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there was
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thank you sharon and gene i think you
worked very hard at that this week
it was beautiful thank you welcome to
worship this evening it's good to be
gathered together we welcome those
joining us
online and can't but look forward to the
day when all these restrictions and
limitations will be over
and we'll be able to worship again as as
before
but until then we exercise the patient's
muscle
and we accept whatever gifts we can get
from the lord through this time
the lord calls us to worship this
evening in the book of psalms
psalm number 69 at verse 30
where we read i will praise the name of
god with a song
i will magnify him with thanksgiving
this will please the lord more than an
ox or a bull with horns and hoofs
when the humbles see it they will be
glad
you who seek god let your hearts
revive well we trust our being together
we'll fulfill that and we'll have a a
reviving
of our hearts this evening through god's
precious word
please stand to receive god's greeting
this evening
grace mercy and peace from god the
father and the lord jesus christ
through the holy spirit amen
welcome one another in the name of the
lord as we welcome those also online
would you pray with me but we uh we do
seek you
and we are tremendously grateful that in
christ you can
indeed be found we have um but
everything we need in christ because
uh because now you are pleased with us
and
and that is our greatest aim to please
you uh lord where
where once your people had together in a
particular place
and with particular sacrifices of ox and
bowl
and lord now in christ we find you
everywhere and particularly in your word
which can go anywhere
so we trust father that your people are
pleasing to you here and on live stream
or
days later and though only a few of us
gather together physically now lord you
forget not
your own no matter their location so we
pray these things in the name of jesus
amen let's encourage each other by
singing we gather together
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we
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is
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is
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is
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oh
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thou still
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is
let's read together from god's holy word
in first chronicles chapter 16 read with
me
give thanks to the lord for he is good
his love
endures forever cry out save us
o god our savior gather us and deliver
us from the nations that we may give
thanks
to your holy name that we make glory in
your praise
praise thee to the lord the god of
israel
from everlasting to everlasting and all
people amen
let's sing come you thankful people come
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all this faith
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oh
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is
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our
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jesus
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is
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is
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is
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is
let's read together in the book of
proverbs chapter 14
proverbs chapter 14.
we're going to read from verse 1
to the end of verse 16. proverbs 14
verses 1 through sixteen
as you can see from the slide we're
going to be in the navigation
class this evening in wisdom university
uh we've been in a few different classes
in in recent weeks last week
we were in the discipline class week
before the finance
class and this weekend navigation class
let's hear god speak to us then in verse
verse 1 of chapter 14.
the wise woman builds her house
but with her own hands the foolish one
tears hers down he whose walk is upright
fears the lord but he whose ways
are devious despises him
a fool's talk brings a rod to his back
but the lips of the wise protect them
where there are no ox and the manger is
empty but from the strength of an ox
comes an abundant harvest a truthful
witness does not deceive
but a false witness pours out lies
the mocker seeks wisdom and finds none
but knowledge comes easily to the
discerning
stay away from a foolish man for you
will not
find knowledge on his lips
the wisdom of the prudent is to give
thought
to their ways but the folly of
fools is deception
fools mock at making amends for sin
but good will is found among the upright
each heart knows its own bitterness
and no one else can share its joy
the house of the wicked will be
destroyed
but the tent of the upright will
flourish
there is a way that seems right to a man
but in the end it leads
to death even in laughter
the heart may ache and joy may end in
grief the faithless
will be fully repaid for their ways
and the good man rewarded for his
a simple man believes anything but a
prudent man gives thought
to his steps a wise man fears the lord
and shuns evil
but a fool is hot headed and
reckless amen
may god help us to find his way
in his word let's pray together and ask
god's blessing
upon us
our great guide
we need your direction
because we can so easily get lost
we go astray we fall
we go slow we choose our own ways
we thank you as a shepherd
you come after us you chase us you
pursue us
