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[ Silence ] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] God never fails. He abides in me. He gives me victory. No, God never fails. Just keep the faith and never cease to pray.

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Just walk upright, call Him noon, day, or night. He'll be there, He'll be there, there's no need to worry, for God never fails. God never fails.

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God never fails. He abides in me, He is in victory, No God never fails. Just keep the faith and never cease to pray, Just call a bright call in noon, day or night, He'll be there, he'll be there, there's no need to worry for God never fails

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I never worry, I never fret, for God Almighty has never failed me yet Though rebuked and scorned and all the life been reborn, the Lord never fails. The Lord never fails. The Lord never fails. He arrives in me, He gives me victory, No, God never fails.

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Just keep the faith and never cease to pray, Just walk upright for Him, day or night, He'll be there, He'll be there There's no need to worry for God never fails No need to cry, I'm not afraid to die I've got my Lord, I know He's on my side Daily I trust Him, never shall I doubt Him, for God never fails.

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God never fails. God never fails. He abides in me, He gives me victory, for God never fails. Just keep the faith and never cease to pray, just walk upright for Him, no day or night. He'll be there, He'll be there, there's no need to worry for God, the Lord will.

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Amen. Hear this word as the basis of the morning message recorded in the book of the prophet Joel. The third chapter and the 13th verse, reading from the International Version,

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"Swing the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Come, trample the grapes, for the wine press is full, and the vats overflow. So great is their wickedness.

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King James says, "Put ye in the sickle, "the harvest is ripe." This version says, "Swing the sickle, "the harvest is ripe."

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The subject of the message is, use the sickle, the harvest is ripe. The book of the prophet Job, Joel, is about the day of the Lord.

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It is the time when the Lord is expected to show himself in unusual power. The Lord shows himself each day. But the day of the Lord is a time when people expect to experience a peculiar manifestation of his presence.

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God is always present, but so often he is hidden. We are not aware of his presence. God is there, and we don't know it. philosophers, poets, priests,

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and prophets of the biblical faith envisioned a time when the day of the Lord would come. Those who carry heavy burdens

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look for the day of the Lord when they will have relief and release. They saw the day of the Lord as a time of change. We have days every week,

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but the day of the Lord is considered in a special way. It's a day unlike other days. God makes every day and in that sense every day is the Lord's day but the day of the Lord is the time when God in his history in a way different from all

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other times. When a person has control over us in a special situation it may be be said this is your day you can have your way this is your day but I'll have a day we used to say as children the old adage that's every dog has his day and And the good dog has two days.

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Day of the Lord is a time of reckoning. It's a time of accounting. Day of the Lord, according to the prophet Joel, is harvest time.

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That's the time we gather what has been planted. That's the time when we expect our anxious expectations to be satisfied, harvest time. That's the time when we expect our desires to be fulfilled.

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You know, people see good and bad happening all around them. They hear the proclamation about the reward for goodness and the reward for evil. And they long for a time of reckoning.

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People have that feeling, all of us do. Harvest is the time when laborers receive the fruits of their labor. Joel's words are addressed to harvesters.

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This is God's word to harvesters. He has sent forth into the fields to gather the fruits of harvest. Harvest is the time when the good receive their reward,

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and it's also the time when the evil receive their just desserts. not only the time when the good are rewarded, all the stories depicting the pilgrimage

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of the human struggle do not end with the words they lived happily ever after. There is the reward of the wicked. It is this reward that Joel calls to our attention

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in his little book. People had thought in time gone by that the day of the Lord would be a day of light when everything would be okay,

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everything would be pleasant. But Joel says, no, no, it's not like that. No, no, no, no. The day of the Lord is the day of darkness

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and not light. He summons us to consider the wrath of God. We don't like to talk much about the wrath of God. Most of the time we always talk about the grace of God,

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talk about the right hand of God, but God has a left hand as we consider his attributes. And here we are concerned about the wrath of God. Our ancestors had a good understanding of the wrath of God.

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They also had a good understanding of the grace of God, how wonderful it is. We sing it, it's one of our favorite hymns when we talk about the grace of God.

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Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now I'm found. Was blind, but now I see.

