Latest / INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living / A Place for Pondering and Praise Msg 56

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A Place for Pondering and Praise Msg 56 · INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living

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  Speaker 1: Like most of you. This morning, when I awoke early,
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  Speaker 1: I took the time to walk over to the window
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  Speaker 1: and pull back the shade and look across the landscape
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  Speaker 1: of the ancient city of Jerusalem. I stood there long
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  Speaker 1: enough to let my mind wander back into a time
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  Speaker 1: tunnel of many, many years, and began to identify with
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  Speaker 1: a handful of disillusioned disciples who must have awakened early
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  Speaker 1: the night following that crucifixion, before there had been a resurrection,
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  Speaker 1: as they were caught in the in between hours of
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  Speaker 1: a doubt and disillusionment, confusion, deep struggle of soul. Their
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  Speaker 1: dreams had been dashed, their best hopes lost. They had
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  Speaker 1: followed him for more than three years and anticipated that
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  Speaker 1: they would be a part of a kingdom over which
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  Speaker 1: he would be enthroned, and they, alongside him, would rule
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  Speaker 1: and write to the last meal. Together, you may recall,
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  Speaker 1: had argued over who would be the greatest in that kingdom.
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  Speaker 1: It is easy for us to cluck our tongues and
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  Speaker 1: criticize the band of followers, But I asked, did we
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  Speaker 1: not do that this morning, that we enter into their
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  Speaker 1: sense of loss, As they had gone through the garden
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  Speaker 1: with him and then watch the mob take him away
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  Speaker 1: and torture him, and lead him along that dreadful path
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  Speaker 1: to a cross. We who love the hope of the
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  Speaker 1: message of the Gospel, I fear, do not linger as
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  Speaker 1: we should long enough at the cross, at the cross
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  Speaker 1: where he paid the complete penalty for our sins. Let's
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  Speaker 1: return there this morning, Some of the great hymn writers,
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  Speaker 1: help us do that. King of my life, I crown
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  Speaker 1: thee now thine shall the glory be? Lest I forget
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  Speaker 1: thy thorn, crowned brow. Lead me to Calvary, lest I
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  Speaker 1: forget get simone, lest I forget thy love for me.
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  Speaker 1: Lead me to Calvary, Oh sacred head, Now wounded with
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  Speaker 1: grief and shame, weighed down, now scornfully surrounded with thorns,
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  Speaker 1: Thine holy crown, Oh sacred Head, What gory, what bliss
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  Speaker 1: till now was thine? Yea, though despised and gory, I
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  Speaker 1: joy to call THEE mine. When I survey the wondrous
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  Speaker 1: cross on which the Prince of Glory died. My richest
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  Speaker 1: gain I count but loss and poor contempt on all
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  Speaker 1: my pride. See from his head, his hands, his feet,
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  Speaker 1: sorrow and love flow mingled down the hymns, the great
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  Speaker 1: songs of the ages take us again and again to
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  Speaker 1: the cross. Hours before there was the hope of resurrection.
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  Speaker 1: In reality, there was the the agony of the cross,
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  Speaker 1: and the memory of it, and all that came in
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  Speaker 1: its wake. This morning I asked that we pause from
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  Speaker 1: the rush of our lives and go back there. There
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  Speaker 1: are times when it is wonderfully advantageous for us simply
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  Speaker 1: to reconsider and relive the scenes portrayed by both prophet
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  Speaker 1: and apostle. He was despised and forsaken of men, A
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  Speaker 1: man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. He was despised
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  Speaker 1: that we as esteemed him. Not surely he has borne
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  Speaker 1: our griefs and carried our sorrows, Yet we did esteem him. Stricken,
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  Speaker 1: smitten of God and afflicted. He was pierced through for
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  Speaker 1: our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The chastening
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  Speaker 1: for our well being fell upon him, and by his scourging.
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  Speaker 1: By his scourging, we're healed. My older brother, Orville, about
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  Speaker 1: whom you may know very little, love Christ long before
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  Speaker 1: I did, and has preached his name longer than I have,
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  Speaker 1: having spent more than thirty years in Buenos Aires as
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  Speaker 1: a missionary, and now south of Miami, still preaching the
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  Speaker 1: good news of Christ. Used to say to me that,
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  Speaker 1: in his opinion, the best description of depravity was tucked
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  Speaker 1: away in the fifty third of Isaiah. Oh, we like
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  Speaker 1: sheep have gone astray. We have turned each one to
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  Speaker 1: his own way. That's depravity. We have turned each one
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  Speaker 1: to his own way. And rather than the Lord rejecting
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  Speaker 1: us and turning away from us and sending us into
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  Speaker 1: the abyss, we read the Lord has caused the iniquity
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  Speaker 1: of us all to fall on him. That's the cross.
