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[Silence] Let us raise a joyful song to the Lord. [Praying] You shall know his power today if you will listen to his voice.

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[Praying] May we bow our heads as Deacon Thomas Van Dyke leads us in the invocation. Our Heavenly Father, bless us this morning, bless our pastor, let the words that he give us this morning help us and guide us

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to follow the kinds of works that you wish us to do here. In Christ's name, amen. I think most of us may remember that old spiritual "Ain't gonna study war no more, Ain't gonna study war no more and so brother point over lead us in that that right now the choir will join in as we all sing

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"Ain't No Steady War No More." ♪ I'm gonna lay down my sword and knife ♪ ♪ Down by the riverside ♪ ♪ Down by the riverside ♪

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♪ Down by the riverside ♪ ♪ I'm gonna lay down my burden ♪ [singing] [Singing]

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I'm gonna lay down my sword and shield Down by the riverside Down by the riverside Down by the riverside

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I'm gonna lay down my sword and shield Down by the riverside ♪ Ain't no city wonderful ♪ ♪ Ain't no city wonderful ♪

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♪ Ain't no city wonderful ♪ ♪ Ain't no city wonderful ♪ ♪ Ain't no city ♪ ♪ Ain't no city ♪

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♪ Ain't no city wonderful ♪ - Let's greet one another with a handshake this morning. Good morning. Good morning, good morning, good morning.

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Good to greet one another on this rainy day, for yet this is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. Amen.

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Our scripture lesson comes from Micah 4, 1 through 7. But in the last days it shall come to pass that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established in the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills, and people shall flow unto it.

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And many nations shall come and say, "Come and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord and to the house of the God of Jacob. And he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his path.

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For the Lord shall go forth of Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And he shall judge among many people, and rebuke strong nations afar off.

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And they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. Nations shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.

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But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree, and none shall make them afraid, for the mouth of the Lord of hope has spoken it. For all people will walk, everyone in the name of his God,

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and we will walk in the name of the Lord our God forever and ever. In that day, says the Lord, will I assemble her that halted, and I will gather her that is driven out

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and her that I have afflicted. And I will make her that halted a remnant and heard there was cast far off a strong nation. And the Lord shall reign over them in Mount Zion

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from henceforth, even forever. - Now is our time of prayer together. And as we pray, let us remember our sick and our shut-in. Sister Vernie Smith has asked that we would remember her

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sister who has undergone surgery in Waco. She has had two sisters critically ill. And let us remember them along with all of those who are sick and shut in among us and those everywhere,

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all sorts and conditions of humankind as we go to God in the blessed fellowship of prayer. Let us come now to the altar as we unite our hearts in prayer.

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What a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear, what a privilege it is to carry everything to God in prayer. Let us pray. Lord God, our Father, we thank you for the gift of this day, another expression of your love and your grace. You're so good to us you send the sunshine and the rain and you cause the rain to fall upon the just and

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the unjust. And so we give you thanks for the privilege of coming together in the house of prayer on this another Sabbath day. You've kept us through another week, you've guided us, you protected us, you fed us. So we pause now to say thank you Lord. Thank you for a reasonable portion of health and strength. Thank you that we are alive to see each other's

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face. Thank you. Thank you for the challenge that we confront in the gift of another week. you for the presence of friends and for coveted memories that linger with us as we journey on the upward way. We pray now that you would forgive us of our sins for in the midst of all of your goodness we confess our shortcomings, our weaknesses, our failures to do the things

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that you've required of us. Lord, forgive us. Forgive us for the thoughts that we have entertained that are not good thoughts. Forgive us, oh Lord, for the things that you know that we have failed to do and the things that we have done in the mistreatment of others. For all our sins we ask your forgiveness and we pray now that you would help us to commune

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with you as we seek to worship you in this service today. We pray not only for ourselves and for our families, for the wider family of this church, but we would remember your churches everywhere, ministers and missionaries, public servants, all.

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I pray that you would help us to become more mindful of your will and your way. Help us, O God, to be workers with you toward the day when your kingdom will come on earth in its fullness. Until that time, grant that we may be found faithful.

