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[ Music ] [choral singing] ♪ The grassland is my state of peace ♪ ♪ And in my sovereign land ♪

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♪ Good evening, folks ♪ ♪ And say we hail ♪ ♪ For such a perfect land ♪ ♪ I've been cold and cold ♪

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♪ Where I've been all the night ♪ ♪ And the burden of my heart ♪ ♪ All the way ♪ ♪ It was there by the way ♪

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♪ I received my place ♪ ♪ And now I am happy all the day ♪ [music] ♪ What is for crime ♪

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♪ That I have done ♪ ♪ He grown out of the tree ♪ ♪ Amazing grace ♪ ♪ In praise of God ♪

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♪ Like a reeling beam ♪ ♪ At the cross ♪ ♪ At the cross ♪ ♪ Where I first saw the light ♪

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♪ And the burden of my heart ♪ ♪ Go away ♪ ♪ It was there by day ♪ ♪ For I've received my first love ♪

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♪ Now I ever feel all the joy ♪ ♪ Oh, a drop of green can every day ♪ ♪ A day of love I own ♪ ♪ And love my own ♪

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♪ Dear Lord, I feel ♪ ♪ My heart's aching ♪ ♪ Here in the home where I can be ♪ ♪ I'm so proud and proud ♪

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♪ Where I've spent all my life ♪ ♪ I know there's a place in my heart ♪ ♪ Oh, say ♪ ♪ If I could have my way ♪

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♪ I'd repeat my life ♪ ♪ I know I am happy all the day ♪ ♪ All the way ♪ ♪ Home, home, home ♪

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♪ Where I first saw the light ♪ ♪ And the burden of my heart ♪ ♪ All the way ♪ ♪ It was there my feet ♪

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I received my birth, and now I am happy all the day. I neglected to announce during the announcement period this particular announcement, which I want to take just a moment to call your attention to. That is the funeral service of Sister Myrtle Bonner,

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who passed away last week. That funeral will be held here at Ebenezer tomorrow at three o'clock. funeral of Sister Myrtle Bonner at the church Monday tomorrow at 3 p.m.

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Let us remember this family and our prayers and all of us who can to come and be with us at that time Now for our scripture Which is in the gospel according to st. Matthew The 27th chapter

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the 50th through the 25th verses. Now at that time, at the feast, the governor was wont to release unto the people a prisoner whom they would and they had then a notable prisoner called Barabbas therefore when they were gathered together Pilate said

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unto them whom will ye that I release unto you Barabbas or Jesus which is called Christ for he knew that for envy they had delivered him when he was sat down on the judgment seat his wife sent unto him saying have thou nothing to do with that just man. For I have suffered many things this day in a dream because

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of him. But the chief priests and elders persuaded the multitude that they should ask Barabbas and destroy Jesus. The governor answered and said unto them "Whither of the twain will ye that I release unto you?" They said, "Barabbas." Pilate saith unto them, "What shall I do then with Jesus, which is called Christ?"

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They all say unto him, "Let him be crucified." And the governor said, "Why? What evil hath he done?" But they cried out the more saying let him be crucified

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When Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing But that rather a tumult was made he took water and Washed his hands before the multitude

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Saying I am innocent of the blood of this Just person see ye to it Then answered all the people and said his blood be upon us and on our children This ends this scripture I would like to lift out that 22nd verse

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Pilate saith unto them what shall I do then with Jesus which is called Christ. They all say unto him, "Let him be crucified." What shall I do then with Jesus the subject of the message overcoming indecision overcoming indecision this question what shall I do with Jesus is the question which calls

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for decision. It is a question which confronts us at the crossroads. Our answer to this question determines our response to the challenge of the cross. What then am I to do with Jesus? This is a question Pilate asked the people.

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It's a question the judge asks of the jury. It's a question the governor asks of his subjects. What am I to do with Jesus? This is a question which is asked of each one of us as we are confronted by the eternal word

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that became flesh and dwelt among us. The question as it was in the long ago is still today is the same question. What am I to do with Jesus? It's a question that every one of us here in our own heart of hearts has to answer.

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It's a question which was raised by Pilate, a question that was born out of indecision. Pilate is having difficulty making up his mind. He does not know what to do. He's puzzled, confused, disordered.

