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[ Silence ] [MUSIC PLAYING] (piano music) ♪ Alleluia ♪

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♪ Praise the Lord ♪ ♪ Alleluia ♪ ♪ Praise the Lord ♪ ♪ Alleluia ♪

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♪ Let us praise the ♪ ♪ Lord ♪ ♪ Alleluia ♪ ♪ Praise the Lord ♪

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♪ Alleluia ♪ ♪ Praise the Lord ♪ ♪ Alleluia ♪ ♪ Let us praise the ♪

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♪ Lord ♪ [ Music ] ♪ Praise Him with string instrument ♪ ♪ Praise Him with dance ♪

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♪ Praise Him on the soundly and hard ♪ ♪ Everything that hath breath ♪ ♪ Ought to praise Him ♪ ♪ Hallelujah ♪

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♪ Praise the Lord ♪ ♪ Hallelujah ♪ ♪ Praise the Lord ♪ ♪ Hallelujah ♪

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♪ Let us praise the Lord ♪ ♪ The Lord ♪ ♪ Praise Him with ♪ ♪ String instruments ♪

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♪ Praise Him with hands ♪ ♪ Praise Him o'er ♪ [MUSIC] Arch and praise Him.

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Alleluia. Alleluia. Praise the Lord. Alleluia.

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Alleluia. Praise the Lord. Alleluia. Let us praise the Lord.

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Praise the Lord. Our message for this morning is based on Ezekiel 12, verses 4 through 7. "You shall bring out your baggage by day in their site as baggage for exiles.

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And you shall go forth yourself at the evening in the site, or in their site, as men who must go into exile. Dig through the wall in their sight, and go out through it in their sight.

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You shall lift the baggage upon your shoulder, and carry it out in the dark. You shall cover your face that you may not see the land. For I have made you a sign for the house of Israel.

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And I did as I was commanded. I brought out my baggage by day as baggage for exile. And in the evening, I dug through the wall with my own hands.

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I went forth in the dark, carrying my outfit upon my shoulder in their sight. The subject of the message, baggage for exiles. Exiles are away from home.

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They're separated from their country. They're apart from friends and family. How long they will be away is determined by circumstances they confront.

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So a great deal depends upon time And a great deal depends upon baggage. These two have a significant part to play. We often pack when we're going somewhere based on the trip,

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we say. Few days ago we had our state convention in Lubbock. And I noticed those persons who just packed for four days. It seemed that they were moving the whole town for just a four

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day visit. And a great deal depends upon making the decision of what to take and what to leave. And many of us are guilty of having excess baggage.

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A lot of things we don't need more than what we need. I remember a number of years ago I had just begun to fly. And the first trip overseas, I had the instructions, I think, that we could carry one bag.

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at that time it was seven, twenty-one pounds twenty-one pounds and I had to change in some place in Carolina and they weighed my bags

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again and I was seven pounds overweight and I had to pay extra for those pounds. When I got to London, I shipped back most of my things

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because it was cheaper. So now you can almost get on the plane with whatever you have to carry, and we do. And we find ourselves weighted down,

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if to use that language, by the baggage that we take. Baggage can be expensive, and baggage can be burdensome. Just suppose you're going away this morning on a trip. To be prepared for an indefinite stay.

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And you're limited to a certain number of pounds that you can carry. And you have to make the decision as to what you're going to take and what

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you're going to leave. What would you take and what would you leave? The specific instructions given in Ezekiel include this helpful word, "Prepare for yourself an exile's package."

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That's the instructions. Prepare for yourself and exiles baggage. You know, the difficulty in this is we are instructed as to what we can do. We have certain limitations. Listen to the word here that Ezekiel is given. You shall bring forth, one translation puts it, your stuff.

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Oh, how much stuff we have that we want to take with us. You shall bring forth your, so many things that I accumulate and you accumulate and we don't want anybody to take it. We want to keep it.

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So, he says to Ezekiel the prophet, "You shall bring forth your stuff." Oh, the treasures that we have in our stuff as we seek to prepare for exile. And the problem is we have too much stuff. And we have more than we can carry with us on the trip.

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Packing is serious business, and we're guilty of having excess baggage. The person who's going into exile has a long journey ahead and must prepare for the time spent in exile. You do not need a horse and the carriage, Ezekiel, all you are to carry is to be in one bag, one bag.

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Avoid having excess luggage. And we can learn a great deal from young people and some older ones too. We don't have to go very far, just down on 6th Street there,

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just a few blocks from here you'll find many of them with their bags, that's all they have they'll be sleeping out on the streets and they have learned

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to travel lightly that's what Ezekiel is being told in this passage here

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to travel lightly In Europe, we noticed a great number of young people sleeping outside the train station with just a bag, just one bag, going to see the world with just one bag, traveling lightly. And some of us cannot get what we have out the front door.