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  Speaker 1: Stay there, go there, Let it land in full weight
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  Speaker 1: upon you as you imagine what he bore on your behalf.
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  Speaker 1: It is the black backdrop that displays so beautifully the
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  Speaker 1: diamond of the resurrection. It's possible that some of you
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  Speaker 1: have been with us on our journey, and you have
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  Speaker 1: been around Christians most, if not all, your life. You
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  Speaker 1: certainly have been for the last few days. You have
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  Speaker 1: heard the message again and again. You may even attend
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  Speaker 1: a church where it is faithfully proclaimed. But truth be told,
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  Speaker 1: you personally have never bowed your heart and your life
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  Speaker 1: to Christ. Today is the day for that Christ died
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  Speaker 1: for your sins. According to the scriptures, and in proof
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  Speaker 1: of his death, Paul writes in the fifteenth the First Corinthians,
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  Speaker 1: he was buried, no question that he died. He was buried,
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  Speaker 1: having borne your sins, paid the complete penalty for your sins.
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  Speaker 1: He was buried. You must believe that Christ died for you,
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  Speaker 1: for your sins. He paid the penalty for your sins.
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  Speaker 1: And you, as a sinner, cannot know a relationship with
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  Speaker 1: God apart from the righteous relationship you have with Christ.
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  Speaker 1: And that begins by believing He died for your sins.
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  Speaker 1: Believe that today, and then in the passing of a
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  Speaker 1: few hours, the scripture adds, and on the third day
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  Speaker 1: he was raised from the dead, victorious over your sins,
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  Speaker 1: my sins, the sins of all of us, the sins
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  Speaker 1: of the world. Not only is the cross empty, the
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  Speaker 1: tomb is empty. And he, in proof of his resurrection,
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  Speaker 1: has been seen, and those who lived in his day
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  Speaker 1: testify of having seen him on one occasion, more than
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  Speaker 1: five hundred. At once, skeptics scoff at the message. All
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  Speaker 1: kinds of theories are offered in place of the resurrection.
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  Speaker 1: He didn't die, He swooned. He wasn't raised. It was
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  Speaker 1: an apparition. My answer to that five hundred apparitions at
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  Speaker 1: the same time, amazing. Takes more faith to believe the
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  Speaker 1: skeptics than the message of the gospel. The message is clear.
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  Speaker 1: He was raised, and you must believe that he was
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  Speaker 1: raised from the dead on your behalf, and that he
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  Speaker 1: lives and continues to keep you close to his heart
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  Speaker 1: as he prays and intercedes for his people. How grateful
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  Speaker 1: we are for the good news glory to his name,
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  Speaker 1: that the good news has been made available, And now
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  Speaker 1: having heard the facts of the gospel, that he died
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  Speaker 1: for your sins, and in proof of that was buried
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  Speaker 1: and has been raised from the dead in victory over
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  Speaker 1: death and sin and the grave, and now lives. Believe
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  Speaker 1: that accept that by faith. The faith of your wife
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  Speaker 1: will not get you into heaven. The confidence and faith
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  Speaker 1: of your husband or your best friend will give you
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  Speaker 1: no benefit as you stand before the living God after
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  Speaker 1: you die. Today is the day of your salvation. Trust him,
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  Speaker 1: believe in him. And the good news is as this
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  Speaker 1: pulpit reads. Jesus is alive and will be alive forevermore.
