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[ Silence ] [ Music ] There's not a friend like low, lowly Jesus. No, no, not one.

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No, no, not one. ♪ None else can heal our souls ♪ ♪ Our souls' diseases ♪ ♪ No, no, not one ♪

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♪ No, no, no, no, no, no ♪ ♪ No, not one ♪ ♪ Jesus ♪ ♪ Knows ♪

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♪ All about ♪ ♪ Our struggles ♪ ♪ For he will guide ♪ ♪ Until the day is done ♪

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♪ There's not a friend ♪ ♪ Like the lowly Jesus ♪ ♪ Oh ♪ ♪ Lord Jesus ♪

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♪ No, no, not one ♪ ♪ No, oh, no, not one ♪ ♪ There's not a friend ♪ ♪ Like the low, low, lowly Jesus ♪

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♪ No, no, not one ♪ ♪ Oh, no, not one ♪ ♪ No, no, not one ♪ ♪ Oh, none else can heal ♪

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♪ All our soul's diseases ♪ ♪ Oh Lord, not one ♪ ♪ Oh Lord, not one ♪ ♪ Jesus knows all about us ♪

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♪ Oh Lord ♪ ♪ For he will guide you ♪ ♪ Never is not ♪ ♪ Oh there is not a friend like the lonely Jesus ♪

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♪ No, no, not one ♪ ♪ No, no, not one ♪ [MUSIC] No, no, not one. No, no, not one. And oh, not so dark, but his love can cheer us. No, no, not one. No, no, not one.

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♪ Was ever a gift that my Savior's given ♪ ♪ No, no, not one ♪ ♪ No, not one ♪ ♪ No, no, not one ♪

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♪ Will He ever refuse us a home, a home in Heaven ♪ ♪ No, no, not one ♪ ♪ No, not one ♪ ♪ No, no, not one ♪

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♪ Jesus knows all about our struggle ♪ ♪ He will guide till the day is done ♪ ♪ There's not a friend like the lonely Jesus ♪ ♪ No, no, not one ♪

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♪ Oh no, not one ♪ ♪ No, no, not one ♪ ♪ You do not want ♪ ♪ Oh no ♪

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♪ Oh no, not one ♪ ♪ No, no, not one ♪ ♪ No not one ♪ ♪ No not one ♪

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♪ No not one ♪ - Speak to our hearts, O God, in the strong and perfect name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

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And the apostles and brethren that were in Judea heard that the Gentiles had also received the Word of God. Acts the 11th chapter in the first verse.

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The subject Accepting the rejected. Accepting the rejected. God's people

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are channels of grace in this world. God's people are channels of grace in this world.

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Grace means acceptance. Through the Spirit of God, we are to accept one another. But one of the problems the church confronted

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in its early history was the problem of acceptance. Certain people were accepted, others were rejected. Jews regarded themselves as God's chosen. They were God's particular persons, peculiar.

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peculiar people chosen by him to witness in the world. For them the world was divided into two camps, Jews and Gentiles, circumcised and uncircumcised. The initiated and the uninitiated. The saved and the lost.

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It was a matter of race and religion. This was the cause of discard and division. How can people with differences have fellowship with one another? It was necessary for Gentiles to live the life of a Jew in order to be accepted by the Jews.

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They had to embrace the tenets of Judaism. It was necessary for them to change and be like Jews. They had to not only embrace the tenets of Judaism, but they had to eat kosher and obey the law of Moses.

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So when the church was young, Gentiles had to become Jews in order to become Christians. They were required to be circumcised. So race became a barrier to acceptance into the kingdom of God. the Mother Church, the first church of Jerusalem,

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I call it the first Baptist church of Jerusalem, insisted on holding firm to the position, the traditional position that had become theirs, as they all had been identified

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with the temple and the synagogue, they had certain traditions that they brought into this new movement we call Christianity. They said that Gentiles must be circumcised

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and embrace the tenets of Judaism. Many of the problems we encounter today in religion are based on race. Many of our churches are racial churches.

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Our church would be considered an African-American church. They had in those days certain restrictions within their religious practices. In fact, the Jews in their temple worship,

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they segregated the Gentiles. In other words, if you were a Gentile and you came there, you had a certain place you had to go, and that was to the outer court,

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mind you I said outer court, of the Gentiles. This was tradition, this was the law. But a radical change occurs, and word comes to the first church in Jerusalem,

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first Baptist church, that Gentiles are receiving the word of God. The preacher, the pastor, the Reverend Simon Peter, is called into question. According to reports, he has been instrumental in Gentiles being accepted

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as Christians. This is a break with tradition, I said earlier. And they have no room in their thinking for diversity. After 2,000 years, the church, in many instances, doesn't have much room for diversity.

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Dr. Benjamin Mays said some time ago, and it's still true, that the most segregated hour in America is the 11 o'clock worship hour on Sunday. Not much room for diversity.

