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The Lord reigneth, let the earth rejoice, let the multitude of the isles be glad thereof. Let the field be joyful, the boss of the world rejoice, and the people be secure. Let us bow our heads for morning prayer. Dear Lord, maker of all things, creator of life, we thank you for this morning, the week

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can gather together in a house of God to worship you and learn more of your name. Dear God, we ask you to bless these people that have gathered here this morning, that have come through a rather dismal day outside. Sometimes these dismal days make us want to stay inside, especially on our Sundays.

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And yet it helps us to remember that you are the maker of every day, the most sunny and the most cloudy, the most rainy, and the most dry with sunlight. You have given us every day, and let us be glad thereof, for you are a mighty and wondrous God.

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Dear Lord, be with those who could not be here this morning. Be with those on the road, those in the hospital beds, those that could not be here for one reason or another. We ask you to be with them.

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Help us to hear the pastor's message this morning. Give us the strength and courage to take that nugget of truth with us in our workplaces and in our jobs throughout the week. Dear God, we thank you for these many blessings.

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Be with us today. We ask in your name. Amen. Amen.

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[MUSIC PLAYING] (soft music) [ Music ] [MUSIC PLAYING]

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(upbeat piano music) ♪ Come to the world ♪ ♪ The Lord is come ♪ ♪ Let every spirit be ♪

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♪ Let every heart ♪ ♪ Prepare Him room ♪ ♪ And heaven and nature sing ♪ ♪ And heaven and nature sing ♪

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♪ And heaven and heaven ♪ ♪ And angels sing ♪ ♪ Joy to the earth ♪ ♪ The Savior reigns ♪

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♪ Within the strong and strong ♪ ♪ On Israel and on ♪ ♪ As Israel and on ♪ ♪ Repeat the sounding joy ♪

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♪ Repeat the sounding joy ♪ ♪ With the evening king, the soundly joy ♪ ♪ All who have sinned and stumbled along ♪ ♪ Are not in mess but found ♪

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♪ He comes to make his blessings flow ♪ ♪ For as the curse is found ♪ ♪ For as the curses come ♪ ♪ For as, for as the curses come ♪

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♪ He rules the world with truth and reason ♪ ♪ Against the nations foe ♪ ♪ The glory of his righteousness ♪ ♪ And wonders of His love ♪

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♪ And wonders of His love ♪ ♪ And the wonders ♪ ♪ Wonders of His love ♪ ♪ His love ♪

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- Let us now hear the word of God as written in Isaiah Chapter 40, verses 1 through 11. "Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem,

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and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned. For she hath received of the Lord's hand double for all her sins.

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The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill

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shall be made low. And the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain. And the glory of the Lord God shall be revealed,

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and all the flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it. The voice said, cry. And he said, what shall I cry?

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All flesh is grass, and all the goodness thereof is as the flower of the field. The grass withereth, the flower fadeth, but the spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it.

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Surely the people is grass. The grass withereth, the flower fadeth, but the word of our God shall stand forever. O Zion that bringeth good tidings,

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get thee up into the high mountain. O Jerusalem, that bringest good tidings, lift up thy voice with thy strength. Lift it up, be not afraid. Say unto the cities of Judea, behold your God.

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Behold, the Lord God will come with strong hand, and his arms shall rule for him. Behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him. He shall feed his flock like a shepherd. He shall gather the lambs with his arm and carry them in his bosom, and he shall gently

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lead those that are with young. Now is our time of prayer together. We invite you to come forth as we pray. [ Music ]

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In this season, we celebrate the advent of our Lord. It's a season of waiting, a season of celebrating the coming of the Lord. Let us bow together as we pray to the Heavenly Father in expressing the gratitude of our hearts and making our petitions to him, confessing our sins, and seeking his forgiveness.

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Let us pray. Gracious God, our Father, we thank you for the sending forth of your son in the long ago an event which we celebrate anew during this season. And as people waited for his coming 2,000 years ago, help us to wait anew for the second

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coming of Jesus Christ. Prepare our hearts, O God, and help us in every way to prepare the way for the coming of the Lord by what we do and what we say and how we live. We pray, O God, for the families of this church.

