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[Silence] [Music] I'll first believe. ♪ God's name ♪

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♪ That brought me ♪ ♪ Safe ♪ ♪ Right on by ♪ ♪ Safe ♪

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♪ The home ♪ ♪ That brought me ♪ ♪ Back home ♪ (audience cheering)

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(sighing) (sighing) (sighing) (sighing)

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(silence) (sighing) (silence) [silence]

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(silence) [ Silence ] Dr. Clark, Dr. Mangrum, Dr. Wright, and all of the faculty members and students and friends from all over the country.

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Dr. Scott, Dr. Price, and Dr. Jemison, all of you who have been my friends through the years. I very much appreciate the opportunity of being here tonight. And I think that I'm less worthy than many people to preach on this TM Chambers night.

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I see Mrs. Chambers out there. Stand up, Mrs. Chambers. Some people may not know you. She's here.

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I thought that Chambers used to preach for me and I used to preach for him. And I always felt when I heard him preach that the Lord had shortchanged me. He was very resourceful and he never put on the brakes when he preached. Now if you didn't get with him, he'd run over you.

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I know when I was attending Howard University in '38, the late Dr. William H. Jernigan, pastor of Mount Carmel Baptist Church, where I belonged while I was in Washington,

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hired Dr. Chambers to conduct a revival. I had never heard him. And some of the students said that if you didn't get to the church by 6.30,

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there was no need of going. Well, I didn't see any need of rushing to hear somebody 6.30 when the service wasn't gonna start until eight.

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I took my time. And when I got there, by the call of the eight, I couldn't get in my own church. His massive spirit and his eminently trained mind made him unusual. And back there, you didn't have too many Baptist preachers, at least, who had finished college.

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And he was in a small class of preachers who had finished Bishop College. He and M.C. Williams really put Bishop on the map wherever they went. In fact, Dr. Williams feels that anybody who hasn't finished bishop doesn't have his head

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screwed on tight enough. And I told him one day that his head is screwed on too tight. Leadership has made a tremendous contribution to the world and it does not yet appear what it shall be.

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I'm inspired to have many of my fellow ministers from Chicago and from Louisville, Kentucky and I've seen two or three from New York City where I pastored. I couldn't think of a word that would say

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just what I wanted to say in my subject tonight, but being on a college campus, I think I can use it. I wouldn't use this in a church Of course, people might misunderstand and accuse me of trying to be deep.

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[laughter] My subject tonight is the divine principle of reciprocation. [audience chatter] The divine principle of reciprocation.

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I couldn't find a word to say, just what I wanted it to say, so I had to use this. You know what reciprocation is. It is back scratching. [laughter]

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You scratch my back and I'll scratch yours. [laughter] Oh, better still, we're all acquainted with this social etiquette. If I fix a big dinner for you this Christmas,

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don't expect to be invited next Christmas until you reciprocate. [audience laughter] The woman will appreciate this. When I pastored in Louisville, Kentucky, the minister's wives had a secret pal party.

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and your secret pal, the secret pal, would carry a gift to a person that she didn't know who it was going to be. And my wife had a secret pal, and at that time, white shoulders cologne was very popular, and she bought a bottle of white shoulders cologne. At that time, it was kind of expensive. When they called the name of the secret pal, my wife took this bottle of cologne, beautifully wrapped,

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and presented it. And then her name was called, and she got this small package, beautifully wrapped. And on our way home, she opened it. And this woman had given her a bar of cashmere soap.

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[ Laughter ] I'm in this sanctuary and I can't tell you what my wife said. [laughter] But she never went to another party after that.

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[laughter] The divine principle of reciprocation. Now this is kind of cunning to us. I can understand that. I can understand our reciprocating and our drawback when we are not favored.

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But I was a little set back when I found that this reciprocation is based upon a divine principle. [All right. Okay.] I'm a little set back because I don't want God to be like us. [laughter]

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You see, I don't ever want to get tired of God, and I do get tired of us. [laughter] [inaudible] For a long time, man could not put up with God.

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He just couldn't put up with God. He got to the place where he didn't do anything that God wanted him to do, except a few people like Abraham. And Abraham was a little fed up with God.

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Joe was a little fed up with him. Jeremiah was a little fed up, but it was a passing something. Yes. It was a passing something.

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Joe confronted God to his face one day, and he said, you are too hard on people. You're too hard on people. [laughter]

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He said, "You're mad with the whole human race because Adam and Eve sinned." Said, "Man, you ought to go somewhere until your wrath is passed." [laughter] said, "This is not right, this is not right, this is not right."

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Even if a tree is cut down, its tender branches will come forth and it'll live again, but where is man? "Yea, man giveth up the ghost, and is no more." And so answer this question, "If a man dies, shall he live again?"

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And you know about Moses. Moses confronted God and made God rescind an action that he had said he would do by consuming the Hebrews. They had forsaken God and they set up an idol and God told Moses, well God disclaimed the people and came down and said, "Moses, thy people,"

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Moses said, "Don't put them on me." He said, "You gave them to me. They are thy people." So I'm going to consume them. Can you can you imagine God saying that? I'm going to consume all of them." Moses said, "Well, you can't do that." He said, "You can't do that." He said, "What will the Egyptians think about your getting these people out in the wilderness and destroy them? And what will the seed of Abraham think if there will be any seed you promised him that

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His seed would would be as the sand. What will they say? When they come along God said well, I'm going to consume them. Moses said well if you do that you just blot my name out of your book for I'm standing as hostage for these people and I can't put up with a God like that. Now you read

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this, read this, I don't understand it, I've never preached on it, you read it, but the Bible says God repented that he had even fought to do evil against his people. That's in the Bible. Y'all got quiet but that's in the Bible. And God came in all sorts of ways trying to get up to man.

