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Our hymn for the morning is "Look and Live" number 136, which you will ask to stand and sing following the reading of our scripture. Belshazzar the king invited a thousand of his officers to a great feast where the wine flowed freely. While Belshazzar was drinking he was reminded of the

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gold and silver cups taken long before from the temple in Jerusalem during Nebuchadnezzar's reign and brought to Babylon. Belshazzar ordered that these sacred cups be brought in to the feast and And when they arrived, he and his princes, wives and concubines, drank toasts

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from them to their idols made of gold and silver, brass and iron, wood and stone. Suddenly, as they were drinking from these cups, They saw the fingers of a man's hand writing on the plaster of the wall opposite the lampstand.

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King himself saw the fingers as they wrote." The first five verses of Daniel, the fifth chapter. May we stand now. [MUSIC PLAYING]

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[MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC - "HALLELUJAH"] ♪ Hallelujah ♪ ♪ God bless and hold my friends for you ♪

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♪ If we call it in his Word ♪ ♪ Hallelujah ♪ ♪ He will send and I know it's true ♪ ♪ Lord, I believe my God is near ♪

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♪ Come to Jesus now and live ♪ ♪ I call it in his word, hallelujah ♪ ♪ And it's only right to look at you ♪ ♪ I call it in his word, hallelujah ♪

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♪ His love is a sinless joy ♪ ♪ I believe in his word, hallelujah ♪ ♪ I know when this morning may be born ♪ ♪ Look again, look again ♪

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♪ Look to Jesus my friend ♪ ♪ He's the morning in the world of the living ♪ ♪ And his hope is evermore and evermore ♪ ♪ Jesus, there is a King of glory ♪

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♪ In the garden of Gethsemane ♪ ♪ He will take on the means of the world ♪ ♪ He will give and will make you be ♪ ♪ I don't care if I'm a man ♪

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♪ Come to Jesus, my heart and hand ♪ ♪ This morning in His Word, hallelujah ♪ ♪ Say this only and you'll know the meaning ♪ ♪ Come to Jesus, my heart and hand ♪

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♪ Come to Jesus, my heart and hand ♪ ♪ This morning in His Word, hallelujah ♪ ♪ Say this only and you'll know ♪ ♪ Amen ♪

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- Amen. Belshazzar the king made a great feast to a thousand of his lords and drank wine before the thousand. Now, Shazer, while he tasted the wine, commanded to bring the golden and silver vessels which

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his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the temple which was in Jerusalem, that the king and his princes, his wives and his concubines might drink from them. The subject of the message, cocktails in communion cups. Cocktails in communion cups.

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This event described by the Prophet Daniel in today's terms may well be called the King's cocktail party. The cocktail party is a socially acceptable way of getting people together. It's designed to serve as an icebreaker, creating a warm atmosphere of cordiality and hospitality. Most of the gatherings

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of a somewhat secular nature, we say, will have arranged in the program a cocktail hour, a hospitality room. The cocktail party is a symbol of pleasure,

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relaxation, refreshment, and recreation. In fact, the cocktail party is Babylon's way of staging a celebration. T.S. Eliot has a play which is entitled The Cocktail Party, and he points up rather in a rather interesting way way, the conversation which takes place at the cocktail party. The King, Belshazzar,

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is neither alert nor aware, for this party is being staged in a time of transition. An An old order is passing away, and a new order is being born. But Belshazzar does not know what is happening. One of the certainties of human existence

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is the fact of change. Change is the main item on the agenda of the future. Yet there are those who seek to live in the future and are not prepared for change.

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Alvin Toffler says that lack of preparation for change is the future shock that many people will experience. But let us take a close look at Belshazzar's cocktail party. First, it is an occasion of hysterical reverie.

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Belshazzar's party involves 1,000 of his lords. And as they assemble, everyone is encouraged to eat, drink, and be merry. Hang loose.

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Let your hair down. Food was deliciously prepared. It was delicious to consume and was attractive. the best catering service had been employed, and the best band in Babylon provided the music.

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The party was the sound of reverie, which developed into boisterous festivity. The The irony of the situation is that when King Belshazzar gave his party, the enemy was at the gates of the city. At that very moment, the armies of the Medes and Persians, led by Cyrus, were besieging

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the city of Babylon. And at a time of great danger, in a time of war, Belshazzar gives a cocktail party. He stages a celebration. In other words, he's saying, "Why worry?

