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[Pause] You will be celebrating their centennial, 100th birthday, and so at First Baptist Church, 9th and Trinity, there's a reception at 145, and then of course there's a program at 230.

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We hope that you can share in that celebration as many of our members as possible. We had a glorious time last Sunday night. We went with the Concord Chapel Choir to Belton. They gave the program there at the First Baptist Church

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and they did a wonderful job. Many of the choir members have gone to school, some of them have, and even though some of the leaders

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were not with the group, I think the group did remarkably well. and they were highly appreciated by that congregation, which I think was one of the largest attended

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Sunday night services that they've had in some time to hear our Concord Chapel Choir. We went with several cars and the minibus and the Lord was with us all the way.

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The bus began to get off, the bad timing, just as we were getting near Austin, And we drove and got right around the corner down there and it stopped. [laughter]

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Just around the corner. And so the Lord was with us all the way. So the, the next thing I want to mention is that tonight midnight is the deadline for voter registration. Now every one of us ought to be registered to vote. They're talking a great deal about the black vote

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Some are talking about that. We are not gonna go to the polls and all of that but we have more to lose and Also more to gain it's according to what we do

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It's very important that we get registered to vote sister Joe Helen Bell is prepared to register persons who have not

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their latest registration now you need to have your latest registration in order to be able to vote and Do that because this is a great year an election year and all of these issues That have to do with politics have to do with our life

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And so That's important that you do that. They're going to be issues that affect us here in the city. We're right here in a rehabilitation Area now many people having a whole lot to say about it that don't even have any investment in this area We Ebenezer has more invested right here than anyone else

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And we ought to be concerned and we ought to be ready to have a great deal to say about that and all those folk who all hung up about Preachers involvement in politics you need to restudy your religion as far as what God says to us about our

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responsibility I'll always be been involved. I'm always be involved In this because I think it's important to the people that we do this Tomorrow the Baptist Joint Committee meets

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And the Baptist Joint Committee is a group of Baptists Representing all of the conventions who meet and we have a lobby in Washington that's about what it amounts to and that lobby seeks to influence legislation that has to do with things which we feel that are very important as related to our faith as Christians.

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We've been invited to the White House on Tuesday for a reception with the with the president given by the president and his and the first lady

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for the president of Nigeria. So we expect to be there and then to go from there to Chicago where we will be involved in a week study with the Industrial Foundation the Industrial Foundation has to do with community organizing

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We had a group of pastors who were here a few weeks ago and we spent a very intensive period here and this one is even more intense as we seek to organize certain key cities here in in the state of Texas and throughout the South, but particularly here in Texas.

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Gary and I attended those sessions and Gary is not only going to be working with us as an intern here, but he's going to be working with the legislature.

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The Texas Baptist, as you know, we are dually aligned. We've always had a paid person who works with the legislature during the session. He's going to be also working with the legislature during the session and then we're going to try to get us

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Black Baptists more involved in this because we've been sleep too long And we're going to try to do that this year and he's going to be working With us here locally and on the statewide level trying to See that that is done now. I'm asking that

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We've had a request for a contribution from those who are willing to do so for Sister Delco's campaign and I'm going to ask that following the benediction today that the ushers will have some plates there and

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You will make that contribution if you Wish to do so and sign your name so that she will know who gave it the extent to which our Candidates can be free to do the job. We want them to do will depend upon the kind of support that we give Let us turn to him number 132 amazing grace

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[Music] Let us all stand. [Music] Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me.

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♪ I once was lost, now am found ♪ ♪ A blind man now I see ♪ ♪ The grace that brought us all together ♪ ♪ The grace, the grace of Jesus ♪

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♪ The praise of King ♪ ♪ And praise of Him ♪ ♪ We all adore Him ♪ ♪ To Him be praise ♪

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♪ To his name the chosen men ♪ ♪ By heaven's bounteous gift ♪ ♪ To praise and honor his name ♪ ♪ He takes the poor ♪

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♪ And brings them in His arms ♪ ♪ He leads His men ♪ ♪ In the good works ♪ [Music]

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[music] [choir singing] Let us pray. Speak dear Lord and grant that your servants may hear. We ask in Jesus name, Amen. I invite your prayerful attention to a passage of Scripture which

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is recorded in the book of Genesis 44 chapter the 14th through the 17th verses And Judah and his brethren came to Joseph's house, for he was yet there. And they fell before him on the ground. And Joseph said unto them, What deed is this that ye have done?

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Know ye not that such a man as I can certainly divine? Judas said, What shall we say unto my Lord? What shall we speak? How shall we clear ourselves?

