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I believe we need to see revival in

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our day, friends, but I also believe before

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the church can experience corporate revival, there must

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be a hunger in the people of God

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for personal revival.

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It is this longing for personal revival that

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can give us a fresh encounter with God.

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And that's the title of my message today,

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friends, longing for personal revival.

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And my text can be found in the

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book of Psalms.

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You can turn in your Bibles there now,

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friends.

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We will be in Psalm 24, which I

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believe speaks of personal revival.

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God is sovereign when it comes to revival.

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We cannot produce revival by ourselves, but I

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believe we can prepare our hearts aright to

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see revival on a personal basis.

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In verses 1 and 2, we see the

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sovereignty of God.

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The earth is the Lord's, and the fullness

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thereof, the world and they that dwell therein.

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For he hath founded it upon the seas,

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and established it upon the floods.

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The God of creation is also the God

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of revival.

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How bad do we want to have revival

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in our lives?

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Are we desperate enough to get a fresh

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touch from Almighty God?

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I believe God wants to bless us with

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his presence, and I believe our passage of

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day, friends, has the preliminary requirements to seeing

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a personal revival in our lives.

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Let's examine these one by one.

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The psalmist asks a question, and then he

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answers his own question.

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In verse 3, he asks, Who shall ascend

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into the hill of the Lord, or who

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shall stand in his holy place?

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First, let us examine how the habitation of

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God is described here.

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It is called a hill.

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It is an elevated place that one must

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climb to reach it.

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Who shall ascend into the hill of the

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Lord, the psalmist asks.

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Next, he describes God's place as a holy

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place.

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Who shall stand in his holy place?

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God is holy.

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He is high and lifted up.

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God is not man.

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His ways are not our ways, neither his

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thoughts are thoughts.

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God is on the hill of heaven, which

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is a holy place.

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Well, how on earth can a sinner climb

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up there?

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First by the blood of his dear son,

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the Lord Jesus Christ, through forgiveness of sins.

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Then we see the psalmist answer this perplexing

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question in verse 4, He that hath clean

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hands and a pure heart.

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Let me pause here, friends, to say this

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speaks of two directionals in the life of

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the believer.

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We have two beams here, one horizontal and

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one vertical.

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Clean hands speaks of the horizontal beam, which

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is our dealings with man.

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Are our hands clean in this regard?

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Have we dealt fairly and honestly with our

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fellow man?

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We must examine ourselves and be honest with

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ourselves.

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This is our daily interaction with others, our

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family members, our friends, our neighbors, our work

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associates, our patients, or our customers.

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Have we dealt honestly in all categories here

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in all regards?

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Do we harbor an unforgiving heart towards others?

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I'll never forget preaching in a church years

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ago where God was pleased to send a

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touch revival, but there was a main hindrance

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existing in that church, which prevented God from

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a deeper movement of his blessings.

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The church was filled with bitterness and an

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unforgiving heart toward one another.

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The two pastors were fighting among themselves, and

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instead of God visiting that church with a

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deeper movement of his presence, rather God withdrew

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himself, and that church was split right down

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the middle.

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Half the congregation left to go form a

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new church with one pastor, and the other

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half remained where they were.

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To this day, I believe it was this

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bitterness among the members that hindered a deeper

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work of God.

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I have studied historical revival for decades now,

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and I have discovered that there is a

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golden thread that weaves its way through revivals,

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and if this purified thread is broken, it

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has been a bar to revival throughout history.

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To which I refer is the golden thread

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of a forgiving heart toward others.

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When one researches the history of revival, it

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is plainly shown that many revivals began accompanied

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by a sudden manifestation of God's presence when

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Christians began to confess their sins of an

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unforgiving heart to one another.

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So clean hands here speaks of our relationship

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with our fellow men.

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This is the horizontal beam of Psalm 24.

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Next we see the vertical beam, which is

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our walk with God.

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This is described as a pure heart, and

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this speaks of single-mindedness toward God.

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Is he first and foremost in our daily

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living?

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Does he have first place, first call, and

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first priority?

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Are we harboring any unconfessed sin in our

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lives which would hinder our walk with God?

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I believe Amos 3.3 says it all.

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Can two walk together except they be agreed?

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Are we in agreement with God in our

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lives?

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Are we obstructing him in any way?

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Our text in Psalm 24 goes a little

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deeper with more clarity with the words, Who

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hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity,

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nor sworn deceitfully?

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Are we worldly more than we are godly?

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Have we told a lie to someone and

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left that undone?

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I remember when I was a Sunday school

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teacher at a big Baptist church years ago,

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and I played racquetball with one of the

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members of my class.

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And while we were playing racquetball one day,

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we learned we went to the same college,

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and he asked me when I graduated.

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Well at the time I was a college

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dropout, and I was embarrassed about it, so

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I lied to him and gave him a

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year of my graduation.

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That night I tossed and turned on my

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bed, realizing that as his Sunday school teacher,

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I had lied to him.

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What a horrible example I was as a

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Christian.

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As soon as I could, later that week

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I cornered this man in a hallway at

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church, and confessed to him how I lied

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to him, and I asked him to forgive

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me.

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Well, he was hurt and shocked, but he

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said he forgave me.

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Our horizontal beam on the hill of Psalm

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24 is critically important to our ascent up

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that hill into God's holy place.

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He will allow no liars up there.

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He will allow no unconfessed sin to dwell

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with him.

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I'm reminded of the story told by Duncan

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Campbell of the loose revival of the Scottish

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Hebrides.

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Some deacons met in a barn monthly to

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pray for revival to come to the island.

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Finally, in the midst of their prayer meeting,

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a young deacon stood to his feet and

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exclaimed, Brethren, all our time here in prayer

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is getting no results and is nothing more

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than humbug.

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Let me ask us this question.

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Are my hands clean?

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Is my heart pure?

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Suddenly, a wave of conviction went through the

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barn among those men, and God's presence fell

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among them in power.

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We must ask ourselves the same question.

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How badly do we want to have a

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personal revival?

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Those rare individuals who make this ascent according

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to these requirements will receive something for their

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efforts.

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Verse 5 speaks of this.

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He shall receive the blessing from the Lord

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and his righteousness from the God of his

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salvation.

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This, friends, speaks of personal revival.

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I believe the object of revival is seen

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in verses 8-10.

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Who is this King of Glory?

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The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty

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in battle.

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Lift up your heads, O ye gates, even

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lift them up, ye everlasting doors, and the

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King of Glory shall come in.

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Who is this King of Glory?

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The Lord of hosts.

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He is the King of Glory.

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So to draw the net on our lesson

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today, friends, we find that in Psalm 24

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we have two beams, so to speak, a

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horizontal and a vertical, and when they meet

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in harmony, they form a cross.

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That's the pathway up that hill to revival

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with Christ Jesus.

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Let us pray.