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about the life we're growing up into today. We are faced with fornification, drugs, alcoholism. Now, we are faced with these difficulties because many times there is a lack of communication

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between our parents and ourselves. Now, there should be some talking between the parents and ourselves Because you cannot have trust without communication.

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You cannot have one without the other. And therefore, instead of having your child pick up these things off the streets from other misinformed youth, you should try to take time to talk to your youth.

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Have faith in your youth. Trust him. And just talk to him. Just a little bit of time out of your day.

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Just talk to him. And you will learn where he is coming from. And instead of saying, oh, I wonder where my child is today. I'm really worried about him.

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Just take a little bit of time out to trust in your youth and talk to him, because you will learn more that way than trying to find out from someone else. Also, we should try to have a lot of belief,

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because today I can say truly that I would not been here without God. Because God has brought me through a lot, really a lot. I have been through some of this peer pressure

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that my friends have gone through today. And all I can say is God has helped me. Mrs. Coleman, who's helped me in the Bible drill, Sister Rosa White, who helped me when I was yet a child

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in doing scriptures and Bible verses. Now, I can truly say that without these things, Your youth cannot grow up to be the person that you want him to be.

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But like I was saying, you got to have trust. And without that trust, there is nothing. Because it says in the Bible that all have sinned-- not just the youth--

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all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. So when you talk to your youth, you think of the things that you didn't got away with when you were youth.

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And when you didn't talk to your parents. So instead of not giving your youth this opportunity, you talk to them. And maybe you will find out where they're coming from.

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Thank you. May we all turn to this hymn as we stand together to sing Wade in the Water. [ Music ]

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[ Singing ] ♪ Wade in the water ♪ ♪ Lost and troubled water ♪ ♪ Wade in the water ♪

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♪ Wade in the water today ♪ ♪ Wade in the water ♪ ♪ Lost and troubled water ♪ ♪ See that it's not lost in the mud ♪

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♪ God's done a trouble to water ♪ ♪ And there's fire, and there's no water ♪ ♪ God's done a trouble to water ♪ ♪ Rain in the water ♪

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♪ Rain in the water, children ♪ ♪ Rain in the water ♪ ♪ God's done a trouble to water ♪ ♪ See that man got dressed in red ♪

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♪ God's done a trouble to water ♪ ♪ And there's fire and there's water ♪ ♪ God's done a trouble to water ♪ ♪ Rain in the water ♪

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♪ Rain in the water, children ♪ ♪ Rain in the water ♪ God's gonna trouble the water. Way in the water.

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Way in the water, children. Way in the water. God's gonna trouble the water. Way in the water.

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Way in the water, children. ♪ Lay in the water ♪ ♪ God's fruit shall fall upon them ♪ - The scriptural lesson for today is Matthew 13 through 17.

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"Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan to John "to be baptized of him. "But John forbade him, saying, "I have need to be baptized of thee and thou to me."

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And Jesus answering said unto him, "Suffer it to be now so now, "for thus it cometh us to fulfill all righteousness." Then he suffered him.

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And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightaway out of the water, and lo, the heavens were opened unto him. And he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove

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and lighting upon him, and lower voice from heaven say, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. Thank you. May we bow our heads.

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Speak to our hearts, O God. Grant that we may hear your voice, and that we may receive a sense of direction and strength to do that which you would have us do.

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In Jesus' name, amen. The subject of the message, "Take Me to the Water to be Baptized." I vividly remember when I was baptized, for some time I had pondered and wondered about accepting Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.

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boys and girls my age had made the decision. There were others who had not. Some hesitated because they were afraid to go into the water. They talked about the fact that there were snakes in the water, that it was too deep. Because when I was baptized, all of us were baptized in a lake, a place that was called at that time Wahoo Lake. But the time came

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for me to be baptized when I had publicly made that decision to accept Jesus Christ on a Sunday morning. And on that day, the congregation was gathered around the side of the lake.

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There was a great deal of singing in swelling tones of the great hymns of the church. I can see the deacons as they waded out into the water with a long pole or stick to sort of test

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to see how deep were the waters. And then the minister, as he came into the water, and all of us who were candidates for baptism were dressed in white.

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And there were some of the older sisters of the church, the saints, we would think of them of the church, the mothers, rather. And they too were in white.

