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[no audio] [MUSIC PLAYING] [music] [ Music ]

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Give us this day our daily bread. You say you would supply all of my needs. ♪ According to your riches ♪ ♪ I have much to ask ♪

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♪ And I shall receive ♪ To go from here and share this love you gave to me To show someone who's lost and help them find their way The ways to truth and faith so they can be free like me.

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Hey, free like me. Oh. All right. Lord, we need your peace, hey!

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Lord, we need your love, ho! Lord, when you die, this day. All right. All right.

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All right. [APPLAUSE] Thank you, Miss Cornelius, for that song. At this time, I'm calling for President Lassiter.

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I don't know how he got way back there. I want him to come forward and greet us. President Lassiter. - Class of ceremonies,

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to the members of the Minister's Lyceum, Dr. John Mangrum, all of the others at the head table, my mentors, Dr. Clark,

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Dr. Scott, Dr. Wright, and to all who are attending this alumni banquet for the Minister's Lyceum. It is my profound pleasure

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welcome you to the 55th L.K. Williams Institute. There is clear evidence that this is one of our most successful institutes and it is successful because of your presence and your support not only of Bishop College but of the ministers lyceum. I would say to you as I go about the country I stop in a large

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number of churches and I see so much evidence that you are strong supporters of these young men and women in the ministry and we thank you for that support. I am confident that this will be a truly exemplary banquet and we certainly hope that the remainder of this Institute will make this one of the

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high points in the bishop's history. Welcome to this alumni banquet. Thank You President Lassentine. Now I know that this is one moment that many have been waiting for, I certainly have, because I'm hungry. I heard one amen.

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So it's Buffett style and I don't know what would be the most organized way to do this. However, we're going to try and those from the far, the head table, I have the task of informing you of what you already know. But the occasion is, however, the fourth annual

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Minister's Lyceum Alumni Banquet. This is an annual affair sponsored by the Minister's Lyceum of Bishop College, and it is an opportunity for the alumni and the friends of Bishop College

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to gather together in an informal setting to have a fine meal, and to hear a word from the Lord. We would ask that you would relax and enjoy yourselves at this affair.

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And we hope that everyone will enjoy this affair and the continuance of the Minister's Lyceum Banquet. Thank you very much. (audience applauding)

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Thank you. The president will come and introduce the officers of this year and the introduction of our speaker.

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Amen. Amen. Privileged being here, isn't it? Amen.

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Before introducing to you the officers of the present administration, we're going to ask that all of those who've ever been a part of the minister's lyceum, that you raise your hand, maybe in years gone, if you were ever member. Amen.

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[laughter] And so I created one. Amen. It's not constitutional.

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It's not constitutional. The Reverend Gregory Fisher will bring to you the administration for '85-'86. Thank you, President Sutton.

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all of you, the officers for 85-86 elected year are as follows and I would ask that you would stand. President Reverend Gary Ransom, Vice President Philip Reading. Chaplain is the Reverend Rufus Freeman. I guess this is another Assistant Chaplain, Reverend Chris Gee.

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Our Treasurer, the Reverend Barry Du Bois. I don't believe he's present. Parliamentarian, Reverend Rodney Howard. Historian, Miss Tori Cornelius.

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(audience applauding) Corresponding Secretary, Larry Campbell. Financial Secretary, Reverend Mark McConnell. And Miss Minister's Lyceum, once again,

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Miss Charlotte McNabb. These are the officers for 85 and 86. Thank you. All right. It is my privilege to introduce to you our speaker for the evening.

