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[ Silence ] [Music] [Music] [Music]

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[music] One look, just one look, one look at Jesus, and my cares will all pass away. Only one look was all I needed, and my life would be forever

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changed. ♪ One look, just one look ♪ ♪ One look at Jesus ♪ ♪ And my cares will all pass away ♪

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♪ Only one look ♪ ♪ Was all I needed ♪ ♪ And my life would be forever changed ♪ ♪ Then I saw him ♪

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♪ Yes, I saw him ♪ And he blessed my soul, and he blessed my soul, and he blessed my soul without a word. And he blessed my soul, and he blessed my soul, and he blessed my soul without a word.

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There I saw him, yes I saw him, there I saw him, yes I saw him, and he blessed my soul, ♪ And he blessed my soul ♪ ♪ And he blessed my soul ♪

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♪ And he blessed my soul ♪ ♪ And all the world ♪ ♪ And he blessed my soul ♪ ♪ And He blessed my soul ♪

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♪ And He blessed my soul ♪ ♪ Without a word ♪ ♪ Without a word ♪ ♪ And my Jesus ♪

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He's always made a way. Oh, my Jesus. Jesus. He's in my heart to stay.

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Do you know your friend of Galilee? ♪ Come to earth to set the captives free ♪ ♪ Yes, I know the man ♪ ♪ Yes, I know the man ♪

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♪ Yes, I know the man ♪ ♪ And his name is Jesus ♪ ♪ He's always straight away ♪ ♪ Oh, my Jesus ♪

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♪ Please be in my heart ♪ ♪ Hey ♪ ♪ Do you know this pair of cattle here ♪ ♪ Found you out to set the captains free ♪

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♪ Yes, I know this man ♪ Yes, I know this man. Yes, I know him. And his name is Jesus.

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He's always made a way. Oh. And Jesus, man, he blessed. ♪ He spent my heart to spare ♪

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♪ And he blessed my soul ♪ ♪ And he blessed my soul ♪ ♪ And he blessed my soul ♪ ♪ With unworked tears ♪

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And he blessed my soul, and he blessed my soul, and he blessed my soul with the heart of God. Without, without, without a word. A word. [applause]

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The fifth chapter and the first two verses. The Philistines took the Ark of God and brought it from Ebenezer to Ashdod. When the Philistines took the Ark of God, they brought it into the house of Dagon. and set it by Dagon.

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I want to talk about from Ebenezer to Ashdod. It was not very far from Ebenezer to Ashdod. In fact, it's a journey of only about 50 miles. But the move from Ebenezer to Ashdod is an experience which speaks volumes in the life of God's people.

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It is that experience that describes our pilgrimage as African-Americans. Look where the Lord has brought us. He has brought us from a mighty long way. He's brought us out of Egypt to the place where we view the promised land.

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He has brought us through the Red Sea and He has led us into the land which He promised. At this juncture in our history, we can truthfully say, "Here I raise mine Ebenezer. Hither by thy help I've come, and I hope by thy good pleasure safely to arrive at home." The journey from Egypt to Canaan is a difficult and dangerous journey.

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But the journey from Ebenezer to Ashdod is equally as hazardous. After arriving in Canaan, the Israelites had to fight the Philistines in order to possess the land. They were not given the land on a silver platter, as we often would put it. it, they had to fight for it. They had to fight the Philistines who were already in

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the land. So I want to emphasize one thing here at the outset, that we still have the the Philistines to fight. We're in the land, but we still have

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the Philistines to fight. So in order to secure and maintain a strong family in our lives, we must recognize that we have the Philistines to fight.

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In order to secure quality and equality in education, we have the philistines to fight. African Americans in this country from the very beginning had the philistines to fight.