and you find us and you put us on your
shoulders returning home rejoicing
therefore we ask you lord to shepherd us
tonight through your word all present
all watching
we also pray for
family friends loved ones colleagues and
neighbors who
are very far away from you
who are truly lost
and who may not even know it
at least lord help them to see their
lostness
and help them to see it in such a way
that they cry
out to the good shepherd who
is willing to run to their aid
we thank you lord that you've done that
for us and
we are seeing you doing that with others
in our family
and friend circles people we never
expected
people we gave up on
people we stopped praying for
and yet you never gave up on them and
you pursued them and you brought them
back
we ask you to do the same lord that you
would even
even now where our loved ones are are
not
in your house they have no interest in
you that you would
work in their consciences access what we
cannot
access and bring them to yourself
we also pray for our nation we thank you
for the vaccine that you have provided
and pray as it goes out this week that
it would get to the right people
in time and that you would bless
these chemicals as they enter
various bodies to protect them or to
heal them
that you would prevent side effects
any calamities unforeseen
and use this lord to begin to restore
order and normality to our lives and to
our nation
we thank you for giving
this kind of knowledge to scientists and
pray that you would continue to help
them as they
do further research into other diseases
and we rejoice
as we've even heard in this past week of
how this research for this virus has
opened up new possibilities of vaccines
for
various diseases even such as cancer
and so we trust you lord to bring even
greater good out of this great evil
but above all we pray for revival in our
land
whatever the vaccines do however this
voting
contention is resolved we know that
above all we need reformation and
revival we need your holy spirit to
blow in our land to awaken
to bring to conviction of sin and
conversion to christ
lord we look to you and pray that
you would not deal with as we as we
deserve but according to the riches of
your mercy
and we ask all this in jesus name
amen
after this morning service asked a young
child if they could remember
the the three points and pictures and
one after another they got it i was
greatly encouraged
so i thought i'd do it again this
evening just to try and encourage
children present children watching to
tune into the sermon and hopefully you
can take away everything with you
you'll you'll take away some truths with
you that will
linger and stay with you for a long time
so we want to look this evening
especially at verse 12
of proverbs 14 as we're going through
these verses i hope you noticed the
number of times that talked about
god's ways and people's ways
and here in verse 12 we read there is a
way
that seems right to a man but in the end
it leads to death
i want to take you a trip down memory
lane
to begin with tonight way back into the
distant past of
before 2012 which these days just seems
like a century ago
but before 2012 many of us were very
used to getting lost where whenever we
went on a car trip
what happened in 2012 well apple
put google maps on their phones their
cell phones
and changed the way that we navigate
change the way we travel and i'm sure
like myself many of you have found that
to rescue you in many
difficult spots it's it's very hard to
get lost
today well it was very easy to get lost
in those days i remember not long after
coming to the states in 2007 i was asked
to
to go and preach in ontario and um was
quite excited by it and
it went out to the shop and i bought two
fold-out maps
um one was of michigan one was of
ontario
and for those of you under 20 here who
have never heard of such a thing
a fold-out map was something about
that big wide maybe that high
that was folded in about 100 uh
folds and you were to open this map up
inside the car as you were traveling in
order to
find out where you were well many of us
remember what that was like don't we
well i had got my maps i got my fold-out
maps and
traveled all the way to detroit without
um
any wrong turn along the way got to
detroit and
then thought hey i should i should get
some cheap american gas before i cross
the border into canada
so i took a little turn off a road and
started looking for a gas station again
you didn't have
on your phone like where's the nearest
gas station you're you know you're
traveling along roads and you're you're
hoping for the best and
so i was traveling a lot along and just
seemed
not be able to find one went down a
number of rather dimly
lit roads in downtown detroit
and eventually found a garage a gas
station maybe
10 minutes off the highway and started
filling up
and as i was doing so i noticed a group
of um let's just call them young men
and um they were looking at me and my
new american car and i smiled at them
and they didn't smile back
and i thought to myself okay i think
it's time for a quick getaway here
so i jumped in the car and started
driving
very quickly away kind of
feeling this this was the right way to
go i felt it was the same way as i'd
come in
but very quickly realized that this was
not the same way i came in at
all and by this time i was lost in a
very
industrial part of detroit a rather
broken down part of detroit
to this day i don't know where i was but
i
had my foldout map out and it was all
over my
my window just peering out over the top