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God hath found out the iniquity of thy service. Behold we are my Lord's servants, both we and he also with whom the cup is found. And he said God forbid that I should do so. the man in whose hand the cup is found, he shall be my servant. And as for you, get you

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up in peace unto your father. Would you repeat after me, "The man in whose hand the cup is found, he shall be my servant." subject of the message, "Take the cup. Take the cup." In 1947 I was a member of the Antioch Baptist Church in Cleveland, Ohio, and the pastor of that church, Dr. W.H.

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McKinney was sent by that congregation to the Baptist World Alliance in Copenhagen, Denmark. And in preparation for that trip a number of things were done. Gifts were given by various members of the church to the pastor and there was one particular gift that was very unusual. It was given by one of the

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faithful members of the church, one of the veterans of the cross, Sister Slaughter. Sister Slaughter was a widow. She did not have very much and she said to the pastor, "Pastor here, I want you to take this cup. I don't have very much to give you but you take this cup." And he took it. He thought it was rather unusual but he

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took the cup. He took it with him wherever he went. He went on a tour, various countries, different places. And when he returned about a month later, I I remember he said to the members of the congregation that of all the gifts he had received, that that had been one of the most meaningful and one of the most useful, that he found so many

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occasions in the course of his journey where he made use of that cup. Just the cup. Take the cup. Take the cup.

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The cup has a great deal to do with our faith. It is one of the unique and meaningful symbols of our faith, the cup. think of it as a vessel from which we drink. And recorded in the book of Genesis is one of the most beautiful stories of the Old Testament. A story that

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has to do with a cup. Story of Joseph and his brothers. It's a familiar story. How Joseph was one of twelve brothers, favorite of his father. And he was a dreamer. He told his dreams and the others were jealous of him.

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He was sold into slavery, was taken to Egypt, placed in prison and he became in the course of time the prime minister of Egypt. And in the mysterious turn of events, Jacob, Joseph's father, sends the other brothers to Egypt, all ten of them, but he

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kept Benjamin who was the youngest at home to get grain because there was a famine in the land. Joseph recognized them but they did not recognize him. He gave them the grain and they gave money but he instructed his servant to put the money back in their bag. They discovered after they had gotten well on the way

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toward Canaan that the money was in their sacks. They found it necessary to come back and one of the conditions for coming back was to bring Benjamin. And when they came back they told Joseph, "You know when we were here before we looked in our bags and we found the money which we had paid for the grain

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in our sacks. We brought this money back. We've not only brought back that money but we've brought additional money with which to pay for the grain that we need. So they received the grain and this time also Joseph instructed his steward to put the money in the mouth of the sack and then he said to his servant I want

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you to do something else I want you to take my cup my silver cup and I want you to put it in the sack of Benjamin, put it in Benjamin's sack. And the servant obeyed, and the brothers set out on their journey toward home, and they had not gotten very far before he sent the servant to stop them on their journey.

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Someone has taken my Lord's cup. So no, no, we wouldn't do a thing like that. You've been so kind to us, we wouldn't think of taking the cup. The cup is a precious possession. It means too much to Joseph for us to take Joseph's cup. We wouldn't do that. And Judah had made his father a promise that he would be sure

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and return with Benjamin, and he was one to speak and said, "Now, you know, if you find any one of us with your cup, with the cup of Joseph, let him become Joseph's slave, my Lord's slave. If he should find anyone in this company with the cup, let him be your servant." And they looked, and they found the cup in Benjamin's sack. They

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found the silver cup, the cup of Joseph, the cup which is a symbol of meaning and the symbol of the most precious possession. The cup is in Benjamin's sack. Joseph's cup is in his baggage. All of us on a journey. We're on a journey from Egypt to Canaan, and we've got some baggage. It's necessary when you take a journey to have some baggage. But I'd

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like to raise the question this morning as to whether or not among your baggage that you have the cup, did you take the cup? Because the cup is a symbol of our faith. It's a symbol of our life together. As you look with all of the concerns, with all of the things that we are trying to carry along with us, I raise the question, do you have the cup? Take the

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cup. Benjamin had the cup. He was unaware of the fact that it was in his bag, but you see Joseph had put it there because the cup was a means of testing those brothers to see whether they really cared about each other, whether they were going to treat Benjamin the way they had treated him. It was a test and Joseph had

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put it there and when they came back and Judah said, "Oh no, my father is old, our father lost Joseph, he's dead, and here's Benjamin and we can't afford to leave him here, because if we go back the old man will die." The cup, you see, was a test of their character. And the cup right now is a test of our Christian character, whether

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or not we're carrying the cup. It's a test of our character. Take the cup. Take the cup. Well most of us who've been in the world for some time can remember something about a common cup, I guess in our home the most common cup was a dipper. Some of you may be too young to know much about that, but we had a dipper and we had a pail of