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And as they carried me and that minister who reached out with his long arms and huge hands and put them around me and lifted one hand and said, I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son,

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and the Holy Spirit, and took me under the water and brought me up again. It was for me a high and holy moment, an unforgettable experience, a time that I remember and it seems so vivid in my memory

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as if it happened only yesterday. is one of the distinguishing marks of the church. It is a gateway into the church. It is a cleansing. It is a symbol of burial and resurrection. It is being immersed as we conceive of it, it is being dipped. In other words, it is a holy bath, a holy bath. One little

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boy was sitting in church and he noticed the minister who was in a white robe as he came into the baptismal pool and he baptized several candidates and as he was going home with his parents the little boy said did you see Jesus giving those people a bath. That was the way it occurred to him and I think that idea

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expresses a certain truth in relationship to New Testament baptism. It is a holy bath. Persons who have changed their direction and come to Jesus experienced baptism as an expression of cleansing. As the psalmist says,

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wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. Baptism also marks a time of separation. It is the event which symbolizes a fresh start,

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a new beginning. The time has come for Jesus to separate himself from his home in Nazareth. He makes the journey from Galilee to Jordan.

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At the age of 12, he was in the temple. And he said when he was asked by his mother why he had caused them such concern, he said, "No, you not, that it is time that I be

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about my father's business." And now we see him at the age of 30, the prime of young manhood. He comes to the muddy banks of the Jordan River

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to meet a rustic prophet known as John the Baptizer. The time has struck for Jesus. John's religious movement is the talk of the town. People are challenged to accept or reject his preaching.

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Jesus identifies with John, the time has come. The hour strikes for Jesus. He responds to God's call for action. This is the time, the hour has come.

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It is a time for decision. Time for him to declare himself as the unique son of God. There's always a time for decision. That time comes for every one of us.

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Once to every man and nation comes the moment to decide in the strife of truth and falsehood for the good or evil side, a time for decision.

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And as Jesus comes to the Jordan and comes into the presence of John the Baptist. They engage in dialogue. When John preaches, it is as if an invitation

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is extended after the proclamation of the word. And there comes this one from Nazareth forth in response to that invitation to be baptized of John. And John says to him why do you come to me? It ought to be reversed I should be coming to you. John

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is the older Jesus is the younger and so there is this dialogue between the older and the younger and Jesus says to him suffer it to be so and there ought to be dialogue there ought to be communication as Tanya said earlier there ought to be this dialogue there ought to be this communication between the older

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generation and the younger generation there ought to be this understanding there ought to be this concern, there ought to be this kind of sympathy, there ought to be that love which is shared, there ought to be dialogue. For here as this dialogue takes place John is told by Jesus suffer it to be so. John is

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puzzle he does not understand and yet somehow he responds to the word that Jesus gives, "Permit it to be so." For I have come to be the dynamic model for the human family. I have come to show the way. I have come as a divine example. permitted to be so. I have come so that there may be those who come after me may

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walk in my footprints so that unborn generations may follow my example. I have come so that even the fool may not err. I have come that even the skeptic may have no excuse. I have come so that the pilgrim may have a plain path in which to walk. So John listens, the older listens to the younger and today we who

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belong to the older generation can learn a lesson from that, to listen to the younger. For they have something to say, something to say not only about the revelation of who they are and what they hope to become, but they have something to say that will help us to better understand what ought to be our

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relationship to them. Then there is dedication here for Jesus comes and is baptized of John for John obeys. For Jesus completely dedicates himself to performing the messianic function, God's servant, and there is nothing more important than making that decision and making that kind of dedication to be God's servant

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in the world. Oh, I know some may want to be a teacher and another may be a doctor or a preacher or a business person. Whatever may be the vocation in which you will enter, but there is one thing sure that

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whatever you do you ought to be a servant of God, a servant of goodness, a servant of justice, a servant of God. Servant. So Jesus comes here to submit himself to make a public declaration the fact that he is God's servant, God's God's anointed and as He comes, He comes to make it known that it is His will to fulfill

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all of the demands of God. And that's so important. You know, sometimes, sometimes we enroll in things that we don't really want to happen put that the course is prescribed to do.