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We confess that there is much that you have assigned to us which we have not done. We pray that you would forgive us, that you would grant unto us the opportunity to begin again. Pray, O God, for the families that may be experiencing difficulty. Pray that your spirit may come alive in their hearts, tearing down the walls of alienation, creating

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sympathetic understanding so that there may be peace and union in you. We pray, O God, for those who have experienced hardship, who faltered and stumbled and failed along the way, who are at the point of even giving up hope. them to find in you that hope which is eternal.

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Oh God, we would pray for those who are suffering from sickness, who are in the hospitals, some of them who may never regain their strength to come out and be with us again. we would pray for them that you would sustain their spirit, that you would walk with them and to help them to know

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that thou art present even as they walk through the dark valley of the shadows of death. Have mercy, we pray. And then, oh God, we would pray for those

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who are far from home at this season, those hostages, for those who are suffering from starvation, from those nations that are experiencing tensions in their relationships one with the other,

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for the oppressed peoples of this earth, oh, we pray that the promise of peace may become a reality and that we may be your instruments working toward the coming of that day when the earth will be as full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

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Oh, bless us as your people. Use us this day and grant that this service may be to your glory and to your honor, and that those who have come here with heavy hearts may somehow recognize that you are the burden bearer

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and that they can go forth from this place with renewed strength to carry the burdens and to run the race and to keep their hand in your hand.

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Oh, bless us and grant that we may celebrate your coming anew with a sense of your presence and your power radiating in our lives. We ask in Jesus' name, amen. [Music]

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[MUSIC] (singing in foreign language) [MUSIC] ♪ O come let us adore him ♪

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♪ O come let us adore him ♪ ♪ O come let us adore him ♪ ♪ O come let us adore him ♪ ♪ Christ the Lord ♪

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♪ Sing our praises ♪ ♪ Sing it as a praise to ♪ ♪ Sing all ye citizens of heaven above ♪ ♪ Glory to God ♪

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♪ All ye in the highest ♪ ♪ O come let us adore him ♪ ♪ O come let us adore him ♪ ♪ O come let us adore him ♪

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♪ Christ the Lord ♪ ♪ Joyful we greet thee ♪ ♪ On this happy morning ♪ ♪ Jesus to thee, O God ♪

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♪ Hail, thou Father ♪ ♪ And in flesh appearing ♪ ♪ O come, thou House of Light ♪ ♪ O come let us adore him ♪

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♪ O come let us adore him ♪ ♪ Christ the Lord ♪ ask that Robert and Teresa Gratton will bring forth their child to be blessed.

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When Jesus was upon this earth, he had children brought to him that he might bless them. And as you come on this occasion bringing your child to be blessed, do you promise that to the best of your ability that you will seek to rear this child in the fear and admonition of the Lord, God being your helper.

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I'm going to ask that the congregation will stand at this time. We constitute a family, and as members of the family of God, we have the responsibility of providing that Christian nurture that will enable this child to grow even as Jesus grew in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man.

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So do you as a congregation, the people of God, promise to the best of your ability to provide that growth? growth If you promise so to do you will answer I do

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What is the name of your child you may be seated Adrian Leslie Grattan Adrian Leslie Grattan

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We dedicate you to the Lord in the name of the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit. Let us pray. Eternal God, our Father, as Hannah came and presented her child of old and that these parents come presenting Adrian Leslie to you, we ask that you would hover your spirit over Adrian and that

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Adrian might grow even as Jesus grew in wisdom and statue and in favor with God and man. May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord cause his face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you. May the Lord lift up the light of his countenance upon you and give you peace. Amen.

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[Music] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING]

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[ Music ] We come now to the offering. Every person who is a servant of God has certain responsibilities. We who worship the Lord must present ourselves to him.

