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[Pause] Almighty God and Creator of life, Creator of all things, we come to you this morning as a group of people gathered to worship in your name. We thank you for these faithful who have come to worship, to learn, to praise,

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offer themselves as holy sacrifice to you. We ask you to bless every one of these people here this morning. As we work ourselves up to the Easter time, we ask you to especially open our hearts and our minds and our souls to understanding

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the events of Christ, who came into this world, who lived, who died, and who lived again, that we all could live.

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We ask you to be with those who are not here this morning, the ones that are sick, the ones that are traveling, the ones that have not heard you. We ask you to enter their hearts, to be with them and comfort them and challenge them. Dear Lord, we ask you to help us to be challenged, to understand your ways, to carry them out

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daily and to work with one another to persevere all things and to continue our hope and faith. Now be with the pastor this morning as he brings his message help it enter our hearts give us courage we ask these things in your name and in your son's name amen

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[Music] ♪ Was Jesus born ♪ ♪ The cross of old ♪ ♪ And all the world ♪

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♪ Glorified ♪ ♪ The bearer of the cross ♪ ♪ For everyone ♪ ♪ Have as a cause ♪

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♪ For me ♪ ♪ The world to me ♪ ♪ It calls out there ♪ ♪ Till death shall set me free ♪

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♪ And in the home I come to rest ♪ ♪ Forevermore for me ♪ ♪ Above the world so near ♪ ♪ O precious blood ♪

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♪ O glorious blood ♪ ♪ For resurrection's sake ♪ ♪ The angels from the top of the mountain ♪ ♪ And the clouds over the hill ♪

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Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea, rather that is risen again.

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Who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us? Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, our distress, our persecution, our famine, our nakedness, our peril, our sword?

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As it is written, "For thy sake we are killed all the day long, we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter." Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers,

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things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. May the Lord bless to us the reading and hearing of his holy word as as recorded in the letter to the Romans, the eighth chapter, the thirty-third through the thirty-ninth verses.

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Now is our time of prayer together as we come to the altar. We have the privilege of uniting our hearts as God's family In the blessed fellowship of prayer, there is a beautiful garden that is called the Garden of prayer where the people of God have the privilege of gathering there. What a friend

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we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear, what a privilege it is to carry everything to God in prayer. Gracious God, our eternal and loving Heavenly Father, by the light of Thy love we have been ushered into another day.

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We thank you for this beautiful morning, which is another expression of your grace, that grace which is granted us, which is new every morning. And we, your people, have come to your house, and as we gather in this holy place to sing your praises and to listen to your word, we pause now in this time of prayer to express

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thanksgiving and to make confession for our sins. We are weak. We find ourselves heavy-laden and encumbered with a load of care and we come humbly to the throne of grace and ask that you would fill us with your spirit and give us the power, give us the determination and the strength that we need for the trials that we face. Oh Lord have mercy upon us.

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us up where we have fallen down and help us to understand the mysteries of life and to know that you will guide us in the way that we need to go. We pray for this service, we We pray for those of us who gather here who are facing perplexed problems. Help us, O God, and guide us.

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We pray for those whose hearts are heavy, who are bereaved by the circumstances of life and by the removal of loved ones. Help us, O God, as your people, to rededicate ourselves to you during this Lenten season as we think about the sufferings of Jesus.

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Help us, O God, to be willing to experience sufferings in this world for the sake of righteousness and following his example. Oh bless us, use us, bless this church and bless this community and help us to be rightly related to you and to serve you acceptably.