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Why be concerned about what may happen? After all, Babylon is the most magnificent and luxurious city in the world. Babylon is beautiful. Babylon is the center of idolatry and the headquarters of heathen mysteries, and Belshazzar

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takes a certain pride in that. Babylon is devoted to every vice. There is no sin too terrible to commit to reap some pleasurable benefit. So Belshazzar says, "Why worry?

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This is Babylon the Great, with its impregnable fortress built in the exact shape of a square each way and surrounded by a wall 87 feet thick and 350 feet high. Four chariots could ride abreast around the wall. So why worry?

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This is mighty Babylon, the conqueror of the world. Lifted up in pride and arrogance, King Belshazzar and his 1,000 lords have a cocktail party. a time of great danger, there is a carnival and jovial atmosphere. It seems that everybody having a good time. But in the midst of the great celebration, the king got drunk.

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He said, as he was feeling high and mighty, he said, "Let the good times roll." Not only did he see to it that the cocktails were available in abundance, but as the king became intoxicated, he decides that the party ought to have some more thrills. At first, there are just the men in the party, there are just a thousand lords. But as the alcohol

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begins to work on their minds. The king says, "Bring in the women." And the women are brought in, and not only the wives, but the concubines are brought in, and things got out of hand. It was a party that was wild, lewd, and loose. It was a rowdy, bawdy party.

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Belshazzar engages in recklessness. He should have been with his armies doing something about the invaders. He should have been looking to the security of his throne, showing concern for the welfare of his people.

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He should have had a sword in his hand rather than a cocktail. But it is not enough for Belshazzar to drink his cocktails and to celebrate in the royal palace in Babylon, but now in his drunken stupor the king orders that the communion cups from the temple in Jerusalem, which had been brought to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar,

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would be brought into the palace, and that they would desecrate those holy vessels that had been consecrated to God by drinking wine from them. It was not enough to engage in a wild and rowdy party, but while he is drunk and has this brainwave, he encourages the group to engage in the most reckless behavior

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and wanton profanity that they drink their cocktails from the temple communion cups praising the gods of gold, silver, brass, iron, and stone. It was hysterical reverie. We have here the desecration of the holy. We think about that which is holy and there is the attempt on the part of man to separate

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life into that which is secular and that which is sacred and we try to separate them and operate in these little compartments but those who do that at least try to say, "Well, we'll do that which is secular and we'll respect that which is holy." But Belshazzar not only wants to have his party, but he wants to ridicule that which is holy. So

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he has the communion cups from the temple brought into his presence that they might drink their cocktails from the temple communion cups. And this often happens in life when we become lifted up in pride. Whenever a person becomes secure, whenever a person finds that he or she has within his or her grasp a great deal of power, it's a

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great temptation to misuse that power. In other words, those whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad with power. And so here Belshazzar, with all of his power, decides that he would do everything that he can to desecrate the holy and he somehow forgets that there are certain values in life, that there

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are certain things that are absolute, that there is that not only which is absolute but that there is that which is eternal and often we can become so wrapped up in in in doing things our way and in feeling that we don't need to answer to anybody else that we forget the place of the holy. We we we we have

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Sunday and Monday and and all of the seven days of the week and some would try to say that that Sunday is just the holy day and the other days are the secular days and and then we handle the secular days a certain way and then we handle Sunday a certain way but we've come now to now that we are secularizing

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Sunday according to that and and secularizing all seven of them and we say we live in a sort of a secular civilization, but really in the truest sense of the word, all of these days are holy. They're all given to us by God and we're responsible to him for how we use every day that he has given us. But

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Belshazzar forgets that there is someone over him. In his hysterical reverie, he is staging a cocktail party in Babylon. Secondly, we noticed here that of a mystical revelation in this great hall, with its beautiful walls,

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in this great hall with its brilliant lights, In this great hall, with its drunken assembly, with the lords and the ladies and the concubines, in this great hall, in the midst of all of the celebration, there appears before them a hand.

