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[silence] [MUSIC PLAYING] ♪ (suspenseful music) (Murray sighs)

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[Music] Sister Phillips here, Sister Valverde Phillips. [inaudible] Uh-huh.

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[MUSIC PLAYING] ♪ (ominous music) (dramatic music) (dramatic music)

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[music] [music] (suspenseful orchestral music) (footsteps)

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(footsteps) (suspenseful music) (suspenseful music) (dramatic music)

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[MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING]

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[MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING]

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[MUSIC PLAYING] [Music] (music) Would you turn to hymn number 27, please?

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Hymn number 27, "Blessed Assurance." Let us all stand. [Music] [Music]

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♪ Let the earth adore him, the only God ♪ ♪ God of all, there is no other God ♪ ♪ There is no greater love than that of God ♪ ♪ God is near and always there to love ♪

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This is my glory, this is my song, praising my Savior, Lord and Lord. This is my glory, this is my song, praising my Savior, Lord and Lord. Perfect submission, perfect delight, These are the virtues of a human mind.

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In the preceding days of our lives, ♪ Where the land is rich and true ♪ ♪ It is the glory of Israel's God ♪ ♪ It is our faith that shall endure ♪

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♪ It is our glory in Israel's God ♪ ♪ And all the world ♪ ♪ May be my nation ♪ ♪ All the world ♪

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♪ May be my glory ♪ ♪ May be my home ♪ ♪ May be my kingdom ♪ ♪ All the world ♪

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♪ May be my glory ♪ [music] You may be seated. Now, ushers, if any others come in, bring them right up to the front.

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The closer you are to the preacher, the more effective he can be in his sermon. When you sit far back, it's like trying to kiss a girl that's leaning from you. So we want to write up here as close as possible, fill up these seats. We don't like too many spaces between the preacher and the congregation.

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They have written books on that to show how difficult it is to preach under those conditions. We are privileged to be here today for this initial sermon, and we welcome you here. We've scheduled it at this time so that persons from other churches

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might have the opportunity of sharing in this particular service. For our scripture and prayer, there are two members of the Swisher family. I think we all know Brother M.P. Swisher.

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He's been with us a long time and he's going to give the scripture and the prayer will be given by the brother of the preacher for today. All right. Let us hear God out of his word as found in the epistle, second epistle of the Apostle Paul to Timothy. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God, according to the promise of life which is in Christ Jesus,

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to Timothy, my dearly beloved son. Grace, mercy, peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. I thank God whom I serve from my forefathers with a pure conscience that without ceasing I have remembrance of thee in my prayers night and day, greatly desiring to see thee, being mindful of thy tears, that I may be

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filled with joy. When I call to remembrance the unfamed faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother, Lois, and thy mother, Eunice, and I am persuaded that in thee also. Wherefore, I put thee in remembrance that Thou stir up the gift of God which is in thee by the putting on of my hands

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For God has not given us the spirit of fear But of power and of love and of a sound mind Voices one through seven may God bless the reading and hearing of his word

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Shall we pray? Our Heavenly Father, it's again that we come out into your sanctuary. Master, we come this evening with grateful hearts and with our hearts filled with thanksgiving you have called out another servant to spread the good news. Master, in times of

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trouble and times of difficulty, we need to hear the good news. We need to hear from heaven. But you said in your word, "How can we hear unless there be a preacher and master we're thankful that you've called this your servant we asked that he would stir up the gift that's within him it's such a good God you

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you brought us from such a mighty long ways you've guided us and you directed us and you you brought us here into your house and master for that we're just so thankful. Now we ask that you would be with my brother. Oh master we ask that he would remember that all things are possible with you. That he would remember that he's insufficient

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in himself but through you he's sufficient just help him to remember that thou art God and in you we move and we have our being and help him to look to the hills from whence cometh our help. Our help cometh from the Lord. Master, we're grateful today. In your name we pray and for your sake, amen.

