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[no audio] ... monumental building. And we praise God for this choir. We will hear them and the next speaking voice will be that of Dr. Robert H. Wilson. [music]

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[inaudible] [Music] [Music] [Music]

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[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music]

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[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music]

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[Music] [music] [Music] O magnify the Lord with me, keep me for of his light.

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O magnify the Lord with me, the God in whom I love. O magnify, O magnify the Lord with me. ♪ Oh, magnify ♪ ♪ Oh, magnify the Lord with me ♪

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♪ Oh, magnify the Lord with me ♪ ♪ Magnify, magnify ♪ ♪ With me, with me ♪ ♪ Magnify the Lord with me ♪ ♪ Magnify the Lord with me ♪ ♪ Magnify, magnify ♪ ♪ With me, with me ♪

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♪ Magnify the Lord with me ♪ ♪ Magnify the Lord with me ♪ ♪ And he saw the Lord as he ♪ ♪ Ever wonder of his worth ♪ ♪ Great works shall in all the earth ♪

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♪ Ever wonder of his worth ♪ [Music] ♪ And he was, and he was ♪ ♪ Not wrong with me ♪

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♪ Amen, amen, amen. (audience applauding) (dramatic music)

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(whimsical music) (suspenseful music) (dramatic music) (suspenseful music)

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(dramatic music) (dramatic music) (dramatic music) [Music]

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Let the make the church. Be, be the church. And let the people, let the people rejoice For we settled the question

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And we made our chart Oh Lord, let the anthem Let the anthem ring out Song of victory swells, for the charge triumphant,

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Oh Lord, it's a life and wealth Oh let, oh let, let the church Just let it be the church And let the people, let the people rejoice.

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For we settled the question. And we made our choice. Oh, let, oh, let, oh, let, let the anthem ring out. ♪ From the victory spell ♪

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♪ For the church triumphant ♪ ♪ My Lord, it's alive and well ♪ ♪ Love and wealth ♪ ♪ Let the church ♪

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♪ Oh, let the church ♪ ♪ Be the church ♪ ♪ Oh, let ♪ ♪ Be the church ♪

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♪ Let the people ♪ ♪ Be the people ♪ ♪ Oh, we celebrate ♪ ♪ We celebrate ♪

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♪ The first time ♪ ♪ Oh, yes, we do ♪ ♪ We sing the song ♪ ♪ Oh, let the anthem ♪

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♪ Fly, we out ♪ ♪ Let the people be free ♪ ♪ Fly, fly, fly above ♪ ♪ It's a life that's worth living ♪

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♪ Let the desert come on down ♪ ♪ Feel the church ♪ ♪ Let the people be told ♪ ♪ So we set out on the quad ♪

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♪ And we made our choice ♪ ♪ To be a God ♪ ♪ For the people we said ♪ ♪ Mother Church, Mother Church, Mother Church, Mother Church ♪

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♪ All the church, all the church, all the church, all the church ♪ ♪ Is the church, is the church, is the church ♪ ♪ Triumph, triumph, is the life ♪ ♪ Of the ♪

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♪ Of the church ♪ ♪ For the joy of God's church ♪ ♪ For the joy of God's church ♪ ♪ There's the joy of God's ♪

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♪ He's a man ♪ (singing) [Music] (audience applauding)

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[applause] [instrumental] Just when I need Him, Jesus is near. Just when I thought I, just when I feared.

