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[Silence] [Music] The Holy Spirit which is his gift to us. [inaudible]

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The Spirit's presence is shown in some way in each person for the good of all. [inaudible] Praise the Lord. [inaudible]

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Let us pray. Eternal God, our Heavenly Father, you of your tender mercy has promised the forgiveness of our sins. We thank thee, our Lord, for this another occasion that we might come together between

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these dedicated walls to praise thee in spirit and in truth. Guide the meditations, the words of our hearts, guide our feet, guide our lips, guide our souls and bodies, we pray. We thank Thee, O Heavenly Father, for the sunshine and the rain in our lives.

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We thank Thee for health and strength. We thank Thee most of all for Thy abundant love. We thank Thee, O Lord, that Thou has given us this opportunity once again to see and feel familiar faces, to see and grasp familiar hands.

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He ask that thou would be with us throughout this day through Christ our Redeemer. Amen. [ Background noise ] Let us stand and sing Count 23, please, all together.

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[MUSIC - "TO GOD WITH GLORY"] [MUSIC] ♪ We don't know what he did or who he's found ♪ ♪ For years he's been hard to find ♪

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♪ But he's the same ♪ ♪ And all the time ♪ ♪ He's been a way to blame ♪ ♪ Pray to God ♪

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♪ Pray to God ♪ ♪ Let the earth give its voice ♪ ♪ And the world, and the world ♪ ♪ And the people, people ♪

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♪ Oh, come all ye people ♪ ♪ Who seek the Lord ♪ ♪ And let it come, oh, come ♪ ♪ And give thanks ♪

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[Music] [Music] [music] ♪ Oh, we believe ♪

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♪ That one in a million ♪ ♪ Shall walk on earth freely ♪ ♪ With the Lord, with the Lord ♪ ♪ That we know to be true ♪

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♪ With the Lord, with the Lord ♪ ♪ And the way that God made it ♪ [Music] [BLANK_AUDIO]

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Our scripture lesson this morning is taken from Psalms 34, the first through the seventh verse. I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be in my mouth.

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My soul shall make her boast in the Lord, and the humble shall hear thereof and be glad. O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together.

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I sought the Lord and he heard me and delivered me from my fears. They looked unto him and were lightened and their faces were not ashamed. This poor man cried and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles. troubles. The angel of the Lord encompass round about them that fear him and deliver

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them. altar prayer. [Music] [Music]

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[ Music ] May I ask that you would join hands with your neighbor. We thank thee, our father,

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for this privilege and this opportunity. We thank you for first of all, pointing us out one day and picking us. for turning us around and commissioning us.

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You said go and teach and preach and serve. As we did it joyfully other times, we found ourselves on the wayside. Oh, but your redeeming love, oh Lord, picked us up and brushed us off and bidded us run on this morning.

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And we are thankful. Here we are, May 26, 1985, Ebenezer Baptist Church, saying once again, "We love you." And once again that we need you more than life itself. Asking you, O Lord, to continue to comfort us with your spirit, with your hope, with

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your faith, and most of all with your love. You know us collectively, but more than that, you know us personally. You know our names. So we say together and we say individually, "Be with us."

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Some of us are up, others of us are down. Some of us are filled with joy while others exist in sorrow. But you know how to do for each of us. We say unto thee, thank you.

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Thank you, thank you, amen. [MUSIC PLAYING] [inaudible] [MUSIC PLAYING]

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[Music] [music] [Music] [Music]

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[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music]

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♪ This little light of mine ♪ ♪ I'm going to let it shine ♪ ♪ This little light of mine ♪ ♪ I'm going to let it shine ♪

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♪ Please let your light go on ♪ ♪ I'm going to let it shine ♪ ♪ Let it shine ♪ ♪ Let it shine ♪

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♪ Let it shine ♪ ♪ Everywhere I go ♪ ♪ I like to let it shine ♪ Everywhere I go, I thought you let it shine.

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Everywhere I go, I let you let it shine. [music] ♪ Let it shine ♪ ♪ Let it shine ♪

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♪ All through the night ♪ ♪ I'm going to let it shine ♪ [Music] ♪ To the light ♪

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♪ I'm what you left it to shine ♪ ♪ Oh, to the light ♪ ♪ I'm what you left it to shine ♪ ♪ Let it shine ♪

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♪ Let it shine ♪ ♪ Let it shine ♪ This is our offertory period. I would encourage each and every one of you all to give in accordance

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with the way God has blessed us, some with little and some with many. But let us realize that all blessings come from God. and let us be thankful for his goodness. Let us pray. Dear Father in heaven, we

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thank thee for this opportunity to give back to you some of the blessings that you have showered upon us. Help us to give not grudgingly

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but with an open heart Spirit. Bless these gifts, dear God, and may they be used for the furtherance of thy kingdom. In Jesus's name we pray, amen. [ Silence ]

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This is your announcement period. I have a special announcement to make on behalf of the WMU, coming from the director, Sister Eula Smith, and all the mission ladies.