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And so worship involves the presentation of the self as a thank offering to God to be used in his service. It involves also the presentation of our substance. Whatever that substance is that God has prospered us, be it little or much, he expects of us

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to give, to give regularly and to give sacrificially. The widow is singled out because she gave her might. So let every one of us give according to how the Lord has prospered us. This is a season when we emphasize giving and sharing and we worship the Lord when we

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give of ourselves and our substance. Let us pray. We bless your name, O God, for all the marvelous gifts that you so bountifully shower upon us.

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We confess our unworthiness, but we are so grateful for the opportunity to share. We pray that you would bless us as we share, giving of ourselves and of the means which you have entrusted to us, but giving with hearts of love,

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the spirit of sacrifice, wishing that we had more to give as we seek to celebrate the greatest gift,

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Jesus Christ in our lives. Amen. (soft music) [MUSIC]

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Shall we continue our worship of the Lord upon this first day of the week by observing these announcements. Call for Farmer Southern University Students and Graduates.

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An alumni chapter of Southern University Graduates and Farmer Students has been formed here in the Austin area. Any persons interested in joining the chapter are asked to contact one of the following chapter members.

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David Mims, Carrie Kennedy, Cynthia Overton, Rodney Spruill. Please announce December 7, 1421, Mary McLeod Bethune Group of United Methodist Women

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invites you to its candlelight service Sunday, December 21, 1980, 6 p.m., Simpson United Methodist Church, 1701 East 12th Street. This comes from Greater Mount Zion Baptist Church.

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Dear Christian friends, the members of the Greater Mount Zion Baptist Church are proudly looking forward to observing the 50th homecoming service on December 14th, 1980.

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The speaker for our 4 p.m. service will be one of our very own who has gone to greater heights, the Reverend Edward Victor Hill, pastor of the Mount Zion Baptist Church of Los Angeles, California. We pray that you will take this opportunity to come and share in Thanksgiving for all the blessings that

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the Lord has bestowed upon these 50 years. Yours in Christ, Reverend N.W. Bacon Jr., Pastor. As soon as you've had your morning,

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your family prayer of the morning, check your bulletin for weekly announcements. I have a visitor's card here for Frank S

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Alexander 7009 Treadwell I believe it is Austin, Texas. Would you stand please sir? Are there others who did not sign cards?

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Would you give us your name dear Well, we're so happy to have you visit with us. Please come again and enter into the worship service with us. We're delighted to have you here on this day.

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I think it's a testimony of faithfulness to be present, to brave the weather today, that we might gather here and worship the Lord. I received a call from the president of the community college, Austin Community College,

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Dr. Cecil Groves, informing me that the election will be postponed. Instead of the election for the community college being held on January the 17th, it will be held in April.

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That is when we will have the city council election. As you know, I've indicated that I will be on the ballot for the council race, place number six. And so it will be not only the city council race, but the community college

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vote, because it is believed that more people will be out and it will be more favorable to wait until we will have that election rather than in January. It is imperative that we all remember this and cast our votes at that

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particular time. You notice that James Dilworth Williams, we affectionately call him Jimmy, received his law degree on last Sunday at the University of Michigan Law School and I understand he's going to be practicing in Dallas. Jimmy came up in this church, one of the fine young men of this church and community, and

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we rejoice with him and the family in this significant achievement. You will notice also that we have scheduled a banquet or a fellowship dinner which will be held this week involving our auxiliaries. And while we are not having any fee as such, we would expect that the persons who will

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be coming will make a donation because, you know, food does cost. And those who will be representing those auxiliaries and coming and it's open to those who will come we would like for you to indicate that, give your name so that we will know at least how many to expect.

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So we would like for you to give that information to us for Friday. You notice the calendar for December and our watch night service will be held as usual at the last evening in the year. Let's turn to hymn number 229, "I Need Thee Every Hour."

