Tom Skinner - Sermon Untitled 4:00pm (February 8, 1976)

Download
- Rights
- No Re-Use
  In Copyright
  More Rights Info
- Files (2)
- MP3 Part 1
- MP3 Part 2
- Please be patient with media downloads. They are often large files.
Share

Embed Code
<iframe src='//idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4gf0nb45?embed=true' height='125px' width='100%' frameborder='0' marginwidth='0' marginheight='0' scrolling='no' allowfullscreen></iframe>
Permalink

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4gf0nb45
Skip to Item Info

Loading the media player...

Files for this Item

Transcript

Transcripts may contain inaccuracies.

	(choir singing)	0:16
-	Let us bow our heads for the invocation.	1:31
	Dear Lord,	1:39
	giver and sustainer of all life,	1:42
	we thy humble servants have come,	1:48
	at this appointed hour	1:52
	to worship thee in spirit and in truth.	1:53
	We come, O God,	1:59
	humbly seeking	2:03
	thy presence,	2:08
	seeking to draw nearer to thee,	2:11
	seeking to be more like thee.	2:15
	We ask, O God,	2:22
	that you would bless us in this worship experience,	2:23
	that whatever part we are to play we will be able to play it	2:29
	with the assistance of thy Holy Spirit,	2:34
	that the songs will be lifted from fervent hearts,	2:38
	that the Word will be preached	2:45
	from the power of thy Holy Spirit,	2:47
	that these songs, words, and prayers will go forth	2:51
	and find fruitful soil	2:54
	and bare fruit in our lives.	2:59
	This we pray in the name that is above every name,	3:03
	in the name of Jesus the Christ.	3:08
	Amen.	3:12
	For our opening congressional hymn would you join with us	3:15
	in singing What A Friend We Have In Jesus,	3:20
	number 261 in our hymnal.	3:25
	All our sins and griefs to bare,	3:29
	what a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer.	3:33
	Oh, what peace we often forfeit.	3:39
	Oh, what needless pain we bare all because we do not carry	3:43
	everything to God in prayer.	3:50
	Let us stand and sing together	3:54
	this wonderful hymn of praise.	3:56
	(choir singing)	4:11
	At this time we are happy to have two selections by	6:06
	the Damascus Road Experience	6:11
	followed by the scripture lesson by Brother Herald Spears.	6:15
	(soft singing)	7:06
	(choir singing softly)	11:18
-	Our scripture for the day is the 95th Psalm.	14:44
	"O come let us sing to the Lord,	14:49
	"let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.	14:51
	"Let us come into His presence with thanksgiving,	14:55
	"let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise.	14:57
	"For the Lord is a great God and a great king above all gods	15:01
	"and his are the depths of the earths	15:05
	"and the heights of the mountains are His also.	15:08
	"For the sea is His, for He made it,	15:10
	"for His hands formed the dry land.	15:13
	"Oh come, let us worship and bow down,	15:16
	"let us kneel before the Lord, Our Maker,	15:17
	"for He is our God and we are the people of His pasture	15:20
	"and the sheep of hand.	15:24
	"Owe that today you would hark into His voice.	15:26
	"Harden not your hearts as at Merrillville	15:30
	"as on the day is messiah in the wilderness	15:33
	"when your fathers tested me and put me to the proof,	15:36
	"though they had not seen my work.	15:39
	"For 40 years I loathed that generation and said,	15:42
	"there are people who air in heart	15:46
	"and they do not regard my ways,	15:48
	"therefore I swore my anger	15:51
	"that they should not enter my rest."	15:53
	Could we bow in prayer?	15:56
	Thank you dear Lord for all that you've done for us.	16:04
	Many of us have it so easy, many of us hard.	16:10
	We pray first of all Lord that	16:16
	you search each of our hearts, we all have concerns	16:20
	and that you lift our burden through Jesus.	16:24
	We also pray that	16:28
	you work through our institutions, our universities,	16:30
	and governments and clean out the hearts of those people,	16:33
	our nation.	16:40
	Lord, be with us always and we know you are.	16:44
	Help us not to harden out hearts so that	16:49
	we can't find that love that you're always giving us.	16:52
	Bless each and everyone of us Lord,	16:58
	bless us worshiping hearing.	17:01
	In the name of Jesus Christ.	17:04
	Amen.	17:07
-	This time we shall be favored my a number	17:13
	coming from the senior choir	17:18
	of the Russell Memorial CME Church of Durham,	17:20
	Reverend L.H. Welchol, the pastor.	17:23
	We are happy to have you and look forward to your part	17:26
	that you will play in the service at this time.	17:30
	(choir singing)	19:51
	It is a great privilege to introduce to some,	23:06
	but I'm sure present to most the speaker of the hour,	23:12
	the Dr. Tom Skinner,	23:17
	president of Tom Skinner Associates in Brooklyn, New York.	23:22
	Born in Harlem in 1942	23:28
	and since I was born in 1943,	23:32
	I feel he is a very young man.	23:35
	Now chairman of the board of Urban Ministries	23:39
	and member of the board of directors of Barrington College.	23:43
	The author of Black And Free,	23:47
	Words Of Revolution, How Black Is The Gospel,	23:50
	and his latest work,	23:56
	If Christ Is The Answer, What Are The Questions?	23:57
	Following this selection, Dr. Skinner will come	24:03
	to us as led of the spirit to bring the message of the hour.	24:07
	I would like to add to this service	24:17
	by singing to you a Negro spiritual,	24:23
	one that I love very much	24:28
	and one that I often sing.	24:34
	It's called Poor Pilgrim Of Sorrow	24:41
	and it gives you and I the opportunity to eavesdrop	24:50
	on someone who long ago and possibly even today,	24:58
	communicated with the Creator	25:03
	by singing this expression	25:10
	which is an out-pouring of one's spirit.	25:13
	I am a poor pilgrim of sorrow.	25:19
	♪ I ♪	25:31
	♪ Am a of pilgrim of sorrow ♪	25:35
	♪ I ♪	25:51
	♪ Lived in this wide world ♪	25:54
	♪ Alone ♪	25:59
	♪ No have I thought tomorrow ♪	26:16
	♪ Lord ♪	26:25
	♪ I'm just left in this wide world ♪	26:28
	♪ Alone ♪	26:36
	♪ My mother done gone on me ♪	26:49
	♪ My father still walking 'round here ♪	27:03
	♪ My prison relation ♪	27:10
	♪ Don't own me ♪	27:13
	♪ I'm ♪	27:19
	♪ Just left in this wide world ♪	27:23
	♪ Alone ♪	27:27
	♪ Sometimes I am talked about ♪	27:40
	♪ And driven ♪	27:48
	♪ So many times ♪	27:54
	♪ I don't know where to go ♪	27:58
	♪ Where to go ♪	28:05
	♪ Where to go ♪	28:08
	♪ I head out the sea ♪	28:13
	♪ For heaven ♪	28:16
	♪ And I'm trying big heaven my boat ♪	28:23
	♪ One day I'll get within my stay ♪	28:40
	♪ This old body be laid in ♪	28:49
	♪ The grave ♪	28:52
	♪ But I'm goin' on home with Jesus ♪	29:07
	♪ And then I'll never ♪	29:17
	♪ Know ♪	29:22
	♪ Sometimes ♪	29:31
	♪ I am tossed in the river ♪	29:35
	♪ So many times ♪	29:44
	♪ I don't know ♪	29:47
	♪ Where to go ♪	29:53
	♪ Where to go ♪	29:56
	♪ Where to go ♪	29:58
	♪ I didn't see ♪	30:03
	♪ I'm heading ♪	30:09
	♪ And I'm just a trying ♪	30:17
	♪ Everyday of my life ♪	30:24
	♪ I'm just trying ♪	30:26
	♪ Sometimes (mumbles) ♪	30:34
	♪ Sometimes I'm still trying ♪	30:41
	♪ To make heaven ♪	30:47
	♪ My home ♪	30:49
-	Thank you brother.	31:18
	That song reminds me of the history	31:25
	of the struggle of a people who developed	31:32
	an attitude about God out of their struggle.	31:34
	You see, what most people didn't realize was that	31:39
	when slavery existed in our country,	31:46
	most people pictured the slave as a docile individual	31:50
	who just kind of lived with his circumstances,	31:55
	but most of the spirituals that grew up out of slavery	32:01
	grew up out of a hard-nosed relationship both with God	32:04
	and a hard-nosed relationship with the circumstances	32:09
	that they encountered from day to another	32:13
	and often times the spirituals	32:15
	psyched out the people who were listening to them,	32:18
	example,	32:21
	you take a song like steal away,	32:24
	steal away all,	32:29
	I aint got long to stay here.	32:32
	Well you see, originally the song was the introduction	32:36
	or the basis for a prayer meeting	32:40
	and so when the slaves were down in the slave quarters	32:43
	and begin to sing, steal away, steal away	32:45
	steal aways long, a aint got long to stay here,	32:48
	the master back at the house got real excited	32:51
