territory. forbidden and the familiar. There we have this community of lepers. Many of them are Jews and among the Jews there are some Samaritans.

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No, sickness makes strange bedfellows. Jesus is here in this village, and there are Jews and Samaritans who normally have no dealings with one another, but here they are, these lepers, living together. And the one thing they have in common is leprosy.

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Leprosy, that dreadful disease possessed by persons living on the borderline, Samaritans and Jews of our society living on the borderline. but we have so many people on the borderline. I hear one person say I'm a borderline diabetic. There's another who is a borderline alcoholic. There's another

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who is a borderline gambler. There's another who is a borderline drug addict. And they are what we may call borderline Christians, right on the borderline. One boy who just kept falling out of the bed, he was sleeping near the edge of the bed all the time, and he just kept falling out of the bed.

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And he asked his mother, "Why did he keep falling out of the bed?" the bed and finally he came back and he said to his mother, he said, "Oh mother, I know why I keep falling out of the bed. I stay too close to the getting in place." So that's what makes borderline people in the church. They stay too close to the getting in place. So we're here experiencing in our time wars based on

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racial differences. They're not based on the color of one's skin so much as it is what we call cultural wars. What we have going on in Bosnia isn't the skin war, it's a cultural war and we have these wars over and over again. But here we have a lesson for us in this colony of lepers. Racial differences are

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transcended by those who have common bonds of human misery. So Jesus enters into this village. He goes where there is a no trespassing sign. He ignores the sign that says keep out, the sign that says proceed at your own risk, Jesus ignores that and he goes on where these lepers are and he is

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approached by the lepers, those who are ostracized from society, those who have a a diseased condition that is considered incurable, a disease which is also considered contagious. You know how we are when there's something contagious.

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I went to the hospital some weeks ago and I was in in such a hurry that I didn't take time to look on the door. They had a sign out there, but I was thinking about what I was going to do, and I went inside without looking on the sign at the door.

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I talked with the patient, visited, had a nice visit, I thought. And then I came outside and looked at the sign on the door. "Do not enter unless you have all this and that." You know how those times are.

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And then I became concerned. Well, there was no point in going to the desk anymore, but I went and I talked. But we have a certain fear, a certain anxiety, when we are in the presence of something that is contagious.

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And these lepers have a disease that is considered contagious. And the scripture says that they stood afar off. In other words, they were under orders, "Don't get too close to people who have good health. You've got leprosy. Stay away from them.

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And so the rule was to stand at least 50 feet away from the next person. And so they stood, the scripture says, at a distance. And they cried unto Jesus, "Master, Master." In other words, "Help us, help us."

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Well, as they called and asked him to have mercy upon them, he was the one that could have them, and so he was also the one who cared enough to come to where they were. So if you need him, that's one good thing about our Lord. you need him, call him. And if in the midst of it all you find that there is

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great distance between you, he is willing to come close to where we are because he really cares about us. Jesus, Jesus. Jesus, Jesus. He hears us when we call and he is there to help us when we fall. When he saw them, he said to them, "Go show yourselves to the priest when he saw them. Oh how powerful are these words

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when he saw them because so many people don't see you when you're in a destitute condition. They ignore you, they pass by as if you aren't there. That was the trouble with diabetes and asthma. Right there at his gate but he never saw it. But he Yeah, Jesus sees these lepers. He's not too busy. He sees them. He knows their condition. He knows their need.

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And when He saw them, He goes to them. He comes to us, whatever may be our condition, whatever may be our situation. the Word of God has saving power. And Jesus just speaks the word. He says, "Go show yourselves to the priests." Now they were to go to the temple. That involved a journey. That meant that they were to leave the border and enter the mainstream

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of society, it meant that they must go to that place that was situated in the midst of human traffic. Jesus commands them to show themselves to the priests. they want to be healed and they are receiving here a word of power and healing go show yourselves to the priest and as they went they were healed. As they went they were healed.

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They didn't just stay where they were and hope to be healed. But as they went, as they walked on the journey, as they went, as they made progress toward doing what he commanded them to do, as they went,

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they were healed, as they went. My wife and I bought a car, and we couldn't drive it. And so I took driver's lessons and the like, and she took lessons. So when the car was delivered, I had gotten a temporary driving certificate that you're supposed to drive with someone in the car.

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And as I drove, I met the drive. As I was involved in the process, and as they went, they were healed. In other words, you have to practice this Christian faith. It's not something that's speculative. It's not something that's in some dream world.

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It becomes real to us as we practice it. We begin to understand it and we begin to grow in the faith as we practice. As they went, they were healed. Now that was a terrible disease, leprosy.

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A skin disease, leprosy. It was one where they had scales on their bodies, bodies, scores, sores and swellings, lumps in their throats, their jaws, and their request was for Jesus to heal them and as he tells them to go, as they went, they are healed.

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Now the prescription was given for all ten of them, all ten. And as they went and they looked and they saw that, that the skin, the scales were gone, and the lumps were gone from their throats, and they healed. They're new in their appearance and they feel different.