of it in the dark trying to find
a road any road that matched what was on
the map
well two scary confusing
angry hours later i eventually
found my way out of detroit
to the border and um
i arrived in hamilton ontario a few
hours late a few
wrong turns later and it made me just
think i wish i'd i wish i had
paid more attention in map reading class
when i was in school
again for the under 20s we we did used
to have
map reading classes where you actually
got these big fold-out maps and you
plotted a course and
if i paid more attention i probably
wouldn't have got
so lost of course no such thing now
as as navigation classes at least in our
schools but
in wisdom university navigation class
is compulsory it is one of the classes
you have to go to
and and if you are wise it's one of the
classes you'll want
to go to because you'll realize how
easy it is to get lost
in this world to lose our way
and this class has two lectures
and we're going to listen to both of
them tonight the the first one
it's a bit longer the second one is is
pretty brief
and and the two lectures are are
entitled
as follows feels right
road is death forever road
and believe right
road is life
forever road mule look at what that
means
in turn um of course proverbs is a book
of great contrast
isn't it we've seen many contrasts
between the wise the foolish
the rich the poor the high
the law and the the righteous
and and the evil and here we're going to
see a big contrast between two paths
two roads two ways to live
there there's feel right road and
there's believe right road and the verse
here 12
it actually is focused exclusively on
the first road on
feel right road but
as with all the proverbs
it implies the opposite it implies
the contrast so we want to give full
attention to
the the warning note of this first this
evening but
we want to we want to finish up briefly
with
with what's implied positively so that
we don't just know what's wrong
but we also know how to get right
and to get on the right path so
first of all this evening feels right
road
is death forever road
feels right road is death forever road i
want to start by just thinking of
life as a journey that might be a lesson
one
in this class life is a journey now a
lot of people
don't believe that today
um a lot of people just think you know
life is life
you're not going anywhere you just live
and and then die or
maybe you just kind of go around in
circles
but the idea of actually traveling that
we
we came in here and we end up somewhere
else it's it's a bit of an
alien thought people associate road
trips with spring break
journeys with summer vacations and yet
the bible teaches us
that life is a journey and one of the
reasons it doesn't
feel like a journey is because it passes
so slowly
life passes slowly and because of that
we don't feel that we're moving
but if you go to your google maps you'll
notice you can you can
zoom out and there you see aha right so
i'm actually moving i started there and
and i've got here and i've got a bit to
go yet
and so we want to zoom out with the help
of god's word this evening and see that
we are everyone is on a journey whether
it feels like that or not
and one of the things about feel right
road is it just
sorry it feel right road is it doesn't
feel
like i'm on a journey
but the bible tells us we are
we're not static we're not going in
circles but we are moving
from a beginning to an end
well what is the end what is the
destination if we're on a journey
where are we going where do our lives
end up have you ever asked yourself that
where am i going
where am i traveling to
trying to think beyond today trying to
think beyond tomorrow even
trying to think beyond this year and
even
the next decade of our spare to see it
where
will i end up now again a lot of people
don't want to think about that don't
don't talk me about my end i want to
live life
want to focus on the here and the now
other people they
they'll deny it they'll deny that there
is an end and just live as if they're
going to live
forever but i would say most people
believe in
life after death don't they you if you
look at the
the research most people believe in life
after death and
and if you look at these surveys most
people who believe in life after death
death believe they're going to heaven
now there are a few in this world a very
small few
maybe devil worshipers or cultists
who say at least they say that they want
to go to hell
they want to be with the devil but
interestingly if you
if you follow some of the biographies of
of such people you you hear about them
later in life
as they get nearer their end they
usually give up that
whole idea of wanting to go to hell
but they are a small minority the vast
majority believe
there is a heaven and that they will
spend life after death
in heaven so i presume everyone here is
is in that group right you you believe
you're on a journey
you believe that the end of this journey
will be heaven well
it's a great aim isn't it that's all
good
it's a wonderful answer to the question
where are you going i'm going to heaven
but the next question is how do you know
what are you on the right road to get
there
you can you can be in a journey and you
can have a destination in mind but
you have to be on the right road don't
you to get there
and so we want to ask this question what
road are you on
and then this verse we're told of a road
there is a way there is a road
that seems right
to a man
there's a road it's a real big road
in fact the vast majority of people are
on it