	because he knew that the slaves were	32:54
	gettin' together for a prayer meeting	32:57
	and stealing away meant stealing off into the secret closet	32:59
	where we were praying and prevail with God	33:02
	and it meant that,	33:04
	but it was also a code song,	33:07
	which also meant that tonight that Sister Tubman	33:10
	and the underground railroads coming through	33:13
	and we stealing out of here.	33:15
	(audience laughs)	33:16
	Or the take the song Wade in the Water.	33:21
	Wade in the water, God's gonna tumble the water	33:25
	and when folks got together and sang that	33:29
	that was baptismal song	33:31
	and whenever the folks were gonna have baptism	33:32
	they began a baptismal service by singing,	33:35
	wade in the water, wade in the water,	33:37
	God's gonna trouble the water.	33:39
	But it also had another meaning	33:42
	because you see the way the song really got started was	33:43
	that out in the slave fields,	33:48
	whenever the slave driver,	33:50
	the guy who was responsible for supervising	33:53
	the slave activities in the cotton fields would pass through	33:55
	when he got to the far end of the field,	34:00
	quite often a slave at the other end would take off	34:03
	and start running to freedom.	34:06
	Sometime later when the slave driver	34:10
	found out that a slave had escaped,	34:13
	he immediately made haste to the master's house	34:16
	to report that the slave was missing.	34:19
	The master immediately had someone go	34:23
	and get the dogs to track down the slave	34:26
	and the moment the dogs were sent for,	34:30
	a house slave who was working in the house	34:33
	would begin to sing wade in the water,	34:35
	wade in the water, God's gonna trouble the water	34:39
	and then the folks in the field would start singing,	34:42
	♪ Wade in the water ♪	34:45
	♪ Wade in the water children ♪	34:46
	♪ Wade in the water God's gonna trouble the water ♪	34:48
	and before long they would all be out there singing,	34:52
	wade in the water, wade in the water.	34:54
	Now of course, the master back at the house	34:56
	thought that revival was breaking out in the cotton fields	34:58
	and so he didn't pay too much to the singing,	35:01
	but the problem was that the singing was picked up	35:03
	and went from one plantation to another	35:06
	and slaves working in fields for miles	35:09
	would pick up the song and start singing,	35:11
	wade in the water, wade in the water	35:13
	God's gonna trouble the water	35:15
	when really the song was a signal	35:16
	to the slave who was escaping.	35:19
	The dogs are loose, make for the water,	35:21
	in order to throw off the scent.	35:23
	And so that the songs, the spirituals	35:25
	that grew up out of slavery had a double meaning.	35:27
	They grew up out of the hard-nosed reality	35:30
	of a relationship with God and the circumstances of slavery.	35:33
	Or songs like going home on the chariot in the morning,	35:38
	going home on the chariot in the morning.	35:41
	Of course, whenever the slave master heard the song	35:43
	he thought they were talking about he rapture,	35:45
	the great gettin' up morning	35:47
	when all the folks and saints would be gathered together	35:48
	and that was true, that was part of what it meant,	35:51
	but on the other hand, it also meant,	35:53
	come morning time master, we aint gonna be here.	35:55
	And so there all kinds of ways	35:58
	in which they dealt with their circumstances	36:00
	out of the songs that they sung.	36:02
	And I really appreciated hearing that.	36:06
	I'd like to take the time that we have left	36:13
	to share with you this afternoon some of the observations	36:19
	that I have made in the	36:23
	kind of world in which we live.	36:27
	And I don't think that there has ever been a period	36:32
	like the period in which we live in human history	36:35
	where a great number of people are looking	36:38
	for alternatives to the world's situation.	36:41
	And most people confess that they are frustrated	36:45
	in an attempt to put it together	36:48
	and an attempt to really discover what it's about.	36:51
	Back in my neighborhood, we have an expression	36:54
	whenever guys see each other, they walk up to each other	36:56
	and say, hey man what's happening?	36:58
	And everybody says, hey man what's happening,	37:00
	hey baby what's going on, what's happening?	37:02
	The reason everybody asks what's happening	37:03
	is 'cause nobody has the slightest idea what's happening.	37:04
	And it's very much like the world in which we live,	37:07
	most people really don't know what's going on.	37:10
	Most people are trying to put it together	37:12
	because it's like running into a guy back at my block	37:16
	and I ask him, how you doing brother?	37:18
	And he says, trying to get it together	37:20
	and about a week later, I run into him and say,	37:22
	hey brother how you doing?	37:24
	He says, trying to get it together.	37:25
	And about a month later I run into him again,	37:27
	and say, brother how you doing?	37:29
	He says, trying to get it together.	37:30
	Just one time, you'd like to run into him and hear him say,	37:32
	got it together, you know,	37:35
	because most people are spending their time	37:37
	tying to get it together.	37:40
	Trying to really discover what it's all about.	37:42
	And there are at least three issues that I have discovered	37:47
	that people are trying to overcome,	37:50
	they're trying to face.	37:53
	The first issue is the issue of identity.	37:54
	Where large numbers of people are trying to discover	37:57
	who in the world they are.	38:00
	Most people don't know who they are.	38:03
	Most people have never even answered the question,	38:05
	who am I, why am I alive, what do I exist for,	38:08
	and what the name of the game is for me?	38:11
	It's summed in the words of that	38:14
	great contemporary composer, Burt Bacharach	38:17
	in is description several years ago	38:20
	of a young man who goes from	38:22
	one bed experience after another,	38:24
	one trip out after another, one bottle after another.	38:26
	Finally wakes up one morning in a drunken stupor,	38:29
	looks himself square in the mirror and says,	38:33
	what's it all about Alfie?	38:36
	Who's going to sort it out Alfie?	38:39
	Is it just for the moment we live?	38:41
	Think about it for a moment,	38:47
	what is it really all about for you?	38:48
	Why are you alive?	38:51
	What difference does it make that you ever lived?	38:52
	Kid goes to his old man and says,	38:57
	hey dad, straight from the shoulders,	38:59
	I want the facts of life,	39:01
	what's it all about dad?	39:03
	Well son, it's all about going to school	39:05
	and getting a better education.	39:08
	Yeah, but why dad?	39:12
	Well, so son you'll be able to get a better job	39:14
	and make more money.	39:17
	Yeah, but what for dad?	39:20
	Oh, so son you'll be able to make the proper investments	39:21
	in the right stocks, securities, and bonds.	39:24
	Yeah, but dad why?	39:28
	Well, so son you'll be able to retire comfortably.	39:29
	Yeah, but dad what for? (chuckles)	39:34
	Well, so son you'll die and leave something.	39:35
	Now, as cynical as that may sound,	39:39
	that is what most people live for.	39:41
	That's the vicious cycle the world of which we live.	39:43
	We go to school to get a better education	39:45
	to get a better job to make more money	39:48
	to make the proper investments	39:50
	to make the right kind of retirement	39:52
	so that we can die and leave something	39:54
	and that becomes the sum total of most people's existence.	39:57
	In fact, you go up to most people on campus today	40:02
	and say, hey, what's going on, how you doin',	40:05
	what are you trying to accomplish?	40:08
	Man I'm just trying to get over.	40:10
	You ask people when they go to work from day to day,	40:14
	what are you doin', what are you working for man?	40:16
	I'm trying to make a living	40:19
	and everybody's out trying to make a living,	40:21
	everybody's gotta hustle.	40:23
	And the tragedy is while most of us	40:29
	hustle day by day to make a living,	40:32
	most of us never learn how to live,	40:34
	we spend our lives making a living	40:36
	and gorillas in the jungle make a living,	40:40
	and a gorilla eats more in one day	40:45
	than you and I eat in two months	40:46