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We are privileged at this moment to present the one who will deliver his first sermon. He has recently identified with our church family and we have been looking at him and we were in the process of assigning many responsibilities to him and other leadership positions in the church and

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behold he ran by all of those in answering the call to the Christian ministry. Were you in the ushers? No, they were all after him. We thought we would get him to the ushers and the training union was about to put him to work and the Sunday school was asking to put him as a teacher and all of that and then he came and told me that the Lord had called him to

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preach. We are just so happy because we've been so favorably impressed with the quality of his life in a spiritual way and we appreciate your presence here at this time. Now another thing that goes with preaching as far as the audience, the seating that goes over that is a praying congregation. Praying congregation. There

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must be a prayer and it is to that extent that there is the kind of connection between the preacher and the audience that participate in having a sermon which is effective. So we ask that you will pray and following the singing of Amazing Grace how sweet the sound brother Rodney Lee Swisher will come to

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us to bring the first sermon of his ministerial career. So "Amazing Grace, How Sweet the Sound." I believe that's 132. So we sing that old hymn, "Amazing Grace." (dramatic music) [MUSIC]

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[MUSIC] [Music] ♪ Where are we now ♪ ♪ Where are we ♪

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♪ Where are we ♪ ♪ Where are we ♪ ♪ I don't know ♪ (dramatic music)

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[choir singing] [music] ♪ Oh, how I love Thee ♪ ♪ Oh, how I love Thee ♪

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♪ How I love Thee ♪ ♪ And praise Thy name ♪ [Music] ♪ ♪

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♪ ♪ [music] ♪ He came to us from the desert ♪ ♪ And from there he brought us here ♪

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♪ ♪ ♪ And from the deep blue ♪ ♪ Was raised the Lord ♪ ♪ His name was loved ♪

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♪ And His name was loved ♪ I want to thank everybody for coming out tonight. I'm a little nervous as expected. Before I start anything in the sermon, I want to introduce part of my family.

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I consider everybody here my family. I'd have everybody stand up, but my main family I want to stand up, so if anybody here that don't really know them, I just want them to see them. One-fifth of the Swisher clan on Bourbon Street is sick,

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so he couldn't be here. So I'd like to have my wife, Rodney, and Courtney stand up so the people can see. This is my little support group here.

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They've heard me preach a lot of times at home, and they just kind of shake their head and just go on. [LAUGHTER] And you know, lest we not forget,

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I want to introduce my-- introduce and present to some of my mother and my father. If you all stand up. Brother Isaiah Swisher and Bobby Swisher,

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they've been praying for me all this time. I tell you, I've had some things going in my life. And many times I've come to their house and really just poured out my heart.

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And they just sat there and listened. And I want to thank you all for coming out. And of course, you've met my brother. He prayed for me.

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He's really been a big support for me. Let's go to God in prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this day. We thank you for this opportunity to come

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and to present your word. Dear God, I want to thank you for picking ordinary people. Dear God, I know that you love me. I know that you can do things with me

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that I can't do with myself. I know that you can take me and mold me into a person that I never thought I could be, 'cause you've done it so much for me in the past.

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And dear God, I know that I've come to this point in my life and there's one thing that I'm sure of, I'm sure of this, and I want to thank you for it, I really do. I love to talk about you.

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I love to express the goodness of you to others. And this is what we ask that we may do tonight in our loving son's name. Amen. For those of you who have your Bibles, I'd like you to turn to the gospel of John chapter 20,

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excuse me, chapter 21, verse 21 through 23. That's John 21, verse 21 through 23. Peter seeing him said to Jesus, "Lord, what shall this man do?" Jesus said unto him, "If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee?

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Follow thou me." Then the same went abroad among the brethren, that the disciples should not die. Jesus said, "Not unto him shall he not die, but if I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee?"

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The subject we want to talk about today, tonight, is what is your relationship with Christ? I tell you, I love this book of John. I love it. I think it's so practical in your Christian walk.

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And these verses here, they really struck me one time when we were reading a Sunday school lesson and I really didn't know what I was going to be, my first sermon was going to be on and when I read these verses it was something that kind of like hit me like a ton of bricks.

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Because you know in this Christian walk we kind of wonder sometimes, you know, what is this thing about Christianity? You know we've heard so many things about it, we've heard about the gospel, you know we've heard about the claims, you know we've heard about the miracles, we've heard about

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the plan of salvation. You know, we've heard about Jesus Christ and all the miracles that he performed. We've heard these things all our lives.

