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[ Silence ] [ Background noise ] >> Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord, my soul.

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[ Inaudible ] >> Mary Bowerheads, under you, oh God, we lift up our hearts in praise and adoration. We give you thanks for the privilege of assembling together in your house.

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We seek your presence and your power. Grant unto us your spirit that we may worship you in the spirit of truth and the beauty of holiness. We ask in Jesus name.

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Amen. [ Music ] >> We're going to sing this over again. Ain't going to study war no more.

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All right. I think we know that. ♪ Down by the river side ♪ ♪ Down by the river side ♪

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♪ The lake of my heart ♪ ♪ Down by the river side ♪ ♪ Ain't got steady on no more ♪ ♪ Ain't got steady on no more ♪

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♪ Ain't got steady on no more ♪ Ain't no study war no more Ain't no study war no more I'm gonna lay down my sword and shield

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Down by the riverside to study war no more Ain't no study war no more Ain't no study war no more

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♪ We walk no more ♪ - Let's turn our handbooks and sing the first verse and second verse of the Lydian Levant in phase seven. (orchestral music)

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[MUSIC] [MUSIC] ♪ My friend in Jesus is everything to me ♪ ♪ He's the fairest of ten thousand to my soul ♪

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♪ A ray of the valley in him alone I see ♪ ♪ All I need is with him make me truly whole ♪ ♪ In sorrow he's my comfort ♪ ♪ In trouble he's my stay ♪

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♪ He fills me every day on into hope ♪ ♪ He's the building on the valley ♪ ♪ Of bright and morning star ♪ ♪ He's the promise of 10,000 to my soul ♪

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♪ He'll be all my fears are taken ♪ ♪ And all my sorrows borne ♪ ♪ In temptation he's my strong and mighty dog ♪ I have honored him forsaken, and all my idols torn,

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from my heart and now he leads me by his power. Though all the world forsake me, and Satan's tempting storm, he leads my soul shall safely reach my home. He's no living altar that is upright and for his power,

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♪ He's a Ferris hundred thousand to my soul ♪ (audience applauding) - Our scripture lesson this morning comes from 2 Samuel, 2 Chapter 24 through 28.

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Joab also and Abishai pursued after Abner, and the sun went down when they were come to the hill of Ammah that flyeth before Jeh by the way of the wilderness of Gibeon.

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And the children of Benjamin gathered themselves together after Abner and became one troop and stood on the top of a hill. Then Abner called to Joab and said, shall the sword devour forever?

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Knoweth thou not that it will be bitterness in the latter end? How long shall it be then? "there thou bid the people return from following the brethren." And Joab said, "As God liveth, unless thou have spoken,

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"surely then in the morning the people had gone up, "every one from following his brother." So Joab blew a trumpet and all the people stood still and pursued after Israel no more.

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Neither fought they anymore. God a blessing to the reading of his word. It was written in the word of God, my house shall be called a house of prayer. Oh what a privilege it is to commune together in the blessed fellowship of prayer.

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So let us gather now around the altar as we pray to God as his family here at Ebenezer expressing the gratitude of our hearts for the multitude of his blessings, seeking his forgiveness for our sins, making petition to others as we engage in intercessory prayers,

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remembering all sorts and conditions of men and women, boys and girls, as we pray. Remembering especially the sick, the shut-in among us, the bereaved, let us pray. Unto you, O God, we give humble thanks for the gift of this another day, for being ushered into a new week presenting new opportunities, new challenges. We ask the leadership of

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your spirit as we begin again. We are so glad that you have made us your servants, that we have the blessed privilege of working together with you for a better world. Lord, we know that you are the God that frees the captives. So we pray that you will set us free from all fear,

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from the anxiety that comes in wondering what's going to happen tomorrow. Set us free from the fear of tomorrow. Set us free, O God, from the bondage of the failures of our yesterdays.

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Grant that we may with courage, with faith, and with hope, accept the challenges that are set before us, knowing that you will be with us no matter what may happen. With your presence, we have nothing,

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nothing whatsoever to fear. Oh Lord grant unto us we pray this blessed assurance this day. And then we would ask you to forgive us of our sins. We are finite creatures of the dust, we stumble, we blunder, we fail along life's way.