	and I've never heard of a gorilla going to college	40:48
	to learn how to make a living.	40:51
	You see because anybody can work their way out of any	40:56
	of the bags that the system creates to get to their dinner,	40:59
	getting to your dinner is not the issue,	41:03
	the issue is not how to make a living,	41:05
	how do you live.	41:07
	And most people have never answered that question	41:12
	and they spend all of their lives, 60, 70, 80 years	41:14
	living without ever putting it together	41:18
	as to what it was really all about.	41:20
	Which is why a large number of people	41:32
	commit suicide in our society	41:35
	because they can't put it together.	41:39
	Large number of people live of a bottom of an alcohol bottle	41:41
	because they can't put it together.	41:45
	Large number of people escape through drugs	41:48
	because they can't put it together.	41:50
	They can't answer the question.	41:54
	There are five million chronic alcoholics in America	41:57
	who day by day are trying to get it together;	42:00
	who haven't answered the questions as to what it's all about	42:06
	and as people look within themselves	42:12
	they don't find answers.	42:14
	In fact, it might interest you to know	42:15
	that the professional group in America	42:17
	that has the highest rate of suicide are psychiatrists.	42:19
	That more psychiatrists as a professional group	42:24
	commit suicide than any other professional group in America	42:26
	because you see what introspective analysis does	42:30
	is that the more you look within yourself	42:32
	and analyze yourself and the more you analyze human nature	42:34
	the more disillusioned you get	42:37
	and the more the disillusion that leads to despair.	42:39
	And so people suffer an identity crisis,	42:49
	they don't know who they are.	42:51
	Try this, don't tell me your name,	42:53
	without telling me your name,	42:55
	who are you?	42:58
	And don't give me your address don't tell me where you live.	43:00
	Who are you?	43:06
	And don't tell me your vocation,	43:07
	don't say you're a student, a lawyer, an architect,	43:09
	or an engineer, or whatever it is.	43:12
	Don't tell me your a house-wife,	43:14
	or a truck driver, or a cab driver.	43:15
	Without telling me your name, your address,	43:19
	or what kind of work you do, who are you?	43:21
	Most people have difficulty with the answer.	43:27
	The second issue is the issue of community.	43:32
	Now once I found out who I am and what I'm about,	43:35
	the question is who are the people sitting next to me	43:40
	and what are they about?	43:42
	What is my responsibility to the people I live with	43:44
	and I work with and I have to relate to everyday?	43:48
	And the amazing part about it	43:51
	is that we are now 3/4 of the way through the 20th century	43:53
	and the number one issue in American society	43:56
	is still whether we can relate to each other.	43:59
	That we're still dived between young and old;	44:04
	we're still divided between labor and management;	44:08
	we're still divided between black and white;	44:11
	rich and poor; the educated and the uneducated.	44:13
	And the question is who's gonna bridge the gap?	44:18
	We all remember back in 1968	44:25
	during the presidential election that year	44:28
	when Richard Nixon was steam-rolling	44:32
	through the state of Ohio on the back of a Caboose car	44:34
	speaking to a crowd, we all remember that sign.	44:37
	There was the people gathered,	44:40
	this young girl held the sign high in the air	44:42
	that later became the beam of Mr. Nixon's campaign,	44:44
	bring us together again.	44:48
	Bring us together again.	44:52
	Because what that young girl was saying	44:55
	is that we need some kind of catalyst,	44:57
	we need somebody or something in the society	45:00
	that is able to bridge the gap	45:04
	between the powerful and the powerless,	45:05
	between the haves and the have-nots,	45:08
	between the educated and the uneducated,	45:11
	between the penniless and those with money,	45:14
	between the decision-makers and the people	45:17
	who only react to decisions.	45:20
	Who's gonna bring us together?	45:23
	Who's gonna bridge the gap that separates us?	45:28
	Now, we're in our 200th year in America,	45:34
	celebrating the bicentennial	45:36
	and of course, there're a great number of people	45:39
	who are hoping that the bicentennial will become the basis	45:41
	that would bring America together,	45:44
	that we'll all come together around	45:46
	celebrating our 200th birthday.	45:48
	And of course, there will be the familiar platitudes	45:52
	we'll be reminded of our great American heritage	45:55
	and we'll be reminded of the forefathers	45:58
	who fought and died for liberty and freedom	46:00
	and there'll be a revival	46:02
	of the old patriotic songs and hymns,	46:03
	but the question is will it really bring us together?	46:06
	That as we stand up in the bicentennial	46:13
	and we celebrate the land of the free	46:15
	and the home of the brave,	46:18
	I wonder which braves we're talking about	46:20
	when there're 500 thousand to a million	46:22
	of our Indian brothers in this country	46:25
	who've been raped, shot, pillaged, driven from their land	46:26
	and forced to live in isolated pockets called reservation.	46:30
	The home of which braves?	46:33
	Who will bring us together?	46:44
	And the tragedy, the tragedy is that most people today	46:46
	don't want to be bothered.	46:51
	In fact, most people don't even want to be reminded	46:52
	that we are divided.	46:55
	Folks say, speak to us good things,	46:57
	let's not stir up trouble, let's be positive.	47:00
	And if you look at the word community	47:09
	it's got at least three root words in it.	47:11
	It's got the word comm, C-O-M-M	47:14
	from which the get the base word commitment,	47:17
	it's got he word commun in it, C-O-M-M-U-N	47:20
	from which we get communion	47:24
	and it's got the word unity in it, U-N-I-T-Y	47:25
	which means singleness of preference.	47:28
	Where is there a model of people	47:34
	who are committed to each other,	47:36
	a group of people who are in common union with each other,	47:37
	a group of people which singleness of purpose,	47:41
	who have lived, who have entered into a covenant	47:43
	with each other to be the kind of people they ought to be?	47:46
	There will great platitudes like we ought to come together	47:58
	and love one and other,	48:01
	but how can you love people you don't know?	48:02
	People that we don't rub shoulders with,	48:06
	people we don't ache and bleed, hurt with	48:08
	and celebrate with and rejoice with and overcome with.	48:10
	The people who are gonna be the leaders of the future,	48:20
	the people who are going to be the outstanding leaders	48:23
	of the future are gonna be the people	48:25
	who can help people discover who they are	48:27
	and who can bring people together,	48:29
	but even in business today,	48:32
	they're discovering that while a great number	48:33
	of people are moving into management positions,	48:36
	who understand economics and they understand the bottom line	48:38
	and they understand return on investment	48:41
	and they can work out the kinds of economic decisions	48:43
	that need to be made to make a business go	48:46
	that businesses are deteriorating in America	48:49
	because they can't get people to work together	48:51
	and the people who are going to be	48:53
	the great leaders of the future are gonna be	48:54
	the people who can create in people the desire	48:56
	to want to share their lives with each other.	49:00
	How many folks do you know get up in the morning and say,	49:05
	can't wait to get to work today, wow?	49:08
	How many folk do you know come home at the end of the day	49:13
	say, had an exciting time on the job today,	49:16
	can't wait until tomorrow?	49:19
	Most people are bored stiff with their work,	49:23
	they can't stand what they do	49:25
	and they can't stand the people they work with.	49:27
	Who's gonna bring us together?	49:33
	The third issue is the issue of power,	49:39
	P-O-W-E-R because once I find out who I am	49:43
	and once I found out what my responsibility	49:46
	to other people is, how do I do it?	49:49
	You see, it has never been a question in American society	49:55
	of knowing right from wrong.	49:59
