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[Pause] And for this assembly, we do pray thy choice blessings upon our beloved Bishop Cowley, and upon this, the L.K. Williams Ministers Institute. Now prepare us as we enter into worship, remove those things that would hinder us from worshipping you in spirit and in truth.

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Let whatever we do or say redound to thy glory and honor. In the mighty name of Jesus Christ do we pray. Amen. Amen.

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[music] ♪ Hear our prayer, O Lord ♪ ♪ Incline thine ear to us ♪ ♪ And grant us thy peace ♪

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♪ Amen ♪ And the people said amen. Can you say amen again? It's raining outside, but thanks be unto God

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it's not raining in here. Now, as I'm sure you know, we've had to temporarily move our worship experiences from the Carpe Collins Chapel to this beautiful sanctuary on the other side of the street.

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And it seems as if Pastor Harris knew we were coming to enlarge his facility just for us. (audience laughing) The James Madison High School choir

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will now sing "At This Time." [ Music ] [Church singing] [Singing]

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[chanting] Keep your left, shroomed and burning, keep your left, shroomed and burning, the time is drawing nigh. Keep your left, shroomed and burning, keep your left, shroomed and burning, keep your left, shroomed and burning, the time is drawing nigh. ♪ Children doing ♪

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♪ Children worrying ♪ ♪ Children doing ♪ ♪ 'Til your work is done ♪ ♪ Children doing ♪

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♪ Children worrying ♪ ♪ Children doing ♪ ♪ Till your work is done ♪ Christian journey

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♪ Soon be over ♪ Christian journey ♪ Soon be over ♪ Christian journey

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♪ Soon be over ♪ The time is drawing nigh ♪ Christian journey ♪ Soon be over

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♪ Christian journey ♪ Soon be over ♪ Christian journey is soon to be over ♪ ♪ The time is drawing nigh ♪

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♪ Keep your lust trimmed and burning ♪ ♪ Keep your lust trimmed and burning ♪ ♪ Keep your lust trimmed and burning ♪ ♪ The time is drawing nigh ♪

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♪ Keep your lust trimmed and burning ♪ [singing] Introducing our presenting to all of us. I believe That exteem the illustrious pastor of the Good Street

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Baptist Church He is very able He is beneficent and

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charismatic He's deliberate elevating and full of fellowship He's gregarious. He's helpful and intellectually stimulating He is the vice president at large of the National Baptist Convention

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USA Incorporated After the singing of the next election we present to you the pastor the preacher the lecturer the intellectual giant of our times

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Dr. C a w clock [Murmuring] [ Music ] [ Music ]

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I want to meet my mother. I want to meet my mother. I want to meet my mother. I'm going to live with God.

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I want to meet my mother. I want to meet my mother. I want to meet my mother. I'm going to live with God.

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Sooner we'll be done with the troubles of the world, the troubles of the world, the troubles of the world. Sooner we'll be done with the troubles of the world, going home to live with God.

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Sooner we'll be done with the troubles of the world, the troubles of the world, the troubles of the world. Sooner we'll be done with the troubles of the world, going home to live with God.

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No more whipping and a-whacking, no more whipping and a-whacking, no more whipping and a-whacking, of course we'll live with God. No more whipping and a-whacking, no more whipping and a-whacking, no more whipping and a-whacking, of course we'll live with God.

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No whipping, no more whipping. ♪ No, we can't ♪ ♪ Sooner we'll be done with the troubles of the world ♪

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♪ Troubles of the world, the troubles of the world ♪ ♪ Sooner we'll be done with the troubles of the world ♪ ♪ Going on to live with God ♪ ♪ Sooner we'll be done with the troubles of the world ♪

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♪ The troubles of the world ♪ ♪ Oh, the troubles of the world ♪ ♪ Soon though we'll be done with the troubles of the world ♪ ♪ Going home to live with God ♪

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♪ I want to meet my Jesus ♪ ♪ I want to meet my Jesus ♪ ♪ I want to meet my Jesus ♪ ♪ I want to live with God ♪

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♪ I want to meet my Jesus ♪ [chanting] [applause] And all the people said, "Amen."

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[All] Amen. Now, Pastor Britt, or Dr. Mangrum, one of the two said that

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This is not working. Is it headed off? Well, it needs to be on for me. [laughter]

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And the president told us, among other things, that we need to get $400,000 this week. $400,000 this week. And those of us who were in that meeting, Dr. Scott, Dr. Wright, were asked to give

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forget $5,000. I'd like for the officers and members of the Good Street Church that's present, will you just stand? Some others meant to be here, but they got caught in the rain.

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Now you all keep standing. So, brother president, I'm pleased on behalf of the Good Street Church to give to you $7,000 from the church, $1,000 from the pastor.

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[APPLAUSE] All right. [INAUDIBLE] [indistinct chatter]

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...hidden connection, the black heritage, and the kingdom of God. This is the theme.

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My scriptures are, "But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Matthew 6, 33. Ask and it shall be given you.

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Seek and ye shall find. "Knock, and it shall be opened unto you." Matthew 7 and 7. "But he said unto them, I have meat to eat, that ye know not all."

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John 4.32. This they said, tempting him, that they might have to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground, as though he heard them not. John 8, 6.

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Then Revelation 4 and 1, "After this I looked, and behold, a door was opened in heaven, And the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me, which said, come up hither and I will show thee things which must be hereafter. Now the key words of the theme are hidden heritage as it relates

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to blacks and the black experience and the kingdom of God. Consider now the word "hidden." The Greek verb for "hidden" is "krypto," meaning to cover, conceal, keep secret.

