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[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music]

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[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music]

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This is my story, this is my song, When I say, "You're the only one," Then the world will see my song. When I say, "You're the only one,"

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[Music] [Music] In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God.

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All things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was light, and the light was the light of men. And the light shined in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not. not. There was a man sent from God whose name was John. The same came for a witness, to

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bear witness of the light that all men through him might believe. He was not that light, was sent to bear witness of that life. May the Lord bless the reading of his words. Time, asking those of you that feel the desire to come to the altar, you may come. And those of you that do not feel like you want to come to the altar, you may

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remain in your pews and lift up your voices along with us to him who knows all things and know them well. Our Father God in heaven, we thank thee for this another privilege together in in your house and to give thanks for so many blessings that thou hast bestowed unto us.

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And as we come, many of us are low in spirit, low in love. We need to be filled. And if we know that you will fill our hearts with love, the kind of love that will go from heart to heart and door to door.

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And as we come, O gracious Master, we ask that thou would bless those that are our enemies, bless those that consider us their enemy, bless the sick, the afflicted, the poor, the needed everywhere. Bless those, Master, that do not even know a Savior.

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Touch them in a manner that they will cry out, "What must I do in order to receive salvation?" our earthly mothers and fathers wherever they may be, you said in your word that it is not good for man to be alone. Let them recognize your presence, let them recognize your nearness. And Master, we ask that thou would bless this day,

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men's day, which is all the praises and glory will be rendered unto thee. We pray Heavenly Father that thou will not leave us alone. Stay thou nearby and lead us and guide us. In Jesus name we pray, Amen. [Silence]

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[MUSIC - "LIKE THE WOMAN OF THE WELL"] ♪ Like the woman of the well ♪ ♪ I was seeking ♪ ♪ For things ♪

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♪ That could not satisfy ♪ ♪ And then I heard my savior speaking ♪ ♪ Drop from my well ♪ ♪ The river shall run dry ♪

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♪ Fill my cup, Lord ♪ ♪ I'll lift it up, Lord ♪ ♪ Come and quench this thirst in all my soul ♪ ♪ Of my soul ♪

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♪ Bread of heaven ♪ ♪ Feed me till I want no more ♪ ♪ Fill my cup ♪ ♪ Fill it up and make me whole ♪

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♪ There are millions in this world ♪ ♪ Who are craving ♪ ♪ The pleasure earthly things afford ♪ ♪ The thought can't match the wondrous treasure ♪

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♪ There I find him, Jesus Christ my Lord ♪ ♪ I lift it up, Lord ♪ ♪ Come and quench this thirsting of my soul ♪ ♪ Bread of heaven ♪

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♪ Feed me till I want no more ♪ ♪ I lift it up, Lord ♪ [Music] [Music]

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♪ This war gave you ♪ ♪ Leave all your dirt and debts away ♪ ♪ My blessed Lord, we come and save you ♪ ♪ If you kneel to him and humbly pray ♪

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[singing] ♪ In my coughed throat ♪ ♪ I lift it up, Lord ♪ ♪ Come and quench this thirsting of my soul ♪

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♪ Bread of heaven ♪ ♪ Feed me 'til I want no more ♪ [Music] Gracious God, our Father in heaven,

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we thank thee for the opportunity to worship thee with our gifts. sanctify our gifts. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. I invite your prayerful attention to the passage of Scripture

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recorded in the Gospel according to Saint John, the first chapter, the sixth verse. "There was a man sent from God whose name was John."

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"There was a man sent from God whose name was John." subject of the message, "A man sent from God." These words refer to a man who was born during critical times. He serves as a harbinger. He is a man between the times. He is between the old age and the new.

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He is a bridge uniting the times. It was a period in history in which the times were out of joint, as Charles Dickens says in the introduction to the tale of two cities. It was the best of times.

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It was the worst of times. It was the age of wisdom. It was the age of foolishness. It was the epoch of belief.