	Most of us have the intellectual capacity to analyze	50:01
	and sort out what is right and what is wrong,	50:04
	but we don't have the power to pull it off.	50:07
	Even our four fathers, when they wrote 200 years ago,	50:13
	that all men are born and created equal endowed	50:17
	by their creator with certain inalienable rights	50:19
	and among them life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,	50:22
	I have no problem believing	50:25
	that they were sincere when they wrote those words,	50:28
	but they could not pull it off, they couldn't do it.	50:30
	In fact, when Tom Jefferson wrote,	50:35
	"all men are created equal endowed by their creator	50:37
	with their certain inalienable rights"	50:40
	he would of had his mind blown in two or three dozen	50:42
	of his slaves would have said, me too.	50:45
	Because while he was committed to that for himself	50:50
	he was not committed to his slaves,	50:52
	he was powerless to make that happen for everybody.	50:54
	Where will we get the power to be where we want to be?	51:04
	How many times have you run into people	51:10
	after committing some kind of act of violence	51:13
	will certainly say, I don't know what got into me.	51:16
	How many times have you read the news paper	51:21
	where some tragedy took place between one human and an other	51:23
	and the person replies, I don't know what made me do it.	51:27
	What he's saying is, I lost control,	51:30
	I'm powerless to control myself,	51:33
	to control my own future, my own destiny.	51:35
	Where will we get the power from to control ourselves?	51:48
	It is summed up in the words	51:55
	of a man who lived about 30 years after Jesus,	52:00
	the Apostle Paul.	52:03
	In the sixth chapter Romans he puts it's this way,	52:06
	he says, "the will to do is present with me,	52:08
	"in my mind I know precisely what I ought to be,	52:11
	"I know what kind of human being I ought to be,	52:14
	"I know the kind of person that God created me to be.	52:16
	"In my mind I want to be what God wants me to be	52:21
	"and I want to live up to my full potential,"	52:24
	but he says, "how to do that I can't not discover."	52:27
	He says, "that which I don't want to do, I do it	52:31
	and that which I do want to do, I don't do it."	52:34
	He said, "I find another law present with me	52:37
	"that when I would do good, evil is present."	52:40
	In other words he is saying I don't have control,	52:45
	I don't have the power to even be what I want to be.	52:47
	Have you ever sat down January 1st	52:53
	and made New Years resolutions	52:56
	and broke 3/4 of them by January 3rd?	52:59
	Because you found yourself powerless	53:03
	to live up to your own standards, your own demands?	53:05
	That's what Paul is saying, Paul is saying,	53:09
	that "everything I want to do, I can't do it	53:11
	"and that which I don't want to do, I do it.	53:13
	"I find myself powerless"	53:15
	and then he makes a fantastic statement he says,	53:17
	"what a messed up person I am.	53:20
	"who will deliver me from the body of this death?"	53:24
	Now the body of his death is very interesting.	53:29
	You see, during Roman days when a man committed a murder	53:32
	and they caught up with him,	53:35
	they chained him back to back of the dead, stinking corpse	53:37
	of the man he killed and he literally had to carry	53:41
	on his back the dead corpse of the man he murdered	53:44
	until somebody liberated him.	53:47
	The Apostle Paul is saying, there's like a dead man on me,	53:51
	there's a dead corpse on me and that every time	53:54
	I try to lift myself to be the kind of person	53:57
	I know God wants me to be,	54:00
	there's like this dead corpse keeps dragging me	54:02
	back to the common level that I do not seem	54:05
	to have the ability to shake it.	54:08
	It's what the drug addict calls the monkey on his back.	54:13
	You see an addict who is taking hard drugs	54:17
	can kick the habit in 72 hours	54:21
	with what we call cold turkey.	54:24
	You take him, tie him to a bed	54:27
	so he can't break loose, cover him with warm blankets	54:30
	because after 24 hours he's gonna reach a high fever.	54:33
	You feed him with dextrose and simple sugar	54:37
	because he won't be able to keep anything on his stomach,	54:39
	he will be regurgitating all the time.	54:42
	He will scream and beg you to let him go,	54:44
	he will cry out and as hard for another shot,	54:46
	but if you hold him and keep him there after 72 hours,	54:49
	the fever will break and subside	54:52
	and he will physically have extricated himself	54:54
	from the drug.	54:57
	As soon as you let him go, he takes to the street,	54:58
	he will look for anther drug pusher and take anther shot,	55:01
	because while he has kicked the physical habit,	55:04
	he's not been able to kick the psychological habit,	55:07
	the monkey on his back and what Paul is saying	55:10
	is that there is a monkey on my back,	55:13
	there is something that keeps me from being	55:15
	what God wants me to be.	55:17
	He says, "who will deliver me	55:23
	from the body of this death?"	55:26
	And then amazingly he answers his own question,	55:30
	he says, "I thank God through Jesus Christ."	55:35
	Now the question is how does he arrive at Jesus?	55:42
	I mean of all the possible solutions in the world today,	55:46
	of all the possible alternatives,	55:50
	of all the things that a person can do to discover	55:52
	his identity, to live in community,	55:55
	to have the power to be what the ought to be, why Jesus?	55:57
	Well let me suggest to you that he arrives at Jesus	56:02
	by the process of elimination.	56:05
	Nothing else works.	56:08
	Nothing else works.	56:11
	If you don't believe it, check it out.	56:13
	Look at the alternatives that our society has tried.	56:17
	First the society said,	56:20
	hey there's a way to get folks together,	56:22
	there's a way to change the course of history,	56:24
	there's a way to put things back together again.	56:26
	It's economic.	56:28
	All we have to do is supply enough money	56:29
	to the problems of the world and that will solve it.	56:32
	If we can get enough money in people pockets,	56:36
	that will solve the problem, it's economic, they said.	56:38
	Now, part of some solutions are economic	56:45
	but the situation in our society is not economic.	56:48
	We are today the most affluent society	56:55
	in the history of man.	56:58
	We throw away in the garbage pails	57:02
	what the rest of the world would like to have for dinner.	57:04
	We burn and waste more fuel and more energy,	57:10
	we waste more things in our society in the name of freedom	57:14
	and democracy than any nation of the face of the Earth.	57:18
	In fact, we in the United States only make up 13%	57:21
	of the total population of the world	57:25
	and we consume more than 65% of it's resources.	57:27
	We're an affluent society.	57:33
	But has it solved our problem?	57:36
	Has it put us back together again?	57:38
	Has it told us who we are?	57:40
	Do we know how to relate to each other	57:41
	with all of our affluent?	57:43
	Do we have the power to be what we ought to be?	57:45
	Of the 37, or rather of the 52 thousand Americans	57:54
	who committed suicide last year	57:58
	the average income among those 53 thousand Americans	58:01
	was $37,500 a year.	58:04
	Now a person ought to be able to squeeze by on 37 thou,	58:09
	he might have to miss a couple meals,	58:14
	you know, tighten his belt a little,	58:18
	but he ought to squeeze by.	58:20
	Yet, 52 thousand Americans said in spite of the fact	58:23
	that they lived in the top 2% tax of income bracket	58:27
	of most Americans, it was not enough	58:31
	to give them a reason for living.	58:34
	It's kinda funny you know,	58:40
	in the late 60s and early 70s	58:42
	we ran into this rich kid you know.	58:46
	He was tying and gagging the president of his college.	58:49
	Ransacking the files, took over the administration building.	58:52
	Remember your brothers and sisters when that yeah.	58:56
	And they were into that man	58:59
	and when they arrested this kid man, he had Carte Blanche,	59:01
	American Express, and Dyna Club cards in his pocket.	59:05
	He had charge cards to the major department stores in town,	59:08
	he was driving his first T-Bird	59:12