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We're still struggling with openness, with being channels of grace, God's grace. We're still struggling with being rejected. The problem is in every sphere.

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The grace of acceptance. Who will be accepted? That's the problem in education. Who will be accepted?

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Will it be the one with the 3.8 or whatever grade point average? Is that the one that's going to be accepted? Will we accept a certain percentage of African Americans? Who's going to be accepted?

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That's the problem. Even in the sports world that has sort of pioneered, they've sort of gotten ahead of us in acceptance. As far as African American players are concerned,

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in many of these sports we seem to dominate, but we're having a little problem getting them as coaches. Got a little problem there. Who is going to be accepted?

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So the problem develops, or emerges, early in the history of the church. But you see, the Holy Spirit enters the situation. And the Holy Spirit has a way of prodding the church.

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Wherever the Spirit is present, the church is prodded by the Holy Spirit to reach out. Not just to be satisfied with ourselves, being a mutual admiration society,

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congratulating each other and enjoying each other, church is supposed to reach out. And the church is expected to grow, to grow. And you know, a lot of people are against growth.

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We live in Austin, we know that we have a strong anti-growth group. Y'all know that, don't you? It's reversed, or maybe you all are not anti-growth,

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but it is present in our city. In other words, there are people who've been in Austin for a long time and they love this beautiful city and it is beautiful.

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And since it's so beautiful and we want clean air and we want industry that's not, you know, with a lot of smoke and all those sort of things, good environmental conditions, we love that.

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And so, since we love this and we want to keep it small so it can have all these things and we wanna shut everybody else out. Shut ourselves in so we can enjoy it,

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but we don't want anybody else to come after we've got here. We wanna close the door. And do you know some people are like that in the church? - Yes, sir.

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- There's no growth. They don't ever get disturbed if the church doesn't grow. As long as they are here and they're doing well and they have a good sermon and a good choir

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and a good program, as long as they're being satisfied, they don't worry about any growth. And that had happened early in the life of the First Baptist Church of Jerusalem.

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And above all, it was Peter, the pastor, who broke with tradition. No, Jesus broke with tradition. They said, you know, we've observed you

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and your disciples are not doing as John the Baptist's disciples did, and we wonder why. They're following the tradition of the elders.

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You're not. And then beside all of that, notice that you did some healing on the Sabbath day. You're not following the tradition. Peter is criticized for accepting the rejected Gentiles as

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members of the Christian community. So he comes to Jerusalem to answer the charges to explain his conduct and here is his testimony. He said, "My brothers, I was determined to follow the rules and practices of our ancestors but something strange and miraculous happened. I was in Joppa praying and I had a vision. I saw

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something like a great sheet let down from heaven by four corners and it came down to me. It was direct, it was personal. I looked closely and I observed beasts of prey and reptiles and birds of the air and I heard a voice saying, "Rise rise, Peter, kill it, eat it. Rise, Peter, kill and eat. But I

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said, Lord, nothing unclean has entered my mouth. You see, Peter contradicts the Word of God. He says no. God says yes. And a lot of times when it comes to acceptance, we say no, and God is saying yes.

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No. You hear people say, I can't take that. You know, that's just saying no. I can't put up with that, Reverend.

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I can't take that. In fact, I'm not going to take that. They're saying they're not going to accept certain things that need to be accepted.

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In other words, if you, as well as myself, We are going to live life abundantly. We have got to have the grace of acceptance. Some days it's gonna rain.

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Some days it will be cold. Some days it will be hot. Whatever the day may bring, we have to learn to accept it. Can't stop living because winter comes.

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You have to live through the grace of acceptance. But the first thing that happens here is Peter has a vision. It's a heavenly vision.

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He has a vision of God. He has a vision of what God wants in the world, a vision, vision. where there is no vision, people perish.

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Out of a vision. You read over there in the book of Revelation where John is having his vision, he's talking about, he said, "I looked and I saw."

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That's really, really interesting to me. He said, "I looked and I saw." A whole lot of people look, but they don't see. I looked and I saw.

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In other words, he had a heavenly vision and he had the opportunity to see the situation from God's perspective. Oh, how wonderful it would be if we could even

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see ourselves from God's perspective. How wonderful it would be if we could see each other from God's perspective, what God wants in the world. Not so much what I want, but really what does God want me to do here at Ebenezer?

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What does God want you to do here? To see from God's perspective. Peter was able to see the situation from God's perspective and not only did he see that God wanted Gentiles there in church in Jerusalem from a local point of view, but he was able to see from a global point of view. One of my friends said to me once, he said, "You

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know, it's real difficult for people who live in small towns to have big ideas." That's one of the things we notice about Jesus. He came from a small town, but he had a global perspective. He was concerned about the world, going into all the world. Global perspective. Well, Peter had a vision. He saw things from God's

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perspective when he had that vision. He said no at first, but when God said yes that was radical change in his life. So the first thing you notice here is that Peter had a vision and the second thing about this thing, he heard a voice. The voice was from heaven. He heard a voice and this voice spoke to him. He was

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addressed in a very private way, personal way. He was addressed. He heard a voice. He heard the voice of God. Whenever you hear the voice of God you don't have to worry about any other voices. This man has heard the voice of God. He's not worried about the voice of the deacons back at First Church, he's heard the voice of God.

