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[ Silence ] [Singing] Kumbaya, my lord, Kumbaya. Kumbaya, my lord, Kumbaya.

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Oh, lord, Kumbaya. [Music] ♪ Someone's crying Lord, come by all ♪ ♪ Someone's crying Lord, come by all ♪

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♪ Someone's crying Lord, come by all ♪ ♪ Kumbaya ♪ ♪ Someone's praying, Lord ♪ ♪ Someone's praying, Lord ♪

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♪ Kumbaya ♪ ♪ Someone's praying, Lord ♪ ♪ Kumbaya ♪ ♪ Someone's praying, Lord ♪

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[singing] Oh gracious God our Father, we pray that you would come by here. We know that there are many who need you and many who call upon your name. But we thank you that you are always available to every one of your children whenever they

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call you here. So we ask that you would lend an ear to us this morning as we send up our petitions to your throne. We want to say thank you for giving us life, giving us strength, for enabling us to come

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to this place this morning. You left us in the land of the living, not because we've been so good, because each one of us has blundered, we've stumbled, we've fallen. But you've granted us another chance, you've lifted us up and you've permitted us to be

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here. You have been with us in times of joy, you've been with us in times of sorrow, you've been with us in times of weakness, and so we just want to say thank you. And we pray that you would be present in this service, that you would fill each one of us

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with your spirit because we come here like empty pitches before a full fountain, asking that you would fill us, that you would strengthen us. And then we would pray for the sick. Some aren't able to be here, they have the desire.

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They're on hospital beds. Some are in homes, they're shut in. Some are burdened with grief. We pray that you would visit them with your spirit.

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We pray, O God, not only that you would strengthen them, but we would pray for that larger fellowship of your people throughout the land and country and in the world, those ministers, those missionaries, those travelers of the way. And then, oh God, we pray for our state and we pray for our nation.

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But most of all, we pray that as your church, as your people, that we would be your instruments, your instruments in the homes where we live. your instruments in the neighborhoods where we're stationed, your instruments on the jobs where we work,

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wherever we go, whatever we do, whatever we say, God help us to be your instruments. To so live that when you call us home, we'll hear your welcome voice saying, "Well done."

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We ask this in Jesus' name, amen. Of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, as it is written in the prophets, "Behold, I send my messenger before thy face,

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which shall prepare thy way before thee." The voice of one crying in the wilderness, "Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his path straight."

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John did baptize in the wilderness and preached the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. And there went out unto him all the land of Judea and they of Jerusalem, and were all baptized of him in the river of Jordan, confessing their sins. And John was clothed with camel's hair and with a girdle of a skin about his loins,

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and he did eat locusts and wild honey, and preached saying, "There cometh one mightier than I after me, the lachet of whose shoes I am not worthy to stoop down and unloose. I indeed have baptized you with water, but he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost." Having read from the first chapter of the Gospel according to

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St. Mark the first through the eighth verses. May the Lord add a blessing to the reading of his word. [Music] ♪ Sing one more load of hallelujah ♪ ♪ Oh, bless the Lord ♪

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♪ Hallelujah ♪ ♪ Sing one more load of hallelujah ♪ ♪ We are blessed by the Lord today ♪ ♪ God take away our burden ♪

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♪ To Jesus, my Savior ♪ ♪ Who's room for me is His room ♪ ♪ I will live ♪ ♪ I will live ♪

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♪ In His room, I will live ♪ ♪ Jesus, I will live in His room ♪ ♪ I will live ♪ ♪ In His room, I will live ♪

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[music] ♪ I am the king of this land ♪ ♪ He is the king of this land ♪ ♪ Oh ♪

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♪ You can hear my brother sing ♪ ♪ Let the king of this land hear me ♪ ♪ He is the king of this land ♪ ♪ Hallelujah ♪

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♪ Oh, it's only that you look at me ♪ ♪ Jesus came to us again ♪ ♪ Hallelujah ♪ ♪ And the God above can stand before you ♪

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♪ And in the presence of the King ♪ ♪ Hallelujah ♪ ♪ We will leave and give you peace ♪ ♪ Walk and live, my brother, live ♪

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♪ Until Jesus thou art lived ♪ ♪ He is born in this world, hallelujah ♪ ♪ And his only passion is our faith ♪ The subject of the message, "Good News in Bad Times."

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This is the first in a series of messages based on the Gospel according to Saint Mark, And the textual basis for this message is marked the first chapter and the first verse. The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

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news in bad times. This verse is the title of the Book of Mark. It tells the reader what to expect. Good news, glad tidings.