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It refers to things hidden, things which have been kept secret. Another Greek verb for hidden is apokrypto, meaning to conceal from, to keep secret, as truth hidden from the wise and prudent and revealed to be.

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It refers also to God's wisdom and of the mystery of the unsearchable riches of Christ revealed through the gospel. Another Greek verb for hidden is encrypto, meaning to hide in anything, like the leaven hidden in meal. Another Greek verb for hidden is pericrypto, meaning to hide by placing something around,

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to conceal entirely, to keep hidden. Another Greek word for hidden is kalopto, signifying to cover, conceal, so that no trace of it can be seen.

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Another Greek verb for hidden is parakalupto, literally to cover with a veil. And finally another Greek verb for hidden is lanthanum, meaning to escape notice, to be hidden from. so as not to be able to be hidden, as in the case of the woman with the issue of blood. Consider now this word "heritage."

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The Greek word for heritage is "klero," meaning primarily to cast lots, as to choose by lot, then to assign a portion. It is used in the passive voice, as in Ephesians 1 and 11,

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"We were made a heritage." We have obtained an inheritance. Consider now the term "kingdom of God." The Greek word for kingdom is "barsilia."

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This word is primarily an abstract noun denoting sovereignty, royalty, power, and dominion. Then there is the word "Metonymy," which is a concrete noun denoting the territory or people over whom a king rules. It is used especially of the kingdom of God and of Christ. The kingdom of God is the realm of God's rule.

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Since this earth is the scene of universal rebellion against God, the kingdom of God is the realm in which at any given time His rule is acknowledged. God has not relinquished his sovereignty in the face of rebellion, demoniac and human, but has declared his purpose to establish it. Israel rejected the Son of God.

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Henceforth God calls upon men everywhere, without distinction of race or nationality, to submit voluntarily to his rules. Thus the kingdom is said to be in mystery now. That is, it does not come within the range of the natural powers of observation, but is spiritually designed.

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Concerning the future, the Lord taught his disciples to pray, "Thy kingdom come." But concerning the present, that a man is of the kingdom of God is not shown in the punctilious observance of ordinances, which are external and material, but in the deeper matters of the heart, which are spiritual and essential, namely righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

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God is the secret of the significance of the key words of the theme. Many of the definitions of God. To Herbert Spencer, he is the unknowable.

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To Sigmund Freud, he is an illusion. To John Dewey, he is an ideal. To Ames, he is the highest social value. To Overstreet, he is the common will of humanity.

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To Alfred North Whitehead, he is the principal of concretion. [Audience "Amens"] To William James, he is a growing God. [Audience "Amens"]

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To C.L. Morgan, he is the nixus of an evolving universe. [Audience "Amens"] To Edgar Sheffield Brightman, he is the person of perfect goodwill. To Jeeves, to Jeeves he is a cosmic mathematician.

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To Karl Barth, he is the utterly other. To Boudin, he is the eternal cosmic mind. To Henry Nelson Wyman, he is the order of existence and possibility. To Jesus Christ, God is spirit.

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The one whom he often addressed as father. God has a hidden agenda for your life and mine. Jeremiah refers to that hidden agenda by saying that God thinks about us and that his thoughts about us are good.

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The fact that God thinks about us means that we exist. For if nobody thinks about you, you don't exist. (Audience Agrees) God has a hidden agenda for your life and mine.

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We are challenged to ask, and it shall be given. "Seek and ye shall find. Knock and the door will swing ajar." Now this hiddenness on the part of God is active, not passive. God moves in a mysterious way His wonders to perform.

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He plants his footsteps on the sea and rides upon the storm. Yes, sir. God's thoughts about us are good. Yes, sir.

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God's hiddenness is not passive but active. Yes, sir. And so we can sing, Father, I stretch my hands to Thee. No other help I know.

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Thou withdraw Thyself from me, oh, whither shall I go? We can sing, guide me, oh, Thou great Jehovah. pilgrim through this barren land. I am weak, but Thou, Almighty, hold me with Thy powerful hand.

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We are not victims of the hiddenness on the part of God. We are invited to participate in a hidden divine operation. But in order to participate in that hidden divine operation, we must be willing to pay the price.

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In the book of the Revelation, John, or whoever wrote the Revelation, said, "After this I looked, and behold, a door was opened in heaven." [LAUGHTER] And the first voice which I heard

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was as it were of a trumpet talking with me. And the voice said, come up. Come up hither. Come up here.

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There's something going on. (Audience Agrees) It's not going on where you are. (Audience Agrees)

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You've got to come up here. (Audience Agrees) Come up here. (Audience Agrees)

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Oh, brothers and sisters, if you want to participate in that hidden divine operation, you have to be willing to pay the price. The voice said, "Come up hither,

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and I will show thee things which must be hereafter." Come up. Our heritage is experiential.

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We know about the kingdom because we have seen the king. We behave as we do because we are citizens of two worlds. Time was when we could not come up.

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Great old Harvey Cox says, "Man's fall in the old myth," that's what he calls it, did not begin with his exceeding his limits. It began when he asked the snake to make the first decision he confronted, whether to snatch for the status of deity.

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His sin was not in pilfering God's fire, but in abdicating his choice to a fork-tongued consultant, not so much pride as slopes. After that, of course, Adam panicked. He tried to become the omnipotent, all-controlling deity. Instead of imaginatively fulfilling that part of the cosmos,

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tending he was well-equipped to do, he plotted to become the master programmer, the ultimate city planner. This obsessive need to run everything

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led, according to the old biblical story, to exile, sorrow, and fratricide. And it still does. The obsessive desire to run everything will destroy you.

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Oh, brothers and sisters, we know, we know about fallenness. [BLANK_AUDIO]