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[ Silence ] [Music] ♪ Oh, Master, let me walk with Thee ♪ ♪ In all the earth, on earth is free ♪

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♪ In all the seas, with water be there ♪ ♪ Oh, spring, oh, flower, oh, flower, oh ♪ [Music] ♪ Oh, how I love to hear ♪

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♪ I shall give thee this word of love ♪ ♪ Teach me the way for me to stay ♪ ♪ And I will live the life of faith ♪ ♪ In our nation's glimpse we see ♪

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♪ This was our beautiful colony ♪ ♪ In words and gifts they swillered from ♪ ♪ We saw the triumph of the crown ♪ [Music]

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[Music] The subject of the message, "Get out and get going." Now the Lord had said unto Abram, "Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house into a land that I will show thee.

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Get out and get going. And his poem, "The Explorer," Rudyard Kipling, tells the story of a man who came to a border town, which was tucked away near the edge of a tremendous mountain range. He settled there. He sowed

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and harvested his crops. He was satisfied. His friends said to him, "This is the end civilization, and he believed it. Until one day, there came to him a voice like that of a nagging conscience saying, "Something lost. Go and find it. Go and look behind the ranges. Something lost behind the ranges, lost and waiting for you. Go. He obeyed, he went, and he found

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the course of new rivers and the sight of future cities. With the coming of the new year is the call to new opportunities, new challenges, new achievements, new occasions teach new duties, time makes ancient good uncouth, they must upward still and onward who would keep abreast of truth. So we

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receive the summons which come to arrest our attention and send us on our way with a new sense of dedication and determination to do what we ought to do. Abraham receives the call to engage in a new adventure, to begin a new journey, to perform new duties. He is in the evening of his years, the time when one is

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usually preparing to pull down the curtain and retire for the night. It is such a time as this that Abraham hears the voice from heaven saying, "Get out of thy country and from thy kindred and from thy father's house and to a land that I will show you." Abraham dwelt in Ur of Chaldees. We refer to it as Babylon. Oh he had a well-established home in

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Babylon. You see Babylon was his native country. Babylon was all he had ever known. It was familiar territory, ground on which he had traveled all the days of his life. And now here he is at the ripe old age of 75 at a time when he has settled down to a life of comfort and convenience. This is the time that he has been working and waiting for, the time when

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he could take it easy, sit back and relax, rest on past achievements. Oh if Abraham were a 20th century American, it would probably be the time when he is receiving his monthly Social Security check, or the monthly pension, or it may be the time when the man has turned over the business to the younger members of his family to run. And here at this time, at this particular junction,

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the call comes to disturb, to shake Abraham, to arouse him from his comfort and convenience. "Abraham, get out of thy country, leave where you are, depart from your familiar surroundings. The call is to have Abraham become a pioneer, to make new paths, build new roads, engage in a new journey and a new adventure. The text

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says here, "Now the Lord had said unto Abraham," now this suggests that the Lord had spoken unto Abraham before. In the 11th chapter of Genesis Abraham has journeyed from Ur of Chaldees to Haran. Abraham has heard the call and has journeyed with his family as far as Haran and they stop in Haran and

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Abraham's father Tira dies in Haran. Abraham having started out earlier and having made a good beginning and having stopped now here in this 12th chapter of Genesis it says now the Lord had said to Abraham this is another chance another a call, the opportunity to begin again. Here we have in a new year which has

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been set before us a new opportunity, another chance. We have had other opportunities but this one is unique. This is just another chance as the poet expresses it, "They do me wrong who say I come no more when once I knock and fail to find you in for every day I stand outside your door and bid you rise and fight and win. Get out

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of Babylon. Get out of this place to a land that I will show you. Abraham goes part of the way, yes he stops in Haren. How many of us have heard that call and have stopped in Haren? And so the call comes to us again in a new year with a new opportunity calling us to a new adventure. Get out and get going. No compromise measures

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will do, get out and get going. The call to leave one's country, leave where you are. Babylon is the status quo. Babylon is remaining at the place where things are just as they are and being satisfied with things just as they are. leave the status quo, become possessed with a divine discontent, get out of thy

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country, get out and get going. Can't you hear Abraham saying in his heart of hearts, Lord I'm an old man, you mean for me to start again at this time in my life. Oh when one gets to be 75 years of age it's a good temptation to become a prisoner of the past, to become somehow locked in what into considering and

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becoming absorbed in all that has happened before without dreaming new dreams and tackling new responsibilities. But Abraham is called to cease being a prisoner of the past to become an innovator of a new future. Don't stay here. Too many people have parked in Babylon and a satisfied part right there.

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Few others have gone on to Heron and have parked in Heron and say well Heron is all right I've gotten part of the way and I've done this much and we park in God who speaks and calls Abraham in Babylon speaks to him again, a new voice is heard, a new call is received. Get out! Don't park here. This is no parking place. Engage in a new adventure.

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According to legend, Abraham and his family in Babylon were engaged in the manufacture of idols, making idol gods. It's pretty lucrative business in Babylon. They had it made. In a sense, they had arrived. The story goes that Abraham's father left him in the shop one day and A woman came in with some flour that she gave to be sacrificed to one of the gods and Abraham

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took a stick and knocked all of the gods off of the shelf, broke them, and left one large God there and put the bowl of flour in his hand and his father came back and he looked and he saw the damage that had been done and he asked Abraham what have you done here Abraham said to him well a lady came in while you were out and she

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left this flour to be sacrificed to the God that all of the other gods were there, but this God was so greedy that he took this from all of the other gods and he beat them up and took it. Then the father said, "What do you mean by this foolishness? You know these gods can't move." He said, "Well then why do we worship

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them?" This was a new beginning. Another man came into the shop as another story goes and said to Abraham, "I'd like to get an idol God," and Abraham says to him, "How old are you?" and he said, "I'm 60 years old." He said, "What do you mean you are 60 years old and you are going to buy and worship a God that was manufactured yesterday?"