	when the average poor kid was trying	59:15
	to get his first bicycle.	59:17
	Now what was his problem?	59:19
	These kids who were leaving home,	59:21
	cutting out on their parents,	59:22
	going to live in Greenwich Village	59:24
	and Sunset Strip and other places;	59:25
	they want no part of their life of their parents,	59:28
	they were coping out, leaving home, running away,	59:30
	tripping out on drugs, they had money.	59:33
	They came from wealthy homes, what was their problem?	59:35
	Because they discovered that economics doesn't do it.	59:44
	And they discovered that all of that wealthy accumulation	59:50
	that their parents had made was not really for them.	59:54
	Of course, you see, parents were tricky,	59:56
	parents wanted have all those things	59:59
	and they told their kids that we built all this for you.	1:00:00
	We moved out here and built this fine house and big lawn	1:00:04
	and swimming pool and summer cottage all for you.	1:00:07
	And the kid was saying, I never wanted it.	1:00:12
	It was you I wanted and you were so busy building that,	1:00:14
	you gave me no time.	1:00:16
	I don't want your money.	1:00:20
	Money hasn't put us together, hasn't solved our problem.	1:00:25
	So the second thing we came up with was education.	1:00:33
	We said that all we had to do is produce	1:00:35
	a more informed society and that would solve our problem.	1:00:37
	We are the most educated society	1:00:41
	in the whole history of man.	1:00:41
	Information in our country doubles now every six years,	1:00:44
	by 1980 is will double every three years.	1:00:47
	Last semesters text book is already obsolete this semester	1:00:50
	because of the fantastic increase in knowledge,	1:00:54
	90% of all the scientists	1:00:58
	who ever lived are alive right now	1:01:01
	and the average student who graduates from high school	1:01:04
	knows more about the physical laws of the universe	1:01:07
	than the greatest scientist knew 25 years ago.	1:01:10
	We are informed, but with all of our information	1:01:16
	why can't we destroy poverty?	1:01:21
	Why can't we wipe out racism?	1:01:22
	With all of our information why can't we eliminate war?	1:01:24
	Why can't we bring people together?	1:01:27
	Keep in mind that the people who make decisions	1:01:35
	to drop bombs on people are educated.	1:01:38
	The people who have created a situation	1:01:42
	which allow half the world to go to bed	1:01:44
	hungry every night are educated.	1:01:46
	The people in this country who decide	1:01:50
	that it is alright to spent $90 billion	1:01:52
	on weapons and missiles,	1:01:55
	but who do away with programs like Head Start	1:01:57
	and other programs who help poor people who wipe that out,	1:02:00
	those are educated people who say	1:02:03
	that missiles are better than eduction,	1:02:05
	that bombs are better than food,	1:02:08
	that weapons are better than the right to people to eat,	1:02:10
	educated people make that decision.	1:02:14
	I'm sorry it doesn't solve the problem.	1:02:21
	And so we came up with a third solution.	1:02:28
	The third solution was religion.	1:02:32
	We said if we could simply give people something to believe,	1:02:35
	a song to sing, a flag to wave, a creed to believe,	1:02:38
	that would solve our problem.	1:02:41
	So we came up with good old Americanized religion.	1:02:44
	We said, I'm for God, country, motherhood,	1:02:47
	the girl back home and apple pie.	1:02:50
	We put God's name on our money, in God we trust,	1:02:53
	we stuck his name in the solute to the flag,	1:02:56
	one nation under God, we even put bumper stickers on our car	1:02:58
	saying, support God and country, as they go together	1:03:02
	and some people even went so far as to assume	1:03:07
	that the vision that John say was the American dream	1:03:10
	and we got it all mixed up.	1:03:15
	And so we all hustle, you see, and in this bicentennial year	1:03:18
	people are gonna be running around, you know,	1:03:21
	God bless America and all the rest	1:03:22
	and trying to create a civil religion	1:03:24
	which will not rescue us because it hasn't rescued us	1:03:26
	in 200 years.	1:03:30
	We got churches on every street corner,	1:03:36
	we got more than 65 major denominations and religions	1:03:40
	in American society, we are religious.	1:03:43
	Most people go to some church	1:03:48
	or synagogue once a week, we're religious,	1:03:50
	but has it brought us together?	1:03:58
	The same men who sit down in church on Sunday morning	1:04:01
	go back to their boards of directors	1:04:05
	and their executive offices and make decisions	1:04:07
	that oppress people.	1:04:09
	The same people who stand up in church	1:04:13
	and sing we are one in the spirit,	1:04:16
	we are one in the Lord, put up their for sale signs	1:04:19
	and move out the neighborhood when different people move in.	1:04:21
	Same folks.	1:04:24
	Religion hasn't solved our problem,	1:04:28
	hasn't done a thing for America.	1:04:30
	So you see it brings us back	1:04:37
	to the front door of Jesus again	1:04:38
	who says, "I am the way, truth, life,	1:04:41
	no man comes to the father but by me."	1:04:47
	You say, wait a minute Tom, you got me confused.	1:04:49
	You just stood up there and said that religion	1:04:51
	hasn't done anything for America	1:04:53
	and you keep laying this Jesus thing on us.	1:04:55
	Now make up your mind,	1:04:57
	either religion is an answer or it isn't.	1:04:58
	Or you see there is a difference between Jesus and religion.	1:05:02
	Religion is that which a person feels	1:05:09
	to be of ultimate value in taking action in the light of it.	1:05:11
	So you could be a communist, a Hindu, Methodist,	1:05:16
	Baptist, Predestinarian, agnostic, or atheist	1:05:18
	and be religious.	1:05:21
	Whatever is of ultimate reality or ultimate value to you	1:05:23
	and the action you take in light of it,	1:05:27
	that becomes your religion.	1:05:29
	I wouldn't cross the street	1:05:33
	to get you interested in religion,	1:05:34
	but I would walk around the world to get you interested	1:05:38
	in Jesus and what he is about,	1:05:41
	because Jesus is not a religion, Jesus is a person	1:05:43
	and he is the only person who ever broke through	1:05:47
	into the human scene who was both the truth	1:05:50
	about God and the truth about man.	1:05:53
	If you want to know what God is like,	1:05:55
	you have to check Jesus out and if you want to know	1:05:57
	what man is suppose to be like,	1:06:00
	you have to check Jesus out.	1:06:01
	See a great number of people then take you into the bag,	1:06:08
	but what about other religions.	1:06:10
	Surely there must be other religions	1:06:12
	superior Christianity, that's true.	1:06:14
	There probably other religions superior	1:06:17
	to the Christian religion.	1:06:20
	And if you laid Christianity down next to Zoroastrious,	1:06:22
	Zoroastrianism down to Confucianism, down next to Buddhism,	1:06:26
	down next to Hinduism, down next to Mohammedanism,	1:06:29
	I'm almost positive that maybe one of those religions	1:06:33
	will be superior.	1:06:36
	But if we set the religions aside	1:06:39
	and put the personalities involved next to each other	1:06:41
	so that we lay Jesus down next to Mohammed	1:06:45
	and Mohammed down next to Confucius	1:06:47
	and Confucius down next to Zoroastria,	1:06:49
	there aint no comparison because I can take you	1:06:52
	to the grave yards of them other dudes.	1:06:55
	(audience laughing and applauding)	1:06:57
	So what we're talking about is not a religion,	1:07:06
	we're talking about a person	1:07:09
	who is prepared to become the alternative.	1:07:11
	And so Jesus says to a society that has lost it's way,	1:07:17
	doesn't know who it is, doesn't know how to relate,	1:07:21
	and is powerless, Jesus says,	1:07:24
	come on to me all you that labor	1:07:25
	and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.	1:07:27
	Now, when I first heard that I use to say,	1:07:32
	well man, I can't see the Christian thing	1:07:34
	because you see my impression of being Christian was	1:07:36
	that Christians were people who carried around	1:07:39
	in their pockets a bunch of rules and regulations.	1:07:41
	Don't do this, stay away from that,	1:07:44
	don't touch that, don't go near that and for Gods.	1:07:46

