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[ Silence ] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] ♪ You better take the time out ♪

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♪ To praise the Lord ♪ ♪ You better take the time out ♪ ♪ To praise the Lord ♪ ♪ Praise Him for the problems He's brought you through ♪

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♪ Praise Him for the blessings He's given to you ♪ ♪ We'll take the time out ♪ ♪ To praise the Lord ♪ ♪ It's so funny how busy we get ♪

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♪ It's so funny how we seem to forget ♪ ♪ After all the Lord has done ♪ ♪ The battle is fought and the victory is won ♪ ♪ We don't have the time to stay ♪

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♪ Thank you Lord for the victory today ♪ ♪ We better take the time out ♪ ♪ To praise the Lord ♪ ♪ We better take the time out ♪

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♪ To praise the Lord ♪ ♪ You better take the time out ♪ ♪ To praise the Lord ♪ ♪ Praise him for the problems he's brought you through ♪

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♪ Praise him for the blessings he's given to you ♪ ♪ You better take the time out ♪ ♪ To praise the Lord ♪ ♪ It's so funny how quickly we pray ♪

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♪ That our lives be changed in today ♪ ♪ We beg the Lord to help us share ♪ ♪ With every burden we all have to bear ♪ ♪ But when all is said and done ♪

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♪ We forget how we overcome ♪ ♪ We better take the time out ♪ ♪ To praise the Lord ♪ ♪ We better take the time out ♪

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♪ To praise the Lord ♪ ♪ We better take the time out ♪ ♪ To praise the Lord ♪ ♪ Praise Him for the problems He's brought you through ♪

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♪ Praise Him for the blessings He's given to you ♪ ♪ You better take the time out ♪ ♪ To praise the Lord ♪ ♪ You better take the time out ♪

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♪ To praise the Lord ♪ ♪ You never take the time out ♪ ♪ To praise the Lord ♪ ♪ Praise Him for the problems He's brought you through ♪

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♪ Praise Him for the blessings He's given to you ♪ ♪ You never take the time out ♪ ♪ To praise the Lord ♪ Amen.

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- Amen. - Amen. Hear this word as recorded in 1 Samuel, the first chapter and the seventh verse.

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I shall read from the New International Version, portion of the seventh verse. This went on year after year. This went on year after year.

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The subject of the message is year after year. Year after year is a description of time sequence. It refers to events that occur as time goes by. There's a ballad that says, "You must remember this,

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"a kiss is but a kiss, a sigh is but a sigh." The fundamental things apply as time goes by. Time moves on. The Latin phrase tempus fugit, time flies,

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reminds each of us that we are in a race against time. Another year has passed, another year is dawning. Another year is dawning.

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Dear Father, let it be in working or in waiting another year with thee. Another year of progress, another year of praise, another year of proving thy presence all the days.

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What is it we do with regularity? What duties do we faithfully execute? We are inhabitants of a world that has laws that function year after year. The heavenly bodies are in their places year after year.

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A family in ancient Israel, Elkanah and his two wives, Peninnah and Hannah, went to the temple in Shiloh to worship year after year. These words express the continuities and discontinuities of human existence. The family made an annual pilgrimage to offer sacrifices year after year.

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It's a praiseworthy attribute for families and individuals to engage in worship regularly. Worship for this family was a habit of the heart which was nourished and nurtured year after year. We're called upon to worship the Lord, to proclaim our love and loyalty in the midst of times when we experience barrenness as well as times of fruitfulness.

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We are summoned to sing anthems of praise when we confront waterless wastelands, when there is famine in the land, as well as when our barns are filled. We are to praise God year after year, whether it be in sickness or in health. And there is a need to look upward in faith when we are troubled by barrenness, unproductivity,

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When we consider our conduct during such times, it's a revelation of the kind of faith that we possess. Those things we do year after year. When we have good times and when we have bad times, it doesn't matter.

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We just keep doing it year after year. I remember just some months ago now, a man who lost his job. He had been working on the job for 15 or more years,

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making a good salary, he had a nice family, He was buying a home, he was active in the church, but his job was phased out. He'd been doing those things year after year,

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and when he lost his job, it seemed that he lost his manhood. He didn't feel anymore that he was able to be the man of the house, be the kind of man he ought to be to his wife. He couldn't get another job, so he moved out.