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And you know, we've -- through the generations, we've sang songs, people have wrote songs, we've sang them for years. And some of the songs we sang when I was a child was "Jesus Loves Me."

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I'm trying to teach that to my children now. They teach that -- they learn that in my little Sunday school class that I've got. but uh... we we've saying these songs jesus loves me we think that we're

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leaning on the everlasting on you know we think that we're just we're bold about what we think of my report was is our goal you know we think the songs are alive

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we know we've we've heard these things we've saying the songs that we've talked about but do we really believe You know, does it really penetrate?

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You know, does it really break you down? You know, when I came to the conclusion in my life that I needed Christ in my life, I was at a point in my life where I felt like

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that I was living a good life and I really didn't need religion, so to say. I came to the point where I thought, well, if I just live a good life,

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that's all I really need to do. But you know, I came to the realization that it was either Christ or nothing. Because I tell you, when he said that he came to this world to reconcile man to

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the right relationship with God, that's exactly what he did. What is your relationship with Christ? What is your relationship with Christ tonight? I tell you, he means so much to me, I can talk about him all day long. One of the things I want to share with you tonight is that I had some notes that I had written down

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and I lost them. I don't know what happened to those notes. I looked all over, I had Carrie looking over, I had all the kids looking over, I don't know what happened to those notes. But I tell you what, I think that was just the providence of God to tell me, Rodney you depend on me. You know what, when I became a Christian, when I finally

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found that thing that I needed all of my life, you know he told me, Rodney, if you just trust in me if you just put your full trust in me I'll make it all right for you Rodney I'll make it all right for you and I tell you what he's never let me down he's never let me down he's come to he's come in my life at the time

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when I really needed it most at the time I really needed the most he was there at the times when I even think he was there he was there I tell you he changed my life. He changed my life. He made such a change in my life I didn't think I would ever, ever experience such a thing. He came, he came to me and I just didn't

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know what to do. I, I was the point of frustration. I was in a point of despair. I was in a point of questioning what was it all about and he was there steady knocking knocking at my heart's door saying Rodney if you just let me in if you just let me in if you just let me take control of your life and that's

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exactly what he did I tell you my profession I'm a welder and one of the things daddy here knows one of the things you really got to know about welding is if you're gonna have something's gonna hold you gonna need some deep penetration in that well and I tell you what you can do you can do one

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of two things. Either you can take that well and do what they call a flesh well on top, but I tell you when the time comes up that metal starts to bend and starts to shake. Am I right daddy? That metal starts to bend and starts to shake and it starts to pull apart. Well you don't know if that metal is going to hold because you made a flesh well

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on top. It's not a deep penetration. Well I tell you what they've got. We've got what they call a gouging tip and that gouging tip is used to take all that old metal out before you even start talking about welding you take that gouging tip and you start digging all that old metal out and you start gouging down deep and

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start gouging down deep and that's exactly what he did to my life I tell you what he came to my life and he took out some of that old meanness he took out some of that old confusion he took out all some of that old strife he took out all that Rodney and I'll tell you what he did. He told me to do exactly like Paul said to do.

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He said, "Rodney, if you die daily and you make me control of your life, that's all you need to do." I had a lot of questions, but he told me, "Rodney, if you just die daily, I'll take control of your life." But I tell you what, sometimes we do that and I'm one of the ones who's guilty of it. Sometimes what we'll do is when we think we're walking the right road and we know we've come

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come to the right relationship, then we start looking about and comparing. We start comparing ourselves with other Christian brothers and sisters. And that's what Peter did. Peter looked around and he compared, he got to looking and he got to thinking, he said, "Well, I know I'm walking the right way. Lord, I know I'm giving up money in church. Lord, I know

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I'm doing the right thing that you want me to do. But what about my brother over here? know what about my sister over here? Are they walking right? Are they doing it? Are they doing the things that should be done? But I tell you what, Christ is merciful, He's patient, and He's tactful. Because He told me, "Rodney, don't you

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worry about them." Now it's your duty to go ahead and spread that word and live the life so they can see it. But don't you worry about them. Your first duty as a Christian is to follow thou me and that's exactly what he did and I did that's my question to you tonight I don't want to hold you long but I just

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want to know what is your relationship with Christ let's you know let's break down the walls of pretense and and make believe a lot of times I know that I've I've come to the point of my life where a lot of times that I thought that I was making believe on a lot of things but let's just go ahead and just go let's go

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Go ahead and draw the line on this. What do you know about him? What has he done for you? You know, it's a good thing to always say, you know, the Lord paid my bills, you know,

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and he corrected my teeth and he did that, and corrected my back and all that. But can you praise him at the time of the storm? Can you praise him in the midst of trouble? Can you do it?