-	The word Christian is spelled	0:02
	C-H-R-I-S-T	0:04
	Christ.	0:08
	I-A-N, in.	0:09
	Christ in you.	0:14
	Living his own life through you	0:17
	without any help or assistance from you.	0:20
	Because Jesus Christ does not need your help	0:24
	to be Jesus Christ.	0:27
	All he needs is your availability.	0:29
	And what a difference, because soon I learned	0:33
	that instead of me breaking my neck trying to be good	0:35
	and trying to be holy	0:38
	and trying to get power	0:39
	and trying to overcome my identity crisis	0:40
	and get rid of my sin,	0:43
	I soon found out that when Jesus Christ	0:44
	was nailed to the cross	0:46
	and when He rose again from the dead,	0:48
	He rose again from the dead to live a new life in me.	0:50
	You know it's like,	0:56
	it's like taking a bunch of small, green peas.	0:58
	Puttin' 'em out on the table	1:00
	and then deciding that you wanna have split pea soup.	1:03
	So you get yourself an ax to split the peas, and go.	1:06
	(exhales)	1:10
	Hey God, there's go to be an easier way.	1:13
	(grunts)	1:16
	And God says there is, why don't you quit trying.	1:17
	Because what most people do	1:20
	is they look at their sins and they say,	1:21
	ah, I got hate in my life.	1:24
	And they go out there to chop away at that hate.	1:25
	And they bang and bang and bang,	1:27
	and after about five years they get rid of the hate	1:29
	only to discover they have jealousy.	1:31
	(inhales)	1:33
	And they go over here and bang away at the jealousy.	1:34
	(groans)	1:36
	Only to discover that they envy.	1:37
	Oh my!	1:39
	And they go through their whole lives	1:40
	chopping away at sins in their lives,	1:41
	wearing themselves out.	1:43
	Or the folks who say, you know	1:49
	I'm trying real hard to crucify myself	1:50
	so I can be Christian.	1:53
	You ever try to crucify yourself?	1:56
	Try it.	1:59
	Imagine that there's a cross behind you, okay?	2:00
	And I got some big spikes and a hammer,	2:04
	and I'm gonna crucify myself,	2:06
	so I take the, put my hand up on the cross,	2:09
	and I take the spikes and I run my hand into it,	2:11
	and then I nail the spikes into my left hand,	2:14
	so now I have my left hand nailed to the cross.	2:17
	Can you explain to me	2:28
	how with my left hand nailed to the cross,	2:30
	I'm gonna get the right one up there,	2:33
	or how I'm gonna nail my feet?	2:36
	You see, of all the forms of suicide that you can commit,	2:38
	you can not crucify yourself.	2:42
	You can shoot yourself, stab yourself, poison yourself,	2:45
	drown yourself, and with some ingenuity	2:48
	you can hang yourself.	2:50
	You can not crucify yourself.	2:52
	Crucifixion must be performed by an outside party.	2:55
	Nineteen hundred years ago	2:59
	when Jesus was nailed to the cross,	3:00
	the Bible says he took your sin and my sin	3:03
	and put in up on the cross with him,	3:05
	so that when Jesus Christ was nailed to the cross	3:07
	you and I were too, all of our sins.	3:09
	And once you understand that, then you're on the way	3:15
	to solving your identity crisis	3:18
	because then you understand it is the simple process	3:19
	of coming to Jesus and saying	3:22
	Lord, I hereby renounce all rights to myself	3:24
	and I give you the right to own me, to run my life.	3:28
	And the Bible says that Jesus Christ then	3:31
	takes up residence in you.	3:33
	And begins to fulfill his destiny and his purpose in you,	3:36
	rather than you trying to be like him.	3:40
	And it will change the way you pray.	3:44
	Oh God, Lord, I'm so weak.	3:48
	Oh Jesus please give me more strength and more power.	3:53
	Have you every prayed that prayer?	3:58
	Have you ever asked God for more strength and more power?	3:59
	Let me see your hand.	4:02
	You ever prayed that?	4:03
	That's a dumb prayer.	4:06
	(congregation laughs)	4:08
	It's wrong.	4:10
	Because when Jesus Christ got up out of the grave,	4:13
	Jesus Christ said all power is given unto me	4:15
	in Heaven and in Earth.	4:20
	And Hebrews chapter one says	4:21
	Jesus Christ upholds all things by the word of His power.	4:22
	When you invite Jesus Christ to take over your life,	4:28
	where does Jesus go?	4:31
	Where does Jesus go?	4:35
	This is a Black church meeting, you can answer back.	4:37
	(congregation laughs)	4:40
	Where does Jesus go.	4:43
-	In your heart.	4:44
-	In you, right, Jesus comes in you.	4:45
	What else do you have in you?	4:48
-	Power.	4:51
	So why you praying for more power?	4:52
	Oh God, Lord, I need more love.	4:57
	So much hate in my life, oh God, more love. (chuckles)	5:03
	(congregation laughs)	5:07
-	Another dumb prayer.	5:11
	God is love, and when you trust Jesus to take over your life	5:14
	where does God go?	5:19
	(congregation murmurs)	5:21
	In you. Therefore what else do you have in you?	5:22
-	Love.	5:25
-	So why you praying for more love?	5:25
	Oh God, I have such a short fuse.	5:30
	I keep blowing my stack all the time.	5:33
	Oh God, patience.	5:35
	Oh Jesus give me more patience Lord. (giggles)	5:37
	(congregation laughs)	5:42
	The Bible says the fruit of the spirit is	5:46
	patience.	5:50
	And when you trust Jesus, where does he go?	5:51
	In you.	5:54
	Therefore, what else do you have?	5:55
	Patience.	5:57
	And so instead of getting up every day and saying	5:59
	Lord, give me more love and more power and more patience,	6:01
	you begin the day by saying,	6:05
	Lord, I thank you for the fact that today you want	6:06
	me to show love, and you want me to exhibit your power,	6:09
	and you want me to show strength and patience.	6:12
	I don't have what it takes,	6:16
	but I thank you for the fact that you are patience,	6:18
	and you are strength, and you are love, and you are in me,	6:20
	so today I am going to trust you	6:24
	to be my love and my patience and my strength.	6:28
	And He pulls it off.	6:33
	And so I gave my life to Him.	6:38
	I now know who I am.	6:41
	I am God's son.	6:45
	I am a member of the Royal Family of God	6:47
	that puts me in the best family stock	6:49
	there is in all the world.	6:51
	I am a member of the Royal Family of God.	6:54
	I know who I am.	6:58
	Nobody else has to identify me.	7:01
	I don't wait for other people to tell me who I am.	7:03
	I don't need other people to define me.	7:05
	I define myself by virtue of who God says I am.	7:09
	I am God's son.	7:12
	I now know what my responsibility to other people is.	7:16
	All I ask of people that God	7:19
	brings me into relationship with,	7:21
	all I ask of them is that they give me	7:23
	the privilege to love them,	7:25
	whether they love me back or not is totally unimportant	7:26
	because I derive enough love	7:29
	from my relationship with Jesus Christ	7:31
	to love them without needing them to love me back.	7:33
	And the beautiful part about it is	7:39
	I've got the power now to pull it off.	7:40
	The life I now live in the flesh	7:44
	I live by the faith of the Son of God	7:47
	who gave Himself for me.	7:50
	That becomes the basis by which God	7:53