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And I think it is quite easy to do Be it that most of us know him And if he were someone that all of us were unaware of it would be quite difficult To introduce or to present

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He is none other than the Reverend Harrys, right the pastor of Conestone Missionary Baptist Church of Brooklyn, New York,

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former member of the faculty here at Bishop College, director of the L.K. Williams Institute, dean of chapels, and former president of Bishop College. I tell you, he's someone that we've all missed

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and someone that we all love. I remember when he gave his farewell sermon here at this institution. I remember seeing the tears dripping down students faces and kissing under their chins when he said his farewells. But he said to us, he said, "My task has been

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being a doorkeeper and I've been trying to put people's hands on the right doorknobs. I want you to know he really did that for me and for many of my classmates and I'm sure many of you can testify tonight that he has helped you to put your hand on the right door knob. Our speaker immediately following song

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from Mrs. or Miss Michelle Spikes is that of none other than the Dr. Harry S. Wright, pastor of the Cornerstone Baptist Church, Brooklyn, New York. [chatter] [music]

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♪ Just ordinary people ♪ ♪ God chooses plain old ordinary people ♪ ♪ He chooses people just like you and me ♪ ♪ Who are willing to do as he commands ♪

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God chooses his people and will give him all. No matter how small your all may seem to you, your little becomes much as you place it in the master's hands. ♪ In the master's hand ♪

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♪ Just ordinary people ♪ ♪ My God chooses ordinary people ♪ ♪ He chooses people just like you and me ♪ ♪ Who will live to do as he commands ♪

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♪ My God chooses people that will give the road ♪ ♪ No matter how small your own may seem to you ♪ ♪ Your little becomes much as you place it ♪ in the master's hand.

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Oh, just like that little lad who gave Jesus all he had, how the multitude was fed with the fish and loaf of bread.

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What you have may not seem much, But when you yield to his touch, Or the master's loving hand, Then you'll understand

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How your life could never be the same. Just ordinary people My God chooses plain old ordinary people He chooses people just like you and me

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Who are willing to do as he commands. God chooses his people, that will give him all. No matter how small your own may seem to you. Your little may be much, but when you place it in the Master's hand.

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Amen. [applause] All right. Amen.

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Mr. President, President Lassiter, that is, President Sutton, our chosen master of the Reverend Paul Arthur Lowe, Dr. John Mangrum, Dr. Clark, Dr. Scott, distinguished guests, students and members of the Ministers Lyceum and alumni of our Ministers Lyceum, my brothers and sisters in Christ. I am so delighted to be back on campus, Mr. President, and to renew my friendship and my fellowship with so many former

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students and faculty and staff members that I came to know and love during my sojourn here. I did not need an invitation or an excuse really to come back to campus this week. I had planned to come anyway, Mr. President, and I appreciate so much the privilege that you've extended to me not only to be

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here with you for this annual session of our Institute, but to open the door and allow me to look in on a special way for your fourth annual Ministers Lyceum banquet. As I look around I see the faces of so many of the former students who sojourned here during my period here and it warms my heart to see how across the

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years you have grown and blossomed not only in your training but in your service and I delight in this privilege of being back and to look into your faces to share with you and then to have this high moment to say a word at this fourth annual banquet. Now I know very well what this hour means and how

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important it is for us to watch the time. It's less than an hour away from the evening worship period. This is a long night for us. Dr. John Mangum and I know very keenly, along with other members of the Institute staff, how important it is for the program to move along as you have moved the program along today. And

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I'm aware of this time and so I'm going to say just a word to us at this privileged juncture that you provided for me. There is great preaching going on all over the place this week and what a message last night Dr. Thomas Kilgo, one of the finest and clearest most articulate messages I've ever heard

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that dealt with our theme John which has been so marvelously chosen and set forth for this year. I find myself at this hour, less than an hour away from our evening service, sandwiched in between an able young prophet who spoke this morning, Warren Stewart, and that clear crisp voice that stands in that marvelous

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pulpit in Brooklyn, New York, that the Godness and Taylor who is scheduled to stand forth tonight. And so I feel at home at this banquet and so sandwiched in between Warren and Dr. Taylor tonight. I'm going to just chat a bit. This is my league, a banquet like this, this is my league and I feel so at home in a

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banquet setting and so I want to just, I want to just chat with us for a few minutes. John again, you've done a marvelous job with this theme. I know what it means to hew out a theme that challenges us from year to year, and you've done a marvelous job this year, the hidden connection as we seek to think in terms of the movement of our heritage