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It was the epoch of infidelity. It was a season of light. It was a season of darkness. It was a spring of hope.

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It was the winter of despair. It was the right time for a man sent from God. Harold Emerson Fosbick spoke of our time as a great time to be alive. We are living, we are dwelling in a grand and awful time in an age on ages telling to

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be living is sublime. This is a time for a man sent from God. We need a man sent from God in such a time as this. Four hundred years of silence occurred, a time when the voice of a prophet was not heard

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in the land. Then in the beautiful words of the prologue in the Gospel according to John, we read that there was a man sent from God. The prologue begins with the lofty words, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word

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was with God, and the Word was God." And that word was the light of men. And then as it proceeds, it comes to these words, "There was a man sent from God." The Logos is concerned with the Creator, and the man sent from God is the creature of the

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Creator. So as we consider man and his place in the universe, we recognize that man is the climax of God's creation, a marvelous mixture of dust and divinity, a creature made by God, made in the image of God, a creature akin to the divine.

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And what does it really mean to be a man sent from God? Here is a man who is guided by God. Here is a man who is directed by the Divine. Here is a man whose steps are ordered by the Holy.

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Here is a man who has a sense of justice. Here is a man who is concerned about truth. Here is a man who is rightly related to his roots. Here is a man who somehow seeks to do that which he ought to do because he is concerned

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about the essence of reality. There was a man sent from God, a man who follows the guidance of the Eternal, a man who is concerned about the eternal realities of this world, a man sent from God. And this man who is sent from God has God's power.

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His authority is from God. He is authorized to do what he does because God has given him the power. boys were playing. And one said to the other, "I hear that your brother went into the army." And the other said, "No, he didn't win. He was sent." So there are those who may be engaged

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in certain activities, but the question is, where does the power come from? Where is the authority, what right do we have to do what we do? The question is asked of Jesus on one occasion, "By what authority do you do these things?" And so when we look at our lives, when we look at our activities, when we look at the work in which we are

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engaged, what is it that motivates us? What is the authority that drives us? What is it that somehow empowers us and enables us? Here is a word for us to lift up for our prayerful consideration. There was a man sent from God, a man with God's power, a man who has God's authority, a man who has the proper credentials. There

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There was a man sent from God. This man fulfills God's purpose. His life is to do what God wants him to do. There's a man made by God, guided by God, empowered by God, working for God.

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Well, this man's name is John. You know what is said of him? It is said of him that he was a voice crying in the wilderness. Just a voice crying in the wilderness. You know why? Because the wilderness was crying for a voice. Now John had grown up near Jerusalem, but his ministry was in the wilderness of Judea,

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because the wilderness was crying for a voice. the wilderness, the desert place, the barren desert wastelands, the dry, solitary places, lonely isolated and uninhabited wilderness was crying for a voice. And although he's brought up in the city, John is called to serve in the

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wilderness. He's called to walk alone, to serve in desert places. He's called to be a prisoner of the Lord. He's called to be a proclaimer of the unsearchable riches of the gospel. For in those days came John the Baptist, proclaiming the gospel of God in the wilderness of Judea.

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And you know, the wilderness remains with us. Twentieth-century man is summoned to live in a grand and awful time. But this is a century of crisis in which mankind is caught between the throes of two efforts. We are experiencing the dying groans of the old order and the birth pains of the new.

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In such a time as this, the wilderness is crying for a voice, for this is a century of bewildering contradictions. Armed with scientific knowledge and technological skills, we have produced countless gadgets to enhance our comfort and convenience.

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Discoveries in nuclear energy have made it possible for us to probe into outer space and bring faraway planets within our reach. We have the resources with which to ascend to the heavens

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or to make our bed in hell. The wilderness is crying for a voice. The robust optimism with which the 20th century began has been reduced to a puny pessimism by a series of world-shaking catastrophes.

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And as Americans, we boast of our affluent society and our abundant food supply. Yet, while we sit here today, millions are suffering from starvation and malnutrition

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in other parts of the world. We take pride in our technology, but we are deeply troubled. Our nation's wealth is threatened by mounting waves of inflation.