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And we ask that within your love and your forgiveness that you would empower us to begin again with a clean slate this week. Take away from us the spirit of envy and hostility, ill will, that keeps us from being the kind of person that you want us to be and that spirit that prevents us from relating to others

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as we ought to relate. Oh give us that peace of mind and that uttermost confidence in you that will enable us to go forth with renewed spirit and determination. us we pray when we do not believe what you have said and when we are wavering

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along the way. We pray oh God for this world of ours seems that on every hand there is enmity and strife there is war, nation lifting up sword against nation. We pray that you would grant unto us that passion to peace so that we may labor as your children for you have said in your word, "Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called

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the children of God." Bless every one of us as we stand here. Be not only with our families and our concerns, but we pray for the wider family of this earth,

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and for your people throughout this inhabited world, for the proclamation of your gospel, and the good news in knowing that you are with us always, even to the end of the age.

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We ask it now through the blessed name of Jesus Christ, our savior and our Lord, amen. (soft piano music) (piano music)

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♪ It's so sweet to trust in Jesus ♪ ♪ To trust in Jesus ♪ ♪ Just to take Him as His Lord ♪ ♪ Just to rest upon Him ♪

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♪ Promise ♪ ♪ Just to know ♪ ♪ The strength of God ♪ ♪ Christian, put your trust in Jesus ♪

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♪ In his arms ♪ ♪ Our hearts are still ♪ ♪ The high roof ♪ ♪ Will hold and hold ♪

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[MUSIC] ♪ Precious Jesus ♪ ♪ No one breaks ♪ ♪ To trust him more ♪

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♪ Christians do not trust in Jesus ♪ ♪ Jesus ♪ ♪ I'm just living ♪ ♪ I'm born ♪

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♪ In God and Lord ♪ [MUSIC] ♪ Christ Jesus ♪ ♪ All the praise to trust Him more ♪

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- Amen. Let us worship the Lord now in our giving. is great and God is good. He pours down upon us blessings and abundance from above. Let every one of us give lovingly, let us give liberally. Too often we give because we feel that there has to

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be a necessity. You have to point out a particular need. That's not the way God wants us to give, but to give lovingly and to give because we want to give voluntarily because we love God. We encourage every person to give the tithe one-tenth of your income to the Lord as he sets it forth in the scripture, the biblical way of giving.

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That's the way his church is to be supported. All of it belongs to him but but he wants us to set aside one-tenth for that purpose. In that spirit, so let us give. May we bow our heads now.

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Lord, here we are, your children, with the life that you have given us to live, entrusted with your possessions, grant that we may be possessed with the spirit of sharing,

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that we may worship you now by giving freely that which you have entrusted to us in a manner that glorifies your name we ask through Jesus Christ amen. This is your announcement period and we urge you to read your bulletin in its

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entirety for events that will be occurring this week and the remainder of the month. At this time we have a special announcement coming from Sister Jo Helen Bell. Good morning. Martin Luther once said, "Music is the art of the prophets, the only art that can calm the agitations of the soul." It is one of the

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most magnificent and delightful presents God has given us. With this in mind, we invite you to come out and let us calm the agitations of your soul when the The Sanctuary Choir presents its musical extravaganza next Sunday, September 26th at 6 o'clock. We hope you will bring your friends and other members of your family to fill the sanctuary

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and make this a great occasion. This is the choir's first major effort under the leadership of Brother Louis Poynter, Minister of Music. We know you will want to support him as well as the members of the choirs and the band.

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We know you will be spiritually motivated and uplifted by just being here as the choir presents its praises to God in song. Don't forget, next Sunday, September 26th at 6 o'clock. Thank you.

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Thank you. I'll call the name of the visitor. (gentle music) [MUSIC]

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(sad trumpet music) (music) (sad music) [MUSIC]

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[MUSIC] (taps) [MUSIC] [MUSIC]

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(Music) [Music] [Music] [Music]

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(taps) [MUSIC] [Music] [Music]

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[Music] (sad trumpet music) [Music] [Music]

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(Music) [Music] We want to thank Lonnie Ames for that saxophone solo, oh precious Lord, I didn't know he could do that. That's wonderful. We have this young talent coming right along in our church and we

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are grateful to God for it. I invite your prayerful attention to a passage of Scripture in 2 Samuel the second chapter, the 26 through the 28 verses. Second Samuel, the second chapter, the 26 through the 28 verses. Abner shouted down to Joab, "Must the slaughter go on forever? How long will it be before you call off your people from chasing their brothers?" Joab

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shouted back, "I swear by God that even if you hadn't spoken we would all have gone home tomorrow morning. Then he blew his trumpet and his men stopped chasing the troops of Israel. Abner shouted down to Joab, "Must the slaughter go on forever. That is the topic of the message, must the slaughter go on forever. In

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Vonnegut's novel, Slaughterhouse-Five, which is based on the Second World War, At one point, the main character in the novel, Billy Pilgrim, watches a movie about Americans bombing a German city. his sense of time is all mixed up so that he sees the film backward. A German city is