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We ask it all in Jesus' name. Amen. (door slams) (dramatic music)

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[music] [The sound of a man's shoes on the floor.] [Music] [ Music ]

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I am weak, and I need thy strength and power to help me over my weakest hour. Let me through the darkness I face. You see, Lord, just lead me. Oh, Lord, lead me.

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Oh, you just lead me, God, that guide, along the way. Lord, if you lead me I shall never sleep Lord, let me walk Lord, let me walk

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Every day, be safe with me Give me, oh Lord, give me Help me tread in the path of righteousness. Be my aid when Satan and sin oppress.

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I am parting off my trust in Thee, O. Oh Lord, just lead me. Oh, I want you to lead me. I said guide me all along the way.

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Oh, if you lead me, I can ask for it. Lord let me walk, Lord let me walk, every day, He's there with me, with me, oh Lord, with me. I am lost if you take your hand from me. I am blind without the light to see.

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Lord, just always let me thy servant be. just to lead me. Oh Lord, please, you lead me. Oh, I want you to lead me. I said, guide me all along the way. Lord, if you leave me, I cannot move. Lord, let me walk.

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Lord, let me walk. If you let me live, leave me, Lord, Lord, leave me. Oh, you just leave me. I said, "Try me all alone."

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Oh, Lord, lead me, Lord, lead me, Lead me, Lord, lead me, Oh, let me walk, Lord, let me walk, Every day, each day with Thee.

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Lead me, oh Lord, lead me, Lead me, oh Lord, lead me, Lead me, oh Lord, lead me. Let us bow our heads. We bless your name, O God, for the privilege to share of

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ourselves and our substance. Pray that your spirit would possess us now. In Jesus' name, amen. Let us all give according to how the Lord has prospered each one of us. God loves the cheerful giver. He that giveth sparingly shall reap sparingly. He that giveth bountifully shall reap bountifully. So let every person

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give according to how he has purposed in his heart. The Lord loves the cheerful giver. Honor the Lord with thy substance and with the firstfruits of all thine increase, so shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses burst out with new wine.

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The musical extravaganza that was held some weeks ago now, there are tapes on sale in the lobby. For those who want tapes of the musical extravaganza, you will find them in the lobby.

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There's a limited number, so you will do well to get your tape today. the lobby for the musical extravaganzas where you'll have selections featuring numbers from all of the members of the music ministry of Ebenezer.

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Now, Evelyn, the children have been running up and down the stairs doing the worship service and I want to see that that is stopped because they should be in the worship service and I'm sure we don't have them running out there this morning. This is the kind of morning that even those who claim to be faithful sort of stay in bed and when

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it's raining we the Lord sends the rain and we love him but so often we fail to come out so you're to be commended for having the kind of faith that shows itself in all kinds of weather. I want to emphasize again the Ebenezer tutoring project it is in progress the enrollment now is 12 and the attendance average

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attendance seven and two-thirds so if you'll join the staff as a teacher or secretary you may submit your name to any member of that of that group or sister of Verna Arnold I've been calling the names of it so they need people who in the the work of helping students with English reading math and that's Monday

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Tuesday, Thursday, 6 to 8 p.m. Tell others about it. On Monday night at 6.45, let's say 6.30, at First Baptist Church downtown,

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we are all encouraged to be there. It's the annual session of the Austin Baptist Association. We were the first black church to become a member member of the Austin Baptist Association and this year the pastor is delivering the annual sermon and the sanctuary

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Choirs rendering the music special music will be given by the choir at 645 this is a session primarily dealing with the business of the Association and it will be an agenda which is followed and you do well to be there The sermon the session proper will start at 7 o'clock and the sermon will be delivered around 815

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We hope that you'll come and remain during that session because we need to know more and more about our work That's most important the pastor will be speaking this week at Morehouse College at the Martin Luther King Memorial Chapel and We asked your prayers in connection with that. We'll be here on Monday and then on

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Thursday at Morehouse College we Notice here that in the bulletin that we are losing sister Lisa Alexander who

00:19:02.180 - 00:19:29.800

Served as the assistant choir director and pianist both of the sanctuary choir and of the Concord Chapel choir She has accepted a teaching position in Miami, Florida. This is her last Sunday with us she grew up in this church has rendered the service as the director of the Chancellor choir and of course has continued to have an outstanding role in our music ministry

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Our prayers go with her as she journeys in this these miles away from us to engage in this new work and

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We pray that God's choice his blessings will be on I'm gonna ask Lisa She will have a word to say that this is the last time possibly to the early service that she's going to be addressing us before she comes back as a teacher of music from the Miami Public Schools. Sister Lita Alexander.