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Travel lightly. Travel lightly. I packed the other day for that trip going to Lubbock. and I had one little, I call it my shaving kit, it was my toothbrush and lotion and things of that nature.

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That's usually the last thing I put in the bag because I'm going to be using it possibly first, so I usually put it in last. got the Lubbock, I didn't have it. So I looked and looked and my wife looked and looked. I thought she put it in, she thought I put it in.

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We didn't have it. And when I returned home, it was on the bed. Didn't have the basic things. There are certain basic things that we need.

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Jerusalem under siege and those who were there being transported from Jerusalem to Babylon, what will they carry for the trip? Nation is accused, the Israelites are, of idolatry. Will we carry that authenticity, that faithfulness to God?

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Will we carry that with us? Or will we be like a boy who was living in another state and he was going to Texas, so he said, "Goodbye, God. I'm going to Texas."

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What will we carry? What will we carry? They are accused, if you read that passage, of being not only an idolatrous people, but they are accused of being an unfaithful people, a rebellious

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people. Will we carry that faithfulness which we have been reared and trained will we carry that?

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Some people when they get away from home they forget about the training they received at home. What will we carry? Some come to college and they don't worry about going to church, they're free. I had to go to Sunday school

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when I was growing up and I promised the Lord when I got grown I wasn't going to be gone. That's the attitude of many people. But what will we carry into exile? In a sense, every one of us is an exile.

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We are away from where we want to be. We have not reached the goals that we set. We are exiled. scattered here and there seeking to fulfill what we may regard as our dreams.

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So this word comes to us through the prophet Ezekiel and the warning here is "Beware, beware of the danger of trying to carry too much stuff. Beware, beware." So he says to his eagles, "Pack, but do your packing in the daylight." All those peeping toms who want to see what you're doing, let them see.

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Let the shades be up, so to speak, so they can see that Ezekiel is moving. He's moving out. He's moving upward. You know, God has a way of arranging certain things, permitting certain things to happen

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to us that are distasteful, but they enrich our lives. Most of us who grew up poor, you know, it wasn't all that pleasant many times, but as you look back upon it, you see it was a blessing. Blessing.

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And God is sending Ezekiel into exile. He's going on a journey. It's a journey from Jerusalem to Babylon. So do not carry any excess baggage.

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It's like the instructions when you read them. There in the gospel, He, Jesus Christ gives instructions to his disciples. He says,

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"You're being sent upon a preaching, teaching, and healing ministry. Take nothing for your journey." My, my, what's there? What instructions

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for Disciples of Jesus Christ going into exile to be told by the Lord Take nothing Take nothing

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No, no, don't take any don't take two coats Take the staff Take staves Take no money

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Take nothing and I looked at that. I said my my And I came to the conclusion that those who are being sent out are not to depend upon their own resources, but to depend upon those divine, those spiritual resources that come

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only from God as you go out into exile and daylight where Everybody can see you because you're looking forward to that day when you're coming home. People when you're going, you launch out, they wonder what's going to happen to you. I can remember when I went away after having finished college and came back to Dallas after

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having not only finished college but I had finished seminary and people were looking. So what is he doing? He's out of seminary now, he doesn't have a job. People look to see you're an exile. And now this instruction that Ezekiel receives,

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he's not only to do it in the daylight where everybody can see, but he says, "I want you to dig a hole," the Lord says through the prophet I want you to dig a hole in the wall and go out in the night you pack in the day and go out in the night strange instructions but

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Ezekiel says I did as I was commanded you don't always understand how God is leading you, but follow his directions. And so, Ezekiel goes out and these are instructions for exiles. What instructions do you feel that God has given you?

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Some people run from Texas to California, from California back to Texas. They don't seem to know where they're going. God directs his prophet and his people, sending them into exile and Ezekiel says, "I did as the Lord commanded."

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So let others see it. And people are ashamed to let people on their job know that they're Christians. But be brave. Go out, follow the directions of the eternal, no matter how strange they may appear.

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Now the exile experience is still with us. It's still with us. have had their homes destroyed, an increasing number of persons are losing their jobs. The exile experience is still with us.

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Some have escaped from the catastrophe that we recently witnessed along the Gulf Coast. They have escaped with only the clothes on their backs. And some have returned to find their homes washed away. That's the exile experience.

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When we think about that, and most of us stopped when we praised God that we were not in such a situation, but in many ways we're all in that situation. We all belong to the family of God. So the exile experience is with us.