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  Speaker 1: Our Savior has left us a reminder of his death
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  Speaker 1: in the simple elements of what has come to be
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  Speaker 1: known as the Lord's Table. The peace of pastry represents
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  Speaker 1: his body, in the small cup of juice or line
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  Speaker 1: represents his blood. And I've often thought the Lord's Table
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  Speaker 1: exercises all five senses within us. We see, we hear
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  Speaker 1: of it, we touch it, we taste it. How wonderful
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  Speaker 1: that we even smell it. And in assimilating these elements,
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  Speaker 1: we are saying, in effect, I reaffirm my faith and
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  Speaker 1: trust in the Savior who died for me and rose
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  Speaker 1: from the dead. And I celebrate that as I eat
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  Speaker 1: the bread and drink the cup in his honor, in
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  Speaker 1: the silence of these quiet moments in the garden. Thank
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  Speaker 1: him for dying for you. Thank your Father for raising
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  Speaker 1: him from the grave. I love the statement that the
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  Speaker 1: resurrection is God's amen to Christ's. It is finished, the
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  Speaker 1: price is paid on the cross, and our God acknowledges
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  Speaker 1: the price being paid as he raises him from the dead.
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  Speaker 1: His magnificent and timeless allegory John Bunyan has left us
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  Speaker 1: with a story that traces the struggles and the life
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  Speaker 1: of one named Christian who journeys much of his way
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  Speaker 1: with a heavy burden on his back, strapped to him
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  Speaker 1: with chords that he couldn't loosen. He ultimately finds his
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  Speaker 1: way out of the slew of despond and finally to
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  Speaker 1: the wicket gate that leads to the narrow way to
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  Speaker 1: the celestial city, walled on each side by truth and righteousness.
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  Speaker 1: And he comes up that path and reaches the precipice,
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  Speaker 1: and he looks across a chasm, and he sees a cross,
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  Speaker 1: and it's empty, and he sees a tomb and it's empty,
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  Speaker 1: And amazingly, in that moment, the burden falls from his
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  Speaker 1: back and budiant rights of Christian. Thus far did I
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  Speaker 1: come laden with my sin? Nor could aught? He's the
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  Speaker 1: grief that I was in till I came hither. What
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  Speaker 1: a place is this? Must here be the beginning of
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  Speaker 1: my bliss? Must hear the burden fall from off my back?
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  Speaker 1: Must hear the strings that bound it to me? Crack, blessed, cross, blessed, sepulcher, blessed.
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  Speaker 1: Rather be the man put to shame for me, beautiful blessed,
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  Speaker 1: rather be the man put to shame for me? We
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  Speaker 1: will have fulfilled the purpose of our time together. If
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  Speaker 1: your focus remains on Christ alone in these next few moments,
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  Speaker 1: I urge all of you to search your heart, prepare
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  Speaker 1: your heart, make certain that your heart is in a
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  Speaker 1: relationship with God that is pure and clean and open.
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  Speaker 1: And I based it on the words of the apostle
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  Speaker 1: Paul in First Corinthians eleven. I received from the Lord
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  Speaker 1: that which I also delivered unto you, that the Lord
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  Speaker 1: Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread,
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  Speaker 1: and having given thanks, he broke it and said, take
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  Speaker 1: and eat. This is my body given for you do
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  Speaker 1: this in remembrance of me. Mann Also he took the
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  Speaker 1: cup after supper, saying, the cup is the New Testament
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  Speaker 1: in my blood. Drink you all of it in remembrance
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  Speaker 1: of me. For as often as you eat this bread
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  Speaker 1: and drink this cup, you keep on declaring the Lord
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  Speaker 1: until he comes. However, there is a warning. I often
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  Speaker 1: call this one of the most serious warnings in all
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  Speaker 1: the New Testament, and perhaps one of the warnings that
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  Speaker 1: is least often stated. Whoever eats the bread or drinks
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  Speaker 1: the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner shall
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  Speaker 1: be guilty of the body and the blood of the
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  Speaker 1: Lord Jesus. But let one examine himself, and so let
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  Speaker 1: him eat of the bread and drink of the cup.
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  Speaker 1: For he who eats and drinks eats and drinks judgment
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  Speaker 1: to himself if he does not judge the body rightly.
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  Speaker 1: For this reason, many among you are weak and sick,
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  Speaker 1: and a number of you have died. Make certain, before
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  Speaker 1: the bread or the cup touches your lips, that your
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  Speaker 1: heart is right, that you know Jesus as your savior,
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  Speaker 1: that there's nothing between you and him, And then you
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  Speaker 1: are able to eat and drink with great celebration, maybe
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  Speaker 1: a bow together. The morning is quiet, the birds sing,
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  Speaker 1: A soft breeze blows through the garden. Are you absolutely
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  Speaker 1: certain you know the Lord Jesus Christ is your savior.