00:20:06.220 - 00:20:42.220

I don't know exactly what to say but I would like to thank the Ebenezer family for your spiritual guidance through the years. As Reverend Griffin said, I did grow up here and Ebenezer has really played a big role in my life. And I thank all of you for that and I ask that you would pray that God would continue to bless me in my new career and

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I'll be thinking of you and I hope you'll do the same. all say amen. And we want her to join us at the rear of the sanctuary to close the service. This is not a real farewell. She's going to be coming back home because our roots are still here. She'll have to come back to continue to get

00:21:00.140 - 00:21:32.780

of water. Now today is World Hunger Sunday and we want you to keep that in mind the emphasis of the message is going to be on that and we will be asking you to do something special possibly on next Sunday for World hunger. Now all of us possibly here have had a sufficient amount of food this

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morning if we wanted it and then we've had enough at other times that we have a little surplus weight that we could afford to give away. But there are many people in the world who are hungry and there was a serious famine in Ghana and and in the Sahara Desert, in both of these places, as you know, in Africa,

00:21:56.860 - 00:22:17.500

the Home Mission Board, not the Home Mission Board, but the Foreign Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, was unable to meet the need. This is the first time they've been unable to meet such a crisis situation as faced this year, and so we need to do something special about feeding the hungry.

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There's a great deal of hunger in the world and some of it is right here in these United States So that we must ever be mindful of it and must do something in a special way about it KAZI which is the black Owned and controlled radio station. I've been serving as a board member since its beginning

00:22:44.640 - 00:23:03.200

Is in a fundraising effort. There's the morning I got up at 430 and I think got over there at 6 o'clock and stayed on the air from 6 o'clock until 8 o'clock in the fundraising effort and at that time we'd raised more money during those two hours and they had raised In this particular effort eighteen hundred and some dollars

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So if you haven't pledged make a pledge some years ago people were wondering why Austin didn't have a black station well, we've gotten one but it takes money to keep it because You don't make any money on ads. It's a community access station control station If you want any advertisements over it, so to speak or any announcements church announcements you get all that free

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But it's given by FCC this with a grant But it takes money to keep it going and it's going to depend on us how badly we want it as to how it operates But it needs at least just a shoestring operation of five thousand dollars a month that's what it needs in order to keep it going five thousand dollars a month and

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Those of us who have pride in our community and the like Can certainly make a generous contribution for this praiseworthy effort Do we have any guests today? Any persons who are not members of this church, if so, would you stand?

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Any person not a member of Ebeneezer would please stand. Everybody here is a member of the Ebeneezer family. All right. (gentle piano music)

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[ Music ] Savior, like a chapelino, much we need thy tender care. In thy pleasant pastures feed us, for our use thy folks prepare. ♪ Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus ♪

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♪ As proud as I we are ♪ ♪ Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus ♪ ♪ As proud as I we are ♪ ♪ We are thy new God, be free in us ♪

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♪ Be the guardian of our way ♪ ♪ Keep thy flock from sin, defend us ♪ ♪ Seek us when we go astray ♪ ♪ Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus ♪

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hear our prayers. Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus, hear our prayers. Thou hast promised to receive us

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us poor and sinful though we be thou has mercy to relieve us grace to cleanse and power to breathe Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus, early let us turn to Thee. Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus, early let us turn to Thee.

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♪ Early let us seek thy favor ♪ ♪ Early let us do thy will ♪ ♪ Blessed Lord and only Savior ♪ ♪ With thy love our bosom spills ♪

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♪ Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus ♪ [Music] Amen. In the book of the Prophet Micah, the fourth chapter,

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the third verse, are these words, "And he shall judge among many people and rebuke strong nations afar off, and they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nations shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore."

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The subject of the message "Beating swords into plowshares, beating swords in to plowshares. They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.