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Jerusalem is under siege. And all you have to do is read the morning paper. And you find that Jerusalem is under siege. Clouds of war overshadow us.

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Jerusalem is under attack. The exile experience is still with us. Those who were uprooted and scattered, we never again return to those places from which they have come.

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The exile experience is still with us. The exile experience goes on and on in every generation. The exile experience is that which challenges us on every hand. Those who are spared and those who are not spared.

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But in it we have a testimony of God's divine mercy. Because in the exile experience we get a vision of the sovereignty of God. That God is over all. This is my father's world.

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Oh let me never forget. Although the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the ruler yet. And so he goes out, he goes out following the direction that God has given. Strange though it may seem that the prophet said, "I did, I did as the Lord commanded."

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Whatever God says, do it. His son was at a wedding in Cana and he came and the word that was given, "Whatever he says to you." We're out of wine, but whatever he says to you, do it.

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Don't understand how he's going to work it out, but whatever he says, do it. And God somehow permits this to happen to some and something else to happen to others, and we don't understand why, but that's all a mystery because it's hidden in the sovereignty of God.

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As I ought to hear my grandmothers when I say, "Why must I do this?" She said, "Because I said so." Because God says so. That's enough.

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That's enough that he has said, "Do this in the morning and do the other in the evening." both the morning and the evening make today and we can thank God that he oversees the whole thing so the exile experience is a burden it's a burden for those who go off to Babylon it's a burden for those who remain in Jerusalem

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it's a burden but it's it's a burden God has permitted in the world that his servants that he carried. An elderly woman got on the train. She was rushing.

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She was afraid she was going to miss the train. She had her bag in her hand and she barely got on. And when she got on, she was standing there in the aisle with her bag in her hand, taking deep breaths.

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And the porter said to her, said, "Lady, you can put your bag down now. The train will carry it." Well, this is a place we can always put our bag down because God is always available to carry our burden.

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And with this old song we used to sing when I was a boy, "Take your burden to the Lord and leave it there. Take your burden to the Lord and leave it there. If you trust and never doubt, he will surely, surely bring you out.

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So, we're talking about homeland security. It's in God. It's in God. He has the security that we need.

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So, as we sing, let him take your burden to the Lord. the Lord. Amen. We invite you to come. Amen. The door of the church is open.

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You may come by letter by Christian experience. Our own profession of faith. We invite you to come.

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[ Music ] Come. [ Music ] [MUSIC]

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♪ You have to get along with Peterhead ♪ ♪ Just remember in his word ♪ ♪ How he feeds the little bird ♪ ♪ Give your burdens to the Lord ♪

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♪ And leave it there ♪ ♪ Leave it there ♪ ♪ Leave it there ♪ ♪ And leave it there ♪

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♪ Take your burden to the Lord ♪ ♪ And leave it there ♪ ♪ If you trust and give of God ♪ ♪ He will surely bring you out ♪

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♪ Take your burden to the Lord ♪ ♪ And leave it there ♪ ♪ When your body suffers pain ♪ ♪ And your health you can't regain ♪

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♪ And your soul is almost sinking in despair ♪ ♪ Jesus knows the pain you feel ♪ ♪ He can save and He can heal ♪ ♪ Take your burden to the Lord and leave it there ♪

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[MUSIC] Take your burden to the Lord and leave it there. If you trust and never doubt, he will surely bring you out. Take your burden to the Lord and leave it there.

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If your enemy was there and your heart began to fail, don't forget that God in heaven answers prayer. He will make a way for you and will lead you safely through. Take your burdens to the Lord and leave it there.

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When your youthful days are gone and your age is nearly gone and your body bends from need, throw away your care. He will never leave you there, He'll go with you to the end. Take your burdens to the Lord and leave it there.

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Leave it there, leave it there, leave it there. ♪ Take your burden to the Lord and leave it there ♪ ♪ If you trust that good God ♪ ♪ He will surely bring you out ♪

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♪ Take your burden to the Lord and leave it there ♪ - Sister Wells, will you come and join us here? We're gonna do this once a year. - Amen.

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- We'll give you this. Would you continue to play softly, sister? (soft piano music) ♪ Jesus ♪

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♪ If you trust and never doubt ♪ He will surely bring you out, take your bread. To the Lord and be glad. Amen.

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Lord God, send us forth as your people. As we go into exile, help us to understand that you're sending us forth in the morning as well as in the evening of our lives.

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Help us to go with the courage, the faith, and the hope that you are God, beside thee there is none other. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord cause his face to shine upon you

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and be gracious unto you. The Lord lift up the light of his countenance upon you and give you peace now and forevermore. Amen.

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