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Oh, Lordy, he's ready to help me. He's ready to change And it's just when I need, when I need him most [MUSIC]

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♪ This is sure ♪ ♪ Carrying all of my burdens ♪ ♪ On the day, Lord ♪ ♪ Lord of my sorrows ♪

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♪ Oh, oh, oh ♪ ♪ Giving me ♪ ♪ So ♪ ♪ And it's just ♪

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♪ Oh, when I need you ♪ ♪ Always when I need you ♪ ♪ Oh ♪ ♪ Just what I need ♪

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♪ Oh ♪ ♪ When I need that love ♪ ♪ He's here comforting me ♪ ♪ Just when I need Him ♪

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♪ Oh, Lord ♪ ♪ When I need Him most ♪ ♪ Oh, when I need Jesus most ♪ ♪ Comforting Jesus ♪

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♪ When I need Him ♪ ♪ When I need Him ♪ ♪ When I need Him ♪ ♪ Jesus, He is my comforting Jesus ♪

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♪ When I need Him ♪ ♪ Site ♪ ♪ When I need him ♪ ♪ When I need him ♪

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♪ When I need you ♪ ♪ Jesus is here ♪ ♪ He's here ♪ ♪ Come what may ♪

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♪ Come what may ♪ ♪ Jump ♪ ♪ Oh in the morning ♪ ♪ Jump ♪

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♪ Oh in the new day hour ♪ ♪ Jump ♪ ♪ He's here when I need him ♪ ♪ He's there when I need him ♪

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♪ The Lord ♪ Would you say a great amen for this choir? [MUSIC PLAYING] (whimsical music)

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(dramatic music) [Music] (dramatic music) [Music]

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[Music] To the illustrious president of our convention, Dr. Edward Jones, Vice Presidents Alberty Chiu and Wallace S. Hartsfield, and other distinguished general officers of our convention. Congress of Christian Workers Vice

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President H.T. Rim and H. Walden Wilson, and other esteemed Congress officers. Youth Convention President Wallace S. Hartsfield II, and other honored youth convention officers, the distinguished host pastor for this session, the Reverend Joe Gantt, beloved ministers, fellow proclaimers of the

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gospel of Jesus Christ, and to all of you my brothers and sisters in the Lord, and And I am happy to add our sister JC Sam's Greetings in the name of our soon coming King even Jesus the Son of God You will permit me as I have habitually done over the years

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to acknowledge the presence and support the unfailing support of my wife of 44 years Sister Lis Wilson, stand up baby so they can get a good look at you. I like for these young fellows to see and know who she is. My daughter Roberta is

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here tonight and my son Robert Jr. I'm gonna ask Jennifer and Jackie come up here for a moment. These are two daughters by choice. I think there is a remarkable kind of history attached to them. They have been convention babies since they were five years old. The daughters of Reverend and Sister Jerry

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Jerkins of Tennessee. I think all of us here know and love these young ladies. one of them has graduated just this past term from college, the other is pursuing business career and looking forward to business function. Both of them are Christians and I think they are symbolic of the youth in this convention. Thank

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you, God bless you. Thank you. Now you know how proud I am of the presence of the members of my other other family, my church family, the Cornerstone Baptist Church of Christ of Dallas, Texas. The choir that sang on the direction of our sister Lois O'Quinn. I want Sister O'Quinn and

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the musicians and the members of that choir and all the members of Cornerstone to know that you've made the heart of the pastor happy tonight with your presence. May I ask all of Cornerstone if you will stand and let me just see who is here. God bless your heart. Thank you so much children. Thank you so much. In the effort tonight to

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deliver a presidential address I embark upon a new adventure and how strange that in this 56th year of my ministry, with thousands of sermons and hundreds of lectures and after-dinner speeches behind me, I should come tonight to a new speaking venture. Strange, but the newness cannot be denied, for I have

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never before had this responsibility. Speaking tonight as the first president of the Congress of Christian Workers, auxiliary to the National Baptist Convention of America, incorporated Dr. Edward Jones president, I feel keenly the sense of an historic imperative with respect to what I say. If the Lord tarries

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in his triumphant return, there will surely be many other presidents delivering annual messages, but there will never again be a first annual session, nor a first president delivering the first presidential address. And so, as Divine Providence has arranged, events long awaited have come to focus

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this Wednesday evening, June 14th, 1989, here in the city of Shreveport, Louisiana. And it is now my privileged responsibility to deliver this first presidential address. I humbly beg your prayerful indulgence as I, not without some trepidation, tread this unfamiliar path. This Congress was born out of the