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Nations shall not lift up sword against nation or study war any longer. In a world suffering from the scourge of war, the dream of peace becomes more pronounced. The discontent, discord, violence have not diminished the human desire for peace. This was true in the days of Micah. America, he envisioned when the time would come that the ideal social order would be

00:30:44.380 - 00:31:13.180

realized and the kingdom of God would come on earth in its fullness. And I'm especially interested in the prophet's ideas and his choice of words. He says, "And they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.

00:31:13.180 - 00:31:54.460

Nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore." The Prophet is in a world that is preoccupied with making swords and spears weapons of war. But he hopes for the day when the focus of the human family will not be on weapons of war, but tools of peace when swords and spears will be replaced with plowshares and pruning hooks.

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Ours is a world at war. Most of the centuries mankind has been on the face of this globe have have been saturated by war. Some 36 million men today are under arms with another 25 million in reserves,

00:32:36.180 - 00:33:00.260

30 million civilians in military occupied Military occupations I should say military related occupations One half of the world's engineers and Scientists

00:33:00.260 - 00:33:09.040

Work in military research and and the development of the military.

00:33:09.040 - 00:33:31.680

Over $32 million is spent annually on military research and development. The world in which we live, quite different from that of Micah's day,

00:33:33.180 - 00:33:51.220

Spends one million dollars per minute on military forces and weapons and That translates into about four hundred billion dollars per year

00:33:51.220 - 00:34:11.840

With one Tax dollar in every six going toward military purposes And Most of that is spent by the United States and by the Soviet Union

00:34:11.840 - 00:34:29.720

Those two nations alone are responsible for at least half of the world's military expenditures Now in addition to all that

00:34:29.720 - 00:35:01.360

Three quarters of the international arms trade now involve third world recipients, those nations that constitute the third world. we call them the developing countries, arms trade with third world nations

00:35:01.360 - 00:35:26.020

reached about $14 billion in 1978. And from 1970 to 1978, there was an increase of 25% per year. Developing nations, developing nations,

00:35:26.020 - 00:35:46.440

even though these countries, third world countries, are troubled by severe food shortages, they are spending most of the money that they have for military purposes.

00:35:47.500 - 00:36:36.820

Instead of being concerned with the majority of their attention and their resources being directed toward feeding the hungry, they are developing a military machine. So the result is that we have today a world that is suffering from malnutrition, a world that is suffering from disease and forms of underdevelopment. And the only thing that matches

00:36:36.820 - 00:37:18.020

the weakness and that may be caused from the lack of food and the loss of life related to that, will be our capacity for destruction. That's the kind of world we live in. We talk about nuclear weapons, but when we look at the picture, the nuclear weapons that are controlled by the United States and the Soviet Union, along with the

00:37:18.020 - 00:37:37.900

the allies of both of these countries, those weapons are capable of destroying every city in the world seven times over. The nuclear arsenals continue to grow

00:37:37.900 - 00:37:52.840

at the rate of at least three bombs per day. Most of our attention is occupied with weapons of war. Weapons of war we're in a mad Race

00:37:52.840 - 00:38:06.460

To protect ourselves we say and to equip ourselves so that we can have a delivery system of warheads for

00:38:06.460 - 00:38:21.140

destroying life and the human environment Such a capacity that defies the most perverse Imagination

00:38:21.140 - 00:38:39.900

Nuclear weapons and technology Are of such that We are in danger of Destroying civilization as we know it and we spin

00:38:39.900 - 00:38:57.620

In the world community 32 billion dollars annually in search of newer and more deadly weapon systems Now it's now possible for any country

00:38:57.620 - 00:39:10.980

with An industrial base to produce a nuclear bomb in a few years without any outside help that

00:39:12.700 - 00:39:26.740

Technology is available. It's no great secret And what's necessary to to build it uranium and plutonium? those Products so to speak

00:39:26.740 - 00:40:02.700

produced in about 30 countries and so It's becoming more and more commonplace for the nations of the world to have the capacity to engage in this race. So what about the prophet's dream? What about the dream expressed here in Micah, "And they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning

00:40:02.700 - 00:40:31.460

hooks as it was in the time of Micah when men were preoccupied with weapons of destruction, so it is in our own time. And then when we look at the population of the world, we are well over three billion people in this world today, moving on toward four billion people.