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Let us all stand as we sing hymn number 229. [ Music ] [MUSIC] ♪ There's just one ♪

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♪ No fear of my fire ♪ ♪ And peace of mind ♪ ♪ I give thee all I give thee ♪ ♪ Every hour I need Thee ♪

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♪ All else be now my Savior ♪ ♪ I come to Thee ♪ ♪ I need Thee every hour ♪ ♪ Stay thou near by ♪

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♪ Till the nations rejoice ♪ ♪ With the Lord God Almighty ♪ ♪ I believe, oh I believe ♪ ♪ Heav'nly Lord, I believe ♪

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♪ Oh, bless me now, my Savior ♪ ♪ Sing I, I long to be ♪ ♪ A meekly and meekly girl ♪ ♪ In joy of many ♪

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♪ A really fine ♪ ♪ Our love is true ♪ ♪ I need Thee, O I need Thee ♪ ♪ Every hour I need Thee ♪

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♪ Oh, bless me now, my Savior ♪ ♪ My God, to Thee ♪ [ Music ] Hear this word recorded in the book of the prophet Isaiah, the 40th chapter, the 27th

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through the 31st verses. For I sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, my way is hid from the Lord, and my judgment is passed over from my God. Hast thou not known, hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator

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of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? There is no searching of his understanding. He giveth power to the faint. To them that have no might he increaseth strength.

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Even the youth shall faint and be weary. And the young men shall utterly fall, but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles.

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They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint. The subject of the message, "Patience to Wait." Patience to wait.

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At the street crossing, the traffic signal turned red and the word wait flashed before my eyes. I watched the cars as they stopped and pedestrians as they waited for the signal to change.

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Some appeared restless and impatient. Others reflected a certain calmness as they waited to continue on their journey. Waiting is a part of living. Yet, much of the anxiety, the discord, stress, strain, frustration occur because we do not have the patience to wait.

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Several years ago, a group of citizens in a certain town were trying to get a traffic signal installed at a particular location in their neighborhood. They were amazed when the director of transportation said to them that most of the accidents occur where the traffic signals are installed.

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injuries and deaths occur along the way because we do not have patience to wait. We are in such a hurry. We rush about and worry so. We lack patience to wait. We're in a mad rush and even in the celebration of this particular season of the year we often refer to it as the Christmas rush. In so many instances we

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are in a hurry to celebrate Christmas. We're in a hurry to get it over with so we can do something else. We need desperately to cultivate the patience to wait. They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not

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faint. These words are addressed to people who sit in darkness, people who are victims of the long night of Babylonian captivity. Israel had waited for freedom to come. Israel had waited for justice to be administered. Israel had waited for the dawn of the new age. Years came and went and each year they

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said that this is the time. In the twilight of their bondage when they had such high hopes, their expectations were dimmed by a letter from the Prophet Jeremiah telling them that they would have a long captivity and it would be necessary for them to wait. We find ourselves as we think of the

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international situation involving the captives in Iran, those who are called hostages and Walter Cronkite ends his report giving the number of days that the hostages have been in captivity and the days increase. And so what does it mean to wait? What does it mean? Does it mean that somehow one surrenders in despair or

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does one continue to hope? Captivity has a way of wearing out one's patience. Captivity causes people to get tired of waiting for freedom. Freedom now is the cry of oppressed peoples everywhere.

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Martin Luther King gives eloquent expression to the aspirations of the oppressed in his book, Why We Can't Wait. And he makes a quotation,

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when you are right, you cannot be too radical. And when you are wrong, you cannot be too conservative. Israel felt that she had waited long enough. The people waited for years and saw no changes in their situation.

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And they began to grow weary of waiting. They began to doubt if meaningful and constructive changes would occur. They began to doubt the power of God. thought that even God was tired of the struggle and that his strength was not

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equal to the task. They thought that Yahweh the God of Israel had been subdued by Marduk the God of the Babylonians and on the edge of night comes a consoling word from a solitary prophet. It is a word of hope addressed to God's people. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people saith your God. Speak ye

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comfortably unto Jerusalem and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned, for she hath received the Lord's hand double for all her sins. A new day dawns. Something wonderful is going to happen. Wait for it. And the prophet moves among the slave huts in Babylon. He is the bringer of a

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A word that dispels illusions. A word that chases away dismay. A word that conquers despair. The people think that their path is hidden from the Lord, that he's not aware of their

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plight. They think that justice has escaped from God and that things are no longer under his control, God is not on the throne, but listen to the prophetic word of assurance. Hast thou not known, hast thou not heard that the everlasting God, the creator of

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the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary. His understanding is beyond fathoming. He gives strength to the weary, he gives strength to the powerless, for they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. Wait on the Lord. In other words God is not out of breath. God is alive and doing well.