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into the wider dimension of what God is about in our day and time. Some writer recently whose name slips me said that Jesus spent an inordinate amount of his time asking questions and telling stories and you and I as preachers particularly me this writer said spend an inordinate amount of our time

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answering questions and preaching I'm going to take a few minutes and I'm going to raise some questions. I'm not going to answer as many questions as I raise but let me raise one or two significant questions in the few minutes that I have. I checked my speaking log on my chapel talks at Bishop doing my 15

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years here. 15 years which represents a great chapter in my life Mr. President and I'll always be grateful to Dr. Curry for opening the wide door of opportunity that brought me here from Bennettsville, South Carolina and it was

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a chapter in my life that was marked by inspiration and great fellowship and growth and I'll always be grateful to Dr. Curry for that wide door of

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opportunity here. Fifteen great years of growth and inspiration for my family and for me. Back to my log, I've kept the log of my chapel talks during my 15 years

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here and ten years ago in a chapel talk I raised two questions to that generation of young preachers and students present at that time and I thought I would take a minute and re-raise those two questions not so much for you but for myself. Fifteen years here at Bishop and now three and a half

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years away, away from academe, out in a parish and a city where there are so many problems that we must bite into and solve. Ten years ago in the chapel I raised this question one Friday morning, what will it cost me to be a part of God's coming kingdom? What will be the price and the down payment and the

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deposit for me to plug the extension cord of my life into the hidden connection, the wider dimension in terms of what God is about in our day and in our time. And then that second question, what kinds of dividends is God paying on investment in kingdom stock? I decide to give my life over in stewardship investment in what God is

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about in our world. If God is in the process of creating, as so many of our speakers have said this week, the reign of God and the dawn of his righteousness or as Clarence Jordan would put it, the God movement, what will it cost me to plug in to this incoming kingdom of God and what kind of returns and investments

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is heaven declaring now on kingdom style. Before I try and answer those two questions in light of what I said ten years ago and how I see it now, some several years ago before I left here in room 9, Carpe Collis Chapel, we were having class in world religions, a marvelous discussion that particular

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morning on the nature of God and as best we could together we were talking about what God is like as best we could get our hands on terminology to explain what the eternal is like and we were using some rather large words that morning in class. We had the word transcendent trying to describe how holy and high and

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lifted up the eternal God is. We use the word imminent that God is not only high and holy and far removed and lifted up but God is nearby. He is local and parochial and he's within reach and deistic that God made things and somehow another removed himself from the human arena of his creation but yet he is also theistic and he's nearby and involved. God can be

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touched and reached and so using these large words that morning in class transcendence and eminence and theistic and theistic finally one student near the back of the classroom there room 9 said Dean I wonder if we can come down from this heavy terminology and chew up some of these theological terms pull

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down one of those maps behind your head, he said, and simply locate God somewhere in the universe and tell me where God can be found. You've got a lot of maps rolled up behind your head, pull down a map there of the globe or the universe and point that stick in your hand and pinpoint, locate God on the globe and on the map. Where is God, transcendent, imminent, deistic, and theistic?

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Chew that up, pull down a map, show me where I can locate the eternal God on the globe, on the face of the earth. And I said that's a marvelous question. I didn't bother to reach behind my head to pull down the mat. I plugged into his question by borrowing a response. It fell from the lips of one of my New Testament professors, the late Dr. Elion

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Tobin at Morehouse College. I heard him say in class one day that wherever on the globe there are dust storms of human suffering, God is somewhere in the neighborhood. And so I said to that student, I can't tell you where God can be located, God moves too fast, we can't track him and trail him and locate him on

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globe but I can suggest the neighborhood where God hangs out. Colvin said that wherever there are human dust offs, anywhere on the face of the earth where there is hunger and bloodshed and suffering God is somewhere in the Navy. Tobin said either God is coming in or he's already there or he's on his way

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out. Whether it's in South America the rattling of sabers or whether it is in South Africa where young blacks with anger and fire in their eyes raise their clenched fists, or whether it's in Ethiopia where young babies mourn and cry and die of starvation. God is somewhere in the neighborhood of suffering and pain and hunger and death. I continue to raise