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In Jesus' name we pray, amen. [Music] ♪ I am waiting beneath my Christmas star ♪ ♪ To help me from where my fears can start ♪

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♪ And be true to the things I say to thee ♪ ♪ Keep me, O Lord, keep me ♪ ♪ Keep me, guide me, provide for me ♪ ♪ To love the way ♪

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♪ Lord, if you lead me on ♪ ♪ Can I pray ♪ ♪ Lord, let me come to thee ♪ ♪ Stay with me ♪

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♪ Keep me, O Lord, keep me ♪ ♪ I'll be praised in the land of my judgment ♪ ♪ Be praised in heaven and in the earth ♪ ♪ As this long rest ♪

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♪ I am parting all ♪ ♪ Your trials in me ♪ ♪ Leaving all your ♪ ♪ Tears ♪

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♪ Lead me, guide me along the way ♪ ♪ For if you lead me on, then I'll stay ♪ ♪ I'll let thee walk, if you lead me on ♪ ♪ We say we'll be ♪

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♪ We will all be ♪ ♪ We'll be ♪ ♪ We'll be ♪ ♪ God and me ♪

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♪ Along the way ♪ ♪ For you've created me ♪ ♪ I cannot thank you ♪ ♪ More than before ♪

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♪ Each and every day ♪ ♪ We need you more ♪ [Music] Let us worship the Lord in our giving.

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Let us pray. Eternal God, in this time of giving, Help us to think of your gift, Jesus Christ, who gave his life for us.

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And as you gave your only begotten Son, help us in the spirit of the Christ to give of that which you have entrusted to us in his name. Amen. [Music]

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(gentle music) (gentle music) ♪ ♪ (gentle music)

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[Music] ♪ King of my heart ♪ ♪ I want Thee now ♪ ♪ I shall overcome indeed ♪

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♪ Yes, I forgive ♪ ♪ I won't come home ♪ ♪ We need to get away ♪ ♪ Show me the room ♪

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♪ And I'll run away ♪ ♪ In the deep dark darkness ♪ ♪ Angels in the dark ♪ ♪ Light of day ♪

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♪ God is in the darkness ♪ [Music] [Music] [Music]

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♪ And the meaning of my forget ♪ ♪ I don't want to be ♪ ♪ In the world without you ♪ ♪ And my life will be ♪

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♪ Oh, dear little thing ♪ ♪ That I love you ♪ ♪ So dearly ♪ ♪ That I love you ♪

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♪ So love-lovingly ♪ ♪ Dear little thing ♪ [Music] I need not spend a great deal of time presenting our speaker because he's one

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of our church family and has been with us for some time. Went away to the pastorate of the Mount Sinai Baptist Church in Port Lavaca, Texas and now he is back with us and we are privileged to have him to speak to us today. My good friend and fellow sufferer, Pastor Reverend Waldo Williams. Let us prayerfully hear him.

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Thank you, Reverend Griffin, very illustrious pastor. This very fine old church that many venerated souls have walked through these corridors and have graced this pulpit. We are thankful this morning to our brother in the ministry. God bless you. To all of you, my father's people, we are very happy to be here this morning.

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And as we walked out and listened to the choirs of God, and I listened to the cacophony of the sound of birds as they sent up their lustrous songs unto God, praising Him for this beautiful I listened to the redbirds as they joined in with the choir I listened to the sparrow as they gave their little tiny voice

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to this beautiful choir of God in his universe I listened to the other birds as they joined in sending praises unto God I had to stop and look and say thank you Jesus thank you for this day that you have given us that you didn't have to give it to us we

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didn't even earn this day but God gave it to us I had to join in I'm very thankful this morning to be here we ask that you would just repeat after us a word or two bless the Lord oh my soul and all that is within me bless his holy name and all of God's people said Amen. Amen. We shall just read a verse or two

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from Saint John the third chapter beginning at the first verse there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus a a ruler of the Jews. The same came to Jesus by night,

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and said unto him, "Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God, for no man can do these miracles that thou hast done, except God be with him."

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Jesus answered and said unto him, "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, He cannot see the kingdom of God

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Nicodemus saith unto him, how can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter into the second time into his mother's womb and be born? Jesus answered, barely, barely I say unto thee except a man be born of water and of the spirit

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He cannot enter into the kingdom of God. Amen. This is one of the priorities of Jesus Christ that Jesus himself has set out as his top priorities.

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Amen. This church here which we are blessed to be in this morning have what they called in their

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business portion of the church and in the spiritual life of the church What is called as top priorities Amen Top priorities take precedence over every other thing

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There may be other business matters There may be other things that is very important But when it comes to a crisis that there are top priorities That takes precedence over every other thing

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Of the life not only of this church But in the life of God's Word That there are top priorities Amen, that God sit down for us and let us look.