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Stopped going to church. And really his health declined overnight because he had lost his faith. He was unable to make the kind of adjustment

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in the midst of the discontinuities that plagued his existence. So how we behave in the midst of the continuities and discontinuities of human existence mean a lot. What I admire about Hannah is that she went up with the family year after year.

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Faced with adversity and disappointment and defeat, she went on to worship year after year. So don't let family situations interfere with your worship. Some people say, "Well, Reverend, I wasn't there

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"because I had my family in town." Others say, "Well, I've had some difficulties." And so that's why I haven't been faithful. But with all of the things that plagued her existence,

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Hannah is faithful year after year. She was barren. She had no children. And she had to face humiliation, embarrassment, she was tormented by her rival Penelope.

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Penelope said, "Well, something must be wrong with you, "Hannah, you don't have any children. "Look at me, I've got many children. "I have sons and daughters.

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"Something must be wrong with you. "God must not favor you." Well, she had a heavy heart, but she went on to worship.

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And you see real worship is more than a ritual, real worship is the practice of the presence of God. So this was a special time, a time different from all other times, time when she communed with the Lord, the one before whom all hearts are open and no secrets are hid. You see worship is the adoration of the eternal

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in the midst of the temporary. So in the midst of all that is occurring she continues, she worships God. So we need to take time to be holy, speak off with thy Lord abide in him always and feed on his word. Make friends of God's children, help those who are weak, forgetting in nothing his blessing to seek. Worship at Shiloh

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involves sacrifice, the presentation of a sacrificial offering to the Lord. In this case it was an animal sacrifice. In other words we need to understand that from ancient times until this present moment that all meaningful worship involves sacrifice. Some people think they can just go on and on be there and make no

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sacrifice, make no commitment and think they have worship. No, no. Worship involves sacrifice. And this whole idea, in this case it was an animal sacrifice that Elkanah brings an animal sacrifice. He puts this animal upon the altar and it is consumed. A portion of it, the fat of it of course, is burned and offered to

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the Lord, the leg and the breast are given to the priest and the rest of it is left for Elkanah to take with his family and for them to eat it in a holy meal. Well, Hannah is there with a heavy heart, weeping. Elkanah gives her a double potion. She complains about her condition. He said, "Well, I care about you, Hannah.

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Don't you see that I show how much I care about you by giving you a double potion?" She said, "Well, all that's good, but I still don't have a child." You know, the food for the stomach does not satisfy the hunger of the soul. So Hannah goes on to worship. She's barren.

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Hanana is fruitful but they all go up to the temple year after year. They make their sacrifice and let me remind us that we can never be blessed and find peace and sweet rest without sacrifice. No matter how much we may have we may all have two cars in the garage and clothes in the closet and bank account

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that runs over but unless we sacrifice there cannot be peace and sweet rest. In the worship experience Hannah looked to heaven for help. She not only went to the temple but she worshipped and engaged in the sacrifice and she looked to heaven to satisfy the yearnings of her heart. She wanted her life filled

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with new meaning for the new year. She had come there year after year but this particular year she comes as the other years, oh she had looked forward to having a child and year had passed. We don't know how many years had passed. The historian here just says year after year. In those days there was no sperm

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bank. She had no fertility drugs that she had access to. And she had done all of the things that that she knew to do. They had exhausted their scientific knowledge and still she was not pregnant. So Hannah took the case to the Lord. When we have exhausted all human avenues, go to God! And she took it to him in prayer.

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She wept and she prayed. She asked God not to forget her and sometimes we feel like God has forgotten us. They were there and Hannah probably felt that she wasn't on God's agenda but she kept asking God, asking God and she She took it to him in prayer.

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She was sitting there in the temple just moving her lips, praying in her heart. The priest, Eli, looked out and he saw he thought she was drunk, that she'd had too much of the ceremonial wine. And he went to her and said, "Woman, what are you doing drunk?"

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She said, "It's not that I'm drunk. I'm just talking to the Lord. I'm praying to the Lord. Prayer is the soul's sincere desire,

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on iron I express the motion of a hidden fire that trembles in the breast. Prayer is talking with God. - Yes.