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questions for another few moments. Where is God in our day and time, 1985, in an age of spinning satellites and thrusting spaceships in an age of MX missiles and electronic calculators? Where is God? How can I follow the tracks of God across the burning sands of time? Where is the eternal God? How can I find him? How can I

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plug in to his kingdom activity? How may I maneuver my life as a student at Bishop College and as a pastor in San Diego or in Los Angeles or in Brooklyn, how can I maneuver my life that I might be pushed and pulled by the tailwind of the Holy Spirit? I might be strengthened and empowered and enlivened by the

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passing of God's presence through the sands of time. How do I find God and how do I track him and trail him and how may I be propelled and strengthened by the dundato of God's holy God. I think I can answer some of these questions that I've raised by asking you to come go with me for just a short minute and let's look

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in on a conversation that the master had with two men that's recorded in the Gospel of Mark, the 10th chapter, beginning with the 17th verse. Let me back up to the first chapter of Mark first. You remember when Jesus was baptized, he went into the wilderness, there he was tempted, clarifying his messianic strategy and approach. He comes out of the wilderness preaching. John

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the Baptist went into the wilderness preaching, Jesus comes out of the wilderness preaching, and chooses four disciples, interestingly four men, two sets of brothers, Peter and Andrew, James and John, and a very simple thing he said to them, "Come and follow me, and I will make out of you fishes of men." The record says in that first chapter of Mark that they left all and

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followed him. And so began what Clarence Jordan calls the God Movement. Jesus came to announce and to bring the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is within you. And so on this planet Earth and on this globe, that kingdom of God, that God Movement dawned when the master came out of the wilderness preaching and he chose four disciples and asked them to walk with him into the sunrise

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of a new day. And so they left all. They left their nets, they put their boats and mothballs, and they kissed their families goodbye. And around the lake of Galilee, the kingdom of God began to dawn as these four disciples that would later swell into twelve. Great development began there, a great adventure, a great friendship, a great fellowship as

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these disciples, a rag-tag group of unlettered, unsophisticated men, began to walk with the Master toward the sunrise of a new development and of a new day. In that tenth chapter, as the Master's followers has now swelled to twelve, the thrill and excitement of this strange Nazarene creature who spoke with a voice so clear, who spoke

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with authenticity and with authority. One day Matthew, Mark, Luke all record this account. I like the way Mark puts it in that 10th chapter. Jesus is now speaking of the coming kingdom. Now this crowd following him has swelled to a multitude. This young rich ruler, Mark says, runs up to the master on this occasion and stops

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Jesus, catches him, kneels down in his presence and says to him, "Good master, What must I do to plug in to this hidden kingdom connection? What must I do to invest in heavenly stock? I like the thrill and the excitement in your voice, and I want to be a part of this growing friendship and fellowship and movement.

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I'd like to be a 13th disciple. I like what Peter, James, and John are doing, and I want to be a part of this new movement. What will it cost me? What's my deposit? What's the down payment on? kingdom stop

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Jesus according to Mark Looked at this impressive young stewardship candidate who had a lot going for him. He was young. He was sophisticated He was educated. He knew the law of Moses and in addition to that mark says he had money an impressive candidate for kingdom

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stewardship Jesus, marvelous student of human personality that he was, might have placed a tender, compassionate hand on his shoulders and looking at him and looking through him,

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x-raying his heart, mind, soul, and priorities, and recognized that he was impressive, karma, but he had a problem. So Jesus said to him, "What does the Lord Moses say?"

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You know the story, how this young man who knew the Lord Moses, memorized the Ten Commandments, Recited the Ten Commandments for the Master and said to him. I've kept these all of my life Jesus said to him you're still

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Flunking as plants Jordan puts it in this cotton patch version. You kept law, but you're still flunking then Jesus says to him What is deposit and down payment? Requirements would be if he would be a part of this all-coming God movement. He tells him you must go and Sell all that you have give it away then come back

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resubmit your application for kingdom discipleship and come walk with Peter, James, and John and these other disciples into the sunrises of a new day. He had a problem and the master offered to help him.