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And in such a time as this, the wilderness is crying for a voice. We boast of our military might, And yet we are more fearful than we have ever been before.

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Our world has the United Nations as an instrument of cooperation, yet we are torn by conflicts involving divergent political philosophies. Yes, the wilderness is crying for a voice. Populations are exploding.

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The human lifespan is being listened through the conquest of poverty and the elimination of disease. Mass communication media and rapid transportation have put us in close touch with the remote corners of the earth.

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Asia and Africa are casting off the yoke of colonialism and demanding the right to determine their destiny. There is a new birth of freedom in the world and a new sense of dignity and respect.

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Revolution is in the air. The oil is being radically abandoned and new lifestyles are emerging. The wilderness is crying for a voice. Judge H. Auden

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has called the 20th century an age of anxiety. Humanity is sick. And the sickness of humanity is seen in man's estrangement, his alienation from God, social

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division, man's attempt to escape from himself. A twentieth century man is a lonely creature, wrestling with the anxieties of doubt, meaninglessness, guilt, and death. You see, he's haunted by the failures of the past, perplexed by the problems of the present,

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and fearful about the uncertainties of the future. In such a time as this, the wilderness is crying for a voice. And so man is thrust into a world of mass culture. He's manipulated by hidden persuaders.

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He's robbed of selfhood and made a slave of superficial conformity. He's confused about who he is. He doesn't know what to do. He doesn't know from whence he has come, doesn't know where he's going, and neither does he know to whom he belongs.

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He's blown about like a leaf in the wind. The wilderness is crying for a voice. And here is the word, "There was a man sent from God, whose name was John." You see John was prepared to be a voice crying in the wilderness. You see his life was disciplined by the desert.

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He communed in solitude and heard in the desert the accents of the eternal. Now to be able to live in the wilderness for our time in many ways and the experiences that we have are wilderness experiences. But what decisions we have to make, we have to make them alone many times.

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We have to make them on our own. It's a wilderness experience, and to somehow be the kind of person that we ought to be in the midst of the wilderness experience is significant. And what is the task of this man?

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Well, as we read this passage, it says he is to be a witness. He's asked, "Now who are you?" He said, "Are you the one, are you the light that we have been looking forward to?" No, I'm not that light. I'm just a bear witness of the light

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That's the task That's the task of every man To bear witness of the light, to bear witness of truth, to bear witness of justice To be a witness of honesty, to be a witness of love

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That's our task in the midst of the desert experiences to be a prophetic voice crying in the wilderness of this world, a voice that is the echo of the eternal. Yes, there was a man sent from God.

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His name is John. He prepares the way for the liberated. He prepares the way of liberation for the great one who is to come to give redemption and release to those who are in bondage.

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John is sort of the waymaker. He goes before. He's the forerunner. He comes as a witness.

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He comes as a harbinger, and he comes just to cry out in the name of the Lord. That's our task. As comrades in the faith, that's our task, to do what God has said of us, to honor him and to perform in the place where he has put us.

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John Wesley put it this way by saying that the world is my parish. So where shall I serve? Where shall I cry? Well, the answer to that question for every man and for every woman is anywhere and everywhere,

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Wherever people are hurting, wherever people are walking in darkness, cry unto them concerning the light that shines. Wherever people are hungry, tell them where to get bread. Cry, yes, in the marketplace, where 'cross the crowded ways of life, where sound the

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cries of race and clan. Cry in the marketplace, yes, above the noise of selfish strife. May they hear thy voice, O son of man. Where shall we cry in hearts of wretchedness and need, shadowed thresholds dark with fears from pairs where hide the lures of greed we kept the vision of his tears yes in the marketplaces of life but also cry in

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the temple cry in the streets cry wherever people are well John cried in the wilderness and people left their busy streets in Jerusalem and went out to see. They went out to hear what John was crying about. The merchants left their stores, politicians left their offices, religious leaders left the

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temple, soldiers took leave from the army, all went out to hear what John was crying about. So wherever God places you, wherever God sends you, cry right there. Just bloom where you're planted.