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They're healed now. And the command was just to go to the temple and let the priests look at them because the priest was to examine them.

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Now this means that they stand some tests. the religion ought to be able to stand some tests. And going to the priest, he was the one who had the word, word of redemption, word of release,

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or word of condemnation, you have to pass the test of faith. Every year, I go to Scott and White Clinic and Hospital. I was down there last week. And you're always a little uneasy when you go to take those tests.

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Because you know, you're a little older than you were the last time you were down there. And so I have to practice the writing down, putting on the list, all the little things that may or may not be convenient in my body. I make a list. And they send you around to the various places.

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when you go and you get this, and you have the blood and all of that and so on, and finally at the end of the day, you see your main doctor. And he has all of these reports. He sits down and he listens to what you say, and he reads what he, what this says. And as he's reading from that list, you become anxious about what he's going to read from that list. Because you have submitted yourself for an exam.

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And that means all of you, not some of you, but all that your body contains is there. Submit yourselves to the priest. And I certainly felt good when he said, "Well, Reverend, you're in good shape. Your heart beats fine. Your blood pressure is good. Just the rest of the world is good.

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Come back in another year. You certainly feel good." Yes, Lord. Well, as they went, I can imagine how they felt. How, how would they look and be so that they were healed, that they began to leap for joy?

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And I can see one who hurries home. He hasn't seen his wife in a long time. Yes, Lord. So he has to hurry home. He's not all wants to see his children, and this one wants to do that. This one wants to check to see how the business has been carried on since he's been away.

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away, they have a lot of these things on their agenda. And only one of them came back and said, thank you. Who prostrated himself before the Lord and said, thank you. Well, Jesus said, "Did not heal."

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Heal? What happened to the other nine? And as I look out this morning, I wonder, what happened to the other nine? We look, we have all these empty places in the pews.

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All of them been healed, but just one for every nine makes it out on Sunday. One comes to the other nine. All cleansed, all been changed, but just one. And he was a Samaritan.

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A Samaritan. Well, it seems to me that, you know, many of us, when we get what we want, we forget how we got it.

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And what I, it was a difficult, He told us a story about the cat and the rat. The rat was out there nibbling from some wine and finally drinking this wine, sipping it from this wine. Finally, the cat was out there and the rat, after having sipped the wine,

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[inaudible] And so the cat came and got the rat, and the cat was shaking the rat in his mouth, and the rat changed and said, And the cat said, "You really gonna do that?" He said, "Oh, yeah, I really do that."

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And so the cat let him go, and he ran into his hole, and then he stuck his neck out of his hole, and he was looking at the cat, saying, "You know, you promised me." He said, "Yeah, but I was in my liquor then."

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but I was in my liquor then. Some of us forget, we forget how we got where we are. So here is a searching question that Jesus asked. where are the other nine? So many people forget to come back and say thank you. But this Samaritan, this man who was considered despised and rejected, this man who came from a race that was considered an outcast, but this man, this

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This Samaritan is the one who comes back to Jesus and says, "Thank you, Lord. Thank you. I just want to say thank you." And that's what we are here today.

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Every one of us that come here this morning recognizes the fact that God has been good. Oh no, we've had our ancient pains. We've been out there in the leper's camp. We know what it is to be in the leper's camp. But we also know what it is to be raised up and healed by Jesus. And Jesus says, "Didn't I cleanse ten? Where are the other nine?"

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And he says to him, "Now you get up, go your way. Your faith has made you whole." And when I thought about that, that's the only one that received those words, "Your faith has made you whole." Now the others looked good on the outside, but this man has a grateful heart. There's something that has happened to him both inside and outside that has made him whole.

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So we ought to leave here today with a little deeper commitment. We ought to leave with a little deeper love. We ought to go our way knowing that we have a grateful heart, and that grateful heart that somehow we have been cleansed and healed by God and that we can say in the

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language of the hymn, "When peace like a river attendeth my way, when sorrows like sea below's bow, whatever my life thou hast taught me to say, it is well, it is well with my soul. So as we sing the hymn of invitation we extend the privilege of the church. [Music]

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[Music] [MUSIC] [ Music ] I am so grateful that Jesus Christ is in my life.

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What would my life be without him? It would be very dark and grim. When I'm sad, he cheers me. When I'm lonely, he will my comfort be.

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That's why I'm grateful, truly grateful that Christ is in me. I'm grateful, truly grateful, that Christ is in my life. when my friends and my foes turn against me and it seems I'm at the end of the road. There's a still, soulful voice saying within me,

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♪ There is someone ♪ ♪ Someone who's greater ♪ ♪ And he's carrying the load ♪ ♪ When my way gets dark ♪

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♪ It gets dark as midnight ♪ ♪ And my body is all wracked with pain ♪ ♪ Christ appears with his body ♪ ♪ With this holy light ♪

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♪ And by faith ♪ ♪ Faith and grace ♪ ♪ I'm made whole again ♪ ♪ That's why I'm ♪

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♪ So grateful ♪ ♪ That Christ is here ♪ [ Silence ]