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And he never could get close to man because man decided that God was infinite and had no way of understanding him. and man was finite and could never measure up to God. What are you all waiting on? I'm preaching now.

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(Right) (applause) And so God said, "I'll have to fix this, I'll have to fix this, I'll have to fix this.

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I'm breaking up all of the cedars of Lebanon and then complaining that I didn't have enough Kenlon wood. When I speak, I have a voice as many waters. And I'll have to fix this so that man will come close enough to me to understand. And so I'll have to represent myself in flesh.

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[crowd talking] only reason he sent Jesus Christ. And we can follow him, because at all points he was tempted as we are tempted. (Amen)

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But I got along, I got along with this, I got along with this until I was preparing this message not long ago and

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I don't see where Jesus is too much unlike God. For he says in the text in Mark the eighth chapter and the 38th verse. Now, you have your Bibles. I didn't print this Bible. [laughter]

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Mark the eighth chapter and the 38th verse. And this is so much like us, because when I grew up in the country, people used to pray, "Lord, if you save my soul, if I will reciprocate, I'll serve you." [laughter]

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"If you help me to send my son to college, I'll do more for you." [laughter] But I didn't expect Jesus to say that. [laughter]

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And, Shaw, you didn't either. You don't know what I'm going to say, but you didn't expect Jesus to say that. (laughter) But in closing that 8th chapter, Mark has Jesus saying in red letters.

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(laughter) Mark didn't want you—and you see, the New Testament scholars say that Mark's gospel is more authentic than the others, that these others copied from Mark. And so Mark didn't want you to think that he said what Jesus said.

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He has Jesus saying it himself. Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him also shall the son of man be ashamed when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the Holy Angels. The divine principle of reciprocation.

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"If you are ashamed of me," says Jesus, "I'm not sending you wood, I am telling you." [crowd shouting] Whosoever shall be ashamed of me, I will be ashamed of him. And Jesus was dead serious.

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[laughter] And I have watched this, I have watched this. There are three areas of our personality I think that Jesus was addressing himself to. And the first area is the emotion.

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He could have said, "Whosoever is ashamed to express his emotions for me, I will be ashamed of him. Yes. That's right.

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Mm-hmm. That's right. That's one thing that Tim Chambers was never guilty of. That's right.

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Right. A graduate of Bishop College way back there. Mm-hmm. But he was never ashamed to express his emotion.

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He expressed them so that it went to his bones. He said, "Bless my bones." The disciples had reason to be ashamed of Jesus, and his followers had reason to be ashamed of Jesus.

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He was just the opposite of everything that they knew. His teaching was just the opposite of all the teachings that they knew about. In fact, you know, his teaching is just now making sense.

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(congregation murmurs) Just now making sense. He was talking about forgiveness, and Peter wasn't thinking about what he was saying

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because he knew the law and the law was exact. It said, "An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, forgive nothing. If anybody pluck you out, pluck his out." And so one day Peter confronted Jesus in front of the other apostles and said, "How many times must I forgive my brother? Seven times?" And Jesus said, "Oh Peter, you

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misunderstand the seriousness of forgiveness." Not seven times, but 70 times seven. Well Peter wasn't a good mathematician, he had to sit up all night to figure that that came to 492 times. And he got up the next morning and the Bible said from then on he followed Jesus afar off.

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He must have been ashamed, he must have been ashamed, and I know he was ashamed in the garden that night. night, Peter was ashamed. Jesus had told him to put up the sword. Well, Peter wasn't thinking about that. He sneaked that sword under his tunic and went to the garden with Jesus. And Jesus was arrested and Peter cut off the hair of a high priest. Now, Peter wasn't after

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that heir, he was after his head. And instead of Jesus congratulating Peter, he stooped down and picked up that air. He stuck it back on that high priest's head and it was healed instantly and Peter was standing there waiting for congratulations and when he saw Jesus

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healed, put that air back and healed, he said, "Well, I'll be blessed." [ Applause ] Are we ashamed of Jesus in the area of our emotions? [Right, sir. That's the question. Right. Right.]

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We are dishonest with our own feelings. We feel like shouting. We feel like preaching. We feel like raising our voices.

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We feel just like Dr. Clark feels. We just won't do it. [laughter] See, Dr. Clark doesn't care.

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[laughter] I have some friends here, Dr. Lawson and others. There's an Episcopal church in Memphis, Tennessee, And you know how well they've gotten along all these years.

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They don't have but one. One Episcopal church. Black. One Episcopal church. Black. This is true. That's my home. I know.

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And I was there at this time. Now, I can get along with white Episcopalians because I don't think they know any better. [LAUGHTER]

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But when black people become Episcopalians, they stop breathing. [LAUGHTER] They sit up in church like a bunch of mummies.

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[LAUGHTER] Nobody breathing. (audience laughing) And so there was a woman, I know she's dead now,

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Sister Amelia Fatt was one of these born again Baptists and she was stopped. [ Silence ]