When I was a little girl My grandma used to take me to a little oneroom country church About a mile down the road where we lived Since the congregation was so small We had a hard time keeping a preacher So we didnt know from one Sunday to the next who was gonna be But I remember one in particular called Preacher Barry Since he didnt make much money painting our little church He drove a taxi during the week And he had known to be put in jail on numerous occasions For being intoxicated to the point of downright drunkenness But he had this wonderful singsongy voice Like a lot of those oldfashioned country preachers And when he preached It almost sounded like he was singing you a song And one of the last sermons I remember went something like this I wanta talk to you today about the Gospel of Jesus The spirit of the lord gave to Apostle Paul He said Uh, Ive got some bad news And Ive got some good news The bad news is that Ive been a preaching all wrong You might also likeIve been abeating you down But Ive been wrong Bless Jesus It talks right here about reconciliation It was God in Christ Reconciling and restoring The world to Himself and forgiving us all Dont you see what that means Thats the good news Bless Jesus Your debts have been paid He has cancelled them Hes not holding them against us anymore Hallelujah Theres no condemnation if youve been born again Aint that shouting ground Shout it, people Hallelujah Abegging and a pleading aint no way to praise the Lord Let loose and let Him love you Hallelujah Dont you know He loves ya And He died for all us all I said, dont you know He loves ya And He died for us all The old Brother Berry stopped dead in his tracks Wiped the sweat off his brow And pulled out a little old wooden cross with a man hanging on it Tears rolled out of his eyes And he held it up and said How can you sit there with a blank look on your face? So unconcerned How can you sit there without tears in your eyes? Have you ever loved anybody that much? Could you willingly give your life for somebody else? When he gave the invocation that Sunday All 28 people attending went down to the altar Even two or three Whod gotten saved the Last Sunday Well, I read in the paper a few years later That Preacher Berry had been drinking too much one night And driving too fast And had a wreck and was killed instantly But you know Ill betcha hes sober in Heaven Ill betcha hes free of that habit And I can just hear him right now Preaching to the angels That same sermon that he preached to us that Sunday Shout it, shout, shout it, people Hallelujah Lay your burdens down Know the hope of His call Dont it feel good to have a loving heavenly Father Come boldly to the throne of grace And Thank him for it all Shout it, shout it, shout it, people Hallelujah Abegging and apleading aint no way to please the Lord Let loose and let Him love you Hallelujah Dont you know He loves you And He died for us all Didnt you hear me tell you, people That He died for us all
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