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A hand. A mysterious hand appears and in the midst of the celebration they see the fingers of a hand that begins to write on the wall. The king is drunk, but in the midst of his drunken stupor he somehow lifts his eyes and

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sees this mysterious hand writing on the wall. Suddenly his eyes get bigger. His knees begin to knock against each other. His blood pressure begins to rise. And And they'll share with us what's happening here. The lords and the ladies that have been engaged in the loud and lewd celebration,

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there is a strange silence now in the banquet hall. They drop their cocktail cups, and they begin to watch the hand that's writing on the wall. And the king, as he looks and he sees the writing on the wall, "Mene, mene, tico, eupharsin,"

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he can make no sense of that. And he summons the wise men of Babylon, "Tell me, what's the meaning of this? What's this writing on the wall?" And the wise men of Babylon are unable to answer the king's question. They say,

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"King, we do not know." What is this writing on the wall? And then the king, somehow, as he gets disturbed, he begins to inquire as to who can help him in this hour. The queen mother. You know, sometimes we forget about the older people, but the Queen Mother. She wasn't in the party, but somehow now the Queen Mother is

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approached and the Queen Mother said, "Oh yes, there's someone that can help us." And she remembers the preacher. She remembers the Prophet Daniel. And so Daniel is summoned and he's brought in to the banquet hall. They're alone drinking from their cocktail cups now. They are scared because there is a strange rhyme on the

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wall, there are mysterious fingers that have appeared in their midst and they don't know the meaning of it. Then Daniel sees the writing, "Mene, mene, tekel euphorsin." Numbered, weighed, divided. Numbered, weighed, and divided. That doesn't mean anything to the king,

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it doesn't mean anything to the people that are there in the banquet hall, it doesn't mean anything to Babylon at all, just those words numbered, weighed, and divided. And in the midst of their hysterical revelry, there is a message that comes to them, and yet they are unable to interpret the writing. It is Daniel who comes and interprets for them this mystical revelation. God is always saying something to us.

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It's whether or not we're able to understand his writing. He writes somehow in a mysterious way and somehow unless we are able to be hooked up with the eternal we're not able to interpret what God is writing. Daniel said now King this is what those words mean numbered, weighed, divided, your kingdom is

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numbered that's what it means your kingdom is numbered. You are weighed in the balances that's what that second word means that you're weighed in the balances and your kingdom is divided. Say you knew this. You knew this all the time. Say you knew this. You see our conscience makes cowards of us all when

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we know when we are doing wrong. Nobody has to tell us. We don't have to wait for the preacher to tell us. There's something inside of us that tells us and pride out when we're doing wrong. You say you knew this King, Belshazzar, yes you knew this, but somehow you have failed to follow your conscience in this matter. And so that very night, that very night the Medes and

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the Persians broke into the city and took possession of Babylon that very night God was writing a mysterious hand in history the mystical revelation was writing and saying to the people that a crisis is at hand you may be celebrating but there is a crisis at hand and this mystical revelation is made known to

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them through the Prophet Daniel and somehow God is still writing he didn't stopped writing when he was writing on that wall in Babylon not long ago underneath that great chandelier. God is still writing. God is still saying something to his world. God is still writing and many are engaged in

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hysterical reverence. Celebrating in Babylon. Unmindful that God has a purpose for us in the world but God is still writing. And the question is can you read the handwriting on the wall? America, can you read the handwriting on the wall? God has a message for America! He's writing in all that's happening! God is writing! You know we we have a fuel crisis in our land and yet some of us like Belshazzar

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we act as if we have enough fuel to last forever in the midst of the fuel crisis. We have a crisis, we have a crisis as far as morality is concerned, just as there was a crisis in Babylon a long ago, and God is still writing. God is writing. But the question is, are we able to read the handwriting on the wall? What is God writing concerning America? What is God writing concerning you and me? Are we

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able to read the handwriting on the wall? But really the question is only answered as we are related to God and His Word, as we are related to what God is saying, as we are related to His Spirit, that somehow by His Spirit we are able to understand and and we're able somehow to relate ourselves to what God would have us do in his world.

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Well, Belshazzar's lesson is one of history, but we are making new history every day. We are making new history, and somehow God is speaking to us.

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The song says, "My Lord is writing all the time." Sees all you do and hears all you say, My Lord is writing all the time. God is saying something to us.

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God is writing. In the midst of the crisis of our lives, God is writing. He does it sometimes in a very mysterious way.

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For God moves in a mysterious way. His wonders too profound. Plants his footsteps on the sea and rides upon the storm. God is writing in history.

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Writing in the history of our nation. writing in the history of each life, God, it's writing. And the important thing is we will take time to listen to what God is saying to us.

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You know, sometimes we wait until it's too late. Belshazzar and that celebration in Babylon, and the longer ago they waited until it was too late. Cyrus and his armies came in and took the city

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and Belshazzar lost his life. But I pray that God would help us to hear today, that we open our eyes that we may see and we're able to understand what God is saying to us.