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It is an announcement of God's good news, his mighty word. God has spoken unto us. He has revealed himself in a special way. Mark tells the story, the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

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The subject to be discussed in Mark's gospel is the good news of Jesus Christ. It is not Mark's gospel on which we are to center our attention. It is the gospel of Jesus Christ. Mark is considered the earliest of the four gospels.

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It is the first that was written. It is considered the foundation on which the others are built. And what a wonderful way to begin his story, the beginning of the Gospel. The reader is carried back to the beginning, back to the origin, back to the source.

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Today we hear a great deal about back to basics, back to that which is the foundation of education, reading, writing, arithmetic, or the ability to compute. So in a sense, Mark takes us back to the basics. He begins with the beginning.

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Sometimes we get so far from the beginning that we forget what the beginning is or was. We get so far from the source, we find ourselves often separating ourselves from our roots, so much so that we forget our roots. We forget that with which we are identified, the divine source of our being.

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There is a story which I tell from time to time regarding a minister who went to a church to serve as a guest speaker. And as he sat in the pulpit, he noticed that each worshiper who came into the church, near the rear of the sanctuary would pause and bow at a certain place and then go reverently

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to take a seat in the pews. And he was somewhat astounded by this strange practice and he began to inquire as to why this was done. He asked the chairmen of the deacons and he said, "Oh, we've just always done this.

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I really can't recall why. And he began to ask other deacons, and they couldn't remember. They just remembered that they'd been doing it for a long time. They asked the president of the Missionary Society and other officers, Sunday School

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superintendent, but they could not remember. And on and on it went, so that no one in the congregation could be found who could really remember why they did it. So an investigation took place. And after taking off succeeding coats of paint at that particular place, they found underneath a beautiful portrait of Jesus.

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The custom had been years before that the people came there and bowed before that portrait of Jesus and then went on to take their seats, but in the course of time it had been covered up and really forgotten as to the real reason, but they were still going through the motions. So sometimes we forget about our beginnings, forget about how we came to be.

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So Mark really takes us back to our beginnings, the beginning of the gospel, the beginning of the good news. You know, there is no news like good news. And sometimes good news is very hard to come by, it seems, in the world in which we live

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of today, get the morning paper, and often what we read is violence, robbery, burglary, war. That's the news on radio, television, newspaper. books are filled with war and violence, murder, accidents, distrust of public officials.

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All of this is bad news, so that it seems so much of the time that we live in a world where goodness is not news anymore. Yet into this world of bad news is the announcement of good news, glad tidings. God has spoken unto us, and that's good news.

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God who in sundry times and in divers manners in times past spoke to the prophets of old, hath in these last days spoken unto us through his Son. So the good news is the good news of Jesus. That's the good word.

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Jesus is real. In a world that is considered modern because of technology, because of our inventions, because of the fast movement of the wheels of progress that we can so often boast about, yet in this world there is this word of Jesus, that Jesus is real, and that's good news.

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humanity is unmistakable. He is flesh and blood. He hungers and thirsts. He walks the dusty sunbeam hills of Judea. He becomes tired. He has entered our humanity. He is a man of like passions as ourselves. He is tempted, grieved, he's glad, he's sad, he's pained. He takes on our humanity and that's good news. He's not a hermit, he

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does not live in isolation, he's not withdrawn from the world. Jesus mixes with people. He is not an ascetic like John the Baptist. Jesus' humanity is social, and that's good news that he comes to be with us. He comes to dwell with us, as the Scripture puts it. And Jesus came and pitched his tent among men. That's good news. And so the gospel

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of Jesus Christ. That's the good word that comes to us in bad times. Have you ever longed for a good word? There are so many circumstances that crowd into our lives and we hunger for just a good word. When one is sick and the doctor comes and examines you and we anxiously look into the face of the doctor waiting to hear a good word.

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When our spirits are depressed and we turn to our friends in hours of distress, we turn waiting for a good word. And somehow there are souls hungry and then famishing waiting for a good word. And Mark announces it in a world where there is oppression, in a world where the nation

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is oppressed by the forces of the Roman Empire. There comes this word in Mark's gospel, the gospel of Jesus Christ, the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ to a nation in bondage, to people who are under the yoke of oppression, To people who are surrounded with bad news, there comes this good news that Jesus Christ

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comes. And the word Jesus, that name Jesus, means salvation. It is derived from the Hebrew name Joshua, which means salvation. So salvation comes to us in this world where we are oppressed, in a world where we are

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distressed. There comes one to us in our condition, in the midst of all of our oppression, in the midst of all of the forces that seek to discourage us and to depress us, there comes one into this prison to open that prison door, and that's good news.