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It has to do with 100 days of prayer. I believe in the harvest. I think some of you all have already been given this little pamphlet.

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But it's 100 days of prayer and meditation, which begins June 1st and ends September 8th, 1985. And the pastor encourages each family of the church to get a copy of this little pamphlet and to use it sometimes during the day.

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These will be available for you all who did not get them at the end of the service. They will be passed out. So we encourage you to take one and to use it. If you will refer to your bulletin this morning,

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deacon's meeting Friday, May 31st, 7 p.m. at the church. The Ebenezer family will be visiting with Reverend R.R. Williams of Good Hope Baptist Church. That's Sunday, next Sunday, June 2nd at 3 p.m.

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You all are encouraged to attend. The following Sunday on June 9th, a law and investment seminar will be held by Sister Merlin Bailey and Brother Melvin Wren.

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You're encouraged to attend that seminar. Our St. John Regular Baptist Association will convene June 3 through 7, 1985, if you will notice that announcement in your bulletin and you all are encouraged to attend. I have one visitor's card.

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Joy Evans, is that right? And Duane Davis, would you stand please? Visiting from New Jerusalem. Okay, are there any more visitors?

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If so, would you please stand? Okay, to our two visitors, we would like to say from Ebenezer that we are very happy to have you come and visit with us.

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And we encourage you on other occasions or any time you feel like it to come back and visitors. As you will notice, our pastor is out of the city, but he would be happy to welcome you and to see you. So come back again to visitors. Would someone who did not bring these visitors stand and give them a hearty handshake of welcome?

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Thank you very much. Thank you very much. [Music] [Music]

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I shall never cry. I shall never cry. It is over. It is all over.

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I shall wear a crown. I shall wear a crown. When it's all over, when it's all over, I shall see his face. I shall say it's my place.

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It is gone. It is gone. I'm going to put on my robe, tell the story how I made it over. I'm going to put on my robe, tell the story how I made it home.

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I'm going to put on my robe, tell the story how I made it home. I'm going to put on my robe, tell the story of a maiden woman. I'm going to put on my robe, tell the story of a maiden woman. I'm going to put on my robe, tell the story of our beautiful world.

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♪ Somewhere over the road I can't go ♪ ♪ At least at the park I shall wear a crown ♪ When it's over, when it's over, I shall see his face. I shall see his face.

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When it's all over, When it's all over, I'm going to put down my crown, Jail is strong,

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Before I make it on out. I'm going to put up my wall, tell the story of my native home. I'm going to put up my wall, tell the story of my native home. I'm going to go to my room, tell the story how I made it all my own.

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I'm going to go to my room, tell the story how I made it all my own. I'm going to go to my room, tell the story how I lived before. Soon as I get home. Soon as I get home.

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Let the church say amen. Again and again. Gonna put on my robe when I get home. The question becomes, are we in the process already of putting that robe on?

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This is a wonderful opportunity for me to be present with you this morning. I don't have a long message at all, so if you would bear with me in the introduction, I see so many familiar faces here this morning. And it's just good to see your faces.

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the gospel according to St. Matthew the 21st chapter. I would invite your attention. "And when they drew nigh unto Jerusalem and were come to Bethphage unto the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples saying unto them go into the village over against you and straightway ye shall find an ass tied and a coat with her loose them and bring them unto me and if any

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man say ought unto you you shall say the Lord had need of them and straightway he will send them all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets saying tell ye the daughter of Sion behold thy King cometh unto unto thee meek and sitting upon an ass, and a coat the foul of an ass.

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And the disciples went and did as Jesus commanded them." It seems that life is a constant and continual attempt to overcome or make it over bondage after bondage, vice after vice, stumbling blocks after stumbling blocks. does a good thing when he or she breaks the smoking habit. But lo and behold another enemy

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advances and makes its presence known. Eden now has replaced smoking. It seems that when When one victory is won, seven others are lost. Maybe it was for this reason that St. Luke writes in the 11th chapter of his gospel, the story of an unclean spirit going out of a man, returning with other spirits more evil

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than the first. state of that person being worse than the first. Someone will say I might as well die of cigarettes and cancer than to make the choice of dying with high blood pressure and overeating.

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Not much of a choice, is it? couched in that same bondage is the germ or seed of release. In God's time, called in biblical phraseology, the fullness of time, the Greek kairos, release from all bondage has and will come. You hear the words of the song as it's sung so

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beautifully these days, "Please be patient with me. God is not through with me yet." My subject this morning is your release has come. Implied is the fact or implied in the fact of the word has, is a past, present,

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and future reality. I'm going to put on my white robe when I get over. Implied in that is the future tense of I'm already in the process of putting on that road. And the question that I pose for us this morning is what will we do with our freedom?