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Jesus gives him a demand and offers him a prize, but he is unwilling or unable to pay. You know the story. He turns his back on life and walks away. King James translation along with the interpreters Bible has a marvelous suggestion in terms of this crisis where this young man had come running up to life to ask life how much is life and when life

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told him what life would cost he's not willing to pay the price and his confidence falls he turns his back he walks away. Moffat calls that the great refusal and the interpreters Bible calls that the running approach and the slow retreat. Life, how much will it cost me to be a part of this coming kingdom? God is bringing in a new day and I want to be

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in on the ground floor of this new movement. What's my deposit and my down payment? What will it cost me to be a part of transferring an ethnic heritage and inheritance and become a part of a wider dimension, the coming of God's kingdom, how much is he to pass?

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And the master tells this impressive young candidate that in your case it's going to cost you all you've got because you are confused in your priorities. You've got the strings of your heart wrapped around your bank book and in your case the cost and price is going to be high and so he turns his back and walks away.

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Verse 28 chapter 10 after this impressive young candidate who wants to plug in to this kingdom connection is not willing to pay the price turns it back and walks away. Verse 28 Peter who had heard this conversation gathers up the concerns of all of the other disciples and as this young man

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disappears beyond the shadows of the setting sun. Peter walks up to the master and says to him, "Master, when you came along," Mark chapter 1 verse 10, "preaching, coming out of the wilderness, we heard the thrill and excitement, we saw the excitement in your eyes, and you asked us to leave our nets and to put our boats

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in mouth balls and we left all to invest in this kingdom stuff and we saw this young man submit his application for kingdom participation and he's been to college he's smooth sophisticated cultivated and he's got money he could have underwritten this movement and he walked away. What's in it?

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Clarence Jordan translates that verse again too by saying, "Peter said to the master, 'We've thrown overboard everything we've got for this kingdom enterprise. What's in it?'" That's a logical question. My first question was, what would it cost me to trail and track God across the tarry sands of time of time and somehow maneuver behind the tailwind of the Holy Spirit and get caught in the underdraft

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of God's garments and passes across hot sands of time, what will it cost me to participate? And then Peter's question is not about cost, but Peter's question is about dividends. How often does God declare dividends on kingdom investments? And so as a student at Bishop College

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and as a young preacher and as a pastor in Bed-Stuy, what kinds of interest and bonus and dividends is God declaring on full-time stewardship in kingdom activities?

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What's in it? The master again must have smiled as he saw the dilemma of Peter, James, and John, other disciples, he knew that they had watched this very impressive young

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kingdom recruit that whose application had been rejected. He'd been to college, smooth, sophisticated, had money, and he walked away and he knew and understood that Peter was concerned. A non-college man, non-seminarian, no money. When he called him, he asked him to leave their purses and their charge cards, check

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books. They'd thrown everything they had into this kingdom movement. The master that. Seeing Peter's concern again Jesus might have put a hand on Peter's shoulder to calm him down and said to him Peter you're not gonna lose in this kingdom. God is at work and he's bringing in a new order and a new day and you're in

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on the ground floor of a new order and a new movement and you're not gonna lose Peter. I know you're concerned I know what you've invested I know when I came through Tiberius preaching coming out of the wilderness. I know you had a thriving fishing business. I know you had some boats and I saw what you did with your

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boats you put them in the market. I know that. I know you folded up your nets and said goodbye to your family. You got heavy investments in this new enterprise. I understand that Peter but you're not gonna lose. This this kingdom stock is going up in value. I'm a heavy stockholder in this new movement and my

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father underwrites this movement. This is blood-soaked kingdom stock, and you're not gonna lose. Any man who leaves husband or wife, sister or brother, houses and lands to invest in kingdom stock. You're not gonna lose people.