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I'll tell you what I can do it. I can do it because he's carried me through. I've gone through some storms in life that I didn't think I would ever get out of, but he's carried me through. What does Christ mean to you? What is he to you? What's your

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relationship with Christ tonight? What is your relationship with Christ? I can tell you what he means to me. I'm not ashamed of it. I'll tell you what he means to me. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside the still waters. He restores my soul. He leadeth me

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the path of righteousness for his namesake. Yea, though I walk through the valley and the shadows of death, I will fear no evil, for I know he's with me. He's my rod, he's my staff, and he comforts me. He prepares the table before me in the presence of mine enemies. He anoints my head with oil, and

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my cup is steady running over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I'm gonna dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Let's all say amen. Amen. Now let's just sing a stanza of "Have Thine Own Way, Lord, Have Thine Own Way." If we'll join in singing that hymn number 125, "Have Thine

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own way Lord. [MUSIC PLAYING] [HUMMING] [Music]

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♪ And I don't wait, Lord ♪ ♪ And I don't wait ♪ ♪ At the party ♪ ♪ I am not late ♪

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♪ Hold me and make me ♪ ♪ Ever I will ♪ ♪ While I am waiting ♪ ♪ Here in the still ♪

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[music] ♪ Oh, gray Lord ♪ ♪ I'll hide away ♪ ♪ Search me and find me ♪

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♪ After today ♪ ♪ Silent and slow, Lord ♪ ♪ Wash me just now ♪ ♪ As in Thy presence ♪

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♪ I'm laid ♪ I just want us to be quiet and let the organ say that to us as we think about have thine own way Lord have thine own way (ensor images of Joseph displaying his surreal vigor and capability and artistry)

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[MUSIC PLAYING] (dramatic music) (dramatic music) [MUSIC PLAYING]

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(dramatic music) (dramatic music) (dramatic music) (laughing)

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(dramatic music) (dramatic music) [music] Amen. When we have the right relationship with Jesus Christ, we will let him have his way in our lives.

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Now, Brother Swisher has indicated to us that he has been called to preach. We have provided an opportunity for him to preach his first sermon. And the next thing in order is for the church to take action as to what we shall do concerning

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providing him with license brother Smith It's been moved and seconded that we would license Rodney Smith to proclaim the Christian message

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to be a preacher of the gospel from this church. All who are in favor, would you say aye? Opposed no, it's carried and we are delighted to send forth

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this young man who has such promised, he said that the journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step and we've heard the first step here, I've seen it here tonight.

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Brother Swisher, will you stand? It's a happy privilege of mine as your pastor representing this flock, the family of God here at Ebenezer, to present to you this certificate of license which reads, this is to certify Rodney Lee Swisher, who has given evidence that God has called him into the gospel ministry, was licensed to preach the

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gospel as he may have opportunity, and to exercise his gifts in the work of the ministry by Ebenezer Baptist Church, Austin, Texas, on the 28th day of April 1985, signed by the clerk Valverde C. Phillips and the pastor Marvin C. Griffin. All say amen. All right now you may be seated. Just stand right there. I

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was up at Bishop the other day and I wanted to get to the Baptist bookstore and I was thinking about you and I saw this that was written by one of the ministers who who was in attendance at the Bishop Ministers Institute and it's a book "Preach On" a concise handbook on the elements of style in preaching. So I'm

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gonna just make you a gift I'm gonna be giving you many others but this is the one I'm gonna start you with today. All right, all right. You know a few some years ago we had our last young minister before this one preached his first sermon and while he was preaching that was a brother in the congregation he

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said oh that's wonderful that's wonderful I've never heard it like that before and then I got up a little later and I said now I'll tell you what I want you all to do I want you to give this young man a love offering and he said now the Revenant got up there and ruined it so I'm about to ruin it I'm about to