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In answer to the question, there are two historical strands of tradition. one represented by the status quo, making no ways. Let it be as it were. Then there is the other more radical tradition that upsets those who are comfortable,

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that declares that prejudice has no place in God's kingdom. You got a robe, I got a robe, all God's children got a robe. But this same tradition says why is it that I don't have my robe? It is this tradition, this last tradition, that sees release as the primary gold of an omnipotent God. Thy

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kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven. So I want to talk about release this morning, your release, my release, and what are we doing with that release. Release is first and foremost God's task. Man is not worthy to release. John the Baptist says that I am unworthy to loose or release for God anything that he

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possesses, his shoes, his words, his animals, his children. Peter uses the word on the day of Pentecost as this day we represent when he says that God raised Jesus up having loosed or released the fangs of death because it was not possible for him to be held by it. The time has come for release. That time is

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now the fullness of time. A baby has been clothed nine months in the womb of its mother, the time of release has come. The womb can no longer hold the child, the child must come forth. Josephus, a Jewish historian, noted that the pains of the Hebrew women were easy. So he goes on to say before Pharaoh that the midwives

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could not kill the Hebrew children for the mothers were delivered too quickly. Release the word, the Greek word itself is a euphemism, that is a word used in place of a more distasteful word. It's saying, to use an analogy, that I had an altercation with a son or daughter when it would be actually closer to the truth

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to say all hell broke loose. Pilots whom shall I release then can further imply within his words, "Death to the other." Finally, our release has come by means of three wonderful gifts of God. Faith is is released from pitfalls. No matter what the night may bring, faith brings the day.

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The faith that Jesus had and has, faith that he gives and gave, caused men like Peter to stand tall, men like Paul to come down off of high pedestals. Hymnologists could write, "My faith looks up to thee, thou lamb of Calvary." So faith then is one way that release comes. Hope is another. The early Christian community

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was released from the pain of a rejected Messiah, whose message was rejected, whose love and service spurred, and one who was condemned as a criminal and subjected to a cruel death. it was out of this bitter experience that God gave hope by opening a new way forward. Once again he proclaimed, "I am the God of hope." Hebrew writer could

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express his Christological claim by saying that Jesus is God by the power of of an indestructible life. This hope is not optimistic. It is nothing so superficial as the early belief

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that all is going to turn out well in the end. But hope saves us from pessimism. The acceptance that the universe is a sorry scheme of things without final meaning.

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Hope is rather the faith that when man falls and when the worst evils happen in this ambiguous world, we never find ourselves at the end of the road. Why? God is ahead of us waiting to open up new opportunities and new possibilities.

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You can be sure that it becomes our responsibility to seize on that possibility and bring it to realization. Doesn't matter about pressure on the job, having to take pills after pills or go see psychologists and psychiatrists.

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We have a hope and we have a faith that is indestructible and that moves us from one level of grace to another. And finally there is the presence of this release with us through love. Yes, faith starts us on the way and hope encourages us, but the love of God sustains us. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten

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Son that whosoever believe in him shall not perish but shall live an indestructible life, a life that is able to keep overcoming. Someone said the coming is good, but I say this morning that the overcoming is greater. And so God says to us this morning, as he says in generations past, your release has come.

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Amen. the invitational hymn. What a friend we have in Jesus. all of our sins and griefs to bear,

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what a privilege it is to carry everything to God in prayer. Oh what peace we often forfeit, needless pains we bear because we don't carry them to God in prayer. Would you stand as we extend the privilege of the church? If there's one who would come, we invite you to come

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this morning. Oh, how I ever need you dear. Oh, what a privilege to carry Everything to God in prayer.

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Oh, what peace. All the least we are, All we need. Oh, what a man he was! Oh, how he loved and cared for me!

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♪ Mary, full of grace ♪ ♪ And to help me trials and temptations ♪ ♪ Help me trials and temptations ♪ ♪ Here at your feet ♪

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♪ Take it back ♪ ♪ We shall be one ♪ ♪ Take it back ♪ ♪ Now we are ready to welcome you ♪

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♪ Oh, with arms on our shoulders ♪ ♪ Jesus, our Lord and Savior ♪ ♪ And he will be my Lord ♪ ♪ Till the end of time ♪

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♪ Till the end of time ♪ ♪ He will be my Lord ♪ - Doxology and benediction. Would you join with me in a word of prayer?

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In thankfulness, dear Lord, we come unto thee. We thank you for what our eyes have seen and our ears have heard. We thank thee for thy Holy Spirit, the comforter of our lives. Go with us now as we go our separate ways.

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with us always. The grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the love of God, the communion of the Holy Spirit, rest and abide in every heart now henceforth and forevermore, let us all say, Amen. Amen.

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♪ Amen, amen, amen ♪ (upbeat music) [Music] [Music]

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[Music] [BLANK_AUDIO]