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- So prayer is knocking on the door of heaven and depositing your problems there that you have on earth. And we all need to pray. Ask God for a year of productivity.

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Ask God for new meaning in your life. Ask God for new opportunities. Ask God for new life in your family. Ask God for new life in the church.

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Ask God for new life in the community, for new life in this city, for new life in this nation, for new life in the world.

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Ask God to impregnate the womb of time with new meaning and then make yourself available to God as his instrument. That's what Hannah did. That's what we ought to do.

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And you know, connected with Hannah's prayer was a promise. She said, "Now Lord, if you do what I ask, "if you give me a son, give me a male child "as I've asked you, I will present him back to you."

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Whatever you give me, I'll present back to you to be used to your honor and your glory. Well, whether we get what we ask for or not is one thing, but when we get it, how we act is important. So while a year is young, it's a good thing to promise the Lord.

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The Lord remembered Hannah, and in the course of time, he gave her a son. And she gave this son the name Samuel. Samuel means I ask the Lord. That's what that name means.

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She remembered where she got it, and she presented him back to the Lord. She trusted God. She poured out her life to God,

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and God answered her prayer. My brothers and sisters, if we trust God in the new year, if we just keep trusting him year after year, maybe we didn't get what we wanted in 1991 and we've given us 1992, but just stay with God year after year.

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Whatever life brings, just stay with God. That's what the word, the name Hannah means, grace. And grace really means acceptance. It means accepting whatever life brings.

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Some ups, some downs, some hills, some valleys, Some sunshine, some rain, but Lord, whatever it is, I'll accept it. Pray that you will give me the strength and help me to bear whatever is there. That's what Hannah did, and God blessed her life.

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Because she took time in the midst of all that was happening, she took time to be holy. holy. So take time, take time, take time to be holy. A friend of mine that was telling me about another friend and so I said what's his name and you know how we have a way of giving others nicknames he said his name is take your, his nickname

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is take your time. I think it was take your time Johnson, take your time. Well take your time and make this your time to serve God, to lift him up in your heart of hearts, take time to be holy and let God be your guide and run not before him whatever may be tied. In joy and in sorrow still follow thy Lord and looking

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to Jesus still trust in his word. So God gives grace for every year. Grace to accept what he brings, grace to accept our barrenness, grace to accept fruitfulness, grace to accept the sunshine and the rain. And one thing is sure that his grace abounds. That's why we can sing, "Amazing grace, how sweet the sound.

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Saved wretch like me, I once was lost, but now am found, was blind, but now I see." Year after year. Well, some of us have been on this journey year after year. And we can look back and look over the distance and we have traveled so long. I've been with you and I'm looking forward to you leading me on year after year.

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Until we come to the time where time runs out, where time empties into eternity and we find ourselves in a world without end. That's the pilgrimage in which every Christian is engaged. We've come now to the hymn of invitation. We invite you to accept Jesus Christ.

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This is a good way to begin the new year. A good way to make a fresh start. I ask you to come. The door of the church is open.

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Come on my church, Jesus, while you have time. Come unto Jesus, make all your money Where may the Word find you? For He will take care of you

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♪ Come to Jesus ♪ ♪ While you have time ♪ ♪ Come, come to Jesus ♪ ♪ While you have time ♪

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♪ Come unto Jesus ♪ ♪ Make up your mind ♪ ♪ He will make your life brand new ♪ ♪ Oh, He will take care of you ♪

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♪ We'll take care of you ♪ ♪ Talk to Jesus ♪ ♪ Have you had enough ♪ ♪ Just knowing Jesus ♪

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♪ Your love's made all in my life ♪ ♪ Talk to Jesus ♪ ♪ Oh, you have my heart ♪ ♪ Though you may not have my faith ♪

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♪ He's waiting for you to be here ♪ ♪ Come to Jesus ♪ ♪ While you have time ♪ ♪ Just know in Jesus ♪

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♪ Yes, they know in my life ♪ ♪ How to do Jesus ♪ ♪ What you have done ♪ ♪ Though you have failed ♪

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♪ And I will be more than you do ♪ ♪ When you do need Him ♪ ♪ Come to Jesus ♪ ♪ While you have time ♪

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