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He's not listening to the voice of the congregation back there in the church, he has heard the voice of God. And whenever you hear the voice of God, that's a unique experience. Now you don't have the voice of God on a tape recorder. It's not there. But whenever you have heard the voice of God, you know for yourself, nobody else

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can tell you about the voice of God. You know for yourself that I have heard the voice of God. It makes a radical change, it really does. I see old man Abraham, he's in the evening of his years and he hears the voice of God. Get out Abraham, don't stay here, leave here. And he goes home and he talks to his wife

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who's also up in years, said we gotta leave here honey. So what happens, this is our home, we've got all everything invested here, we've been here for years, we know all the BS, but I've heard the voice of God. That's a radical change when we hear the voice of God. So he had a vision and he heard the voice of God.

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I think more of us need to hear the voice of God speaking to us, priding us to move out. I don't think we would be satisfied with 40% of our members enrolled in Sunday school if we really heard the voice of God. I don't think we would really be so satisfied with less than half being present on Sunday

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morning if we really heard the voice of God. Peter broke with tradition when he heard, he said, "I haven't eaten all this yet, but God says this is all right." And so not only did he have a vision and hear a voice but he also engaged in a venture he made a journey he made a significant journey you know what the greatest journey is we

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have to make in life is the journey from I to we I've seen a whole lot of marriages failed because one was so selfish, so focused on I. But that journey from I to we is the most significant journey that we have to make. From I to we. So he makes that journey, that venture. He goes to meet with the brethren. Six of

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them they go and they meet and he tells this story and then he here is now testifying Church of Jerusalem he's telling this story so now I've had a vision I've heard the voice of God and so I've taken a venture and so that's That's all the validation I need and to be sure that when we go forth that we

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are validated by God. A whole lot of times we have some schemes and methods we think we can get away with. I remember when I was in high school I worked at a printing shop and one of my instructors was working with a social club and he had some work done at the printing shop and they were going to give big dance big

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social and that was a fee attached to it and that was and he had the tickets printed in our print shop, print shop where I worked. Another friend of mine we were his leading workers so we thought we would get some of the tickets and sell them at a cut rate. And so we just took a few and the social was held in

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the community there and the people who came up with our tickets to the door and presented them, they said no no you can't get in here with that. You can't get in here with that. They say well what's wrong? Well what the instructor had done, Mr. Jackson was his name, he had done, he had taken the tickets and he had

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validated them by putting a stamp on the ones that he had and I always had no stamp on them. So be sure, be sure that when we go out in the name of God that we are validated by God. And if God has approved us, no one can really defeat us because we are validated by God. And that's something I understood very early in

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life, is to be sure that God has accepted you. And if God has accepted you, you need not be disturbed by those who reject you, because if God has accepted you and God's grace is in you, that's all you really need to be sure, to be very, very sure that you're validated by God. And that's good. And that's about all I

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want to say this morning. It's amazing how God blesses us with His grace. That's why it's considered the anthem in our churches, "Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now am found, was blind but now I see. It was grace, grace, grace that brought me

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safe thus far. Grace my fears relieved. Grace. Then we sang through many dangers, toils and snares, I have already come. It was grace that brought me safe thus far. Grace will lead me home. As we sing, we extend the invitation of the church. God accepts you no matter who you are. God reaches out through Jesus Christ saying

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you are accepted. Come. It's an open door. The door of the church is open. Come. By letter, by Christian experience, on professional faith, come. Come. [ Music ] Come.

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[ Music ] Yes, come. [MUSIC PLAYING] [APPLAUSE]

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God bless you. [MUSIC PLAYING] Come. Come.

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[ Music ] (audience laughing) [Music] [Music]

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[Music] [MUSIC] (audience cheering) (audience applauding)

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[ Music ] [Music] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC]

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[MUSIC] [MUSIC] (saxophone music) (saxophone music)

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(smooth jazz music) (saxophone music) [ Music ] Let's just sing that amazing grace.

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♪ Amazing grace ♪ ♪ How sweet the sound ♪ ♪ That saved a wretch like me ♪ ♪ Oh, rest thy peace ♪

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♪ Thy woe ♪ ♪ Thy woe ♪ ♪ Thy help ♪ ♪ And thou ♪

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♪ For love shall ♪ ♪ One night ♪ ♪ I see ♪ - Yes, yes, Hamid.

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[MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC]

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[MUSIC PLAYING] (audience laughing) (trumpet music) [Music]

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(saxophone music) (taps) (slow, sad, melancholy music) (pan

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applause) [ Applause ]