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Heaven is declaring 100% return on kingdom connections in this life, common, and in the world to come, eternal life. (crowd cheering)

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When the First Continental Bank of Chicago went under, the eighth largest bank in the nation, backed by FDIC, but it went under. It had strong connections, FDIC,

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heavy stockholders and directors, but it went under. Now, those of us who are part of institutions like this and who are part of God's church and God's ongoing movement,

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once in a while, we need to be reminded that this company, that we are a part of, this kingdom enterprise that we're a part of, this is heavenly stuff,

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And it's underwritten by a black soap cross. God underwrites this movement. You can't lose. God is paying 100% interest

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on kingdom investment in Dallas in this life. Come and keep your stop. God will declare the green stamps, dividends in the world to come.

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This last word and I'm through. Some several years ago during my marvelous sojourn here, when our midwinter board meeting met in Hot Springs, Hot Springs always a gorgeous scene in January

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when it snowed. At least if you were not concerned about trying to get in there and get out of there. It was gorgeous in Hot Springs, Arkansas when it snowed.

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I remember one year it snowed very heavily that Thursday and I had some heavy obligations back here on campus. I was acting president at the time, and I needed desperately to get back to Dallas that Thursday.

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All of the news reports were that the highways were socked in between Hot Springs and Texarkana, and no way to get from Texarkana to Dallas. But I needed to get back.

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I was acting president here at Bishop College, and there was some heavy business here at the college, and I needed to get back. And so against the best weather reports I could get,

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I decided to break out of Hot Springs and try to make it. stopped at a filling station right down from the Arlington Hotel and told a man I was going to try to make it to Interstate 35 and I thought if I got 35 I could get down to Texarkana and once I got to Texarkana I felt I could make it on into Dallas and so he warned me against it

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I don't try to make it but I was acting president of Bishop. I have some heavy agendas here and I need to try and get back to the campus. And so I struggled out about Springs, beautiful day, snow thick, still coming down and With great travail I made it out of hot Springs made it up in the state 35 took me about two and a half hours

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To get from hot Springs up to 35 and I got up 35 There was one lane open going each way and but it was a little bit better than the secondary highway into hot Springs So with great travail and struggle, I made it down to Texas County and I was trying to decide once I got to Texas County Whether to try to break on down to Dallas or whether to spend the night in, Texas

00:44:32.660 - 00:44:53.660

I stopped at a little place on the right hand side there in Texas County, Denny's I believe and I pulled into Denny's and decided to go in and get some coffee and warm up and thaw out and To check the weather reports again and try and decide whether or not strike on down $35 I was eating soup and drinking some coffee there in Denny's and next to me there were two

00:44:53.660 - 00:45:11.700

truck drivers in conversation two heavy rig drivers In conversation at stool next to me and they were talking about what they picked up on their CB's I didn't have a CB and they had picked up the weather reports between Texas Cannon Dallas and I overheard them talking about

00:45:11.700 - 00:45:30.780

Going on down to Dallas and I'm acting president. I need to get So I leaned over to that first truck driving I said are you men going to Dallas and he said yes We're going to Dallas. I said, do you think I can make it? I said it was rough getting out of Hot Springs. I struggled down here, Texas County.

00:45:30.780 - 00:45:48.700

You think I can make it? He said well, I don't see how you're gonna be able to make it in a car. He said there's one lane open each way, the snow is still coming down and and highways frozen. I said well, I desperately need to get to Dallas. He said well now I'll tell you what you do. If you're daring enough, tell you what you do. He said as soon as we get through with our suit, we're going to Dallas.

00:45:48.700 - 00:46:06.940

He said we've got CB's and we're going to strike out and if you're daring enough, You can come and go with us. I said now I'll tell you what you do. He said now we pull out of here You get in the you get in the lane behind us you get in our tracks and there's only one lane open and

00:46:06.940 - 00:46:21.340

Weather still freezing and snow is coming down. You never make him the car, but I tell you what you do you get in the tracks behind our our cabs are high and We can see further and our rigs are heavy

00:46:21.860 - 00:46:33.860

We can cut tracks in [BLANK_AUDIO]