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It may be a small place, it may be a hamlet, it may be in the country, it may be in the city, but wherever it is that God has placed you, serve there and serve well. There was a man sent from God whose name was John, who was a voice crying in the wilderness because the wilderness was crying for a voice.

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I know that every one of us here has some wilderness experiences. And if you haven't had any wilderness experiences, you just keep living. They are arranged for everyone. Abraham had a desert experience

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But when he was called from Ur of Chaldees to go In search of a city whose builder and maker was God he was called to go out not knowing Where he was going Well, that was a desert

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Between Ur and where God had for him to go So he had a desert experience. And he went out trusting in God and he became the father of the faithful because he was willing to accept that experience of sojourn in the desert.

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Elijah, as he was prepared for his ministry, Elijah had a desert experience. And through that desert experience, he was prepared for the ministry which he was to perform. He was but the shepherd of the core, had a desert experience, and it was in that desert

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experience that he was prepared to go out and to witness for God at Bethel. Paul, before he went forth as the great proclaimer of the good news to the Gentiles, sojourned And in Arabia he had a desert experience, and it was through that desert experience that he was equipped to do the great work of an apostle to the Gentiles.

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Well, that's the task that we have as we come to the desert places, to be sure that in that desert experience that you are that person that has somehow been ordained of God, that God's Spirit indwells us, that God's Spirit empowers us, that God's Spirit guides us, controls us, and that his Spirit gives meaning and purpose to our lives.

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There's a very famous story of an old pump in the middle of a desert. It had a can tied to it, and on it was this message. pump was all right in June 1932 I put a new sucker washer into it and it ought to last for five years. If the washer dries out, the pump has to be primed.

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Under the white rock, I buried a bottle of water out of the sun and corked up. There's enough water in it to prime the pump, but not if you drink from it first. Pour about one-fourth of the water in and let it soak and wet the leather, and then core and the rest, medium fast, and pump like crazy. You get the water, have faith, because

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you see this well has never run dry. But when you get the water, fill the bottle and put it back where you found it for the next fella. Signed, Desert Pete. P.S. Don't go drinking up the water first. Prime the pump. With it you will get all you can drink. That's our task. Somewhere along the way there have been those who come into this desert,

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in this desert place, men sent from God, and they've left the bottle there with the water there in the desert place. We're just coming along here, there's a road for already here. Don't go drinking up the water, some men just drink up the water. Never prime the pump. But prime the pump! God has arranged that prime the pump! There's enough water there if we prime the pump! Water

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for us to drink all we want, but be sure to leave some there for the next seller who's who's coming this way. There was a man sent from God. God granted. Each one of us will be such a person sent from God that our lives may be guided by his Spirit, and our actions may be controlled by his Spirit, and that our lives may be directed toward his purpose,

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the fulfillment of the divine design. And as we come now to the hymn of invitation, we extend the call to Christian discipleship, The call to accept Jesus Christ as Lord of your life, to be able to give witness of Him, we invite you now to come.

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The doors of the church are open. Jesus is calling. I invite you to come past me, Master, oh General Sager. [Music]

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♪ Come, O people, praise the Lord ♪ ♪ Give thanks to the Lord ♪ ♪ For the Lord has come ♪ ♪ To the land he has made ♪

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♪ Praise the Lord ♪ ♪ I am the king of the world ♪ ♪ I am the one who shall call me ♪ ♪ To my great delight ♪

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♪ I am the king of the world ♪ (choir singing) (choral music) [Music]

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[music] [Music] [Music] [Music]

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[Music] ♪ Oh, the light is rising ♪ ♪ The day that you promised me ♪ ♪ Oh, the day you promised me ♪

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♪ Oh, the day that you promised me ♪ ♪ I have arrived ♪ [Music] [ Silence ]