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wait on him he has control of things. There are those who think that to patiently wait is to be passive. There are those who criticize the church when we speak of waiting because they somehow identify this with a certain passivity to do nothing, to acquiesce, but that's not what is meant here in the admonition

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to wait. Now those who think that patience in waiting is resignation, for your arms surrender, that's really not what is meant. To wait is somehow to be active. It is to be identified with God. It is to be working with God. It is to be cooperating with God. And part of learning how to live is learning to

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labor and to wait. How to labor and how to wait. The Hebrew language, this verb to wait means to wind or twist and from this root come such nouns as rope and spider's web. So to wait for the Lord means to let him become our lifeline, to let him become our cord of escape. It is to let him become our rope of hope.

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That's what it means to wait on him. In other words, the gods of Babylon are no match for the God of Jacob. The weapons of Babylon are not sufficient for the struggle, wait on the Lord, wait on the righteousness of God. Let justice and peace and love be the rope of hope. Wait on the Lord. To wait is to live expectantly.

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It is to somehow live with God as one's rope of hope. Wait on the Lord, be of good courage and he will strengthen thy heart. Wait, I say, on the Lord. The night is long, Struggle is difficult, opposition is strong, but wait patiently on the Lord. Patient waiting is the whole person thinking, suffering, sacrificing, all of

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that is involved in waiting. So you see waiting involves forbearance. It means engaging in a struggle, not passive resignation, but waiting in expectation and while one waits and engaging in struggle, it's a victorious struggle. don't give up, wait patiently on the Lord. Sort of like in the night, no matter how

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dark the night may be, one waits for the morning for the sun to rise. And you see in that waiting there is faith, that there is the certainty that the sun will rise on tomorrow and though one waits in the darkness, one has the certainty of faith. And so really what is involved here in this word has

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to do with the seeds of faith. For somehow when one has implanted within one's life the seed of faith in the God, we have somehow put our seed in fertile soil and once that seed is planted in fertile soil we can rest assured that it will come forth bearing fruit and so the farmer who plants such seed in fertile

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soil can rest assured of a bountiful harvest and so it's with that certainty It is with that certainty that he has aware from the Lord that the prophet comes forth to a people who sit in darkness and who are on the edge of the night. He says to them, "Wait on the Lord.

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Be of good courage. Wait on the Lord, for they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles. They shall run and not be weary.

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They shall walk and not faint. They shall mount up with wings as eagles. The eagle has strong wings. consider the life of faith the eagle does not give up the flight because

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there are dark clouds. When we consider the life of faith the eagle does not stop flying when when the storm occurs because the eagle has strong wings and And on those wings, the eagle is able to rise above the storm. With those wings, the eagle is able to fly

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not only through the storm, but to rise above the storm. For the eagle is able, with those wings, to rise above the darkness and to gaze directly into the brilliant sunlight.

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Eagle wings. "They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength, "they shall mount up with wings as eagles." So to have faith, the faith of waiting passionately

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on the Lord is to have the faith that enable one to be like an eagle, to have strong wings with which to confront the storms of life. life. Wait on the Lord for they that wait on him shall be like eagles. Secondly

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they that wait on the Lord shall run and not be weary. Oh you know running is an impatient act and yet it's something that causes one to tire but to wait on God is is to run and not be weary it suggests that there is a certain urgency running and there is an urgency right now in our lives as not only as

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individuals but as a people as a nation as a world it's necessary for us to recognize the urgency of committing our way unto the Lord, waiting on the Lord. For they that wait on the Lord shall run and not be weary. What it's really saying is that when we wait on God that we can possess our souls in patience.