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I can remember when I was in high school that there was one teacher that really wanted you to learn and really insisted that you would do what you're supposed to do in that class. And so often that would be the teacher that the kids would put down, say, "Oh, Miss so and so she's so hard and yet she was just trying to do really what she was

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there to do and yet many times we were not able to appreciate what she was trying to do and yet so often that's the way it is in life. We enroll in things sometimes people really say they want to be a Christian and when we really read what God has prescribed for us to do in order to be a Christian. Well I don't know about that. I

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don't know about that. The late Reverend Hinton, he would come and speak one or two occasions I remember in the churches. He would say all of you who are willing to do whatever God says for you to do whatever God has said for you to do if you're willing to do what God says just stand up and there would always be a number of persons who would remain

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seated because even though their names were on the church roll even though they said I'm a servant of God that they weren't willing to do what God really says for us to do. But here, here, here is one who is a servant of God who publicly presents himself saying

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here I am as the servant of God. I present myself as God's anointed to perform His will and His way. That's our task. If we would follow his example, that's really what it means to follow Jesus.

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So John obeys. Jesus is taken down into the water, buried underneath the water, and brought up again. Well he really needs no cleansing. Some of the commentators on this, particularly he's mentioned in the scripture, can't quite

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understand this and some say, "Well, he was doing it to please his mother. He was doing it to please this one or that one." They try to have some reason why he did it, but you see, he really needs no cleansing for he is without sin.

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He has no guilt, so he needs no bath to remove the dirt of guilt, but he has done it in order to show us the way. He is giving us a sense of direction. In other words, he's saying to us, "Yeah, this is the way.

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Walk in this way." This is what he is saying to us. He needs no forgiveness, but he shows us the way. He's sinless, but he identifies with sinners.

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That's a good example. He's sinless, but he identifies with sinners. You know, so often when people think that they are just a notch above somebody else. I remember a lady earlier in my ministry who went to college late.

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And there's nothing wrong with that, it's good to go anytime, but she got there late. And she didn't really get all that it had to give her, but she got out somehow. It's sort of like we talk about some who graduate magna cum laude and one lady said, "Well, I just graduated laude laude."

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So and she would be talking quite often and she said, "Well, you know, so and so is not on my category." She couldn't say category, but she would say category. But here Jesus comes and even though He is sinless, even though He is without sin, He

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identifies Himself with sinners in order that He might save them. He who is without sin becomes sin for us and he is numbered with his transgressors. Well that's the way he ushers in the new creation. For he is the new being in the new age.

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The new being in the new age. When I was a student at Bishop College, it was located in Marshall, Texas in those days, and there was a pool located in front of the dining hall, and as a part of the initiation, college hazing in those days everybody every male sooner or later would be

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thrown into the pool and the fact that you had been thrown into the pool was a way of saying that you had really been initiated and you had been cast into the pool. For us it was a rather humiliating experience but yet it was something that each male student had come to expect it was a part of the college life it was

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not only something to expect but it was something to accept as a member of the campus fellowship to be cast into the pool. Well that was just one pool but it was for everybody. One pool for everybody no matter where you came from whether you came from Dallas or Houston or Chicago or Los Angeles everybody was

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expected to go into that pool and no matter what one status may happen to be sooner or later you were expected to go into that pool. Well baptism is something like that Christian baptism. The Apostle Paul says that there's just one baptism. one baptism. And I think we Baptists, while we place a great deal of emphasis on the mode of

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baptism, we're concerned about how deep the pool is so that you can be sure and have enough water so that you can carry them under and bring them up. Be sure that you've got enough water in the pool. Well, that's all right, but that's not the kind of baptism that the New Testament is really concerned about. You can have all the water that you can possibly get, and you

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can carry them down and hold them down and bring them up, and still people cannot be right. But real New Testament baptism, baptism in the truest sense of the word, baptism in And the truest sense of the word is to be baptized in Jesus Christ, in his spirit. And oh how wonderful it is to be immersed in his spirit.

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Oh, one baptism, one spirit, one dedication, one love, one sense of commitment to be baptized into the body of Christ. for everybody Jew, Greek, male, female, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free to be baptized in Jesus Christ. Whatever may be your status in life, whatever may be your

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background that there is one baptism that somehow when one gets the Spirit of Jesus Christ and is baptized in that spirit, that that is sufficient. And so our ancestors, even though they didn't have many of the things that we have, they knew something about the baptism of the Spirit. And in that old hymn, they asked

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the question, that spiritual, "Have you been to the pool?" In other words, have you somehow, have you somehow been dipped in the love of God so that you have that love that runs from heart to heart and breast to breast? Have you been to the pool?