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ruin it but what I want to do and I do this for every minister because some people don't recognize how much it costs how much it costs in the way of preparation a minister must always be reading you read a great deal about Paul but when he was there in Rome he tells him to bring the books you know he you

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have to study it's always something that you're engaged in and you don't ever get too much to do that with. So this young family he has many challenges and he's starting out in life and this will just help him along the way. It may help him with some books, it may help him in some other needed places. Wherever it is we

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want to do that and God is going to bless us for that and I'm going to ask the deacons, all you brethren who are here, all the deacons will you stand? Would y'all come up here, please, all these beacons here, both from Ebenezer and other places, and we're going to ask you to come and

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we are going to ask that you will give a liberal offering. One of the things I like about Brother Swisher is his openness, and he's open and receptive and He is going to go far with that attitude when it comes to the the work of the gospel ministry

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willingness to learn so we want you to come and I Want these brethren to handle this

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just move that off from right there and Is that the only plate you have Do you have some more back there? All right, if you have some more back there

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And I tell you what I want you to do. I want you brother Swisher to stand down there And I want you all to encourage us just go right down there, and I want sister Swisher to come Sister Kara Swisher, can you can you do without the babies for a few moments there? All right and We want to

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Encourage this young couple because it takes both husband and wife working together to make it on this journey and I'm going to start this offering well for ten dollars Before we take anything I want you brethren to put yours in there and

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All right And we want the ushers to bring them from the back right on around this way Shake hands with the minister and his wife. Would you do that? All right

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Stop from the back row. All right [Music] (humming) [HUMMING]

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[Humming] ♪ And oh, I will trust in the Lord ♪ ♪ I will trust in the Lord ♪ ♪ And I, I will trust in ♪

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Oh, I will trust in the Lord. I will trust in the Lord till I die. I'm going to stand by that grave. I'm going to walk right and pray.

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I'm going to walk right and pray till I die. I'm going to walk right and pray. Oh, I'm going to walk right and-- I'm going to watch, oh till I die.

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I'm going to stay on the fence with you. I'm going to stay on the fence with you. [INAUDIBLE] I'm going to stay on this earth till I die.

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I'm going to stay on this earth. Oh, I'm going to stay on this earth. I'm gonna stay on this until I die. I'm going to trust in the Lord.

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I'm going to trust in the Lord till I die. I'm going to trust in the Lord. I'm going to trust in the Lord. I'm going to trust in the Lord till I die.

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Now brethren, if you'll take that and count it and give it, all right. Now we're going to have, brethren, I think we can just take that and go and prepare it for the preacher. Count it. Go right on. Finance committee members. All right we're going to have a word now from Brother Kinchin. Don't don't you

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leave we'll have that number right here come right on up we're gonna have this brother Swisher has a word and then brother Kinchin is going to lead us in the closing hymn. All right. Those of you who recall the scripture which I read that was a voice that had

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to do with stir up the gift of God that is in thee. When I was in my theological student days at Virginia Union University and Union Theological Seminary in Richmond, Virginia in the early 1930s, I went to a revival with Gipsy Smith, the eminent evangelist, Gipsy Smith was the preacher. Gipsy Smith's

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parents were travelers, you know what the term gifty implied. He was reared in a family where his father and mother traveled and he made an eminent evangelist. He said one night in his arrival, he's talking on, "Stir up the gift of God that is in thee." He gave an illustration that has stayed with me all these years.

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He said a father and his son were drinking coffee and the father had put sugar in the cup of the son and father started drinking his coffee and the son started drinking his coffee and he said daddy this coffee is bitter. He said son stir it up.

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All right, there's a lot in that. There's a lot in that. Stir it up. Stir it up. All right, we're just so happy and let's continue to pray for Brother Rodney Swisher, call him Reverend now. And he's covered the first hurdle and then of course after a period of study

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and the like, the next hurdle is ordination. But this gives him the opportunity to preach anywhere. He's officially licensed to do so and let's be prayerful for him. I know how his parents must feel, you know, today and either all the members of the family, of the wife and others, and how all of us

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field as he has delivered his initial sermon and we're going to put our arms around him and help him to grow and develop as a servant of God called to the Christian ministry. [ Silence ]