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Oh so often we fly apart and we become hysterical we we can't somehow face the many catastrophes of life but they that wait on God can possess their souls. There is strength, there is hope, there is faith to sustain. They that wait on Him shall run and not be weary. They that wait upon the Lord shall walk and not

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faint. Walk and not faint. You know walking is something that it's really the last stage. It shows you as as we begin in this life of faith it's the various stages in which, through which we pass and walking is the last stage. There are times when you run, we begin rather flighty like the eagle and then we come at

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last to the stage of walking and we become more like God as we walk. We see God in the scriptures walking. Even when we consider, it is said that walking is a lifetime form of exercise. You can get to the point where you can't run, but you get to the point where you can walk.

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You can always walk when you can't run. To walk. When they had the Montgomery bus boycott, and they were walking, they had no, they did not use the public conveyances, and they were walking. It lasted for some time, as you recall.

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And one of the elderly members that was a part of that movement was asked, "Are you tired?" And she said, "My feet is tired, but my..." If you can run and not be weary. "Old and feeble and stripped, feet tired, but soul rested. That's what it means to trust in God. It is to walk with God and to be

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rested in him. That's what it really means to patiently wait on the Lord. Isaiah says, "They that wait." What he's saying here has to do with a community of the faithful,

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those who wait on God. Well, who's in that number? Really the question we ought to ask ourselves is, am I in that number?

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Of those who patiently wait on the Lord. Then we hear the word of the Psalmist who says, I waited patiently on the Lord and he inclined unto me. I waited on God with all that was happening around me.

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I was in captivity, I was burdened, I was tempted to surrender, but I waited on God and he inclined unto me. The wonderful thing is when you wait on him,

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the Lord will respond. He always comes. There's the old saying, God says he may not come when you want him to, but he always comes on time. The Lord comes and he said I waited and what happened? He delivered me. He delivered me. He brought me up from the horrible pit.

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He put my feet on a solid rock and he put a new song in my mouth. I waited on the Lord. This is not some old foggy superstitious word. It's meaningful, it's living reality. Wait on the Lord, be of good courage, for he will strengthen thine heart. Ask Job and he said, "Well, of all the days of my appointed time, will I

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I wait until my change come?" Habakkuk said, "Well, I'm gonna take my stand on the watchtower and I'm gonna look for the vision, and if the vision carries, if it doesn't come, will I expect it to?" He said, "Just wait on it." Well, when you don't see how God is acting at the time you expect, just wait. For God always acts in history. He's the living Lord of history. Wait patiently on

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the Lord for he always comes just as sure as the sun rises, just as sure as the night comes, also comes the morning. Wait on the Lord. Wait patiently on Him and he will bring it to pass. My faith looks up to thee. Thou Lamb of Calvary maybe you have waited to hear the word the word of salvation the word of hope

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and that word has come for God has spoken today he has spoken through Jesus Christ and he stands even now at the door of the heart knocking saying let me come in and bless your life. He stands waiting. He waits for us to accept him to live his life. We ask you to come as the doors of the church are open. My faith

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looks up to thee. [Music] ♪ Oh, let me love thee ♪ ♪ With all the years of my life ♪

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♪ May thy face reign in love ♪ ♪ And fill my thinking heart ♪ ♪ With light, peace, and love ♪ [Music]

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(singing) ♪ I am the king of creation ♪ ♪ No living thing can ♪ ♪ I am the king of men ♪

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♪ I am the king of the universe ♪ ♪ The heat of my tongue ♪ ♪ In darkness turns to day ♪ ♪ Falling from the trees that way ♪

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♪ The love that we have is safe from being lost ♪ ♪ The meaning of a song ♪ ♪ When in my tragedy ♪ ♪ With death's cold blood I sing ♪

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♪ Shall only hope survive ♪ [Music] [ Silence ]