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We just wrote down and just looked at a few things of this man, Nicodemus. The portion of God's word as written by St. John deals with a nighttime visitor

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to have a conversation with Jesus Christ. this was no turn of the meal visitor Nicodemus was a Pharisee in his political beliefs. Pharisees were the most numerous and influential of the religious sect of of Jesus day. They were strict legalists. They stood for the rigid observance of the letter

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and forms of the law and also for the traditions. There were some good men among them But in the main they were known for their covetousness, self-righteousness, and hypocrisy. Amen. Amen. The strongest word Jesus used is recorded in the Bible in the 23rd chapter and it goes on even the 24th.

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takes up quite a bit of time that he devoted to the Pharisees and the scribes of his day he called them blind and blind guides, Amen, Amen he did not use this type of language against sinners did not use this type of language against thieves

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he did not use this type of language against robbers he did not use this type of language against women and men of the street as he used against the Pharisees and scribes he pronounced woes upon them

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as hypocrites, as fools and blind and blind guides yet this man called Nicodemus one who Jesus had denounced and called

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blind guides and fools have come to Jesus by night to seek guidance or an audience with him in a very sudden way

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It does not make any difference to Jesus when we come to him Whether it is at night, whether it is at day, whether it is in a storm, whether it is in trials, whether it is in tribulations or whether it is in adversity or whatever our condition in life may be But if we are in need of a Savior, it is certainly to our benefit, up to our souls to come to Jesus.

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Amen, Amen. We must go to Jesus. When Nicodemus came to Jesus, Jesus did not use the vehicle of the flowery words to portray his thought of the day Amen, Amen, He did not use the flowery types of adjectives and every other thing in talking to Nicodemus

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Nicodemus was a ruler of the Jews and as such he was one of the legalistic folk of the Jews that was able to talk about the law and explain the law and considered to be a learned man Yet when he got before the master teacher he could not understand why Jesus said that you must be born again Nicodemus like others figured that with his religious life and his very strict upbringing in the law

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from a legalistic standpoint that all of that would fit him for the kingdom of Jesus Christ but Nicodemus was looking at the wrong part of it

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Amen He was looking at the wrong part Nicodemus was looking at that they were under the Roman rule

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and he knew how strict the Romans was against them in their day The Jews were literally slaves of the Romans and they were looking for somebody to come and take the boot of hand that the Romans had upon their neck

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and to release them from this bond of slavery looking at it in the wrong way Amen looking at it from a materialistic standpoint and Jesus does not deal with

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materialistic things. Nicodemus, have whatever you want to. Red God. Houses and land, silver and gold. If we can just reconstruct this conversation between them and the thoughts of the Master, and God forbid that I, a small individual like I am, would try to reconstruct such a great

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conversation that happened at night. But God, through His Son Jesus Christ, came to the very crux of the matter without using the semantics of language and hermeneutics of preaching Jesus came to the point of the matter and said Nicodemus you must be born again. Amen you must be born again. This same ringing sound of

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Jesus is telling His church word today. Get whatever you want to. Cattle of a thousand hills are mine. If you get the world full of cattle, that doesn't move me. Amen. If you get all the money in the world, that doesn't move me. Amen. If you You have everything.

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Have your 747s, as many as you want to. That doesn't move me, because I can be moved by the wind, and I can move faster than the lightning.

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So your modes of transportation does not move me. None of that that we see here moves Jesus. None of it moves Jesus. One great philosopher talked about a philosophy of an unmoved mover

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That there when storms come, men are moved, the lion even run for a hiding place Hurricanes come, tornadoes come, the very hell that nature has to throw against us can come But in the very vortex, the very center of every storm, there is a quiet place in the middle of that storm and even airplanes can go down in there.

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And look at that storm from the very middle of it. And Jesus rides in the middle of every storm, unmoved by the winds and the lightnings and pressures of life

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and every other thing that comes upon us. He is the unmoved mover. That no storms moved Jesus, no trials moved Jesus, but when Nicodemus talked about the great teacher, Jesus was moved. Amen, and said Nicodemus, you must be.