	wants to put together the new community	7:55
	to shape the world in which we live.	7:58
	So take people by virtue of their willingness	8:01
	to renounce all rights to themselves	8:03
	and hand their lives over to Jesus Christ	8:05
	to send you into a world that doesn't know who they are,	8:09
	with you knowing who you are.	8:12
	In a world that is not together,	8:13
	God wants to bring together a group of people	8:15
	who by virtue of their commitment to Christ	8:18
	will be prepared to lay their lives down for each other	8:20
	and show the world what it looks like	8:23
	when people really care.	8:25
	And then to send us into the world	8:29
	by the power of God to destroy the works of the Devil,	8:31
	hunger, poverty, war, violence,	8:34
	racism, prejudice, bigotry.	8:37
	And for us together as the people of God	8:42
	to become the examples that other people	8:44
	can look at and say,	8:46
	those people have been with Jesus.	8:48
	So when Burt Bacharach asks	8:57
	what's it all about, that's what it's about.	8:59
	What it's about is that God's got his own agenda,	9:04
	God's doin' his own thing.	9:06
	And so now when the guy comes up to me and says,	9:09
	What's happening Tom?	9:12
	I say got it together.	9:13
	Let me close with this illustration and we'll pray.	9:18
	The old Roman soldiers used to go into battle	9:22
	but they had a problem	9:24
	because the gear that they wore didn't fit.	9:25
	The breastplate was wacky, the helmet was wacky,	9:29
	and the equipment was loose on the body,	9:32
	and so the Roman's had to come up with a way	9:34
	to get the equipment on their body to fit snugly together.	9:36
	And so the Romans invented the girdle long before Playtex.	9:40
	And the girdle was worn around the waist,	9:46
	and it had straps onto it,	9:48
	and the straps were connected to their equipment,	9:49
	and then tied at their loins at the center of their body	9:52
	so that the equipment fit snugly on their bodies	9:55
	so that they could run into battle,	9:57
	which is why Paul said	9:59
	put on the whole armor of God	10:00
	and have yourself girdled with truth.	10:02
	Well, you see, you and I are like the Roman soldiers.	10:06
	We have equipment.	10:10
	We have mind, body, emotions and spirit,	10:11
	but they're all going off in different directions.	10:14
	My body wants to do one thing,	10:16
	my mind wants to do something else,	10:17
	my emotions are climbing the wall,	10:19
	and according to the spirit,	10:20
	according to the scripture,	10:21
	my spirit is dead without Christ.	10:23
	And so God says what you need	10:26
	is a girdle to bring that together,	10:28
	and the girdle is the truth.	10:30
	In other words,	10:31
	what the Bible is saying is	10:32
	bring to the center of your being truth	10:33
	in order to tie your equipment together	10:36
	so you can be a whole person having it together.	10:39
	And the question is who is the truth?	10:43
	That brings us back to Jesus again.	10:46
	Who says I am the way, truth, light.	10:49
	And Jesus becomes the person at the center of our lives	10:55
	that brings our mind, and our body,	10:58
	and our emotions and our spirit together,	11:00
	so that we can become a whole person.	11:03
	And as whole people, to go out into a broken world,	11:06
	and offer that world the healing of Jesus Christ.	11:10
	That's what it's about.	11:16
	And I pray that if you have never put it together	11:18
	in your life,	11:21
	that today will begin the day in which you	11:24
	discover Jesus Christ and let Him own you.	11:25
	Shall we pray?	11:30
	Father, we thank you today for the privilege	11:34
	of meeting together.	11:37
	We thank you for your word,	11:40
	and we pray as the result of what you have said to us	11:43
	that none of us will leave this place the same.	11:46
	And we pray that you will send us into a world	11:50
	that's broken and divided and oppressive and violent	11:52
	and full of war to be your vehicles of peace,	11:57
	to destroy the works of the Devil,	12:03
	to the building up of your Kingdom.	12:06
	We ask it in Jesus' name.	12:09
	(pianist plays "Let God Abide")	13:47
	♪ If you are a witness ♪	14:19
	♪ Let God abide ♪	14:23
	♪ If you've been converted ♪	14:28
	♪ Let God abide ♪	14:32
	♪ If you're sure you know him ♪	14:37
	♪ If He walks by your side ♪	14:41
	♪ You'll get the answer to every problem ♪	14:46
	♪ If you let God abide ♪	14:50
	♪ Within your soul, within your soul ♪	14:55
	♪ Within your soul, within your soul ♪	14:59
	♪ Within your soul, within your soul ♪	15:03
	♪ Deep within, deep down within ♪	15:08
	♪ He'll hear your call, He'll hear your call ♪	15:12
	♪ He'll never let you fall, He won't let you fall ♪	15:16
	♪ You'll gain the victory, victory, victory ♪	15:20
	♪ If you let God abide, let God abide ♪	15:24
	♪ When loved ones deceive you ♪	15:29
	♪ Let God abide ♪	15:33
	♪ When friends don't believe you ♪	15:37
	♪ Let God abide ♪	15:42
	♪ When storm clouds arise ♪	15:46
	♪ And trouble betides ♪	15:50
	♪ You'll find Him standing, right by your side ♪	15:55
	♪ If you let Him abide ♪	15:59
	♪ Within your soul, within your soul ♪	16:03
	♪ Within your soul, within your soul ♪	16:08
	♪ Within your soul, within your soul ♪	16:12
	♪ Deep within, deep down within ♪	16:16
	♪ He'll hear your call, He'll hear your call ♪	16:20
	♪ He'll never let you fall, He won't let you fall ♪	16:24
	♪ You'll gain the victory, victory, victory ♪	16:28
	♪ If you let God abide, if you let God abide ♪	16:32
	♪ Your pathway he'll brighten ♪	16:36
	♪ Let God abide ♪	16:41
	♪ All wrongs he will light up ♪	16:45
	♪ Let God abide ♪	16:49
	♪ He'll keep joy bells ringing ♪	16:53
	♪ Deep down in your heart ♪	16:57
	♪ Whatever betides you, he's there to guide you ♪	17:02
	♪ If you let God abide ♪	17:06
	♪ Within your soul, within your soul ♪	17:10
	♪ Within your soul, within your soul ♪	17:14
	♪ Within your soul, within your soul ♪	17:19
	♪ Deep within, deep down within ♪	17:23
	♪ He'll hear your call, He'll hear your call ♪	17:27
	♪ He'll never let you fall, He won't let you fall ♪	17:30
	♪ You'll gain the victory, victory, victory ♪	17:35
	♪ If you let God abide, if you let God abide ♪	17:38
	♪ Within your soul, within your soul ♪	17:43
	♪ Within your soul, within your soul ♪	17:47
	♪ Within you soul, within your soul ♪	17:51
	♪ Deep within, deep down within ♪	17:55
	♪ He'll hear your call, He'll hear your call ♪	17:59
	♪ He'll never let you fall, He won't let you fall ♪	18:03
	♪ You'll gain the victory, victory, victory ♪	18:07
	♪ If you let God abide, if you let God abide ♪	18:11
-	Can we stand together as we're dismissed.	19:18
	Our Father, we are grateful	19:26
	for the opportunity to share this time together.	19:31
	Now we pray that you will send us forth into the world	19:35
	to be the alternative.	19:41
	To be the live models of what you are doing.	19:44
	And we pray that the world will never be the same	19:49
	because we passed this way.	19:52
	We ask it in Jesus' name.	19:55
	Amen.	19:58