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But we need also to understand that harvest time is concerned not only with the grace of God, but it is concerned also with the wrath of God. So during my childhood, I remember

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that I'd be out there playing with the children and my grandmother sat on the front porch in her rocking chair, just rocking and looking, surveying the situation.

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She didn't talk much. She was just very quiet, just sitting there looking, watching. Sometimes I would do something wrong

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and she said, "I'm gonna get you for that." And when she said that, many times I would, I'd finish my play early, while the sun was still up.

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Go in to go to bed. Are you going to bed so early? Yes, ma'am. And I thought maybe she had forgotten it.

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I thought maybe I had escaped her wrath. And I'd go on to sleep, thinking everything was under control. And then she would awaken me in my sleep with a switch.

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You thought I had forgotten it, didn't you? Wham! Wham, wham! You know, that's a terrible feeling.

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be awakened with that sense of judgment. This is what Job taught me. And our ancestors understood it. They understood that.

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Job is saying, put in the sickle, swing the sickle. The harvest is ripe. The harvesters are commanded by the eternal to swing the sickle.

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It's harvest time, the judgment of God is imminent. And we need to understand that there is a harvest time. Jonathan Edwards, one of the outstanding theologians and pulpiteers in colonial America,

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preached a sermon to his people entitled Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. And he used as the text, their feet shall slide in due time.

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Their feet shall slide in due time. And he was so descriptive, And he made it so vivid as he preached that sermon that it is said that the parishioners held on to their seats

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fearful that they were gonna be sliding away. Their feet shall slide in due time. There is a harvest of evil. Make no mistake about it.

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What we sow, that shall we also reap. reap. Swing the sickle, the harvest is ripe. So people in all stages and in all ages of biblical history have grown impatient, wondering how long will it be before the harvest for the wicked. John in his vision in the book of Revelation

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sees saints underneath the altar of heaven and he hears their cries, "How long O Lord before you avenge our suffering?" God himself has promised to avenge the wrong that is done but how long is it going to take it? We see the clock being turned back, we see a National Congress that was once supportive of social

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programs now withdrawing their support, we see a Congress that was once sensitive to the needs of the poor, the disadvantaged, the disinherited, knowing now in the other direction. And it seems that we are going backward.

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We who are among the living ask, how long, oh Lord? This text points up the certainty of the harvest. There are no ifs, ands, and buts about it. Harvest time is sure.

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Get ready for it. Wait and trust God. Harvest is sure to come. Put you in the sickle.

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The harvest is right. Harvesters are to be equipped with the proper tools. Use the sickle. That which has grown has come to fruition.

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It's now time for it to be cut down. Swing the sickle, the harvest is ripe. God is true to his word. Whatever you sow, I said, that shall you also reap.

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So the day of the Lord, that's the message of Job. The day of the Lord is at hand. It's a day of darkness and not light. Our ancestors fully understood that.

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They sang that old hymn, "That awful day shall surely come. "The appointed hour make haste, "when I must stand before my judge

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"and pass the solemn test. "Wickedness may reign for a season, "but harvest time is sure to come. Again I say God says to the harvesters that he says to the field put in the

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sickle, the harvest is ripe, wine press is full, the vats overflow for their wickedness. Signs of harvest are on the horizon. National calamities, crops are are eaten by locusts, terrorist activities are prevalent, sanctuaries are burned.

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It's on the horizon. It's harvest time. Tremendous quantities of drugs are smuggled into our borders.

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Just yesterday, the newspaper reported that they had apprehended people involved, persons really a ton of cocaine, a ton of cocaine, one of the largest catches that we've had. It's a sign that things are in terrible shape and that harvest

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time is imminent. It's time for a change and your vast multitudes are in the valley of decision. Some who hear me today may be in the valley of decision. God is also in the valley of decision. He breaks the relativities of humankind, invades histories, vicissitudes, he's in the valley of decision. Field workers

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come to the Lord of the harvest, the Lord of the vineyard, and they say to him, "Lord, didn't you tell us to plant wheat? Didn't you plant wheat out here in this field?" He said, "Oh, yes." They said to him, "But where did these tithes come from? Let us go out there." He says, "An enemy has done this,

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"enemy has done this. "Well, let us go out there and pull up the tares." He said, "No, no. "Let 'em grow together

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"until the time of harvest. "And when harvest time comes, "I'll have the laborers to gather up the tares, "put 'em in bundles for burning.