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came to the very crux of the matter He stated that without being born again we cannot even see the Kingdom of God Amen, Amen

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Without being born again We can't even enter in the kingdom of heaven. The voice of Jesus is still ringing out across the land today, saying to sinners, "And save the life. You must be born again."

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- Yes. - Amen. - You must be, you must be born again. Something happened to me last year

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that I had so much to go through with. As I was in San Francisco, coming from my brother and sister-in-law's home, about 40 miles from San Francisco.

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And as we would near a point where we could see the beautiful unfolding of the city, and we could see the Bay Area unfolded out before us, I would send up a prayer and tell Jesus,

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I've got another river to cross. And Jesus, I can't cross it without you. Or needless to say, that when all of the trials and troubles and tribulations of my life had went over, I had experienced a change that I had never felt in my life before.

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I came to the conclusion, houses and land doesn't matter, but it is how well is it with my soul and God. Amen. That's what counts with us. How do we know right now that if Jesus calls us, will we have our home in heaven? Amen. We must know right now whether we have been born again with the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Nicodemus, you must be born again.

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That man, that lowly man that hung out yonder on Calvary gave his life for us, that we might have a right to the tree of life. And when we have literally been washed

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in the blood of Jesus, we take on a different aspect. The song says, "When I looked at my hands, My hands looked new. I looked at my feet and they did too.

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When you have really, literally have experienced the new birth, life, you just began to live. God bless.

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- Amen. Let's all say amen. God bless you. Now let us sing at the cross, at the cross,

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where I first saw the light. The burden of my heart rolled away. There by faith I received my sight and now I'm happy all the day.

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And as we sing it, we extend the privilege of the church. The doors of the church are open. We ask you to accept Jesus Christ as your savior. Unite with this church.

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[Music] My Savior lead, and with my soul make my way. For me, He holds that sacred place, God's church, all man can find. ♪ And the walls have been rolled ♪

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♪ When I first saw the light ♪ ♪ And the burden of the rock ♪ ♪ Rolled away ♪ ♪ In the day of my faith ♪

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♪ I received my sight ♪ ♪ And now I am happy all the day ♪ ♪ I take my flight ♪ ♪ When I am lost ♪

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♪ Behold the world around me ♪ ♪ The way to peace ♪ ♪ Be treasured, Lord ♪ ♪ My love beyond belief ♪

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♪ And the promise of a better start ♪ ♪ And the burning of my heart will go away ♪ ♪ Will I care my way ♪ ♪ Or receive my sight ♪

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♪ When I am happy all the day ♪ ♪ And the cross, happy cross ♪ ♪ Will I curse all the night ♪ ♪ Will the burning of my heart go away ♪

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(music) "In the fair morning I received my son, and now I am happy all the day." (music) (music) Eternal God, our Father, we have heard the word of life addressed to every one of us. And if we would be alive in you, we must experience the new birth.

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We must become the new being in Jesus Christ. We must become the new humanity. The old must pass away and the new must be born in us. We come now, O God, to celebrate this memorial feast which was instituted in the upper room

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in the face of the cross by our Lord. We pray that you would bless the bread and the cup, grant that those who partake of it may rededicate themselves to be fellow sufferers with thee, laboring for the salvation of the world which is reconciled unto you through Jesus Christ.

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Amen. [inaudible] [inaudible] (audience chattering)

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- Take the audience, for those of you who wish to be served, would you raise your hands until you are served, please. (gentle piano music)

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[Music] Jesus said to his disciples that except you eat of my body and drink of my blood, You cannot be my disciple. Those who heard it said this is a hard saying.

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Who can bear it? of them went back and walked no more with him. Turning to the twelve, Jesus said, "Will you also go away?" Simon Peter answered and said, "Lord, to whom shall we go?"

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Thou hast the words of eternal life. Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin. said to his disciples, "I am the true vine. You are the branches."

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Branches cannot bear fruit unless they be related to the vine. [Music] [BLANK_AUDIO]