and and we call it feel right
road or it seems right
to those who are on it otherwise they
wouldn't be on it would they here are
people
millions billions of people they're on
this road
and and they say they're going to heaven
and you ask them
how do you know you're going there and
they say well well it just it feels
right
it seems right i think we're on the
right way
and this broad road has a number of
lanes in it
there's the happiness lane and
the people in this lane are traveling
quite slowly because they
they're always looking for the next
pleasure the next party the next
experience to have
i mean
if if it makes you feel happy it must be
right eh
surely
and then there's there's the popularity
lane and this is a very busy lane
probably of all the people on this road
most are in this lane and
and again they they say to themselves
well
you know i can't be wrong can i when so
many people are
are like me and so many people are
heading in the same direction
i mean the the majority can't be wrong
can they
it feels right because there's so many
on this path
and then there's there's the fast lane
and and these people are
they're pedaled to the metal their foot
to the floor
they're living fast they're they're
they're really ambitious
they've got their aims and their dreams
and they're going to get them it doesn't
matter who gets in their way
and and they are they are the important
people they are the high they are the
mighty they
they trample over everyone else they
push everyone else out the way
and and i mean they can't be wrong can
you because i mean they feel so
important
and then there's there's the lane with
trailers in it it's reserved for people
who
who spend their journey trying to buy
and get and accumulate as much as they
possibly can
and and everyone looks at them and sees
how much they have in their trailers
piled high maybe one trailer after
another sometimes
and they think well they can't be wrong
that that that feels so good to
to have so much that feels right too
and then there's a there's a religious
lane and and
in this lane are are all the the
religions of the world
apart from the one we'll discover in a
moment or two
all the false religions and and if you
go to them and you ask the people on
this lane
and how do you know you're on the right
lane they'll say well it feels right
it seems right to me and it's not just
the the muslim and the hindu but but
it's all the do-it-yourselfers as well
they've put together their own package
they've they've looked at the
smorgasbord of religion and
they'll say well i love that from
christianity and all of that from islam
and all of that from hindu and
we'll have a wee bit of new age here and
maybe a bit of
old orthodoxy and we'll put it all
together boy that feels good
there is a way big way with many
lanes that seems right
to a man
how do you know you're on the right road
i hope your answer isn't
it feels right it seems right
are you going to rest everything on a
feeling
on a seems so
what kind of gas what kind of fuel do
these people put in their tanks when
they
run low
well they they come up to the pump and
there's a choice
of different fuels there's one
do-more there's one do your best
there's another try harder there's
another
be better all about
self improvement
personal effort
and this this kind of fuel is is
extremely
inefficient you get very few miles to
the gallon
it does a lot of damage to your engine
and it leaves a lot of pollution and its
trail
what gas is in your tank where do you
run when you get low
what's what's powering you on this
journey what's moving you along this
road
and then there's there's a navigator in
the back seat
you don't usually see him in fact he
generally lies down
he only really gets active and involved
when he has
any sense that that the driver is
beginning to turn around
when when he has any sense that this car
that was
heading as far as he's concerned exactly
in the right direction begins to veer
and when that happens he sort of puts
his arm through the front
and grabs the wheel or the elbow and
just just make sure that
that car auto corrects i don't know if
any of you have driven these cars i
remember renting one a few months ago
driving along and it must have begun to
swing out the lanes just slightly and
the wheel starts fighting me and pulling
me back
it's incredible but but a lot of us have
that navigator in our lives
not just in our cars another time when
he he gets active is when he senses the
car
slowing down he's sensing the driver has
got some second thoughts about the path
he is on
and he's going well maybe you know yeah
maybe i'm not right
well as soon as he senses the revs going
down
again he pushes his foot through he's
got a very long one onto the pedal and
he just keeps them going fast as you can
keep going hurry on or if the person
starts
thinking out loud you know i wonder if
this is right how can i be sure where
am i going well
he just turns the music up so that
it banishes these thoughts and they can
no longer think about it
you recognize that navigator
well let's think about where
feel right road ends
god god puts some obstacles in the way
of everyone on feel right road he brings
hard things into their lives
to try and slow them down to try and
make them think to try and
get them to question is this right is
this really right have i
any certainty and assurance
unfortunately
it doesn't often have the desired effect
disease death plagues even
doesn't really seem to make much
difference and on they go and eventually
arrive