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seeks guidance but he seeks it from the wrong source he does not know which way to go it's early Friday morning Jesus has been up all night he has been brought before the chief priests Annas and Caiaphas. He has appeared before the Sanhedrin, the Supreme Court of the Jewish nation. They've passed judgment

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against him. In their opinion Jesus is guilty of the sin of blasphemy and they want the death penalty. But they cannot enforce the death penalty. This is a right which is reserved for the Roman government to execute. So Jesus is brought before Pilate. He has had what may be considered a religious trial. Now he is

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to have a civil trial. They know that Pilate representing the Roman government that there will be no concern for the peculiarities of the Jewish people as far as religious matters are concerned and so they know that this charge of blasphemy will not really hold water in the civil court. Civil court isn't

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concerned about religion as such and so they bring some new charges there. There are three charges brought against Jesus and his indictment reads and first of all he's a revolutionary. He's in revolt against the government inciting people to riot and overthrow Rome. In the second place he encourages the people not

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to pay taxes to Caesar. And the third charge is that he claims to be a king. These allegations all add up to one thing, treason. The crime of treason is punishable by death. And so they bring Jesus to Pilate for a verdict in the case.

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Pilate listens to the testimony of the witnesses. Now comes the time for a decision. But Pilate the judge is a victim of indecision. Now indecision is a kind of spiritual paralysis.

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Indecision can incapacitate the best impulses. An individual has an idea as to what he ought to do but lacks the courage to do it. causes indecision. Indecision can force a solution to problems by default. I remember a friend of mine who was at a point of indecision. He had two girls and

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He didn't know which one to marry Whether to marry Christine or whether to marry Eunice and So he left we were in Ohio and he left coming back to Texas and he said well

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I'm going back to Texas to see Eunice, but if Eunice doesn't act right, I'm gonna come back and marry Christine Many times we we let decisions be made by default. We don't know what to do and We just let things go on and finally something happens and we say well, that's the decision And often attempts are made to escape making decisions

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By saying just let things work themselves out things just don't work themselves out Indecision shows the Finiteness of the human mind it shows our human limitations on the one hand and

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Indecision also points up our human weaknesses on the other it it it reveals the fallibility of human decision There is just so much we know Our knowledge is just so limited

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We can't see the light at the end of the tunnel. We want to be sure, and we don't know enough to be sure. We don't know enough about the past. We don't know enough about what's happening right now,

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and we don't know anything about what's going to happen tomorrow, and so we want to be sure. We don't want to guess. We do not want to strike out.

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We want to be sure, and so that often gives rise to indecision. We're indecisive because we don't know enough about what's happened. We don't know enough about what's happening now, and we don't know enough about what will happen.

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We're indecisive because we do not know enough about ourselves. We don't even know what we're going to do in a given circumstance. And we wonder whether or not we will be satisfied with the outcomes from our decision-making. We are afraid that we will not like the fruit that is produced by the trees that we have

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planted in our own garden. And so we hesitate, we procrastinate, we put off what should be done today for tomorrow. But yet the question keeps haunting us. What am I to do with Jesus?

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has said that procrastination is the thief of time. We often find ourselves as the human family somewhat like that man who reveled beneath the moon and slept beneath the Sun. He lived in a world of going to do and died with nothing done. There's a danger in indecision and well we have to also while we look at

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indecision we have to watch out about some of the decisions we make. Oftentimes we are quick to make what I call snap judgments about people and so many of us find ourselves making final evaluations about people on the spur of the moment but we must be careful about these kinds of assessments because we don't have all

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the facts that was a trouble with with with pilot he'd been waking up early in the morning and and he had to rush into the judgment hall and he listened to a Few people give that testimony and here he's up now to give a decision and he doesn't have all the facts And we often find ourselves in that position of trying to make quick decisions

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And we don't have all the facts and that's why Jesus says when it comes to people judge not Don't be so quick to judge people some people, you know, I noticed that they're great Authorities on me and they never have talked with me five minutes in their lives, but they're great authorities on me They know what I'm thinking they know what I'm gonna do, but they never talk with me

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But yet the great authority is on me and it is a way we use But that's why Jesus said now judge not Because you see

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Out here in the world out here in the church even we have the wheat and the table You have the weeds and the wheat And the strange thing about it is that the weeds look so much like the wheat And look just like the wheat and if you if you really start making a decision

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Based on your knowledge of what you think is the wheat and what you think will constitute the weed you'll make a mistake You'll be pulling up some wheat for weeds That's why we have to be careful And we'll be pulling up some weeds

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Thanking this week So he said judge not just let me do that I'll distinguish between them. This is a decision which is to be made By the eternal reality

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Well, there are decisions that we must make We come back to that question that same question. What am I to do? With Jesus, you know, there's some decisions that are just inescapable. I Said procrastination is a thief of time. Yes

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But not to decide Not to decide is to decide you are making a decision when you decide not to decide Oh, how some people try to avoid making decisions. I think it was Hambone who said, "You know, life would be all right, but it's these decisions

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that I have to make." Well, how we try to avoid making decisions sometimes, but we want to put it off and say, "Well, we'll put that on the agenda for the next meeting." while we are waiting while we postpone that decision we say well in the

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meantime we'll take a public opinion poll and we'll see what the polls reveal and we will do according to what they say the polls indicate we'll make up our mind we'll let the polls make up our mind well that's not the question The question is not what are they saying or what is their decision, but the question is what am I to do with Jesus?