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  Speaker 1: If the answer is no, and you choose to continue
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  Speaker 1: to reject him, please let the elements pass. Let the
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  Speaker 1: elements pass by, do not partake. This is for believers only.
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  Speaker 1: Next question. If the answer is yes, yes, even yes,
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  Speaker 1: I have just now trusted him. I invite you now
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  Speaker 1: to search your heart. Make certain there is nothing between
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  Speaker 1: you and your master. No lingering, grudge, no offense, no
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  Speaker 1: secret sin. If you find such as you search your heart.
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  Speaker 1: This is a moment to bring it before your Lord,
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  Speaker 1: lay it before him, ask him to remove it, to
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  Speaker 1: forgive you, to release you from it. And then with
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  Speaker 1: great delight, I urge you to celebrate with us the
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  Speaker 1: eating of the bread and the drinking of the cup.
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  Speaker 1: You will be served both. Please take each spontaneously, without
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  Speaker 1: any further direction from me or anyone, And the cup
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  Speaker 1: is yours to take with you as a part of
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  Speaker 1: the memory of this journey. Cynthia and I still have ours,
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  Speaker 1: still look at them from time to time and recall
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  Speaker 1: the sacred moment in the garden in Jerusalem. So make
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  Speaker 1: certain you take that cup with you. Put it on
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  Speaker 1: your mantle, put it at your desk, perhaps at a
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  Speaker 1: place where you were able to see it frequently, and
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  Speaker 1: be reminded of the morning. Now before the meal, May
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  Speaker 1: we pray blessed, rather be the man put to shame
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  Speaker 1: for me. We bring before you, our Father, our lives.
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  Speaker 1: Some of us have less years in front of us
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  Speaker 1: than behind us, And we look back and we thank
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  Speaker 1: you for your grace. We thank you for the decades
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  Speaker 1: of your goodness and your faithfulness, your forgiveness, the way
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  Speaker 1: you have chosen to give us life and use us
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  Speaker 1: in various ways. Our hearts are full of gratitude the
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  Speaker 1: miles we have traveled safely, the people we have known,
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  Speaker 1: the relationships we have established, the roots we have deepened.
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  Speaker 1: How grateful we are for Jesus who has blessed our
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  Speaker 1: past in such a magnificent way. Thank you. Now we
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  Speaker 1: look at where we are today, and we thank you also, Father,
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  Speaker 1: for the journey with us. You have gone every mile
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  Speaker 1: of the way. You have known every thought, every word,
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  Speaker 1: you have heard every song in our hearts as well
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  Speaker 1: as on our lips. Blessed rather be the man put
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  Speaker 1: to shame for me, And at this epical moment, we
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  Speaker 1: pause and ask for the ability to block out all
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  Speaker 1: other interruptive thoughts. That is, this piece of bread and
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  Speaker 1: this bit of juice are assimilated in our bodies. We
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  Speaker 1: will take them in remembrance of the man the God
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  Speaker 1: Man put to shame for me. As we look toward
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  Speaker 1: the future, we claim your presence and trust your mercies.
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  Speaker 1: We are grateful again for your amazing grace. We could
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  Speaker 1: not proceed another moment without it, nor would we try.
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  Speaker 1: We bless you for the memory of the journey. We
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  Speaker 1: bless you for the safety of the miles. We bless
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  Speaker 1: you for the significance of this moment, but most of
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  Speaker 1: all for the man put to shame, for me, for us,
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  Speaker 1: in the matchless name of Jesus, In the matchless name
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  Speaker 1: of Jesus, we take this bread and we drink this
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  Speaker 1: cup as we worship You, and all God's people said Amen.
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  Speaker 2: The preceding message, A Place for Pondering and Praise, was
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  Speaker 2: copyrighted in two thousand and eight, and the sound recording
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  Speaker 2: was copyrighted in twenty fifteen by Charles R. Swind All, Inc.
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  Speaker 2: All rights are reserved worldwide. In the preceding message, Charles R.
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  Speaker 2: Swind All Ink is grateful to Beckon Horst Press, Inc.
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  Speaker 2: For permission to use the musical arrangement of the hymn
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  Speaker 2: Thou Art Holy, copyrighted in nineteen eighty nine by Craig Courtney,
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  Speaker 2: based upon Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God Almighty, lyrics by
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  Speaker 2: Reginald Heber and music by John Bacchus Dykes