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When we have given up, when we are caught in the throes of despair, there comes one right there and say lift up your head, cheer up, lift up your hearts. That's good news. That's the beginning of the gospel. That's where the gospel really begins with Jesus Christ. And so the gospel you see, the beginning of the gospel in human experience is with

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the birth of Jesus. That's God's Word, Jesus, God's Word. Jesus is God dwelling with us, his Word abiding in us and with us, and whenever that comes, that comes as good news, and that good news of the gospel is the birth, it is the life, it is the work, it is the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

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That's the sum total, the substance of the gospel. So when that occurs, whenever Jesus is born in us, whenever there is an awakening and beginning that is based on Jesus Christ where he begins to do his work in us. That's good news where he comes and that's the beginning of our life. It's a

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new beginning with him. Jesus our salvation. Jesus Christ, Jesus the Savior, our salvation, God's appointed agent. God's appointed agent has come to be with us. He has come to save us, come to lead us on our journey. Jesus is the Christ. Now not only does the word Jesus have significance here, but the word

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Christ also. There were many who had the name Jesus in the times in which he lived. There were others who had that name Jesus. It was not a name that was just singled out, but when we put it with Christ, this Jesus is different from all of the others that may be using that name, because this Jesus is the Christ!

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This is the one who is anointed of God. This is the one that is the full expression of God's grace, and that's good news. And our God has to say to us, He has said to us through Jesus Christ. He's God's anointed, the anointment of God's grace, and that's good news, to have that message.

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Well, we miss the mark when we read the gospel according to St. Mark and leave it there. So often I hear people say, "Oh, you know, I've read the Bible from kibber to kibber. I know what's there." And though we read this gospel through, it's a rather brief gospel you can read through

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in just a few hours, but that's not really the heart of Mark, what Mark has to say. is telling a story about the gospel of Jesus Christ and the gospel of Jesus Christ you see is not limited to something that's written on parchment or on paper somewhere. What Mark is really talking about is that Jesus Christ as

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God's messenger, the message of God in Jesus Christ, that this message begins in human experience, it begins in our lives and when that work begins with us, that is a new expression of God's presence and power. That's good news. So many wrecks occur because people get mixed up on the message. Great train wreck, one of the greatest in history, occurred a number of years ago. The

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The message had been sent to the conductor that that train was to take a detour to make way for another train that was coming on that track, a fast moving locomotive coming on that track. But the messenger, the message that the conductor received, he just took it and put it in his

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pocket. He didn't look at it. just assumed that things were going to be just like they were. One of the greatest train wrecks in history occurred.

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Sometimes we fail to read the message. Oh, it's present, it's present, and all around us, all around us, the message is being declared, Somehow we fail to take notice. Many times people just fail to really read that message.

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And then sometimes people just misread the message. What really happened in Jonestown, was people misread the message. The message was there of God's goodness,

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and God's power in Jesus Christ. It's Jesus Christ, not Father Jones, Not any father, not any preacher, not any man. It's Jesus Christ. And that's the message of his spirit dwelling in us, of his spirit possessing us,

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and somehow when that spirit is born in us, when that spirit lives in us, when that spirit is at work in us, that's good news. And so we talk about the medium being the message, whether the man is the message, Jesus Christ is himself that message.

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Somehow it's good news when we become messengers of Jesus Christ. Say, "I have the message. God has given us a message. We sang it a few moments ago.

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I have a message from the Lord. Hallelujah." so that people are reading. And the only gospel that many people will read will be the gospel of our lives.

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That our life is a message that could somehow hysteria us, is a message that God has to give to someone else. And that's good news. It's good news.

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God sets us free. forefathers sang a spiritual good news, the chariots coming. Good news, the chariots coming. In a world of bad news where they were always reminded of the dangers that were involved in their bondage and their servitude, that somehow

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in the midst of this world of bad news where they were they were so shut in and so deprived and so burdened that they could lift up their heads and their hearts and say good news the chariots coming the chariot of the spirit of God, good news for he rides on the hearts of all who trusted him, good news the chariots coming, good news. So as we sing now the hymn of invitation, that good news is present in every condition

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and circumstance. It's present right here. He comes, he knocks on the door of every heart saying, "Let me in, that I might come and bless you.

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Let this day, this moment, this hour be the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, gospel of joy, gospel of hope, gospel of truth, gospel of love. As we sing the hymn of invitation, we invite you to come. Yes, God is real.

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This message is real. fit well, limited to something that men could write on the sand of the pass away, but it's real. It's in the human heart. It's in the eternal spirit of God. I invite you to come.

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[Music] [Music] [ Silence ]