Item Info

Title:

Tom Skinner - Sermon Untitled 4:00pm (February 8, 1976)

Description:

As humans we are constantly trying to hold things together and not allow our lives to crumble beneath us. In this struggle there are three primary issues we are trying to overcome: 1.) The issue of identity––Who am I?; 2.) The issue of community––Who are those around me, and what is my responsibility to them?; and 3.) The issue of power––How am I to live how I ought to live? Though we have attempted many solutions to these problems––Money, Education, Religion, etc.––the only true solution is the person of Jesus Christ, who is the way, the truth, and the life. (Abstract created by Duke Divinity School staff.)
Sermon start time: (Part 1) 31:18. Sermon end time: (Part 2) 12:13.
Key quotation: “I mean of all the possible solutions in the world today, of all the possible alternatives, of all the things that a person can do to discover his identity, to live in community, to have power to be what he ought to be, why Jesus?...Nothing else works.”

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4gf0nb45

Date:

February 8, 1976

Speaker:

Skinner, Tom, 1942-

Biblical Book:

Psalms

Chapter and Verse:

Psalms 95

Subject:

Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 RR-0818
ref6836_gpq
uachapelsermaud
duke:320803
dcrau001815
ark:/87924/r4gf0nb45
aefa77fa-a47d-4e6f-90fa-d85a032c681d

Digital Collection:

Duke Chapel Recordings

Source Collection:

Duke University Chapel recordings

Related Resources:

See below

Language:

English

Location:

United States
North Carolina
Durham (N.C.)

Format:

Provenance:

The Duke University Chapel Recordings were transferred to the Duke University Archives beginning in 1970.

Rights:

No Re-Use

In Copyright

Rights Note:

This material is made available for research, scholarship, and private study. Copyright in this material has not been transferred to Duke University. For reuses of this material beyond those permitted by fair use or otherwise allowed under the Copyright Act, please see our page on copyright and citations: https://library.duke.edu/rubenstein/research/citations-and-permissions.

Sponsor:

Sponsor this Digital Collection

Tom Skinner - Sermon Untitled 4:00pm (February 8, 1976)

Transcript

Item Info

1. Tom Skinner - "A sermon" (February 8, 1976)

2. Tom Skinner - Sermon Untitled 11:00am (February 8, 1976)

Duke University Archives

Tom Skinner - Sermon Untitled 4:00pm (February 8, 1976)

Transcript

Item Info

Related Items

Duke University Archives