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So it's a good thing for us to meditate on far we've come, those who've gone on before us. I was in Williamsburg, colonial Williamsburg we call it, in the end I walked about and I saw all of the displays relative to the founding of this country. It was beautiful, but I wasn't satisfied with that. I rented a car and drove down to

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Jamestown, where the first African-Americans settled in this country. And I walked over that ground just alone, just looked and meditated and wondered about how it must have been in their experience coming to a strange land where they were expected by their oppressors to be able to sing the Lord's

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song. And then I thought about our present struggle. We still have the Philistines to fight. Now the Philistines are entrenched enemies. They have superior weapons for warfare. In fact, the Israelites had to take their tools to the shops of the Philistines and whenever you've got to get the enemy to sharpen

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your tools you are really in a difficult situation. So we still have the Philistines to fight. Israel fought with the Philistines, the Philistines, and they lost the battle. The Philistines were accustomed to living in fortified cities. They had an abundance of war chariots, a well-trained army. And when I say that we still have

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the Philistines to fight, I'm talking about the fact that we still face situations where they have superior weapons and chariots and the like. But Israel fought the Philistines and after the battle they were counting their losses. They lost when they fought. And as they were counting their losses, they wondered why they lost.

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And they came to the conclusion, "Oh, we lost because we did not carry the Ark of the Covenant with us into the battle." If we had carried the Ark, that's the symbol of the presence of God, and God would have honored us with victory if we had carried the Ark into Bethlehem. Because, you see, the Ark is that chest that was stationed in the tabernacle in Shiloh,

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symbol of the presence of God, as I said earlier. It was a symbol not only of His presence, it was a symbol of His power, it was a symbol of His protection,

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it was a symbol of His provisions, the Ark. And, uh, so, they thought

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that if they carried the ark, that they could also carry God. That they could get God to do what they wanted Him to do if they carried God. So they lost. And so they said, "Well, we lost because of the absence of the ark."

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And so as they prepared for another battle, they said we'll carry the Ark and we'll have the Ark present. And they lost that battle. So they lost the battle when they were without the Ark, and they also lost the battle when they were with the Ark. And so because you see it's really not the art

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That little chance that they had that was station that you you demand or command the presence of God No, it's not we Manipulate God In fact, we don't carry God God really carries us

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We don't help him out he helps us And so they said, "Well, we'll go this time, the second time with it. The first time we went without it." So they went with it. And they had the Ark with them. And this time they lost far more than they did the first time. 30,000 died on the battlefield.

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How could that be, they thought? How could that be? The ark was supposed to guarantee victory, but it didn't happen. After all, the Israelites had the box, this little box.

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But we can't put God in a box. We may put ourselves in a box but we can't put God in a box. Who is the one who feeds the hungry? Who is the one who leads us through the seas? It's God and we can't put Him in a box. So now they have the ark and then they've lost and they have learned a lesson.

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They lost with the box. They lost without the box because we cannot manipulate God. So Ebenezer makes another attack and this attack of the Israelite forces is an attack that is made in Ashdod. Ashdod. Ashdod belongs to the Philistines. It's one of their strongholds. And now Israel is taking the battle to Ashdod. Strange territory. They fought the first battle on their own battlefield, so to speak. But now Ashdod.

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strength of us another stage in their development. We had certain battles to fight when we were in slavery. We produced heroes who were liberators even within the bounds of slavery.

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But now we've received the Emancipation Proclamation and we find ourselves fighting the Philistines in Ashtar, battlefield and we've got to use different weapons and we've got to be prepared to fight in a different way. So the problems we have today somewhat different from yesterday because we're at Ashdod.

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That's the Plymouth stronghold and the question is where is God? Where is God? Where is God in Eshdod? The problem as we face and celebrate 40 years of the Brown decision, Topeka, it represents separate but equal being overruled. we always knew that the kind of equality that they talked about was not granted to us.

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I remember a coach of our football team in Waco, in Morehive, he was given the equipment that the white schools had used, and they were through with it, and he had the equipment. But that wasn't just true for the coach. That was proof of classes. Many schools had books that had been worn and used up by the white folk.

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Then they passed them on to the black people. And we made it somehow in spite of all of that. In spite of all of that. Brother Friendly Rice was telling me that they had spelling bee.

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And there was a little black girl here from Austin in the spelling bee who out spelled all of the other white girls and boys. And so they didn't have that spelling bee anymore. [laughter] They didn't have that anymore.

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Oh, but here we are in Ashdaw. Ashdaw. Here we are. And we have the Philistines to thank. And as my father used to say, we have short stick, something like that, a tight fight in the short stick. That's what he used to say.

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Here we fight in Ashdown. So, they come to Ashdown, and the Philistines have captured the Ark. The very thing they depended upon, the enemy has captured the ark. And not only have they captured the ark, but they take the ark and they place it in their temple, beside their god, Dagon.