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"But to whom? put that in my bond. Believe me, brothers and sisters, there is a harvest time. Wickedness may reign for a while and it may seem that evil is on the throne and that all of the world seems to be going to hell in a handbasket, as people would say, but don't believe that. Harvest time is coming.

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there is a harvest time. So in the midst of it the wicked are like the chaff which the wind driveth away but there is security in time of storm. Job is saying get ready for it you need to make your decision now you need to make change in your life because it's gonna be a terrible time. I said our ancestors

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understood that they reflected it in the songs. They said, "Oh my Lord, what a morning." They were talking about harvest time. "My Lord, what a morning! My Lord, what a morning when the stars refuse to shine." They were talking about harvest time which is sure to come. Well Job says that God is giving the command to the

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harvesters to put in the sickle for the harvest is ripe, but then he goes on to say in that passage just a little later that God provides sanctuary for his people in time of storm, in the crisis of harvest. And you see harvest is always a crisis time because you separate the good from the bad, that's a crisis. Those

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those who are living from the dead, it's a crisis, it's a crisis when harvest time comes. The children of light are separated from the children of darkness. The righteous are separated from the wicked, but God provides sanctuary for the righteous. The wheat are put in his barn, the tares are burned, but there in

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the midst of the harvest season there are blessings for God's people. They shall truly be blessed. They shall dwell, he says, in Zion. They shall, they shall dwell in God's holy hill. There will come a day when the mountains will drip with new wine. The

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shall overflow with milk. Then the ravines will run with water. A fountain shall flow out of the Lord's house. You know, you know when you really understand Jerusalem was a place, they didn't have any water like Austin has a river running through it. One of the problems with Jerusalem is they didn't

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have any water and they were always in trouble when war broke out because they didn't have any water supply that they had that was a natural supply like many cities with rivers and some that may be on the banks of the waters and all of that. They didn't have that. But here the Lord says that it is so arranged in that day that a fountain in Jerusalem, that a fountain shall flow out of the Lord's house.

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So the good thing to be with God during harvest time, good thing to be hooked up with the Lord of the harvest so that when God sends forth the harvesters into the fields to cut down the wheat and the tare that you'll be among the wheat. The wicked will cease from troubling when harvest time comes, the weary will be at

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rest and every valley shall be exalted and every mountain and hill shall be made low. There's a harvest time. We can thank God that he is Lord of the harvest. That's what we're working for. You know all of us, we used to sing the song we just sending up some timber every day preparing for that great

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harvest that is sure to come in the day of the Lord. Bringing in the sheaves is our hymn of invitation and we ask if there's anyone here today who's not really ready if you're not ready right now for harvest you can get ready you down there in the valley of decision and God is down there with you to help you

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he's knocking on the door of your heart asking you to prepare for harvest to get hooked up with him we ask you to come down as we sing bringing in the sheath So in sleeves of kindness, Stowing in the noontide and the dewy,

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Waiting for the harvest and the time of regret, We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaf. Bringing in the sheaf, bringing in the sheaf, We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves, bringing in the sheaves, bringing in the sheaves. We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves.

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Sowing in the sunshine, sowing in the shadows, Here in heathen towns, all gentle chilling breeze. Guided by the harvest and the labor in him, We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheep. Bringing in the sheep, bringing in the sheep We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheep Going forth with weeping, so we call the Master, though the law sustains our spirit of the praise

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When our week is over, He will bid us welcome, we shall come rejoicing, bringing Him the Sheep bringing in the sheep, bringing in the sheep we shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheep bringing in the sheep, bringing in the sheep

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we shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheep ♪ Bringing in the sheep ♪ Bringing in the sheep ♪ Bringing in the sheep

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♪ We shall come rejoicing ♪ Bringing in the sheep ♪ Bringing in the sheep ♪ Bringing in the sheep

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♪ We shall come rejoicing ♪ Bringing in the sheep - All right, if you continue Play that softly, please.

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[INAUDIBLE]