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in flames and the bombs rise upward back into the bombers as the flames shrink. Then the American planes loaded with corpses and wounded men shot down by anti-aircraft fire fly backward to land in Britain with all crews in good health. The bombs are sent back to America where they are dismantled and their destructive

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ingredients buried once again in the green earth. The effect of seeing all of this backward is to shock us with the stupidity of war's destruction, which could and ought to be reversed to recover this whole and wonderful world. Now is the time for us in this country to stop, to look, and to ask the question, must the slaughter go on forever? Must we continue as nations

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to fight against each other? Must we always be trying to eliminate each other? In the last 3,000 years, there have been roughly 3,300 recorded wars. There always be wars and rumors of war.

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In ancient times, it was said that wars were the sport of kings. More recent time, General Sherman made the statement that war is hell. Must nation be against nation, each seeking to dominate the other? Must we in time of peace prepare for war?

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We often say that we must have a wartime economy in order to have prosperity. But must the slaughter go on forever? we look at what the situation would be in the case of an all-out nuclear war, we need to remind ourselves that we are told that every city in America of 25,000

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inhabitants is targeted. In the event of an all-out nuclear war, the fire fall from each bomb would set fire storms raging over millions of acres, consuming most plant and animal life. The flesh and bones of those at ground zero would be vaporized while people in shelters would be incinerated, killed by concussion, suffocated as a result of oxygen depletion during firestorms.

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Some experts believe that the heat released might melt the polar ice caps flooding much of the planet. Destruction of the Earth's ozone layer would result in increased exposure to cosmic and and ultra-violent radiation leading to a rise of skin cancer. Any who survived in more remote areas

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would face a world stripped of all life support systems. Food, air, and water would be poisonously radioactive. psychological trauma over the loss of loved ones and the total devastation would drive many people mad.

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So in view of all of that, we still have the sound of war drums increasing so that now there is the plan before us to increase expenditures for war purposes

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from $160 billion to $364 billion from 1981 to 1987. Must the slaughter go on forever? There's a crisis in the land.

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As we look at a particular event in Israel's history, there is discard and division. Two army generals are fighting against each other. The forces of General Abner, who is identified with Saul's regime, are at war with General Joel who is identified with David who has been crowned king by the Judean Confederacy.

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Abner suggests to Joel that there be a sword play between the soldiers of both sides. men are chosen from each side to fight in mortal combat. Each one grabbed his opponent by the hair and thrust his sword into the other side until all of them died. And the place became known as Swordfield because of the slaughter

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which occurred there. These two armies then began to fight against each other and by the end of the day Abner and the men of Israel had been defeated by Joab and the forces of David. Joab's brother Asabel chased Abner and Abner begged him not to follow him but he refused and Abner turned and killed him by piercing

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him through the belly with his spear. And then the forces of Joab began to pursue Abner and Abner and his troops regrouped at the top of the hill and Abner shouts down to Joab, "Must the slaughter go on forever? Must brothers fight against brothers? Must the tribe of Judah and Israel seek to destroy each

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other by the sword? Must the slaughter go on forever?" These two tribes of the land of Israel who are fighting against each other, most of them are the members of the tribe of Benjamin fighting against the tribe of Judah. Brothers fighting against each other. Must the slaughter go on forever and brothers chase brothers.

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Yes we are continually building military strength, making more arsenals because we think our security is in military weapons. Military spending is the largest part of our national budget. The administration would have us believe that we have fewer nuclear weapons than the Soviet Union. The United States has

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about 9,500 strategic nuclear weapons, weapons designed for use against enemy cities or military installations while the Soviets have about 7,000. The American arsenal is divided among three delivery systems. The three parts of our nuclear tribe, in addition to about 2,100 nuclear weapons ready at any moment to be

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launched in land-based missiles, there are nearly 5,000 submarine-based nuclear warheads and perhaps 1,000 more available to be dropped by aircraft based in Europe. Now on the other hand, the Soviets by contrast are far less diversified and hence more vulnerable. 5,500 of their weapons are in land-based missiles,

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and they have no forward-based aircraft that is capable of striking the United States. And in addition to these strategic nuclear weapons, each side has an enormous arsenal of tactical

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and theater nuclear weapons intended to be launched at short range are in battle. The United States has about 15,000 such weapons and the Soviet Union has a smaller

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or perhaps nearly equal number. But why must we amass so many weapons of destruction? Have we not learned our lesson from all of the wars of history? And if that had not been enough, was not the devastation that was wrought by World War II

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enough to teach us a lesson? Does not the memory of Hiroshima with all of the persons that we have seen that were murdered and those who remain, their faces are so disfigured, such a gasless sight, and how even those who,

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on a much later time, are still affected by the radioactive fallout. Is this not enough to teach mankind a lesson? Must the slaughter go on forever?