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And so often that's what is done. We buy gods that were made yesterday and we bow down and worship gods made yesterday and the call comes get out, get out of Babylon. Get out of the dead yesterdays and live in a new future. Get out and get going. Babylon is not the place for us. Call comes to engage in a new journey, a new adventure, new task. Get out, pack your bags and get started on a new journey.

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Not meant for this place. Get out, get going, leave leave Babylon. The presence of yesterday and begin today and the conquest of a new tomorrow, new future, as a new country, waiting for the person who will pursue it and persevere. Get out, get going. There is a wonderful world waiting for the adventurer. Oh prior to this time Abraham has just been a

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wanderer. You know what a wanderer is? A wanderer is that person who just just lollygags about and just sort of drifts along with the tide, just a wanderer. And Abraham was just wandering around but here God calls him get yourself together! Get away from this old way of doing and begin again. A wanderer? No, no, but become an adventurer. And Abraham heard that call. He went out not knowing where he was going. That's what we are called

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to do as children of Abraham. That's what we are called to do, who would walk in his steps in the way that Abraham has somehow given us as we refer to him as the father of the faithful. He calls us to a new future, to be sojourners in a foreign land, take up residents said new territory, travel on roads we've never seen, go where we've never been. Too often we become prisoners of that past by saying you know we've

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just always done it this way. I don't know why. Well why a new way? No we've never done it that way. Get out of Babylon. It's a new territory. Get going to the land that I will show you in all thy ways acknowledge him and he will direct thy paths he will determine the future we are to inhabit when our lives are ordered

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according to his will." He said, "Now Abraham you get out of this place to a place that I'm going to show you. You've been dealing with what you want Abraham. You've been satisfied with the things that you think, but I have a different plan for you. I have a map for your life. You get away from this place. I will lead you to a new land. I want you to go to a place

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that I will show you. God will lead us. God is giving Abraham a vision of the future, a new look, new vision I will show you I will show you that's a promise oh the promises of God listen to what God says I will show you this place so Abraham had a vision of a new future and he says I will make you a great nation in other words

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Abraham I am going to bless your seed so that there will be unborn generations across the centuries that somehow will remember you and treasure the life that you live and emulate your example. I will make of you a great nation. I will do that. I will bless you. No matter what may happen if you leave Babylon, I will bless you Abraham. I will bless you. I will show you, I will make you a great

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nation I will bless you and I'll curse those that curse you and I will make your name great. Sometimes we like to make a name for ourselves that was a trouble when they built the Tower of Babylon they wanted to make a name for themselves and so that tower was crushed but I Abraham I will make your name

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great. I will bless them that bless you. So get up, begin again on a new adventure. May it be said of each one of us as we walk today in a new way that we walk in faith, engage in a new journey, accepting new tasks, say I'm pressing on. I'm I'm pressing on the upward way, new heights I'm gaining every day.

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Still praying as I onward bound, Lord, plant my feet on higher ground. And Lord has promised to be with us and to guide us gently and safely. Get out and get going. Winds may blow, but get going.

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may come and the battle may rage, but Abraham, get going, and as a child of the faith, get going, because I will bless you. And that's enough. That's enough for every moment. That's That's enough for every day. That's enough for eternity.

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I will bless you. So look and live. Look and live. That's a good word.

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That's something we can not only sing about, that's something we can shout about as we sing it today. Look and live, hymn number 136. We call upon you as the voice came calling Abraham

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to get out of your country to a new land called Canaan, begin a journey. I have a message from the Lord. We ask you to come now

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receiving that message in faith as we extend the privilege of the church. Won't you come? ♪ The message from the Lord, hallelujah ♪ ♪ The message of the King is for you ♪ ♪ It's recorded in His Word, hallelujah ♪

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♪ Jesus said, and I know it's true ♪ ♪ I can feel the truth, feel the truth ♪ ♪ Let the Jesus now appear ♪ ♪ 'Tis recorded in His Word ♪

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♪ Hallelujah ♪ ♪ Let His holy legend move and live ♪ ♪ Jesus spoken in His Word ♪ ♪ Hallelujah ♪

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♪ He is born and the saints exult ♪ ♪ I believe in his word, hallelujah ♪ ♪ I know in his word he made me whole ♪ ♪ Who can live but those who live ♪

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♪ And those who choose what's true and real ♪ ♪ This we call in his word, hallelujah ♪ ♪ 'Cause His hope is at your door, and there ♪ ♪ Jesus lives, our supreme ♪

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♪ Hallelujah ♪ ♪ He's the part of your family ♪ ♪ If you tell Him all your deeds ♪ ♪ Hallelujah ♪

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♪ He will give you everything you need ♪ [music] Amen. All right brother Owens. Brother Pastor and members we have joined our church for our Christian experience. Sister Alina Owens, 3300 East 19th Street, Austin, Texas.

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Former member of the East St. Matthew's Baptist Church, San Antonio, Texas. All right Sister Owens would you stand? Sister Owens comes to unite with our church on the basis of her Christian experience. All in favor of accepting her, would you say aye? Aye.

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[inaudible] We are happy to welcome you to the fellowship of our church. We give you this right hand of fellowship, giving you all the rights to attend to your care along. May God bless you and together we seek to do what we will.

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