00:40:31.460 - 00:40:54.480

But when we look at the world in which we live, one billion of them, one billion people suffer from malnutrition and starvation, a billion people. That ought to be something to cause us a great deal of concern, a billion people suffering from malnutrition.

00:40:54.480 - 00:41:25.200

And yet we have a world that is building up a war machine and failing to meet the needs of starving people and preparing weapons of war, building weapons of war, saying that in doing this we are becoming more secure. You know, people are dying in large numbers today

00:41:25.200 - 00:41:37.360

because they suffer from malnutrition. We don't get the right amount of food. There is hunger in our world, hunger. People are hungry.

00:41:37.360 - 00:41:48.920

A billion people suffering from hunger and dying because of hunger. Well, Charles Malthus had a theory that we need to have a war every now and then

00:41:48.920 - 00:41:55.560

Because if we didn't have a war, there'd be too many people in the world and we'd be overpopulated and we couldn't feed all these people.

00:41:55.560 - 00:42:03.580

So you need to have a war from time to time to kill off some of them. That's his theory. Well, it looks like that's exactly what we do.

00:42:03.580 - 00:42:24.280

Well, in the less developed countries, the average person consumes 400 pounds of grain 400 pounds of grain in the average developing country. 400 pounds of grain.

00:42:24.280 - 00:42:37.780

That's what the average person eats or consumes. In America, the breadbasket of the world, the average person consumes a ton. A ton.

00:42:37.780 - 00:42:57.520

So the choice that we face is between famine and family planning. Between famine and family planning. We can continue to multiply and multiply and multiply

00:42:57.520 - 00:43:12.480

and people can continue to be starving, starving, starving. And we will either continue to have famine because there are more people being produced than the rate that we can provide

00:43:12.480 - 00:43:28.000

the necessary production of foodstuffs in order to supply them. So what do we do? Will we continue to have famine in our world? Goodly portion of Africa, the largest continent among the continents of the world, goodly

00:43:28.000 - 00:43:53.480

portion of that is desert and more and more of it is becoming desert. And India is producing at a very alarming rate and yet not producing people but not producing enough foodstuffs to meet that need. Well, Willy Brandt of West Germany said in an address before the United Nations in the fall of 1973, "Morally it

00:43:53.480 - 00:44:25.100

makes no difference whether war is condemned, whether we have war, whether we condemn war, whether we have war, or whether we just starve to death by the end have people starving to death by the indifference of others, whether we'll just kill off people with our weaponry systems, or whether we'll just have

00:44:25.100 - 00:44:53.420

people starve to death by our indifference. Well, that's a serious problem. It's been a problem for a long time. And somehow what the Prophet said in the long ago is applicable to our situation in the here and now. That that hope still lives, that somehow we still entertain the hope that the day will

00:44:53.420 - 00:45:17.560

come when nations will beat swords into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks, that instead of focusing our attention primarily on weapons of war, that we will focus our attention on tools of peace. And we in the churches must become more and more concerned about that.

00:45:17.560 - 00:45:35.620

Sometimes we've had a way of just sticking our heads in the sand, so to speak. You say, "Well, you know, when we have these wonderful defense plants, that means I'll have a good job, and that means that we'll have a good income." And sometimes we have not questioned the morality of the situation, but more and more we need

00:45:35.620 - 00:46:10.680

to look at the kind of world that we live in and what we are contributing to in keeping the world the way it is, or what we are contributing in changing the world to what it ought to be. Food on the one hand and weapons on the other. Weapons are food. Our budget, our national budget has been one in which we have focused more and more upon defense. And we have cut

00:46:10.680 - 00:46:37.800

many programs that have to do with feeding people and ministering to social welfare concerns. But you know food has a great deal to do with peace. Food has a great deal to do with peace. In fact it's been pointed up here recently by a number of studies that a great deal of the crimes that are committed are

00:46:37.800 - 00:47:05.240

committed by people who don't eat the proper food. In fact, the more sugar one eats and the more tea and coffee one consumes that this has a way of contributing to deviant behavior. They made studies in the in the correctional institutions and studies involving juvenile delinquents and found this to

00:47:05.240 - 00:47:31.040

be true. And so that many of the atrocious crimes that are committed are committed because of malnutrition. Good boys and girls go berserk because of the lack of proper food and we try to deal with the situation by mandating stiffer jail sentences and we hire more policemen, we double lock our doors, we

00:47:31.040 - 00:47:44.800

We refrain from going out at night. We overcrowd our jails. But the crime rate gets higher and higher, and the prison population gets larger and larger.