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That means that that is my decision. And when one makes a decision, one considers the possibilities, all of the possibilities that are out there before you. I can do this, I can do this, I can do this, or I can do that. All of these are the possibilities that I've had. And to decide is to exclude some of those possibilities and to just take one of them.

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That's a part of making up one's mind. And Pilate here, you see, considers the possibilities. Or he could keep Jesus in jail. He could comply with the wishes of the crowd and let him be crucified. Or he could declare him innocent and release him. All of

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these possibilities are open to Pilate. He he has to decide. He has to exclude possibilities and decide on a particular course of action well pilot is is guilty of the sin of acquiescence he's just like most people when you find you have a difficult decision to make so I don't know what I want to make that decision

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try to get out of making it and we we acquiesce to what other people want to what would you do and what someone asked you to what what's your position on this well I don't quite know what my position is on it what is their position and we we try to see where the throne is going where the crowd is and we go along in

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order to get along that's what pilot was doing so don't be too hard on pilot don't be too hard on him he's a pretty good fella he's just like what most of us do day by day we want to find a way where it's easy and where well we won't have too much pressure on us we don't want to be out there by ourselves and so

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well I'll go along in order to get along but you know when you start making decisions that's a lonely road up there it's a lonely road when you make when you start making your own decisions that's a sign of maturity when you are really able to make your own decisions and they are the right decision that's a

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sign of maturity you've come of age but here he is he acquiesces it's what we may call the sin of acquiescence he says well I'm gonna pass the buck it's sort of like President Truman says of the presidency he said well you can pass it along and pass it along but when it gets here the buck stops here. The decision

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has to be made and if you do not know how to make up your mind and some people don't some people really don't know how to make up their minds. Like the story of the man he'd gone along all and all through his existence in this particular play and they came to the end of his life and he asked for his soul but he

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had been trying to be so many different people and letting others do his own thinking that when he reached for his soul he discovered that he didn't have any soul. Well whenever we always want everybody else to make up our minds then we cease to be the self that God wants us to be because if you don't know

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where you going there's always somebody who'll tell you dr. Lucas used to say if you can't make up your mind the people will always make it up for you but you are the person that has to decide whether you do it or cast it aside whether you strive for the goal that's afar be content to stay where you are

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making up your mind now well when you make up your mind you have to you need to study the situation and having studied the situation one needs to weigh the matter well you weigh the pros and you weigh the cons and in making up your mind what what will be to an advantage and what would be to one's disadvantage

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if you take a certain course of action well pilot studied the situation he considers the possibility. He said well you know I could release unto you Barabbas. Barabbas, I have Barabbas here, he's a notable prisoner and it's a custom that at the time of the feast that we release a prisoner. What about Barabbas?

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He let the crowd make up his mind. And the crowd said no, not Barabbas. Not Barabbas? Well, yes, Barabbas, the Christ is rather, yes, you, you, you, you, you can release Barabbas, but what about Jesus? And no, no, we don't, we don't want you to release him.

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Well, what shall I do with him? Well, let him be crucified. Barabbas or Jesus, that's always the decision we've got to make. Whether we're going to take all matters into our hands and whether we're going to try to

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force our way through life by being revolutionary. Well I don't have to worry about that. I don't need to worry about prayer or anything else. I'm gonna get what's coming to me because I'm gonna be sure that I get it. I'm gonna take it. That's the Barabbas position. And they say release unto us Barabbas. Release unto us Barabbas and crucify Jesus. And the question comes, Pilate is still disturbed, "What evil has he done?

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He's a good man, he's an innocent man, why would you do this?" Well, let his blood be upon us. So Pilate dilly-dallied in making the decision because of fear, and fear will cause us to make mistakes. We can miss some of the great opportunities in life because of fear. Decisive action means that we need to be clear as to our

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priority scale of values. Person needs to know what she wants most in life. If you don't really know what you want in life, you're gonna mess it up. If you really don't know what you want out of life, you're just blundering around here and there one needs to know really what one wants most in life in order to make the best of life.

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So one needs to know what God's will is in the situation that's how we overcome indecision. You not only study the matter and you we one ways the pros and cons we say well now what is God's will for me in this situation. [ Silence ]