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simple determination of the National Baptist Convention of America incorporated to have its own Congress. That is to relate to its teaching arm precisely as it relates to the other age and interest groups making up its body as the Women's Auxiliary and the Youth Auxiliary Conventions, separated

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respectively by sex and by age, or the Foreign Mission Board and the Commission on Social Justice separated by particularized functions. In all of these relationships, the convention is the parent and the other bodies are functioning groups or dependent auxiliaries. The elected president of the

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convention, presently Dr. Edward Jones of the Galilee Church here in Shreveport, is thus the leader of all the convention, not the parent body only. He is the leader, not of the parent body only, but the parent body and all of its auxiliaries, boards, commissions, and committees. In such a relationship, it is

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the convention that determines who should be leaders of the auxiliaries. The convention determines the program activities of the subordinate bodies. The convention retains final approval power of the financial operations of all of its divisions. Now the Convention acts of course through the majority vote of its

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members present at a given time, but the Convention is the parent and the elected president is president of all of the Convention. This is the relationship that we now have in this Congress of Christian Workers, praise the Lord. Amen.

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[applause] As Congress president, I am fully aware that Dr. Jones is the convention president, and I have no problem operating within the sphere of my responsibility of following his leadership. The Congress is not a convention.

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Our program under my leadership will not attempt to duplicate the convention's program. It definitely makes no provision for convention auxiliaries to hold summer sessions under our banner. The Congress will not pass resolutions on social issues.

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The Congress president will not presume to represent the convention in the public media. No matter how worthy the objective, the Congress will not make fundraising our major concern. We are the teaching arm of the convention. We are a school of methods

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dedicated to helping equip the individual church congregations to function more efficiently and as the body of Christ. Under the enabling of God the Holy Spirit we are determined to bring together the best selection of instructors, the most helpful choice of courses, and the best available textbooks and other teaching

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materials to achieve a quality program of instruction. Any failure in any of these objectives this first annual session will be taken as a catalyst to even greater effort for 1990 at Austin, Texas and for the years to follow. Now without doubt we have had some problems here in terms of enrolling, in

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terms of securing of books. The primary reason for the problem is there are more of us here than we first anticipated, but that ought to be a reason to say thank you to the Lord. The Congress of Christian Workers in its relationship to the National Baptist Convention of America Incorporated is an auxiliary

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like other auxiliaries. It seems to me critically important that notice be taken now, however, at the very beginning of the way that the Congress as an auxiliary differs from the other convention auxiliaries. It has already been pointed up that fundraising is incidental to our purpose. To put that

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point even more succinctly, let it be understood that the Congress does not exist to help the convention raise the funds needed for the objectives of missions, education, and benevolences, the support of which indeed legitimizes the existence of the convention. The Congress is itself an objective. It is the

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teaching arm of the convention. All of us in the Congress are also in the convention and subject to the call of our president for support of all of the objectives. It further differs from all other auxiliaries of the convention in that it does not consist of only designated portions of the convention as

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the brotherhood with laymen and the ministers' wives with the spouses of ministers. The Congress is in fact the whole convention in a particular posture. The Congress is not a faction of the Convention. The Congress is the Convention at study in exactly the same way that the church school should be the

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entire local church body at study. These differences between the Congress and the other auxiliaries of the Convention has attention drawn to them here not for the purpose of seeking favored treatment for the Congress, but only to explain why the nature of this auxiliary requires different treatment if the Convention is

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to utilize its teaching arm for the fullest good. History will record the degree of success that attended the efforts of many members of the Convention who have worked with diligent faithfulness to bring us to this hour of realization. Though I'm confident that our future experience will enable better

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performance, I am equally sure that no future time will witness any more determined effort than that made from the Fort Worth annual session to this Three-port Congress and I think that our presence here tonight in these numbers testify of the effectiveness of that effort. President Jones found the means

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for the convention to undergird the budgetary needs of the Congress Structuring Committee. He has taken time to personally attend numerous planning meetings and has fulfilled his role as a general leader. Dean Marvin Griffin has been immeasurably helpful throughout the months of preparation. The Reverend E.K.