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To say that God is writing, He's writing a message of love. He's writing that each day. In each day that He gives us, God is writing a message of hope.

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He's writing a message of faith. He's writing a message of His everlasting mercy. Every day God is writing. Are you able to understand the writing?

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Are you able to interpret what God is saying to us? Well, thanks be to God that He's writing. Somehow, you know, God has decided that He wants His love to be in our hearts.

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And to somehow have His name written indelibly upon our lives is to have Him in our hearts and in our thoughts. To say that God is writing in our life and everybody is waiting to hear that message, the gospel according to you.

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God is writing. And so as we sing the hymn of invitation, we invite you to come today. Savior more than life to me, to be willing to accept Him, to be willing to commit yourself to his way is to accept him as your Savior and as your Lord.

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Hymn number 242, Savior More Than Life. (music) ♪ Say oh, I'm right to be ♪ ♪ I'm dreaming, dreaming ♪

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♪ Oh, so free ♪ ♪ Let my prayer just fly by ♪ ♪ Meet me in heaven, I'll follow thee ♪ ♪ I'm here ♪

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♪ I'm the sun ♪ ♪ I'll be yours ♪ ♪ I'll be yours ♪ ♪ The lies we hear ♪

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♪ Are expensive ♪ ♪ They don't get ♪ ♪ The love you give me ♪ ♪ I'll be closer, closer, closer to you ♪

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♪ When you say, "Take care of me, Lord" ♪ ♪ Give me the things, give me the things I want ♪ ♪ The elves I know ♪ ♪ Trust in me ♪

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♪ I cannot stray ♪ ♪ I can never ♪ ♪ Never lose ♪ ♪ My faith ♪

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♪ Every day ♪ ♪ Every hour ♪ ♪ Let me hear you ♪ ♪ I'm listening now ♪

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♪ Day by day ♪ ♪ Now long to be ♪ ♪ I'm being closer ♪ ♪ Closer ♪

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♪ Lost to me ♪ ♪ I feel ♪ ♪ Weep more and more ♪ ♪ 'Til this fleeting ♪

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♪ Fleeting life is all ♪ ♪ Till my soul is lost in love ♪ ♪ In your love, my love ♪ ♪ Right here, right now ♪

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♪ Oh, Lord ♪ ♪ Every day ♪ ♪ Every hour ♪ ♪ Let me hear you ♪

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♪ I can sing out ♪ ♪ Imagine ♪ ♪ My love to thee ♪ ♪ Guide me closer ♪

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♪ Was a long ♪ ♪ Dream ♪ ♪ Every day ♪ ♪ Every hour ♪

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♪ Let me be ♪ ♪ I miss you all ♪ ♪ If I did ♪ ♪ I'd love to be ♪

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♪ I'd be closer ♪ ♪ Closer ♪ ♪ Lord ♪ ♪ To ♪

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As we prepare to go from this place, let us rededicate ourselves to celebrating the goodness of God rather than engaging in the hysterical reverie of Babylon in the time of great crisis. We as his disciples, as faithful members of his family, may be found serving as his ambassadors even in the midst of Babylon.

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[Music] There are times we feel alone, although we are not alone. All alone. All alone.

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All alone. So stand by me. [Music] [Music]

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♪ To know the Lord ♪ ♪ In the heart of your sins ♪ ♪ Oh Lord ♪ ♪ Oh Lord ♪

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♪ Oh Lord ♪ ♪ Oh Lord ♪ ♪ Lord have mercy ♪ ♪ Just open up your heart ♪

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♪ Let Jesus come and live ♪ ♪ Oh Lord ♪ ♪ Oh Lord, oh Lord, oh Lord ♪ ♪ Stand by me, stand by me ♪

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♪ Oh Lord, stand by me ♪ ♪ While I walk, while I walk ♪ ♪ This long journey, this long journey ♪ ♪ Stand by me, stand by me ♪

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♪ Give me courage, give me love ♪ [Music] Mary Bowers Heads, Gracious God, our Father, grant that we may not be guilty of engaging in hysterical reverie, of seeking to desecrate that which is holy, but help us, O God, to

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be faithful to your commands to honor you with our lives. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord cause his face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you. The Lord lift up the light of his countenance upon you and give you peace now and always.

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Amen. Amen. (guitar chord) [BLANK_AUDIO]