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Is it true that, or rather it is true, that the total explosive power of the Soviet weaponry here exceeds that of American weapons? That's usually what is said, is that true?

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Well, according to some experts, we are in much better condition than the national administration would lead us to believe, But we're sort of caught up in a fear

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that the more weapons we have, the more secure we are. And in reality, we are stronger militarily than we have ever been in our history. And yet we are more fearful than we

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have ever been in our history. And the critical situation is, some would say, well, this is something that ought to be done, and we'll sort of shut this out.

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We ought not have any real concern about it. Well, why shouldn't we? More and more, we are building up the military on the backs of the poor because social programs

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are being curtailed and programs that really have to do with enhancing human life are being reduced and we are spending more and more on weapons of destruction. Must that slaughter go on forever?

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Why in the name of heaven should not we stop? Why not stop all of this foolishness? Must the slaughter go on and on and on and on? I can remember when I was in elementary school there was a boy, we were friends, and we started fighting each other. And I was fearful of him. He could beat me I thought. And every day when he told me in school I'm going to get you,

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I would try to slip around and evade him and get home without him catching me. And one day he caught me and there was all the girls standing around. And I said, "Well, I'm going to put up the best fight I can put up." And we fought. He did all he could. I did all that I could.

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And we were so bruised and battered after that was over, we met the next day and we said, "We're never going to fight again." And we didn't. Well, that's the kind of situation in our world that we face today.

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There is so much power on every hand that we can destroy each other and this inhabited world and it behooves us to sort of recognize that we need to stop.

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And that's why I think that people in this country and throughout our world are beginning to clamor for a nuclear freeze, a freeze on nuclear weapons. Well, what causes wars?

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What causes fightings among you, James asks. And then he answers the question by saying, is it not your passions that are at war in your members? You desire and you do not have, so you kill.

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And you covet and you cannot obtain, So you fight and wage war. You see, wars begin in the mind and heart. They begin when we permit ourselves to harbor hostility.

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But I asked a question in the language it was used in the long ago, must the slaughter go on forever? Just a few days ago, we read in our papers of a boy in elementary school who made a bomb

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and had it in his desk in elementary school. From the account given in the paper, he had done a pretty good job of making that bomb. So you see, it got started early. It got started early.

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A kind of hostility, a kind of a war within ourselves, a war against each other, a war in which nation lifts up sword against nation. And so when's coming it? James answers it by saying, "Fightings among you occur because of the passion for war within

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your members." Well, must the slaughter go on forever? This is the question that Abner asks of Joab, and Joab says, "Well, we've decided to call it off. We've decided to call it off! Tomorrow morning, that will be the end of everything!" In fact, they'd already made that decision even before

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you ask the question must the slaughter go on forever? And so he says that they they blew the trumpet, they blew the trumpet, and their troops fought no more. So really what what we're trying to do in this message is to blow the trumpet. It's to blow the trumpet so that somehow in our concern,

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somehow in our dedication that we'll be shaken out of our lethargy and somehow recognize that the peace that we seek in our world has to begin in the hearts of men and women, boys and girls. that there needs to be a passion for peace. Let there be peace. Let there be

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love. Let there be caring and sharing so that brother will not lift up sword against brother. Nation will not fight against nation. The Prophet Isaiah's vision will be realized in our midst. He says that he envisions the day when men shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks and

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study war no longer. My my what a wonderful day. When all of the efforts that men are using to build up weapons of destruction, swords into plowshares instead of building up weapons of destruction, that we will somehow use all of that effort and all of that finance to provide food for the hungry, swords into plowshares and spears

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into pruning hooks and study war no longer. and only then will we inherit the new heaven and the new earth that John saw in his patent vision. So we extend the privilege, the privilege of working for peace because you're a child of God, possessed with the Spirit of Jesus Christ trusting in him as the author and

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finisher of our salvation as we come now will you trust him keep me every day for he'll keep us in the way that we should go the church is open [MUSIC]

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(choral singing) [ Music ] Lord, I want to live for Thee every day and hour. Let Thy spirit be with me in its saving power.

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Keep thy heart, thou keep thy hand, keep thy soul, thy prayer. Keep thy tongue to speak thy praise, keep thee all the way. In my weakness be my strength, in my trials, O! Be thou near me all the day, dear my every call.

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Keep my heart and keep my hand, keep my soul, I pray. Keep my tongue to speak. [ Silence ]