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and there was nothing more humiliating this this God of the Philistines over against the God of the Hebrews. This God of the Hebrews is the one that says thou shalt have no other gods before me and they put this God in their temple beside Yahweh the God of the Hebrews.

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And the God came the next morning and he found that they had fallen down. They couldn't stand before the God Yahweh. And this God has fallen down and the fingers are broken. They cannot stand before the God of Hebrews.

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So, they recognized this power and the Philistines decided that they would take him out of the temple and they moved him around, but wherever he went, Dagon created certain problems. After a time, after a time, they recognized the fact that they could not deal with the Israelites. And being in such a shape as that, they moved the ark from one Philistine town to the other. And wherever the Ark was, there was something terrible happening. There was disease.

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There was a plague. So this plague persisted. And after a time, they were given the word that they could atone for what they had done. and their atonement was to be in the way of reparations.

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You've heard about reparations. All of us have heard about reparations. In fact, I had a letter sent by the Internal Revenue that was addressed to us as a people.

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I still have it. It says, "Dear Pastor Griffin, Recently, the IRS has seen a substantial increase in the number of African Americans filing false slavery reparation claims. And then this is underscored. There is no provision in the tax law that allows

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African-Americans to receive credits or refunds related to slavery reparations. You know what reparations mean. Is it all these 250 some years that we work in slavery that we get something for it. And there are those who said no you don't need anything you aren't going to get anything. But the Philistines were, when you read that passage, they paid reparations to Israel. They paid reparations.

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But one group after another, Dallas, others have voted for reparations and it's growing a little each year. But many of us will not see it in our time, however just or unjust it may be. It will not happen, maybe, in our time. But God, God controls it all.

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And God is at work. Believe me when I tell you that God is at work Even though we may delay and we may use other ways to manipulate God Is at work?

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And and and in the course of time the ark is moved about and brought back to Shiloh And I'm all in the midst of the

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They got the meaning of what was happening in this passage of Scripture and and and and and they gave birth to the words of an old spiritual The old So that all represents our struggle the art represents that movement as as we move on

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and on, the old ox is a-movering, and I'm going home. And if they recognize, not everybody's going home. And they have to see that lady, looks so fine, she ain't got heaven on her mind.

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The old ox a-movering, the old ox a-movering, the old ox a-movering, and I'm going home. So as I close, I want to say that we're all going home. If we trust in God, we're going home.

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If we keep our hand in God's hand, we're going home. I don't know how long it'll be or what the future holds for me, but this I know. If Jesus needs me, we shall get home someday.

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Home! Nevermore to Rome. Home where there is oneness. Home where there is the presence of the eternal. We're all going home. As we come now to the invitation period. [inaudible]

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[Music] [MUSIC PLAYING] [ Music ] I am on the battlefield for my Lord.

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I am on the battlefield for my Lord. And I promised him that I would serve him till I die. I am on the battlefield for my Lord. I was a lonely idol.

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I was a sinner too. I heard a voice from heaven say there is work to do. ♪ I took the Master's hand ♪ ♪ And I joined the Christian hand ♪

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♪ I am on the battlefield ♪ ♪ For my Lord ♪ ♪ I am on the battlefield ♪ ♪ For my Lord ♪

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♪ I am on the battlefield ♪ for my Lord. And I promised him that I would serve him 'til I died.

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I am all that I'll be for my Lord. I left my friends and kindred well for the promised land.

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The praise of God upon me, the Bible in my hand. In distant lands I travel, Christ said, I come to God. I am called to battle, fear for my Lord. ♪ Now when I met my Savior, I met Him with a smile ♪

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♪ He healed my wounded spirit and loved me as His child ♪ ♪ All around the throne of grace, it was my soul of grace ♪ ♪ I am on the battlefield for my Lord ♪ I am on the battlefield for my Lord.

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I am on the battlefield for my Lord. And I promised him that I would serve him till I die. ♪ I am on the battlefield for my Lord ♪ ♪ I am on the battlefield for my Lord ♪

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♪ I am on the battlefield for my Lord ♪ ♪ And I promised him that I would be his shield ♪ [Chorus singing] [singing]

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