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water that was kept there in the kitchen and there was a dipper in it and any member of the family who wanted a drink of water just got the dipper and you drank. you put it back somebody else came along and they drank. It was a common cup, common cup. And when Jesus was with his disciples in the upper room he had there

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a common cup, common cup, and he took the cup and gave to his disciples. All of them drank out of that cup. Now I know what some of you are thinking. I don't want to drink out of a common cup because you know somebody else may have something that I may get it. That's what most of us think isn't it? But even today and following that

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tradition there are those who have in their worship service the common cup and And everyone drinks out of it, and they put it around and around and around, on around, everyone drinking out of the common cup. The communion service.

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At first communion service, they didn't have many cups. There was only one. All the disciples drank from the common cup. Now that's a message in that for us.

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But we are disciples of the Master. If we have been saved by his grace, then all of us drink from the common cup. And this cup is the cup that he gave to all of them, and today as we celebrate what is on the Christian calendar as Worldwide Communion Sunday, people all over the world will be

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drinking from the cup. cup, a great deal of legend about it. King Arthur and the Knights talk about the search for the Holy Grail because it was believed that there were certain powers related to that cup and that the persons who had that cup were especially favored and they had a

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certain kind of life that was related to having possession of the cup, the Holy Grail. Sir Gallagher and the other Knights of the Round Table were those who were involved with the Holy Grail, that cup that was said to have been used, that was the legend, the story around it. But in a very real sense, and when we

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think about the truth that somehow we are knights of faith, that just as those knights in the search for the Holy Grail were to be brave, that those who take the cup are to be brave warriors for Jesus Christ. To take the cup is a a symbol of bravery, that I'll go and fight for what's right, I'll do what you

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want me to do, I'll take the cup. I'll take the cup. Those who carried the cup were to have purity of character, pure in heart, sincere believers carried the cup. And so a little later after Jesus was in the upper room with his disciples, when we think about our Lord's cup, Joseph's cup was returned to him, but Jesus' cup is

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a cup which he gives to his disciples and we see him after celebrating in the upper room we see him as he moves out into the garden of Gethsemane and we listen in on his prayer and we hear him as he says "Lord remove this bitter cup, if it be thy will let this cup pass!" Let the cup pass. All of us are given this cup. Finally he accepted the cup and he

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said to his disciples let us arise and be going. He accepted the cup, he took the cup and he says to you and to me take the cup. Lord it's bitter! There is bitterness in that cup, but yes take the cup! Yes we can look in our lives and we can find many things in that cup that we would rather not have there, but the Lord says take the cup! Take it, take it. It's better take the cup. Certain risks involved in taking the cup but he in whose hand the cup is found shall be your servant. In other words what

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we are called to be is to be cup bearers of the King. You know what a cup bearer did? Well a cup bearer was one who took the cup and before the king drank anything he tasted it first and it was very popular in ancient times to try to poison the king so the cup bearer ran the risk first. Take the cup and what Jesus did he

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got in our role as slaven. He took upon himself the role of a slaven, and he became the cup bearer, and he drank the bitter cup himself for every one of us. With all of our sins, with all of our wrongdoing, with all of our malice, our jealousy, our inhumanity, one to the other, he took the cup. He says to every one of us, "Take the cup."

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Well, we like to run away. We like to find something soft and easy. We like to find something that's sweet. But he took the cup.

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He took the cup. I looked out of the window, and I was living in Cleveland, and I looked out of the window from this apartment in the alley and I saw a group assembled there and they were all drinking from the same bottle. And as I looked and watched them, one of them took it up like

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this and he frowned all up as if it was the worst stuff in the world, but he was still taking it. And yet somehow there are so many things in life that are difficult and unpleasant, and yet somehow the one who gives us that cup says take it, take the cup. The Son of God goes forth to war, a kingly crown to gain, his blood-stained banner streams afar, who

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follows in his train. He who best can drink his cup of woe, triumphant or pain, he who patient bears his cross below, he follows in his train. Let him in whose hands. The cup is found, be your servant. So I ask you to take the cup. We shall we shall do this a little later in the service for all of those who are

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committed, but it means a little more than that. It means a little more than just lifting a vessel it means somehow lifting a burden in Christ's name it means somehow bearing the bitterness of life bearing the insult bearing the humiliation bearing the ridicule take the cup he took the cup they spat in his

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face they pierced him in the side they cursed him as they walked around the cross but he took the cup. He took the cup and we who would be followers of Jesus Christ he says to us take the cup. We would be fellow sufferers we must take the cup. We must take the cup. What shall I render unto the Lord for all his