they arrive at the end
everyone arrives at the end and so they
park
and they jump out they are full of hope
and um
it's a bit darker than they expected
and and there's a long line they can see
a checkpoint up ahead
and and there's a long line leading up
to they join the end of the line as they
get a bit closer
they they begin to hear some
loud horrendous screams
and then the odd beautiful song
to them and they get closer and closer
and eventually they meet the guard
and and they're they're kind of hopeful
and happy and
the guard asks for their
passport and the person says well i've
got more than that i've got quite a lot
of documents here
i bring out their briefcase and outcome
all their accomplishments
all their achievements all their
successes
all their their good works um
all their religion all their charity
and and page after page after page
and then there's another bag they have
with them this is their bag of excuses
for their feelings and a lot of this has
finger pointing on it saying well that
was really his fault and their fault
this certainly wasn't my fault and so
this two big two piles of documents are
popped up in the desk here the guards
frown is getting angrier and angrier
takes the documents and he
dumps them in a shredder which shocks
the traveler
the traveler says oh wait wait wait wait
what are you doing
it says these mean nothing to me
you came here on feel right road didn't
you
yeah yeah and why did you stay on it
well
because it felt so right it seemed so
right
did no one ever tell you where it ends
well well i mean i heard that now and
again but it just seemed a bit extreme
do you not remember navigation class
proverbs 14 12 there is a way
that seems right to a man but in the end
it leads to death
thinking about that graphic
feels right road is death forever road
it's not quite right is it it's not even
up there
can we get the graphic up
it's overheated well there you go
2020 is back yeah not enough heat in the
morning
no too much heat tonight okay
well i'll post them afterwards let me
describe it to you
so it's uh what you call these medical
devices with the beeper
on it whatever that is that's what's on
the graphic
and um there's the beeps of life and
then there's a straight line
but that's not quite right is it that's
actually
what most people are hoping for if
they're not going to heaven they want
the straight line
or back that's what they want
but that's not right because
existence continues doesn't it
it's not annihilation
it's not the end of existence
the end is death it tells you it does
not mean
it's the end of all existence all life
in other places it's described as
eternal death and that doesn't just mean
a death that is eternal
it means a dying that is eternal
the beep is in the darkness the pulse
continues the breath continues
consciousness continues but it continues
in
an everlasting experience of dying
and
you know there are some beautiful
deathbeds but there aren't many
i think i mean i asked myself that
sometimes when i saw the way my own
father died
in such distress and pain and discomfort
over
six months or so that's why did god do
that you know he was a christian man
he's a godly man he was a
preacher and served the lord why why
didn't he have
like a an amazing deathbed
just so full of joy and comfort and
peace and
like why does god often put his people
through these tough times
is it not because god wants to use their
dying
to give a final sermon to the living
to say to us however horrible this is
however ugly however painful however
distressing
for this person for this christian is
coming to an
end their last breath on this earth will
be the last
experience of death they'll ever have
but for those without christ that is it
eternally and forever and forever
everlasting death
everlasting dying their last breath on
this earth
begins an infinite number a
never-ending number of breaths in the
world to come
on a magnitude of horror far worse than
anything seen or experienced in this
world
feel right road
is death forever road
so how did i get on the right road
i wanted to give full weight this
evening to the warning of this but i
don't want to leave you with just a
warning i want to
leave you with a few words about getting
on the right road
believe right road is life
forever road believe right not feel
right not seems right
believe right road is
life forever road the christian knows
we're on a journey don't we we're
pilgrims
we're on a pilgrimage we're traveling
we're not here to make
a home for ourselves we're we're
traveling light we're
we're we're campers really and and we're
heading
to a destination that's what we keep in
mind don't we
heaven heaven heaven heaven we don't
have
rear view mirrors to look back at
anything we've left behind we don't have
side mirrors that might
make us see what's off to the side no we
are blinkered we are
focused we are zeroed in on it's heaven
heaven heaven that i'm after i'm going
after with all my might
and all my guessing i'm going to get
this
and we're on believe right road it's a
quiet road
there aren't so many on it and therefore
it's just a it's a single lane
and it's called believe right road
because believing right makes us right
with god you believe that
the the truth of god's word it brings
you into a right relationship with god
believe right makes you right with god
you get the whole of god's righteousness
given to you when you
simply believe what is right about jesus
and and that's why the gas station we go
to
here in this church let's call it first