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Oh, so often, so often we just get a little sprinkle, just a little dab here and there, and as somebody has said, a little dab will do you. But to really be in the pool, to really be immersed, to somehow to be in love, in love with life.

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To say that I've been to the pool means that somehow to accept what God sends our way and to say that I'll do this because, because that I've somehow been baptized in the love that God gives. I have been to the pool.

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Have you been to the pool? Well, that question would be answered, the answer would come back, "Certainly, certainly, Lord." "Certainly, certainly, certainly, Lord!"

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That question is asked now, it's asked of you, it's asked of me, have you been to the pool? Have you really been baptized? Have you been baptized in the freedom that God gives?

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If you've been baptized in that freedom, There's really no methods of coercion that must be used in order to get you to do what your responsibility is within the church or in the community, that you do it because you really want to do it and because you love to do it.

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But have you been baptized in that kind of freedom, the freedom that God gives, that freedom that enables us to be ourselves, and yet it's the kind of freedom that makes us the captive of one who is higher than we are, have you been baptized? Oh, to be able to answer certainty, to have that answer on the inside of a certainty, certainty, certainty,

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Lord, I have been baptized. I'm a new creature. I'm a new being with a new purpose, with a new destiny, with new hope. Yes, that's what it means. Well, maybe there's someone here who hasn't had that. One person came up to the minister and said, "I want you to baptize me." I said, "Well, haven't you been baptized?" "Oh, yes, I've been baptized. I've been down

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in the water. But when I went down that time, that wasn't a real thing. And I really had a change of heart and I really know what it means now to give yourself to God and I want you to do it again. I want you to do it this time because this will really be the first time because this time I really mean it. To be able to say certainly Lord take me to the

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water. Take me to the water, yes, take me to the water of your cleansing spirit. Take me to the water of your forgiving love. Take me to the water to be baptized in the freedom that only God can give and in that love which is eternal. As we come and now to the hymn of invitation.

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We ask that you would commit yourself to Jesus Christ. This is rather personal. So often we wonder about someone else. But it's a rather personal decision.

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The decision which Jesus made was a personal decision. The commitment which you made was personal to me. Nobody else can make this decision for you. No one else can make this commitment for you.

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No one else can do this duty for you. It's something that you've got to do for yourself. You have to come out with a final decision to get that. It's me, it's me, oh Lord.

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And I'm standing in the need of prayer. ♪ It's me ♪ ♪ It's me, oh Lord ♪ ♪ And I'm standing in the need of prayer ♪

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♪ In the need of prayer ♪ ♪ It's me, it's me, oh Lord ♪ ♪ And I'm standing in the need of prayer ♪ ♪ It's me, it's me, oh Lord ♪

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♪ And I'm standing in the need of prayer ♪ It's me, it's me, oh Lord, and I'm standing in the need of prayer. It's me, it's me, oh Lord, and I'm standing in the need of prayer. Not my mother, no my father, but it's me, oh Lord.

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And I'm standing in the need of prayer. ♪ Ooh, not my mother ♪ ♪ Nor my father ♪ ♪ But it's me, oh Lord ♪

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♪ And I'm standing in the need of prayer ♪ ♪ Ooh, it's me, it's me, oh Lord ♪ ♪ Oh Lord, and I'm standing in the need of prayer ♪ ♪ Oh, it's me, it's me, oh Lord ♪

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♪ And I'm standing in prayer ♪ ♪ Oh, it's me, yes, it's me, oh Lord ♪ ♪ And I'm standing in the need of prayer ♪ ♪ It's me, it's me, oh Lord ♪

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♪ And I'm standing in the need of prayer ♪ - Amen, let us all say amen. Let us listen now to the report. - We have Sister Alice.

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[MUSIC] [MUSIC] ♪ He wants me to be ♪ ♪ I ain't gonna worry ♪

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♪ About the people and what they say ♪ ♪ I'm gonna do what Jesus tells me ♪ ♪ And every day I'll be a better man ♪ ♪ I want to be a servant of that man who gave the tree ♪

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♪ I've come to live the life he wants me to live ♪ ♪ I ain't going to worry about the people ♪ ♪ And what they say ♪ I'm going to do what Jesus tells me each and every day.

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I'm going to be a servant of that man who made the trees. [MUSIC] [Music] [ Silence ]

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[BLANK_AUDIO]