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benefits toward me. And the answer is, "I will take the cup, I will take the cup of salvation and I will drink from the cup." Job drank from the cup and somehow it was bitter, but he drank from the cup in the name of God and he says to every one of us, "Take the cup, take the cup of fellowship, take it, drink from the cup,

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take the cup of fellowship. And when you really reach out for people and to all people in love, some people are not going to accept you. In fact when you reach out to some people in love, they'll insult you. But take the cup. In fact if you reach out to some in love, they will humiliate you. But take the cup! Take the cup in Christ's name! take the cup, take the cup of suffering, take the cup and bear the burden in the

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heat of the day, take the cup. And then lastly, while that cup has bitterness in it, it also has that which is sweet in it. For God has a way of making the bitter sweet. And that even in the midst of all of the painful experiences and all of the unpleasant things of life, that God has a way of sweetening our lives. God has a way of

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giving us joy even in the midst of our difficult experiences. God has a way if we would but take the cup. Well let the man in whose hand the cup is found be my servant. Lord I'll take the cup. That's the testimony of the faithful. That's the testimony of the committed. That's the testimony of the night of faith. Lord I'll

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take the cup and I'll drink from that cup. I'll follow where you lead. I'll take the cup, take the cup, take the cup because it's a cup of joy. Oh yes there's sorrow there, but remember it's a cup of joy! Take the cup, take the cup because that cup, that cup is a symbol of our salvation. Take the cup, that's our common

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faith, take the cup. That is the symbol of the life that we have, that life that is in Jesus Christ. Take the cup. Take the cup. Some people take this service rather lightly. Some take the communion service lightly. Some present don't know what it is. And some think that you just should give it to anyone without

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them really understanding what it is. But it's the very heart of our faith. Jesus said as often as you do it, you do it in remembrance of me, to take this cup for those who are committed, for those who somehow trust in him. And when every time we take the cup, we remember what God has done for us. God has done a great deal for many of us.

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God has been so good. God, God has been with us and somehow all along the way as we have made our journey, God has been there. Oh we find ourselves suffering from famine but God has somehow provided for us to have bread even in Egypt. God has given us friends in Egypt, they're already there waiting when we get there,

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to provide for us because he has promised to provide a table for us in the presence of our enemies. Take the cup, all your baggage take the cup, for he in whose hands the cup is found shall be my servant. To be a servant of God is to carry the cup, the silver cup, that precious possession that represents the

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suffering and the joy of the Christian life. Take the cup, take the cup, drink it For it is the cup of salvation for everyone who believes. Take the cup." And as the choir sings, "Fill my cup." If you would commit yourself to Jesus Christ today, maybe you're here without a church home, maybe you've moved to Austin and

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you don't have a church home and maybe you've been outside the church and you've just accepted Jesus Christ and somehow you haven't been following up on your commitment. We invite you to come today. We invite you to come if you would accept him on profession of faith, if you would step out on his word, say Lord I'm

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going to take the cup. I want to be your staff and I want to walk in your steps, I'll take the cup. Be able to say to him, "Lord, I'll take it and I'll fill my cup. Whatever you put in there, I'll drink it. And I'll drink it to your glory. Sometimes I'll be lonely, sometimes it may be bitter, but I'll drink it. Fill my cup. We invite you to come now.

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The doors of the church are open. [Music] For me, time to have satisfied And in the good good days that we live

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To our home, our home, our share of joy Feel like a home, a gift to the poor Come embrace this mercy from your soul [Music]

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[Music] [Music] [Singing] (singing in foreign language)

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[Music] [Music] I'm going to ask that those that were baptized this morning, if you will come forward, please, face the audience.

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We come now to the period of giving to you the right hand, the fellowship, having been very brave and simple in baptism of your faith in Jesus Christ, becoming a member of the Council of Faith to accept all of the responsibilities as a Christian, Remember, as a family, it means that you will seek to grow in understanding by studying the Bible and making use of all of the opportunities afforded you in this church for that growth.

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Remember one another in prayer. Seek to be faithful under the leadership of the Holy Spirit in all things that will make you a healthy person in Jesus Christ. Do you promise to live such a life? I give to you the right hand of fellowship, giving you all the rights and privileges as a full member of this church. May God bless you and may He keep you as we seek to grow as Jesus.

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I give to you also this certificate, your baptism in the anthem and the shell. May God bless you and may He keep you. Let us all say the same thing. Amen.

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[Audience "Amens"] We have present with us Mr. and Mrs. Marcella Thompson from Oklahoma City of the United Baptist Church there. I think they came to be with Kevin. There's a grand panel. Would you stand?

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