fuel
every sunday we come it's the only thing
we're allowed to buy on a sunday
and it's free we get fuel every week
more faith is called is the name of this
fuel isn't it
more faith more faith more we realize
the only thing that's going to get us
through another week is more faith
so we come here and we say lord more
faith more faith
more gas more fuel we realize we can't
put our own effort into it
our own our own muscle our own
determination our own willpower is also
weak
we need faith lord increase our faith
fill us up with faith that we can go
forward on this road
and keep heading towards this great
destination
and sometimes we're offered some
supplements like
more works he put a little bit of this
in your tank just to be sure
well as soon as you put works in your
gas tank
faith evaporates they can't live
together
it's all works or it's all faith faith
cannot be supplemented it can't be added
to
can't be mixed with anything it's faith
in christ alone
that's believe right road and and these
travelers
they don't have a back seat for the
navigator they've torn that out
and they've pushed their seat right back
to leave him as little space as possible
to sneak in
we're not listening to him we're not
letting him
turn our wheel or nudge our elbows or
put his foot on the brake
we're listening to our guide we're going
forward
and when we arrive
we we park at the end we leave our
bodies
behind for a time we'll pick them up
again later
and we are ushered to the front of the
cube we're given priority
access we've been the end of the line
maybe all our lives and we've never had
such a
such a privilege of of of getting on
first but here we see the great line of
of
feel right road and it's packed way back
but our lane it's just a few people on
it but we're ushered to the front of it
we get to the front we see the guard
he's all smiles
and and he says you've come on believe
right road haven't you we say yeah we
have well let's let's see your passport
and we
hand it over and he opens it up and
whose picture does he see
not yours not mine his his smile grows
wider
he turns the page and he sees what is
written on it what's written on it
two words jesus only
jesus only that's it
we're not piling documents up of
accomplishments and excuses
no this is it this is all
this is everything jesus only
he couldn't be happier he ushers us in
he says
welcome welcome welcome
well done good and faithful traveller
enter
into the joy of the lord
what gratitude we should have if we're
on this road
if god has moved us from feel right road
to believe right road because
believe right road ends in forever road
forever life road life forever road
and if we were to go back to that device
what's it called what's the beeper
called
ekg thank you if we were to go back to
that
the beeps would be off the scale off the
scale that's how much life
and that's it forever
the leave right road is life forever
road
if you're not on it you can get on it
tonight
you can call on the name of the lord
this very moment and be saved
you can you can be moved from feel right
road to believe right
road like that by putting your faith in
jesus christ right here right now
and forever is that not a switch worth
making
a turn worth taking
turn as the prophet ezekiel said turn
turn why will you die even if you've
been on fuel right road for
years it doesn't matter even if you're
right on the edge
of of of the end of your road it's not
too late
you can go on to believe right road
right
at the end but there's no point in
waiting is there
so how do we sum this up travel by faith
not feelings and you'll be safe
not sorry travel by faith
not feelings and you'll be safe
and not sorry let's pray great guide
guide us o thou great jehovah pilgrims
through this
barren land
put us on believe right road and keep us
on believe right road that we might get
to life
forever
you are the way the truth and the life
lead us in your way with your truth
so that we may get life
in jesus name amen
last let's uh ask the lord for that
guidance let's stand as we sing guide me
oh my great redeemer
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oh
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oh
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is
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hello
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is
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is
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offering tonight is for christian
education let's give joyfully
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so
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so
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please rise to receive god's parting
blessing
the lord bless you and keep you
the lord make his face shine upon you
and be gracious to you the lord
lift up his countenance upon you and
give you peace
amen
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thank you
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foreign
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is
[Applause]
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three
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oh
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is
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[Applause]
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yes
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[Applause]
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foreign