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Bailey of Dallas has owed a great debt of gratitude for the spiritually imaginative and creative work of the curriculum committee that he chaired. It is anticipated that this will be a standing committee constantly alert to ensure that the course offerings of our Congress are optimally meeting the needs

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of our churches. Others who have made outstanding contributions to our planning efforts following the first session of the committee at Fort Worth, in addition to the Congress officers, include our sister Maxine Watson, who served as the committee secretary, the Reverend Jared Daly of San Antonio, Texas,

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the Reverend David Thompson Jr. of St. Petersburg, Florida, and the Convention Secretary of Youth Activities, the Reverend Benjamin Maxon of New Orleans, Louisiana. My leadership efforts were magnified by the faithful and efficient work done daily by our paid staff. My son, the Reverend Robert H. Wilson Jr.,

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served well as the secretary to the president. Divine providence smiled upon us in the availability of Dr. Richard A. Rollins for the position of executive administrative assistant to the president. There is no way that I nor any other pastor with primary attention being given to preaching and pastoral

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duties could have achieved what this team has done working together. The dollars spent for modest staff salaries were among the best investments this convention has ever made. Please join me in a hats off salute to Dr. Richard A. Rollins. Now what is to be the shape, if you please, of the Congress of Christian

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workers in the days ahead? It will remain for us, the members of the National Baptist Convention of America Incorporated, under the leadership of President E. Edward Jones to make that determination. Since this is our Congress, we must accept responsibility for deciding what its role will be for the

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tomorrows. Two very different patterns of choice are obvious to me as I have prayerfully considered our future. The Congress on the one hand can function one week out of the year, meeting at an agreed place and providing graduate-level teacher training to supplement the efforts of the local churches and of

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district and state congresses. Or the National Baptist Congress of Christian Workers can function year-round with the week of national gathering being only a portion of what it provides to strengthen the educational efforts of the local churches. Other additional services that might be provided by the

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National Congress could include consultants available to local churches and congresses, readable video library on subjects of concern to the churches. These videos could be taped at a professional quality level by those among us who are experts in particular areas. And I thank the Lord that at last

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in the Black Baptist Church, and I've been in it long enough to know something about it. We have come to the time, at least we are coming to the time, when we don't mind acknowledging that somebody knows something we don't know. And we've not been there that long,

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but we're getting there, and I thank the Lord for that. You know, in other disciplines like medicine, for example, doctors don't hesitate to call in a specialist. Isn't that right? In law? They don't hesitate to call in, they'll tell you quick, that's not my field. And they call in, but in the church, I hate to say we pastors,

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but for too long in the church, we thought we had to know everything or that was an insult to us. But I praise the Lord that now we are recognizing some people are experts in some areas and and we can acknowledge their abilities through these videos, we could use their abilities and further our own programs in our local churches. Now of course such things as many conferences or

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many Congresses, one-day institutes and things of that sort can be planned for geographic areas not suitable for the annual session. But this kind of identity of the Congress will require budget to cover full and part-time staff as well as support provisions for supplies, facility, and travel. I fervently believe that the change such service could make

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in the quality of our churches, not to mention the heightened profile it would provide for the convention, would make such dollars spent a profitable investment in the kingdom's business. Now there remains but a final word for me to say as I talk about man's movement toward maturity. Here I end this first

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presidential address to the first annual session of the Congress of Christian Workers, Dr. Edward Jones president. All that we are about is to prepare for the coming of the kingdom of heaven upon earth. Let it be understood that the kingdom of heaven draws not nigh as a result of the improvement of church

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congregations nor even conventions of church congregation messengers but only as a result of the improvement, the change if you please, of individual persons. The movement to maturity must be of individuals, not of groups. Of one person here and one person there who become new creations in Christ Jesus.

