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[Silence] [Music] Why don't you feel the hope we've found? Don't you know the world's not in time?

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

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♪ The drums of our warfare on the sky will fly ♪ ♪ The party told me that the world would be free ♪ ♪ Still I don't believe it ♪ ♪ I guess it's hard to believe ♪

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

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

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♪ Don't you walk on the grass ♪ ♪ I started walking ♪ ♪ Nobody told me ♪ ♪ No good reason ♪

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♪ I don't believe in happiness ♪ ♪ I don't believe in happiness ♪ [Music] Amen. Hear this word recorded in Psalm 60 verse 4.

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Thou has given a banner to them that fear thee, that it may be displayed because of the truth. Thou has given a banner to them that fear thee that it may be displayed because of the truth. The subject of the message, "Raise High the Banner." Several years ago, on a tour of the Scandinavian countries, we came to a city, and as we were

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moving about in the downtown area, I had the shocking experience of seeing a car that raced through the streets with an American flag tied to the rear being dragged in the dust. This was an experience which I had never witnessed before. By this particular action the demonstrators were revealing their

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contempt for America. The flag is a symbol of love and loyalty. The flag represents all that America stands for. The flag is our banner. It's the sign. it's the standard, it's the symbol of our nation. For that reason we salute the flag as our banner, we march with it at the forefront, we raise it high, we don't

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wanted to touch the ground. It's an insult, sign of disrespect and defeat to have our banner dragging in the dust. Francis Scott Key, author of our national anthem, was inspired when he saw the flag waving in the air in the midst of the struggle for national independence.

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And he wrote the words which we sing, "The rockets red glare, the bombs bursting in air, gave proof through the night that our flag was still there." That was yesterday in the life of our nation.

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Then comes the question concerned with the challenge of today. Oh say does that star-spangled banner yet wave over the land of the free and the home of the brave. Nations encourage their citizens to raise their banner high. Often this is translated into a kind of narrow nationalism centering on nations achieving their own selfish desires.

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Psalm 60 describes an experience in the life of ancient Israel. The nation goes forth to war and suffers utter defeat. The defeat is considered a sign of God's displeasure. It is considered a sign of divine rejection.

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Things are in disarray because of God's wrath. In making excuses for ourselves, sometimes we blame God for our predicament. stand today at the crossroads, we're at the fork of the road so to speak, a point at which we can look back over what has happened and look forward to what we hope to happen. And sometimes when we

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look back we have a tendency to consider our failures and often we try to blame others for our failures and sometimes we blame God. That was the case of the man who buried his talent in the story of the talents that Jesus told. This man buried his talent and when the time came for him to

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make his report he said now Lord I don't have anything to show. I don't have anything to to show as far as the fruits of my labors are concerned and the real reason I don't have anything to show is because of you. See you a very hard man and I knew that. That's why I buried my talent because you always

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expecting to receive some fruit where you have not planted any seed. So he really made an indictment against his master. So at this particular juncture in our lives it is good for us to take inventory of ourselves. We may look at at what has happened, but let us not blame God

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for our failures. The ancient Greeks and Romans believed in fate, and fate was represented through three sister goddesses who were daughters of Zeus, the king of the gods.

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Fate controls human life, they thought. Fate has control of our destiny. Clothro, the spinner who spins out life like a thread, and then Lysistras, the disposer who decides life spans,

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and Antropos who severs it. So these three sisters, fate, in control of human existence, the spindle, the scales, and the sundial, all in control of our lives.

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That's what they believe. But somehow it really doesn't matter what you do because your life is already shaped. What's gonna happen is already gonna happen.

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We're just puppets, we're just pawns, but that's not really the case. We are not victims of fate, we are not pawns in the hands of fate,

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we are not puppets, we have a great deal to do, and we are the determiners of really what happens in our lives. It is based on the decisions that we make

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in the here and the now. So there is a rallying point around which we are ordered to direct our lives. This is the banner. Or some may say, "Well, I have my own banner.