00:47:44.800 - 00:47:56.800

And those who go to prison go back. In fact, instead of getting better by being sent to prison, many of them get worse because of the conditions they find there. And we find ourselves in double jeopardy.

00:47:56.800 - 00:48:16.640

We find ourselves being taxed in order to provide for the prison and we pay that way and then we find ourselves also paying by increased crime that's being produced even through the prison system and we find our world getting worse and worse. So what do we do?

00:48:16.640 - 00:48:28.540

Food has a great deal to do with it. Well here is the answer. Here is the answer. The answer is that somehow we must give more attention to providing people with the right

00:48:28.540 - 00:48:49.520

food and that somehow that the people who need the right food and the right vitamins that will contribute to human health and proper nourishment, that that opportunity must be provided. I was in a school located in the black ghetto in Galveston several years ago.

00:48:49.520 - 00:49:05.560

It's always been my habit when I was in a town to visit the public school. So I went into this school and I noticed that the teacher Had all the students To open their mouths and

00:49:05.560 - 00:49:26.580

It she was going down from desk to desk dropping something in their mouths And after the class session I asked her what was she doing she said well those were vitamins She said I find out that when I give them this that they do much much better Those drops that she was dropping in well

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What that sister found out numerous studies have also indicated that there's a definite relationship to food and behavior and well while she found that out in connection with her class and trying to teach and

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And other studies have revealed it in connection with delinquency and crime. The prophet Micah spoke about this long ago. His vision of it is expressed in the fact that we need to emphasize not weapons of war. And we need to hope and work for not weapons of war, but for tools of peace that will provide

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the proper food and the proper nourishment so that people will grow up and act in the proper way. Well how will this really happen? It won't just happen by just having more crops produced.

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But somehow it happens by God's action. That God must act in our lives. That God's spirit somehow must get a hold of us and we must become more concerned about preparing for peace.

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And that God's rule will come and that the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord and the waters cover the sea and people of every nation, people will come up to Jerusalem to worship God and men shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks and study war no longer.

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This is God's judgment in history and God shall bring it to pass and what we really need to decide in our heart of hearts that we will be workers together with God toward the coming of that day. We sing now as the hymn of invitation, hymn number 3, 234.

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Hymn 234, guide me O thou great Jehovah, pilgrim through this barren land. I am weak but thou art mighty. Hold me with thy powerful hand. stand and sing together.

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[MUSIC - "GUIDE ME, O THOU GREAT JEHOVAH"] Guide me, O thou great Jehovah, near thy firm and glad reserve. I am weak, but thou art mighty, hold me with thy strong shoulder. Spread a feather, feed me till I'm no more. Spread a feather, feed me till I'm no more.

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Open now the threshold fountain, Place the hidden water stone, Let the fiery cloudy pillar Lead the outward journey through.

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Strong deliverer, Feed our hills like strength and steel. Strong deliverer, ♪ Be thou filled by strength and cheer ♪

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- Now, let's sing that twice, okay? Let's sing that last lines a little slower, please. All right? ♪ When I tread the path of trial ♪

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♪ In the ancient hills of trial ♪ ♪ Where'er we go, Lord, where'er we go, Lord ♪ ♪ There's a place for me and for you ♪ ♪ Songs of praises I will ever give to thee ♪

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♪ Songs of praises I will ever give to thee ♪ ♪ I will ever give to thee ♪ - Bow our heads. I'm gonna ask that the persons who are assisting here

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and Lisa will join us as we will retire following the benediction to the rear of the sanctuary. We bow our heads. Lord, we thank you for that living hope

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for the day when men shall beat swords into plowshares, spears into pruning hooks, and grant that we shall continue to focus upon it, and to provide in an ever-increasing way food for the hungry, that this may truly be a world where men are at peace and war is no more.

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Grace, mercy, peace be with you from God our Father in Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. [Music] [ Silence ]