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What pastor, what pastor has not wished he could stand and preach a sermon and see the whole church become different. But what pastor is there who have been preaching longer than a day. Who knows it doesn't work like that. God may change one today and bring one along tomorrow and two next week, but the kingdom draws

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near as men and women are changed one by one. The movement to maturity must be of individual persons. Now this notion of growth, whether implicitly or explicitly stated, the attainment of maturity is found universally in the New Testament scriptures. Clearly the need for movement toward maturity is an imperative. Such is

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the word. But we all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord. That's 2nd Corinthians 3 18. Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect, but I follow after. If that I may

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apprehend that which I also am apprehended of Christ Jesus. I press toward the mouth for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. That's Philippians 3 12 14. As newborn babes desire the milk of the Word that ye may grow thereby. First Peter 2 and 2. Grow in grace and in the knowledge of

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our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 2 Peter 3 and 8. Now what what is this goal toward which we want men and women to move toward maturity? Who are these persons that we want to move toward that goal? In fact, Brother President, is this an attainable goal? Or are we but following a siren sound of ego-fed

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delusion? Of a truth, of a truth successful movement toward maturity for the individual awaits recognition of who man is, where he began, and what is his purpose here in this created universe. Listen if you please to the writer of the eighth Psalm saying of mankind's beginning and purpose with the mighty

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throb of an ancient hallelujah chorus. Yahweh our Lord how great your name throughout the earth. I look up at your heavens made by your fingers at the moon and the stars you set in place. Ah what is man that you should spare thought for him the son of man that you should care for him. Yet you have made him a little

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less than a God. You have crowned him with glory and splendor, made him Lord over the work of your hands, set all things under his feet. Yahweh our Lord, how great your name throughout the earth. Those are verses 6 through 9 of the third of this eighth Psalm read from the Jerusalem Bible. Now let me say three

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quick things if you walk with me around that consideration and I'm gonna be finished. Mankind did not crawl up from the primeval slime of chaotic nothingness through chance selection as some would have us believe. You didn't hear me? I said mankind did not crawl up from the primeval slime of chaotic nothingness

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through chance selection as some would have us believe. Mankind was fashioned by the hand of God. Now it's here, it's right at this point, at the first encounter of this basic premise that the struggle begins, and it is necessary that here a position should prevail. I can't set a position for you, I can only tell you

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my position. This scientific knowledge, rather this is not in fact a struggle between intelligence and ignorance, between scientific knowledge and superstitious mythology. This is rather a contest between faith and unbelief, between reverence and blasphemy. Now since so-called scientific investigation

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of the beginnings of the creation is only man's impudent declaration of his hypotheses as proven truth, the question really becomes, shall we believe God or Or shall we believe man? [Audience Agrees]

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[Audience Agrees] Man was not here when God created the universe and so all man

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can do is hypothesize but in his impotence he declares his hypothesis to be

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proven true. I think the question then becomes, are we going to believe man or believe God?

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God. I for one choose to believe God. I choose to accept the declaration of God's Word regarding man and the Word says thou has made him. Now at first glance, at first glance, are you playing with me? At first glance, mankind's place in the creation order seems so insignificant by comparison that the question is forced.

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What is man? Oh Lord, that you are mindful of him. You know the Psalmist intended to express surprise. He was not putting man down. He was saying when I look at man and look at the rest of your creation, I don't understand why you care about man. Why is man that you are concerned about him? Man cannot match the brute strength

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of the elephant to uproot trees nor the eagles ability to plummet from the sky and retain clear vision of his prey whether thousands of feet away or inches from seizing him. We can't swim like the fish in the depths of the sea. We cannot run with the graceful speed of the deer. Even now we can barely reach

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the moon. The planets are still far from us. The fact is, the fact is what mankind knows, you better hear this, what mankind knows pile up beside what he doesn't know is like piling up a molehill beside a mountain. [BLANK_AUDIO]