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Banner has to do with my standards, our principles, the sign by which we travel." And you know, some don't have very high banners. we have people who don't have a very high expectation of themselves. Well anything is all right. The song we used to sing that sort of describes it the

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words oh hammer down throw it down anyway you get it down. Anything is all right. Well it's a good thing at this particular point in our lives to consider the standard that by which we order our lives, that which inspires us, that which gives us direction, the standard. Raise high the banner. That's

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the rallying point. That's what we really need to consider, the standard that we follow as we face the conflicts of this life. Raise high the banner. We must remember that while there are those who have low expectations of themselves anything is all right. I see that often you know by people who

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parade under the banner of being Christian. They think that anything is all right. Everything's all right with the Lord. Come whenever I want to come, stay when I, home when I really don't care about coming, and God doesn't really care. Give when I want to give, not give when I don't want to give, God doesn't

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really care. There is no standard. But God has standards. He has a standard for us all, and that's what the Scripture has for us today that he has a standard for us to follow. He has a standard. We're not left willy-nilly to just do whatever we want to do. We may do that, but let us remember that we are not following God's banner, neither are we serving him. He has a standard that is set. He says "My thoughts are not your thoughts. My ways are not your ways, for as the heavens are high above the earth, so are my thoughts above your thoughts, and my ways above your ways." There's a standard, raised high the standard.

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Robert Browning says, "A man's reach should exceed his grasp on what's a heaven for." So in this standard for us, as we face the challenge of a new year, is a call to faithfulness. to faithfulness. You know some people come to church at certain times during the year. Sometimes it's the last Sunday in the year for some people and for

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others it may be the first Sunday in the year I want to at least want to start right. And then they forget the rest of the year, maybe Easter, one or two other times. But this is a call to faithfulness. It's a summons to reach for the highest and best to make the supreme sacrifice of time and energy, the gift of self. Raise

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Please hide the banner. You can do a lot of things and not give yourself. I had a friend who was telling me about some of the difficulties that he encountered in his domestic life.

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He said he didn't understand why. He purchased a very expensive home for his wife and he had two very expensive cars and she had everything she wanted to wear. And I asked him the question, I said, "But have you given her yourself?" Her yourself. And sometimes we give of our money, sometimes

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we give of this or that, but we really have not committed ourselves. Raise high the banner by the gift of self, don't set a logo, but reach for the highest and best and engage in an insatiable quest for the best.

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Oh, this is the time when New Year resolutions are made. And I can remember many instances where people made New Year resolutions and they broke 'em before the end of the first week.

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Commitment to be faithful no matter what the difficulty, no matter how hard the task, be faithful no matter how dense the darkness, no matter how prolific may be the uncertainties that we face, be faithful, raise high the banner, do everything within your power to attain to the highest and best.

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You know, this has to do with human effort. You see, religion is a blending of the human and the divine. Some people have a kind of religion where they think God ought to do everything. Just leave it to the Lord, he's going to do everything.

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I don't have to do anything. religion has to do with human effort as well as the divine. It is a blending of the human and the divine. As some put it, it's a human-divine encounter. So God expects of every one of us to do our best, and having done our best, leave the

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rest to God. That's the way to face the year. Our problem is that often we try to do everything by ourselves and then sometimes we do nothing and expect God to do everything for us. We march to battle and God does not march with us. You read that Psalm that's really what has taken place that's why Israel is

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defeated Israel marches off to battle and does not have God marching with her you know many times we expect God to march in our ranks the truth of the matter is that we're to march in God's ranks many armies have marched to battle in God's name but God has not marched with them God refuses to march under our

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banner. He is not in our army. He calls us to be soldiers in the Lord's army. So in order to save us from our own wickedness, God refuses to march with us. He has set up a banner for those who fear him to rally around it in truth. He has set a banner. It's high. It's above every one of us. It's a banner behind which we are to honor our lives.

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He has set the banner. Well, really what sin is, one definition of sin is that sin is missing the mark. So you can imagine having a bow and arrow and having a bullseye somewhere in the distance and you aim for it. And when you hit the bullseye, then you have achieved the goal, but when you miss it, you miss the mark, you have sinned.

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Well, when we look back over yesterday, we can all see that there have been times when we have missed the mark. Times when we have failed to attain unto the mark that God has set for us, but here comes The challenge for us today, raise high the banner,

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seek to attain into the highest and best. For God has a banner for us to follow in 1986. It's revealed through Jesus Christ. The standard is set.

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It's like the stars in the heavens. The standard is set. It's a standard for truth. It's a standard for service.

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It's a standard for sacrifice. It's a standard for every one of us to live in that purity of life that is exemplified in Jesus Christ.

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That's the standard. That's the standard. Raise high the banner. Oh, too often, too often, my brothers and sisters,

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we pick out somebody and we say, well, you know, I'm as good as old so-and-so, But he's not the standard, or she's not the standard. Jesus Christ is the standard.

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And he has set that standard high for every one of us to see. And that standard is on a hill called Calvary. All of us to see. It's a standard that separates history, the old and the new.

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B.C. and A.D. New Order of Things. It's astounding. It's astounding. Son of God goes forth to war, a kingly crown to gain.

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His bloodstained banner streams afar. Who follows in his train? He who best can drink his cup of woe, triumphant or pain, he who patient bears his cross below,

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he follows in his train. Follow the banner. Lift up your hearts. Sure, there have been some disappointments.

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Sure, there have been some fails. but lift up your hearts, take courage today, and march behind the standard that God has set for every one of us.

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And you know the wonderful thing is that God, when we march behind his manner, not only does he go before us, but he marches with us.

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He is before us, he is with us, and he also is behind us to protect us in every way possible when we march with him. And we march with him when we march in love,

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when we march with deeds of kindness and sacrifice. Lift up Christ in your life. Lift him up. Lift high the standard.

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Be not ashamed. Lift high the standard. And say onward, Christian soldiers, marching as to war with the cross of Jesus going on before. For the one who is

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our mighty champion says Moab is my washpot and Edom, over Edom will I cast my shoe and I will triumph over the enemies. Yes, I'll triumph over the Philistines because you see God rules. And he said, "I have the scepter in my hand. God is on the throne." And we are soldiers with him in the struggle. We may have our

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battle scars, we may have our skirmishes. Some of us are young in the army, but we to march behind the same banner. One of the things that impressed me about the nation Israel, though it was a tiny nation of two and a half million people, is that they told us that everybody was in the army because everybody had to be

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concerned about the welfare of the nation. Little children, women, everybody that it was prepared for the conflicts that they face. And so everyone who's committed to Jesus Christ is in the army of the Lord and called

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and commissioned to march behind his banner. And as we come to this time of commitment, let it be for every one of us a time of rededication. For those of us who live in Austin without a church home,

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may it be a time when you make the decision to become a part of the family of God here at Ebenezer. Emmy, you've messed it away.

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And if you are sad about what you're going to do tonight, well, there is Emily O'Hara. [MUSIC] [MUSIC]

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[ Music ] ♪ O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave ♪ ♪ Give thanks to the God of our God ♪ ♪ God of our God, praise the Lord ♪

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♪ Praise the living God who took our life ♪ ♪ And hath now our way, our way made on ♪ ♪ In the open air ye look ♪ ♪ Strong we lay her down ♪

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♪ In the stillness where her body's sheathed ♪ ♪ Strong we lay her down ♪ ♪ In the stillness where her body's sheathed ♪ ♪ Ever true and low ♪

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♪ Ever true and low ♪ ♪ In my deepest, dearest homes, I ♪ ♪ Many good loves, many good times ♪ ♪ I'll be sweet for many more times ♪

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♪ Songs of praises I will ever sing to thee ♪ ♪ Songs of praises I will ever give to thee ♪ ♪ Against the wind ♪ [Music]

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